Staying safe in a pandemic is like sneaking up on a deer.

When I was young, my fifth grade class went to a camp for a week. We slept in cabins and did outdoor activities. One activity led by the counselors was to see how quiet we could be in the woods. The counselors would pretend to be deer and all of us would try and sneak up on them. I knew how to be quiet in the woods, I spent a lot of time in the woods and field behind my house, so I thought I would do well. But when the activity started it turned into something like a game of red-light-green-light and all of the kids just ran when the counselors had their backs turned and then froze when the counselors looked back. I started out being quiet and slow, but everyone else was way ahead, so I eventually joined in the free-for-all dash when the counselors' backs were turned. 

When it was over, the counselors announced that the only person who had done the task correctly was one boy, who happened to live on my same street. They praised him for going quietly and for advancing slowly but surely. He wasn't at the front, but he had done the best job. They had neither heard him or seen him moving. 

I was so angry with myself because I had known how to move like that, too, but I had gotten caught up in what everyone else was doing. What I knew got thrown out the window and I joined in the group's poor judgement on how to move through the woods. 

The lesson I learned from that activity serves me well now. People I know are getting together, my neighbors - who are very sensible people -  had a 4th of July party, acquaintances of my husband are going on vacation to a beach. And I sometimes feel pressure to relax my own rules about how to stay safe during a pandemic. But it's the same idea now as back way back then in 5th grade. Don't follow what everyone else is doing and get caught up in the group mentality when you know it's not right.

Stay safe everyone. 

Daenerys and the fate of strong female characters

What if it was Daniel Targaryen?

 Picture, if you will, a man atop that dragon. Picture his hatred of an enemy who has stolen his throne, reneged on a promise of an army to help fight the dead, killed one of your dragons whom you hold as dear as a child – a son, perhaps – and captured one of your closest advisors, who is also your closest friend, and beheaded them in front of you. Do you still have a problem with Daniel wreaking havoc and laying waste to a city that symbolizes all that he has fought against his entire life, even if it has surrendered to him? Effectively wiping the slate clean to start anew. I think we’ve seen this type of male revenge over and over throughout history, real or fictionalized and don’t have the same qualms we do when suddenly it’s not a Daniel, but a Daenerys.

It was a woman atop that dragon and so naturally her decision to do these things means she is batshit crazy. Joffrey was batshit crazy. What were Varys and Tyrion doing about him? There were plenty of other people with truer claims to the throne.

And what of that distasteful scene in episode four, when the Hound remarks to Sansa that he heard she was, “broke in hard.” And she remarks that she would have remained a ‘little bird’ if not for that and all the rest. In essence, she could never have reached her potential without having been brutally treated and shaped by men. These are lines written by men for men.

Of course that is literally true. There is so much misogyny in the books and in the shows that it is oftentimes hard to continue reading/watching. There is a riveting story there and that’s what keeps me hooked. But now that Daenerys has been characterized as going batshit crazy, I have once again been disappointed.

Remember Peter Jackson’s take on Arwen? At first she’s a kickass elf woman, riding with Frodo through a gauntlet of black riders to the safety of Rivendell, remarking to Aragorn, “I do not fear them.” By the end of the movies she has become a shrinking thing, unable to hold her head up until Aragorn lifts her chin. And Eowyn, shieldmaiden of Rohan is reduced at one point to a giggling, silly woman, seeking approval of her (terrible) cooking.

What the hell is wrong with men that they feel they must always portray women, particularly any woman who has an iota of confidence, at some point as foolish, incompetent or batshit crazy?

If it were a Daniel atop that dragon, I doubt there would be so many complaints at the character’s arc in this final season. We are upset because it is Daenerys up there. We have seen that she is smart. We have seen her confidence and competence. We have seen that she knows more than her advisors and can make competent decisions despite what they tell her would be the best course – and we have seen that those decisions have held up. But once again, a strong woman must be put in her place. In telling tales it seems men cannot afford to give women too much power. The consequences would be much too high. So the strongest must always, in the end, be characterized as nothing more than silly, shrinking, or batshit crazy. Or in formidable Lady Mormont’s case, dead.

To all the men telling stories out there: If you don’t want a woman to be strong, don’t give her a dragon in the first place. Don’t give her intelligence. Don’t give her competence. Don’t give her a life. Because if you do and then suddenly take it all away, your fan base will see through it. Your fan base will know you for what you are. Fans don’t like being tricked. They’re likely to go batshit crazy on you.

To all the women telling stories out there: Ladies, let’s show them how it’s done.

Congratulations to the winners!

Congratulations to the winners, and a big thanks to everyone who entered the giveaway on Goodreads! The winners will be receiving their books soon, Happy Reading!

Giveaway on Goodreads!

Goodreads Book Giveaway

The Errand Rider

by Linda Ash

Giveaway ends June 15, 2017.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter Giveaway

When your own characters become your inspiration

I was recently inspired by one of my own characters. You see, in most of my writing there is an undercurrent. I have always been aware of the differences with which men and women are thought of and treated, and the differences in the opportunities afforded each gender, not just in my home country here in the U.S., but globally. These differences have never been subtle, in fact, it was at the tender age of seven that these differences began to rankle. Seven. How obvious do things need to be for a seven-year old to be able to notice. And so my antagonists are usually women and my writing usually highlights ability and self-reliance to a degree, but also what can be achieved through friendship, and people having one-another's back.

And so when the Women's March on Washington began to be organized several months ago, my first thought was, "I have to be there," - for me, for Yazidi girls and women, for child brides, for victims of FGM, for the woman who is controlled by her boyfriend/husband, who is abused by her boyfriend/husband, for victims of sexual assault and violence, for the woman who is suddenly afraid of that man walking behind her, or who suddenly has to calculate her every word or gesture because things at the party, the bar, her workplace just became questionable. And the list goes on.

The only thing is that after having bouts of feeling really terrible over the past several years, I was finally diagnosed with fibromyalgia. Which sucks. I used to be really active but I've slowed down quite a bit lately because of the hurting all over thing. Getting to the march (from northeast Ohio), and then marching seemed like it might be kind of painful.

Then I heard about the pussyhat project. That made me really happy. I'm a knitter, so I knitted a lot of hats grateful that I could do this to contribute. But as the date for the march drew nearer, I can't tell you how deeply I felt I was letting myself and my convictions down by not attending. And then my daughter suggested that we go. She's newly married and lives a couple of hours away. How could I not go with my daughter who is strong and doesn't take things from anybody and wanted to be a part of this wonderful thing.

So I thought about it. And my character Gwyn from my book, "The Errand Rider," came to mind. She is traveling alone, by horseback at one point in the book and is injured. I'm sure she's tired and uncomfortable and pain is involved, but she goes on. She has quite a big journey still ahead of her and she will be in even more uncomfortable places and have to deal with other aches and pains, but she never complains and she doesn't stop. She goes on and gets the job done, and in the process saves a little prince and two realms to boot.

Now, by myself I can't save anything, but as part of a collective movement, who knows what can be accomplished? So in the end, my daughter and I followed all of those hats I made to Washington and together with hundreds of thousands of others, we got the job done. We added our voices to the millions around the world who roared with the message that women will be heard. And we're not stopping there. We will do what we can when we can to further women's causes and voices around the world.

So thank you Gwyn, for being an inspiration to me.

My new book is out!

My new book is now available on Amazon! The eBook version is available now, and the print version will be coming soon.

Feeling unappreciated at home, Gwyn embarks on a routine errand which quickly becomes anything but, as war brews and she is drawn into the middle of it. Gwyn finds that her survival suddenly relies on her abilities – which may also prove key to saving the life of a young prince, and the entire realm.

This is yet another self-published book. I sent out only one query on the manuscript. It's still out and I don't know if I'll hear back anytime soon. I sent it to a new press and they were overwhelmed with submissions. They focus on strong female characters and this book in particular I thought might be a good fit. I decided to go ahead and publish it myself after waiting for quite a while for a response. I wish the press well and am excited that they are out there. I hope to see some good titles come out from them in the future.

So, in the meantime, here is my book. It's a quiet little story about a young woman who has a bit of an adventure while running an errand for the queen. I hope there are a few people out there who will like it - I enjoyed writing it.

And while eBooks don't generally have back covers, here is a peek at the back cover that will be on the print version:

You can click on either image to see a larger version. I'll let you know when the print version is released!

Map fiddling

In the last post, I said that I'd fiddle around and see what kind of a map I could come up with for my newest manuscript. Well, an investment in a new drawing pad and several YouTube tutorials later, this is what I've come up with (click on it to see it larger):

The inspiration for this fantasy world sprang from the park right next to my house. It started with walks in the park. Just about everything on the map has a corresponding place in the park and it's nearby environs. As you enter the park from where my house and yard are, (Cider Spring on the map), you can see in the distance the top of a barn and silo from the farm that used to be located where the park is now. The top of the barn and silo look very much like a castle to someone with an over-active imagination. The barn and silo became the castle in the city of Landerin. The character that I dreamed up needed to get from Cider Spring to the city of Landerin, and so the story began...

I turned to YouTube for help in turning what I had created in my head and made several rough sketches of, into a real map. There is a really good and rather straight forward set of fantasy map-making tutorials by author Jessica Khoury that I found really helpful. Here is a link to the first of her five tutorials: Fantasy Map Tutorial.

It's kind of fun to play around with map-making, but also a little nerve-wracking when you need to try to keep distances correct, etc. This is my first attempt, but I think it's not too bad. At least it conveys all of the important information that the reader needs to follow for where things are happening in the story.