Aaaaaand, we’re back. Life, eh?
Marvellous entries to the favourite fictional woman giveaway. Here are some of my favourite answers:
Liz Lemon from 30 ROCK. Nerdy and awkward and sometimes selfish, yet also attractive, determined (if sometimes misguided) and ultimately kind-hearted. And frequently laugh-out-loud funny. – Chris Barnes
Jessica Atriedes (DUNE) for her poise, brains and loyalty, Minerva McGonagall (HARRY POTTER) for superior magical awesome as well as teenager-wrangling skills, Princess Leia (STAR WARS) for rescuing her helpless frozen boyfriend who isn’t even a prince, Eowyn (LORD OF THE RINGS) for recovering from romantic rejection in time to kill the witch-king, and Yu Shu Lien (played by Michelle Yeoh in CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON) for her integrity, discipline, and the best female fight scene EVAR – Thoraiya
Diana in “Trouble with Lichen” by John Wyndham: Diana is a biochemist who values brains over frippery, she is brainy, driven and idealistic but not part of the modern cadre of “kickass sex object” fictional women (Buffy, Girl Genius, Echo, River, etc). – exp_err
Polgara, from David Eddings’ BELGARIAD series. She’s strong and powerful in all sorts of ways; she’s also humble, comfortable in her own skin, determined, calm, and able to quell kings with a single glance. I like that combination – and even though there are some problematic aspects to her character, she is still really appealing. – Alexandra
Granny Weatherwax (DISCWORLD). What I love is how real she is. She’s got these seemingly opposite drives – on the one hand she doesn’t really like people and wants to avoid them if possible; on the other hand she’ll continually go and risk her life to save said people. After a while, you realise that they actually come from the same source – Granny knows people. Heart and soul, good and bad. So while she doesn’t have time for them, she sees them as unique and valuable and important and so will do what she can to save them. – Nicole Murphy
Marla from Jennifer Fallon’s HYTHRUN CHRONICLES. I like how she works her way up (using brains!) from miscellaneous princess married off for political gain, to matriarch more or less running the whole country. – Tsana
Nancy Napoleon from SIREN BEAT, because she’s not your ordinary Urban Fantasy heroine, with a halter top and a tribal tat. She’s disfigured, yet powerful and sexy and desirable, oh and an Aussie, oh and written by one of my fave authors. – Sean the Blogonaut
Carrie White (CARRIE). In honour of Stephen King and of the first horror book that inflicted my love for this genre. Also it was a very strong character. Carrie’s traumas, her wishes and dreams and the final breakdown makes her an unforgettable character. – Mihai A.
Corinna Chapman from the EARTHLY DELIGHTS series by Kerry Greenwood. She’s not a traditionally shaped heroine, she loves food, she holds down a full time job, foils criminals, lives in Melbourne, and has a funky bunch of friends and neighbours. – Helen Patrice
Honestly? I couldn’t decide. I thought, ‘oooh, Granny Weatherwax!’ then I thought ‘oh, Liz Lemon! Wait, Carrie! Wait, Diana…’ You see how it went. Really the winner turned out to be ‘awesome fictional women’. And us, because we get to read about them.
So if you spy your name in the above listed answers, then you’ve won a book! That’s right! Your choice of BAD POWER or ISHTAR in hardcopy. (Though I don’t have my ISHTAR copies yet, so it might take me some time to get one to you, just so you know.)
AAAAAAANNNND if your answer didn’t make it into this list but you’d still like a copy of ISHTAR, you have two more chances to win! ISHTAR is now the subject of a Goodreads giveaway, closing beginning of May. Go on, join the 266 people who have entered so far!
Plus, don’t forget, my Aurealis Award nominated novella “And the Dead…” from ISHTAR is still available free! In PDF! Which means I can pretty much email it to you right away (no waiting on hardcopies 
). Email me at rous AT deborahbiancotti.net for a PDF.
