Tough Heroines

On a recent trip to Seattle, I found myself in the coolest movie theatre. Instead of regular seats, there were velvet couches scattered around the room. It was like sitting in the living room of an eccentric rich lady. I slouched comfortably and got ready to watch a movie I’d been anticipating for months: Atomic Blonde.

I am someone who can watch movie trailers for hours. It’s one of my many procrastination superpowers! But as soon as I saw Charlize Theron destroying multiple bad guys while maintaining her blonde bob and icy demeanour, I was counting down the days to the movie’s premiere.

As the British spy Lorraine Broughton, Theron is the epitome of coolness. She’s kicking ass, out-smarting three governments, and avoiding emotion, all while wearing graphic retro outfits and heels. There may have been some teeny plot issues, but nothing big enough to take away from my popcorn escapism. And the velvet couches made the experience even better. I want to watch all my thrillers on comfy couches from now on. Oh wait, I usually do, thanks to Netflix.

I have a definite weakness for these tough heroines. One of my favourite films is the very noir The Last Seduction. This movie stars Linda Fiorentino as a fascinating amoral heroine who outsmarts every man who gets in her way. Since I’m someone who won’t even park in the wrong zone, it’s clear that I get a vicarious thrill from watching women break all the rules.

In my own books, I love to subvert the male/female rules. For one book—The Tao of Hockey—I set out to write my very own kick-ass heroine, Josie Ray. She’s unemotional, confident, a stunt woman, and a motorcycle rider. Not just any motorcycle, but a red Ducati Panigale. I finally saw one in Bologna, Italy and it was a thing of beauty. Originally, I tried to write the book with alternating POVs, but it turns out that writing a woman of mystery is pretty tough. Once I got inside Josies’s head, she became a woman as full of insecurities and doubts as any other, which detracted from her mystery and toughness. So I kept the POV in Eric’s head. He is also attracted to kick-ass women.

What do I like about tough heroines?

• Their hard as nails exterior. Sometimes she has a marshmallow center, but often there’s a hard as nail interior too.
• How they flout the rules. They have their goals and go for them.
• They don’t need men or relationships to define themselves. They do enjoy sex though.
• They wear the best clothes!

If you’d like to see it, Atomic Blonde is still in theatres, or if you’re in Seattle, you can catch it from the comfort of a plush couch.

Talking 'bout Girlfriends (and a great big excerpt!)

Girlfriends

One of my great pleasures is writing friendships between women characters. In my own life, girlfriends have been a source of support, honest opinions, and laughter. Even though my best friend lives across the country, when we get together—as we did last week—things are exactly the same. We even claim that we still look the same!

In Hockey Is My Boyfriend, Part One, April Lachance is the sophisticated woman of the world, even though she’s only 18. And Kelly Tanaka needs all the advice on guys that she can get. I have one beta reader who tells me regularly that April is her favourite character. I think it’s her sarcasm.

In How The Cookie Crumbles, girlfriends come in threes. Frankie, Bianca, and Chloë were high school besties who kept the friendship going through university. Each one is very different but they complement each other. And they have the shared history of every embarrassing thing they did together during high school!

In my upcoming book, Second Round, the girlfriends are now in their forties and the friendship is mature and hilarious. Jackie Wagner and her best friend, Sharon Zennaro have bigger responsibilities. Both are single moms raising their kids and navigating the dating scene at the same time. Jackie is a sweetheart and Sharon is a straight-shooter with a ton of swagger.

Once a lovely reader told me that she aspired to be as confident as my heroines—who make mistakes, but maintain a sense of self. Jackie Wagner is the least confident of all my heroines. When her husband left, she suffered a huge emotional blow that filled her with doubt. She’s worried about her kids, unsure of her job prospects, and really nervous about dating. But luckily, she has Sharon around for a good kick in the butt.

Here’s an excerpt from the book. After Jackie accidentally runs into the new coach of the Vancouver Vice hockey team, she flees to Sharon’s house to discuss everything:

---

I parked in front of Sharon’s house. Like the shoemaker’s children, her place was always in the midst of some renovation. Right now the front steps were missing, so I climbed up the cement blocks that were a substitute. I knocked and walked right in.

“It’s me. Not a burglar or anything. Shouldn’t you be locking the door?” Sharon was in the living room with her feet up and a glass of wine beside her.

“You think whenever you leave the safety of West Van, you’re entering a war zone.” She shook her head. “Soooo, what the fuck’s up with this coach?”

“Oh God. I went to his place to finish up the kitchen and hang the curtains in the little girl’s room. I thought he was on a road trip, but it turns out that’s next weekend—”

“Get to the good stuff.” Sharon handed me my own glass of wine and then relaxed against the cushions.

“He walked into the kitchen while I was there and scared me.”

Sharon frowned. “Is that it?”

“No, he had just taken a shower, and he was only wearing a towel. He has this amazing body, with muscles here and here.” I motioned to my chest and arms. “And there were little beads of water on his skin. He looked so hot.”

I paused and closed my eyes, remembering everything about how he looked. “He’s good-looking too. Not in a conventional way, but he has these sharp angles in his face. His cheekbones, his eyebrows, his mouth... everything.”

“So far you’re only giving me an inventory of facial parts.”

“Oh, sorry.” I snapped out of my daze. “I saw his business too!”

“His business? For fuck’s sake, Jackie, how old are you? You mean his penis, right?”

I nodded vigourously. “Through the towel. It was um, impressive. And you know what? My mouth actually fell open, and he laughed at me and said something suggestive.”

“Seeing that he was half-naked and you were drooling, I’m surprised that nothing happened. Nothing happened, did it?”

“No.” My lower lip turned down. “Not tonight anyway. He asked me out.”

“Fuck, yes! You’re finally going on a date. It’s about time.”

“I’ve been on dates,” I protested.

“Yes, innocent, polite little coffee dates. Not evening dates with the possibility of sex.”

I swallowed hard. Could a date with Leo end up in sex? I was willing to make whatever ritual sacrifices were necessary to make this happen. “He’s the first man I’ve been attracted to since Brent. And it’s huge.”

“Are we talking about his dick again?”

“No! I mean the way I’m attracted to him. It’s almost overwhelming. I hardly know him, and I wanted to have sex with him, right there in the kitchen.”

“Mmmm, I am so happy to hear you say this. You’ve been strangely asexual for months.”

I shook my head. “What’s it like? Having sex with someone new. The last time I took my clothes off with a new person, I had a fabulous twenty-something body. All firm parts and flawless skin.”

“Yeah, but did you know that then? In our twenties we all agonized about tiny food babies or a single zit. Now if I get up and nothing new sags, I’m throwing a fucking party.”

“You’re right. I felt like I was getting more confidence as I got older, until....” Until Brent left. My life these days could be divided into two parts: Before Brent Left and After Brent Left. But when Leo had touched me, it wakened all my buried senses. If he could do that by touching my hands and hair, imagine what his hands on my body could do. But taking off my clothes in front of a stranger was still daunting. Things had changed while I was married. Even naked bodies were different these days.

“Can we talk about shaving?” I asked.

Sharon’s hand flew to her upper lip. “Fuck. Am I turning into my Nonna? Why didn’t you tell me before?”

I giggled. “Not you. I mean me. Do guys expect women to have full Brazilians these days? I’ve never done that stuff.” I trimmed because otherwise Brent complained about going down on me. But that hadn’t been necessary lately.

“You’re in luck. I heard that the bush is back.” She had a big sip of her wine. “You know that guys shave now too, right?”

I winced. Hairless made me think of Greek statues, not real men. “I heard about that, but I thought it was only young guys.”

She nodded. “Yeah, most guys our age won’t go near their balls with a razor. However, if it makes their dicks look bigger, sometimes they’ll take the risk.”

“In fairness, women go through a lot of pain to make themselves look good. Still, why bother? Once I’m naked with a man, it’s not like I’m going to change my mind because of some optical illusion that his penis is larger.”

Sharon giggled. “Have you not learned that when it comes to penises, guys don’t do a ton of logical thinking?”

---

Second Round comes out on August 9th. Preorder the ebook here.

The Bad Guys

Writing guidelines suggest that you should have a villain to counter your hero's moves in every novel. For me, that's always been difficult because I don't see characters in black and white terms. In fact, there's nothing I like more than flipping a "bad guy." For example, when we meet Cynthia and Robert, Josie's siblings, in The Tao of Hockey, they're both extremely rude to Eric. Robert threatens him with a lawsuit and Cynthia doubts Josie would even date him. But as Tao unfolds, it becomes clear that they're only trying to protect Josie—she's the youngest and they have no mother and a harsh father. And when Cynthia pops up again in An Irresistible Force, we learn that under her sophisticated and bossy veneer, she's as full of insecurity and doubt as any normal person.

But as a reader, I do like to see justice: bad things happening to bad people. Laura, the captain of the hockey team in Hockey Is My Boyfriend, Part One, bullies teammates then sees her scheme completely backfire when she sends Kelly to humiliate herself with Nicklas—and he ends up asking her out. Maybe Riley, the creepy stalker in HIMB, Part Two, doesn't suffer enough, but in my imagination, Jimmy went on to make sure that Riley got blacklisted for any hockey work in New Brunswick. And Kelly's awful boss, Brendan Williams, from HIMB, Part Three does get fired in an alternate universe.

Readers of The Tao of Hockey may be wondering where is the justice is for Coach Bob Pankowski and Daniel Ramsey? Daniel is the captain of the team and supposedly a leader. But he tries to sabotage Eric's tryout in every possible way, because Eric is competition. Coach Panner is an old-fashioned screamer whose management style was possibly modelled on a failed Vancouver Canucks coach. The only time he seems happy is when he's cutting Eric from the team. And we see both these characters again in An Irresistible Force. Daniel is in full suck-up mode with Chris. Coach Panner resists the efforts of Amanda and Chris to improve the team. Yet neither one has suffered any comeuppance...yet!

Well, in Second Round you'll find out exactly what happens to Coach Panner. And perhaps even end up feeling sorry for him, once you know his history. Coach Panner plays an important role in this book because it's all about coaching and the arrival of a new coach to the team. This new coach is pretty much the polar opposite of Coach Panner—young, innovative, educated, and hot. Not that hot is an important quality for a good hockey coach, but it certainly helps the hero of a hockey romance. 

Second Round will be released one month from today! You can preorder it here.

Sunny Side

Are you on my mailing list? If you have been on it since the beginning, you've already received three short stories, three deleted scenes, and notice of hundreds of free books (not all mine, of course!)

You can still get the latest freebie. When you sign up, you get a copy of my new novella, Sunny Side. It's Vancouver Vice 1.5, and takes place after The Tao of Hockey.

It's the story of an optimistic hockey fan named Rosie, a tech genius named Peter, and the dating app that brings them together. Sign up on the sidebar on the right. 

I just wanted to add that the research for this book has resulted in my receiving ads to meet nice men in my area every time I go on the internet. Oh well, better than the email offers I get to meet Russian women.

Finally, if you're not already sold—did I mention free?—here's an excerpt:

Number 12 skated behind the net to make a pass to the next player and gave Louise a full view of his face.

    “Oh. My. God.”

    I smirked. “Told you so.”

    “He’s gorgeous. Like Chris Hemsworth hot. Those eyes, those cheekbones, those lips—everything. I can only see his neck, but it looks like he’s really built too.”

    “He is. I Googled him, and there’s a photo of him in a t-shirt and shorts at training camp and everything looks… amazing. And he’s got a huge package.”

    “What?” Louise dropped the binoculars and stared at me.

    I laughed. “Just kidding. You can’t tell that from a photo.” Unless his legs were positioned in just the right way and the shorts fabric was clingy, which they hadn’t been.