Heroine Worship, the second book in my series starring Asian American superheroines, came out this week.
Those are words I still can't quite believe, no matter how many times I type them. Even as I hold the book in my hands, I have to stare at it for a really, really long time before it sinks in that it's real. It has pages and a cover and everything! And my two heroines, Evie Tanaka and Aveda Jupiter (aka Annie Chang), are beautifully and prominently featured on said cover, perfectly rendered by artist Jason Chan.
Heroine Complex, the first book in the series, was Evie's book. It focused on her journey from wallflower to heroine, from downtrodden personal assistant to a woman confident in her own power. Heroine Worship is Aveda's book -- and I knew going in that she was going to be difficult in every sense of the word. She's aggressive and loud and dives into situations without thinking about the consequences. Her emotional arc is messy and complicated and involves her trying to figure out how to be a better friend to Evie and rein her more self-centered behavior while retaining the forcefulness and confidence that made her a good superheroine in the first place.
As Evie reminds her: Yes, she's a bludgeon. But bludgeons get shit done.
Aveda's aggressiveness is one of the things that made me love writing her. And thinking about her in such detail has me thinking about "difficult" female characters in general -- and who gets to be a bludgeon in the first place.
