WHY I WRITE ABOUT STRONG WOMEN by M. Ruth Myers

"Show me your friends, and I'll tell you who you are."

I remember my grandmother saying when I questioned why she always wanted me to tell her who sat with me at lunch in my high school cafeteria, what their parents' names were and who did they hang out with after school. I couldn't figure out why this information was so important to her. She would shrug and say, "Birds of a feather flock together." 

Now I understand. Offering a forum for folks to weigh in on the topic of strong women has attracted authors with a creative drive to explore and expand our knowledge of women who dare to be bold. I'm pleased to have M. Ruth Myers at my lunch table.

WHY I WRITE ABOUT STRONG WOMEN 

by M. Ruth Myers

I write about strong women for the simple reason that I enjoy reading about them – and I think readers do too.

Assertive. Determined. Brave. Those are some of the words that define them. They’re confident in most situations, and able to bluff it through when they’re not. They’re mostly unselfish. They look out for those who are weaker. And they don’t need a strong man to rescue them from a tight spot.

I was fortunate enough to grow up exposed to women with those characteristics, though they’d never have described themselves in those terms. In real life and in fiction, they come in many forms.

Maggie Sullivan, the private eye in my series which moves from the end of the Great Depression through the end of World War II, is clearly a strong woman.  She’s in an unconventional job for a woman of her time. She carries a .38 which she’ll use without hesitation. She gets beaten up at times, but throws a pretty good punch herself. She walks down dark alleys and into flop houses. She endures snide comments and blatant doubts of her abilities.

That’s the most obvious kind of strong.

But other tough and determined women populate the series as well:

• Rachel runs a commercial construction firm even though it means elbowing her way through prejudice over both her gender and the fact she’s a Jew.
• Jolene, the farm girl turned nightclub cigarette girl, is smart as they come and determined to chart her own course.
• Sophia and Gilead, the two Negro cleaning women in Maggie’s run-down office building, have capabilities far beyond what their jobs require. They’ll finally get a chance to use them during World War II.

For all these women, there’s more to life than the roles society wants to assign them.

To me, women are strong when they take charge of their own destiny.  Instead of being victims of circumstances, they take them on. They grab Circumstances by the elbow and drag them along. They kick Circumstances in the backside.

No one represents them better than the first-wave career women of the Greatest Generation. They already were pushing through social norms before World War II brought a deluge of Rosie-the-Riveters, leaving farms and small towns in pursuit of dreams: College education, jobs in the city, and yes, a taste of the larger world.

These are the women who inspired the Maggie Sullivan series. One woman rode a mule to teach in a one-room school, saving her salary to attend eight years of summer school so she could get her teaching degree. Another, when her farm chores were done, cleaned houses and tended babies to earn her tuition to teachers college – only to lose it all when the bank with her savings failed, like thousands of others, in the Great Depression. Both women went on to lifelong careers as teachers and active roles in their communities. Another headed a child welfare agency. Another was an assistant U.S. Attorney. All in small towns.

Surely seeing these examples around me as I grew up shaped my world view. It certainly shaped my reading material, beginning with mystery series with protagonists like Beverly Gray, Judy Bolton and, of course, Nancy Drew – though I didn’t find her as interesting as the others. At school, when it came time for the yearly (or maybe semesterly) report on a biography, I managed to scout out less-known books on women journalists and war correspondents.

Today, it’s wonderful to know we can find strong women characters in the pages of books by Sara Paretsky and Marcia Muller and Sue Grafton; by my friend Debbi Mack with her Sam McRae series; and by you, Connie Hambley. But there aren’t enough! So I’m happy to add one more, Maggie Sullivan, to the mix.

No Game for a Dame, the first book in the series, is free for most ereaders. Slide into the passenger seat of Maggie’s DeSoto and take a ride. It’s 1938; there are no seat belts.

BIO:

M. Ruth Myers received a Shamus Award from the Private Eye Writers of America for Don’t Dare a Dame, the third book in her Maggie Sullivan mysteries series. The series follows a gin-sipping, gam-flashing, gun-toting woman P.I. in Dayton, OH, from the end of the Great Depression through the end of WW2. Shamus in a Skirt is the latest novel in the series, which currently includes four novels and two short stories.

                                                                                                           

Myers has written more than a dozen books in several genres. One was condensed in Good Housekeeping magazine and several have been optioned for film. Her dubious skills include playing the Irish concertina and talking to herself without moving her lips, the latter a result of working five years as a ventriloquist.

Website: Http://www.mruthmyers.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/M.RuthMyers.author/

Blog: www.GalGumshoe.com

Twitter: @MRuthMyers

Shamus in a Skirt

When a man offers 1940s private investigator Maggie Sullivan twice her usual fee to look into a "possible" jewelry theft from his hotel safe, she’s skeptical — until a maid’s body tumbles out of a trash can and a jeweler known for high quality fakes is murdered.

Does a hotel guest who vanished without a trace hold a piece of the puzzle?  Or does it have to do with the Polish count and his family fleeing the start of WW2 in Europe?  Could the cops be right that it’s all a trick devised by her client?

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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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STRONG IN THEIR WEAKNESS by Michelle Cox

I'm a sucker for a story about strength found in surprising places, so when my next guest told me about her experiences in speaking with women at a nursing home, I was all in. Please read on as Michelle Cox introduces us to three incredible women and the window into a different kind of strength they provide.

Strong in Their Weakness
by Michelle Cox

Several years ago I found myself wandering the halls of a nursing home, visiting with residents who happened to be mostly women and mostly immigrants.  As I got to know them better, listening to their unsung stories, I was stunned that so many of these women, bed-ridden or hobbling along - a frail skeletal version of their former, robust selves - had lived such incredible lives of strength and fortitude. 

Almost all had a story to share about overcoming the odds, of endurance and hardship, and sacrifice. I was struck by the spectrum of attitudes I heard. So near the end of their lives, many had slipped into bitterness and depression, still harboring anger and nursing the many wounds they had picked up along the way. This was what I had expected to find. 

What I was surprised by was that some who had had equally hard, even tragic, circumstances retained a positive demeanor and even a smile. They had a sparkle to them, a certain radiance. I found myself naturally more attracted to these women and sought them out for further conversation, hoping to discover the secret to this seemingly misplaced happiness. As I went from room to room, collecting stories that varied widely in circumstance and which circumnavigated the globe, it became clear to me that the central theme was always the same. Forgiveness. 

 

One of the first women I spoke to was Danuta Szwarc, who saw the Russians invade her tiny village on the border of Poland and Germany in 1941 and witnessed her husband being shot.  She and her four children were then packed into a train and sent to a Siberian labor camp where they spent the remainder of the war, near starvation, until liberated.  They were then taken to refugee camps in Pakistan and India until they finally made it to the United States.  Here, they began again, with Danuta tending her grandchildren and filling the house with people and food, love and laughter.  Her children say of her that she was the “most positive person we’ve ever met,” and that, indeed, “she could move mountains.”

Emilia Morales was born at a similar time, 1909, but in a small Mexican village, frequently raided by Pancho Villa and his revolutionaries. Her well-to-do family often hid from his criminal gang in secret compartments in the walls of their home. Emelia witnessed horrific violence at the revolutionaries’ hands as well as horrible abuse within her own family. Incredibly, not only was she beaten by her father, but by her older sister! Emilia eventually married a mean, manipulative man with whom she had four children. Two of them died of cancer, as did her husband, leaving Emilia alone to make ends meet, which she did by working long hours as a cleaner in a hospital. Despite the life of violence and misery she endured, Emilia still goes about with a smile, looking forward to what the day will bring, always saying “tomorrow is another day” and “I don’t let things bother me.”

Equally inspiring is the story of Soon Ok Shin, who was born in Korea in 1911 and after completing grade school was married by arrangement to a wealthy businessman.  She had three children, but was forced, via a common custom at the time, to give her first child to her brother and his wife who couldn’t have children of their own. She was further saddened when her husband took more wives after her, again a common custom among the rich of Korea. Eventually, she was able to escape her husband and her life in Korea when her two children immigrated to the United States and sent for her. Here she lived with them, helping to raise their children and grateful for even the smallest kindnesses. She remains a very warm, humble person, encouraging and full of concern for those around her.     

These are a few of the stories that stood out for me as I walked through those lonely halls - stories of women who, despite almost any degree of tragedy, could not only find the strength to keep going, but to somehow be happy. These women were strong in their weakness. They found the ability to forgive the many wrongs done to them. At first glance, this might seem a weakness in and of itself, but forgiveness was the ticket to a deeper power, a letting go, a freeing - that no one or nothing could shake. Though they were often trapped by circumstances, they were not trapped by bitterness and actively chose forgiveness – not only of the people who hurt them, but perhaps themselves as well and were therefore able to look forward with promise.

Therein lies their strength and the secret to their happiness, their contentment, their peace, even now, in this moment, in this place.   

Michelle Cox, author

Bio:

Michelle Cox writes the popular blog, “Novel Notes of Local Lore,” which features true stories of Chicago’s forgotten residents as well as a humorous blog, “How to Get Your Book Published in 7,000 Easy Steps – A Practical Guide,” both of which feature on her website. Her novel, A Girl Like You, the first in a series, is due out with She Writes Press this April. Ms. Cox lives in Chicago with her husband and three children.

Website: http://michellecoxauthor.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/michellecoxwrites

Twitter: https://twitter.com/michellecox33

A Girl Like You is a historical mystery with a dash of romance set in 1930’s Chicago. Beautiful Henrietta Von Harmon works to support her family after the big crash and her father’s subsequent suicide. Things begin to look up when she takes a job as a taxi dancer - until the floor matron turns up dead. When the aloof but charming Inspector Clive Howard appears on the scene to investigate, things begin to heat up when she is persuaded to go undercover for him and they uncomfortably find themselves drawn to each other in most unsuitable ways. 

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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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RISK OF SUCCESS by Janet Catherine Johnston

Strong Women. Fact? Fiction? Born? Made?

My next guest is a belly-dancing astrophysicist from MIT. Yes, you read that correctly. She is a favored speaker at writing conferences that range from Boskone's science fiction convention to the Newburyport Literary Festival. If there is anyone who has an opinion about going against type, I'd say Janet Catherine Johnston is my go-to source. 

Risk of Success by Janet Catherine Johnston

I was flattered that Connie asked me to write something on the concept of strong women because I don’t think of myself as one. I think of myself more as a Barnum and Bailey showman. One thing I know for sure from my nearly 63 years of life experience is that 10% talent and 90% nerve is a better recipe for success then the other way around. So I guess I’m going to talk about nerve, or confidence, or being willing to take a risk.  Because the only thing you risk is failure and that’s a much lesser risk, I think, then not having tried to do anything at all.

First of all, as a child I was fortunate that I was never told only boys can do this or that. In fact, being a movie and TV fan as a kid I always identified with the male characters. This was not because they were men but because the women were portrayed as having no brains. I loved Spencer Tracey in Inherit the Wind, Captain Kirk in Star Trek, and Errol Flynn in Robin Hood. Although I always wanted to wear Lady Marion’s medieval frocks, Robin Hood, the adventurer and rebel, was closer to my personality.

So, when someone asked me when I was ten what I wanted to be when I grew up and I said, "An astrophysicist!" no one laughed or discouraged me.

And high school was great too. It wasn’t until college and then the workforce in the early days--I was a freshman at MIT in 1971--that as a woman in science and engineering I encountered discrimination. The majority male student body was resentful, instructors openly stated that female students were just taking a place away from a man who would use the degree.  It was pretty awful. Things are much better now. Science is more open than engineering, but both fields are improving.

I stuck it out and went on to work in science where in those years, in the eighties, women were considered a novelty and there were always remarks. You had to be better than the men to get equal treatment.  Many of my female classmates gave up and transitioned to more female-friendly professions. Great loss to science!  But I was stubborn and had a great mentor, a science pioneer now in her nineties, who taught me to pick my battles.  I can only imagine what she went through to rise to the equivalent civilian rank of General in the Air Force in her day.

I am always dismayed at people saying,  ”Oh if only I won the lottery, I would (fill in the blank with your fondest dream).” If your odds of happiness are a 50 million to one shot, that’s pretty sad. Think about how you can improve those odds…

And “Luck”  --what is that? I never thought when I applied to MIT that I would be accepted. At the Bronx High School of Science in New York I was certainly not the smartest student there.  But you never know till you try and if you don’t try you certainly have no risk of success.

People laugh when I say my writing goal is to write a best-selling novel. Really? I may not reach my goal, but how many best-selling authors do you think started their career saying their goal was to write a mediocre novel?

Certainly luck plays into it, but I define luck as a convolution of “opportunity meets preparation.”

If you don’t like the path you’re on, plan and work to change it.  Maybe in the end, that’s the definition of a strong person. Maybe the odds are against you, but somebody beats those odds.  Why can’t that person be you?

BIO:

  
Janet Catherine Johnston is a scientist, engineer, master costume designer and choreographer, dance teacher, singer, martial artist, private pilot, fortune teller, and science fiction author and was born missing her left arm. She is a co-author on numerous scientific journal articles on space experiments as well as on geophysics and holds four degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in astrophysics, planetary physics, seismology and civil engineering. She has traveled to 50 countries, including Outer Mongolia, India, South Africa, Egypt, Japan and Svalbard and has lived in New York, Virginia, London and Moscow, but always returns to her Plum Island, Massachusetts home. Her hard science fiction stories have appeared in Analog Science Fiction and Fact, the oldest, most prestigious science fiction magazine on Earth and has had two one-act comedy science fiction plays produced in Boston. Her novellas, although tenaciously rooted in reality, have a haunting, isolated quality to them in which the setting presents as a dominant character. 

Janet will be a guest speaker at Boskone 53, Boston’s oldest Science Fiction Convention, at the Westin Waterfront Hotel, 20 Feb 2016. See her mini-interview here. 

Janet can be reached at:   plumeig(at)comcast(dot)net

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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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Hard Riders - Women Who Take the Reins by Jill Baker

The following is a republication of LinkedIn Pulse article, with permission from the author, Jill Baker. Think what you will about me posting this within my strong women series, but gosh, I found I stood a little straighter after reading it.

I met Jill, a public relations expert, a few years ago during Mystery Night at New England Mobile Book Fair. (Put this bookstore on your MUST GO TO list and mark your calendars for the first Thursday in December for Mystery Night!) We struck up a conversation and have stayed in touch ever since. I had no idea our conversations would connect into her public relations world, but was pleasantly surprised when she approached me with an observation she had. 

Hard Riders - Women Who Take the Reins by Jill Baker

Maria Remedio riding Major Highway
Photo by Nikki Sherman used with permission.

One is a writer. One is a professional jockey. Yet both women are connected by the power of the horse – a metaphor appropriate for anyone trying to place or excel in their career.

This post results from a random convergence of events – a pleasantly unexpected realization that there are parallels worth sharing.

A few weeks ago, I was talking with an author whose politically-charged thrillers are built around an equestrian theme. A few days later, I interviewed a female jockey to be profiled in the upcoming Women in Sports video series, selected by Indiewire as a favorite pick.  

These strong women compete and succeed in traditionally male-dominated fields. They possess the confidence, assertiveness, and drive needed to win, yet both share a sense of compassion that plays out in their personal lives. This balance is perhaps not too different from the horse itself – strong and commanding on one hand but gentle and sensitive on the other.

STARTING YOUNG

Connie Johnson Hambley, lawyer-turned-thriller-author of The Charity andThe Troubles, “grew up around horses and was riding before I could walk.” The arsonist’s fire that engulfed her family’s dairy farm left a lasting impression. She uses that drama to weave richly-layered plots in a niche usually dominated by male writers. Hambley knows the fortitude it takes to hold her own on the field and in a room full of tough-talking word makers. She describes this attribute as “grit” which she defines as “somewhere between discipline and resilience.”

Maria Remedio holds nearly 500 horse racing wins and in 2013 was the third leading female rider in the country with 93 wins. She grew up on a farm in North Delaware, surrounded by horse breeders and handlers. She began “doing stalls before I ever got on their back.” At fifteen, her stepdad put her on a horse and advised her to keep her goggles on “so they won’t know you’re a girl.” She experimented with Western riding but moved to English, preferring the rigors of racing to the elegance of dressage. “Instead of friends, I had responsibility,” Remedio recalls. By seventeen, she had secured her jockey’s license and was granted an apprenticeship. Her edge over male counterparts: being ten pounds lighter to start.

NO REST FOR THE WEARY

Remedio’s day typically begins at 6:45 a.m. when she’s at the track, going from stable to stable to see who might need help that day. (Talk about call-back interviewing and change management!) Remedio notes that she recently raced at Parx in Philadelphia on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday; Aqueduct in New York on Wednesday and Saturday, and was in Florida in between. Somehow she manages to juggle this grueling schedule while being Mom to two young girls.

Remedio fondly remembers winning aboard her mother’s horse, King Kobe, 4 weeks after giving birth to daughter Arabella; running second in New York aboard Siete de Oros in a grade 2 stake race for trainer Ramon Preciado (losing to Belmont Stakes performer Vyjack); and setting a track record on the turf on a filly named Darling Sky for Butch Reid this year.

Lest you think a writer gets to sit and write all day, Hambley’s agenda bounces between book signings in New York, fundraisers in Boston , and frequent community events. She’s a panelist with the Sisters in Crime, speaks on publishing and marketing to authors throughout New England, and recently participated in the Mystery Writers Gala at New England Mobile Book Fair.

PERSISTENCE

So what does it take to succeed?

Hambley likens writing to riding. “It takes the same game-on mentality as it does to race,” she says. “Sure you need technical ability, but you also need the wherewithal to hang in there. You can’t shy away. You can’t quit.” Of riding she says, “Yes, you need physical strength, but male muscle mass is not going to win. You have to have a connection with the horse and be highly intuitive” – qualities that also apply to understanding one’s readers.

Hambley's characters have secrets and are embroiled in the Irish resistance. “I’ve had to make narrative decisions that are not feminine, not nice,” she says. She conveys loud and clear that women who write thrillers can’t be wimps.

Remedio says something similar. She credits good horses and good luck – meaning an opportunity to shine -- with her success, but like Hambley, acknowledges, “Every day I have to prove myself. I constantly need to convince owners and trainers why they should ride me. I have to battle against other jockeys to get the job, and then battle them on the track. It’s mentally and physically demanding.” And much like a bad book review, "I get blamed if the horse doesn’t win."

HORSE WHISPERERS

Interestingly, both women – while extremely competitive in their professions -- parlay their skills and love of horses for the greater good.

Hambley volunteers at Windrush Farm, a therapeutic riding stable for people with disabilities. She has also given her time as a horse handler to a program that helps Veterans overcome PTSD and to another group that empowers women rescued from human trafficking.

Remedio is involved with Turning For Home, a nonprofit organization that gives retired racehorses a meaningful life. Since its founding in 2008 by the Pennsylvania Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association, they have provided more than 1,000 racehorses with a safe retirement.

What makes horses so inspiring? “There’s a huge brain behind those big brown eyes,” Hambley says, noting that much has been written about “the connection between horse and human.” At the risk of sounding trite, she allows that this connection is something on a spiritual level.

What advice does Remedio have for young women hoping to hold the reins? “Be as tough as the men. Never give up. Remember that we are just as strong but also have a softer side. That’s an advantage. Use it.”

Shantel Rizzotto, a role model in her own right, will tap these tangible and intangible traits to reveal “What It Takes” in her Women In Sports documentaries. You can preview some clips here.

BIO:

Jill Baker is a media marketer who has worked in newspaper, magazine, and digital publishing industries. She has blogged for Technorati, Bizo's Digital Marketing Remix, and LinkedIn Pulse where this post originally appeared. Jill is currently in the process of bringing her first book to market.

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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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Special thanks to Chris Forbes from Parx for facilitating this post and for spotlighting The Female On The Horse... and to Nikki Sherman for permission to use her racing photo of Maria Remedio on Major Highway.

WRITE NOW INTERVIEW: DATES AND CHANNELS

WRITE NOW With Gayle C. Heney 

I was very pleased to be invited as guest on a community TV show dedicated to the written arts. The host,Gayle C. Heney is an author, poet and former two term Poet Laureate of North Andover. Her program, Write Now showcases authors who have successfully published a book in today’s rapidly changing publishing environment with the goal of encouraging viewers to write. She has been producing Write Now for over 10 years. 

The episode of Write Now featuring The Troubles will air in February 2016 for the following towns at the times listed: 

North Andover, MA on Comcast channel 22 and Verizon channel 24 on Fridays @ 11 am, and 1:30 am, Tuesdays @ 8 pm and Sat. @ 8 pm;

Andover, MA on Comcast channel 8 and Verizon channel 47 on Tuesdays @ 10 am and Mondays @ 8 pm;

Methuen, MA on Comcast channel 22 and Verizon channel 33 on Tuesdays @ 8:30 pm and Wed. @ 9:30 am.

Not in these markets and want to see it? Click here!