Welcome to Friday Features! Maybe it's the fact that my guest grew up on a dairy farm that first sparked my interest. But a dairy girl turned author? I had to learn more. Once Ursula Wong and I began talking, I recognized a certain resolve and thought you'd like to meet her, too. I asked Ursula to share her thoughts on "strong women." This is what she had to say:
Why We Love Reading about Strong Women by Ursula Wong
I love the conviction of women who are resolved to overcome
bad situations, but does it mean that strong women appeal to us because we
think they’re unique? Does that say
something about what we expect of ourselves and what we expect of women both in
life and in what we read?
I write about women who overcome tremendous odds with
creativity and hidden strength. To see how other writers were handling the
subject, I did a Google search for ‘strong female literary characters’ and came
up with a few surprises.
First, there were many lists and they were long.
Secondly, the lists didn’t have a lot of overlap. Perhaps
too many novels exist for one set of ‘strong women’ tastes.
I noticed that some of the stories have been around for a
while. Lizzie Bennett in Jane Austin’s Pride and Prejudice wows us with her wit
and mindfulness. Charlotte Bronte’s ever-constant Jane Eyre builds strength over many bad
situations. Don’t forget the nutty Miss Havisham from Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations who showed strength of
conviction even though it involved waiting for her fiancé to show up.
Stories about strong girls also made the lists including the
brilliant Matilda by Roald Dahl, Anne
Shirley of Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery, and Meg Mury from the wonderful A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L’Engle.
The lists also had many contemporary entries. Lisbeth
Salander from Stieg Larsson’s The Girl
with the Dragon Tattoo is a power-house. Katniss shows spectacular survival
strength in Hunger Games by Suzanne
Collins. Don’t forget Jessica Wyeth in TheCharity and The Troubles by
Connie Johnson Hambley, and my own Lily Phelps in Purple Trees as two more examples of
women struggling against terrible odds.
My personal all-time favorite is Janie Crawford in Their Eyes Were Watching God by ZoraHurston, for discovering her power by listening to her heart.
I don’t think strong women are unusual either in stories or
in life. Sometimes, I think we don’t recognize our strength, and perhaps
minimize it, thinking if I can do something, anyone can. I also think that stories
of strong women will remain popular because of the different ways we solve our
problems, so I’ll continue writing about them, and even aspire to be one.
URSULA WONG
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| Ursula Wong, author of "Purple Trees" |
Ursula grew up on a dairy farm in central
Massachusetts, and became a high tech engineer. Her stories have appeared in Everyday
Fiction, Spinetingler Magazine, and the popular anthologies Insanity Tales and Insanity Tales II: The Sense of Fear. She runs the Nashua chapter of the New
Hampshire Writer’s Project, and is Marketing Director of The Storyside Consortium, a
publishing cooperative.
Ursula
taps her Lithuanian heritage in her upcoming novel, Amber Wolf, a saga of love and war. Destitute after her mother is killed by
Russian soldiers in 1944, young Ludmelia Kudirka joins farmers who are fighting
for freedom in a David-and-Goliath struggle against the mighty Soviet war
machine. Amber Wolf will be available in 2016.
Visit Ursula’s popular Reaching Readers Blog
on her website (ursulawong.wordpress.com) and signup for monthly mini-stories. Pin
Ursula on Pinterest, and like her on Facebook.
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FRIDAY FEATURES is a steady presence on Out of the Fog where I explore the concept of "strong women." Who are they? What makes them strong? How do we see them in writing and/or in business? If you're an author, what is their place in the world of thrillers of mysteries? If you're in business, how is the working environment impacted by the presence of a "strong woman" and how are they seen as leaders and team members? If you're an emerging strong woman, tell us about your journey. Have other questions you find compelling? Ask away and I'll post the answers here.
If you have something to say about the topic of
strong women, contact me on Twitter:
@conniehambley.
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