International Women’s Day: Strong Women in Fiction

Tomorrow, March 8, is International Women’s Day. I was with a group of women fiction writers last week, and someone mentioned the occasion. The authors at this meeting realized we all write about strong women. To celebrate International Women’s Day this year, each of us agreed to post an excerpt from our writing featuring one of our strong female characters. And we want to share all our characters with you.

I am featuring a scene from my newly published novel, Forever Mine. In this scene, Harriet Abercrombie is unhappy with her husband Samuel about something he did that endangered the wagon company. Samuel is a cantankerous bully who likes to hunt, even when food is not needed. This is her reaction:

    Harriet frowned at Samuel after Captain Pershing left. She bit her lip, not knowing how to react to the captain’s admonishments or her husband’s anger.
    Samuel cursed, then sat and kicked his tin mug off the rock where he’d placed it.
    “He’s right, you know,” she said.
    “The hell he is!”
    “Samuel.” Harriet glanced around to see if her granddaughters were nearby. “You apologized, as you needed to. You should have left it there.”
    Samuel cursed again.
    “We have months more till we get to Oregon. Your son wants to marry his daughter.”
    “That ain’t gonna happen now,” Samuel shouted. “I won’t have no ties to that sorry excuse for a man. Not any longer’n I can help it. As soon as we get to Oregon, I’ll have no more to do with him.”
    Harriet braced her hands on her hips. “And I won’t have you damaging Daniel’s chance at happiness. You need to calm down and let us all be. And until you can—” She inhaled deeply, not knowing how to continue, then finally huffed, “Go . . . Go . . . Oh, go shoot something! I don’t want you around camp today.”

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A woman writer’s fashion statement

For the posts from the other women authors in our group about their strong women characters, please follow the links below:

If you like the excerpts these authors have posted, then let them know in a comment on their blogs. Writers always enjoy hearing from readers.

Happy International Women’s Day!

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7 Comments

  1. I have read Forever MIne and I gave it a most deserving five-star review. The book is chock full of very strong women facing the dangers of travel on the Oregon Trail. Even keeping clothes clean and feeding their families fed could be very difficult tasks for the strong women who took this trip.

  2. Pingback: Memories of Girl Scouts on National Girl Scout Day | Theresa Hupp, Author

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