If I Could Be Any Heroine In One of My Favorite Books...

I would be Harry from The Blue Sword.


The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley is my favorite book of all time.  Based vaguely (this is a subject of much argumentation and debate and scathing condemnation) of the British colonization of India, the book deals with magic and bravery and horses and swords and all kinds of yummy things revolving around a pretty awkward heroine and a crabby and--I'll be frank--hot hero.  I would want to be Harry because A:  hi, she's magic.  And B:  she has a sword that pretty much talks to her.  And C:  her HORSE.  And D:  the whole culture of the Damarians is fascinating.  I'd like to eat Damarian cheese.  I think I've told you this before, but there were a few times in my early adolescence where I would, after a particularly difficult day of being a smart, awkward kid at a very small school, sob and beg the Magic to take me away to Damar.

No.

I'm not kidding.

Teh Dorkiness, it was strong in me.

The truth is that even though it's dorky, there are certain books that I sink into and BECOME the heroine.  If she gets scared, I get scared.  If she gets angry, I get angry.  If she falls in love, I'm ready to start smooching.  Those books are the books that become Book Friends, that I recommend to you and random people on the street.

Those are the books I want to write.  At some point in time, as Gawd as my witness (please picture me silhouetted against the sunrise, having just barfed up a radish, clenching my fist)  (what?), I am going to write a book that will give some dorky little adolescent girl a place to rest and dream in.  I will give her somebody else to be when being herself is a gigantic drag.

Those somebody elses will be strong and brave and magical, it's true.  But they will also be dorky or awkward or shy, because that's my truth, too.  And there are a lot of girls out there for whom it is also the truth.

I'd be Harry, if given the choice.  But since I won't be given that choice, I'll do the next best thing and try to create a heroine who will be somebody else's Harry.

And I'll give her somebody hot to smooch, too.

(Come ON.  Dorky girls need smooching, too.)