Dissecting Frankie

There have been a few reviews criticising Frankie (from the Past Due series) lately and I just wanted to address them. These are a couple of the comments. 

Book 1

"The only other problem I had with the series was Frankie. She is suppose to be this emotionless, cold MI5 agent. She never lets anyone get close to her because of her psychic abilities. However, the entire series, she is always leaning or crying on someone's shoulder. In my opinion, Frankie needed more 'tough girl' scenes. And the girl falls in love quickly... and often."

"I do agree that Frankie seems too weak in certain areas for such a tough girl"

The thing is, they're right. Frankie was always written to be a flawed character (as are all my characters, but Frankie perhaps to a greater degree).

I hoped that the writing made her flaws clear but just in case it didn't come through, or you saw things differently, here's the reasoning behind Frankie, her weaknesses and her (numerous) flaws. 

In some ways Frankie is tough; she will face bad guys when she knows that she doesnt have a hope in hell's chance of besting them. She will insist on going along when she is the weakest member of the team (ie, the others are vampires or shapeshifters). In that way she's brave.  And foolish. There is a huge self destructive streak in Frankie. She's spent her life not being believed, being ridiculed, feeling rejected and she's internalised all of that. She's definitely not suicidal, but there is a big part of her that's tired of the struggle.

Her bravery is sometimes just bravado though. At the end of the day, she'd just a woman who's struggled to fit in her whole life. She built shields and defences, like an abrasive attitude to keep people out but she's still just human. Deep down, she wants the kind of things we all want (love, acceptance, peace) even if she won't admit it.

When it comes to matters of the heart though... well then it really starts to get complicated.

[Spoilers for the books from here on out]

Past Due, Chapter One

Bertena Varney, sociology professor and author of Lure of the Vampire: A Pop Culture Reference Book, recently reviewed Past Due for The Examiner and awarded it 5 stars. Read her review here.

Right now, it's time for another #SampleSunday. I hope you enjoy this excerpt of Past Due.

Book Blurb: Francis 'Frankie' Wright thought she was an old hat at dealing with the supernatural, until she was reassigned to Edinburgh, the most haunted city in the world.

Her latest case soon takes a deadly turn. Young women are being slain in satanic rituals and it's up to Frankie to find the murderer before he kills again.

Frankie must juggle vampires, shapeshifters, witches and zombies, all the while trying to keep the truth from her sceptical ex-boyfriend, Will Campbell, who just happens to be heading up the police investigation.

The clock is ticking and she soon finds herself forced to team up with the vampires and shapeshifters in order to stop the killer before he can literally unleash hell on earth.

Chapter One

Francis Wright took one last look over her shoulder to be sure no one was watching, then deftly picked the door lock. Thirty seconds later she closed the door behind her, safe inside the apartment. It wasn’t that she was a master lock picker that gave her such speed, merely the right equipment.

Should she be caught carrying a locksmiths tools without a locksmiths licence there would be awkward questions, but Frankie was certain she’d never face any consequences.

She felt along the wall until she found the light switch, and then headed deeper into the apartment. The fact she’d had to come at night made stealth both harder, in that she needed to use lights at all, and easier in that there were fewer people around to see. She’d long ago learnt that using a home’s own lights drew a lot less attention than a flickering torchlight.

The body had been moved but it was easy to see where it had lain, just inside the doorway to the living room. There were no helpful chalk outlines but the large pool of blood suggested that whoever had fallen there, had not walked away under their own steam.

She sighed and pushed a gloved hand through her dark hair.

“Sometimes I hate this job,” she muttered. She knelt down beside the largest blood stain and pulled one of her leather gloves off. She rested her palm gently against the carpet and closed her eyes. Images of the horrific death flashed through her mind and she gritted her teeth. The poor girl had died painfully, but at least it was quick. A small mercy.

She opened her eyes and removed her hand, swallowing down the residual pain and fear she was left with.

“Sometimes I really hate this job.” She stood up, whirling around as someone coughed behind her.

The Trouble With Twilight?

I've heard a lot of people groan and complain about the feminist aspects of the Twilight Saga but honestly, the first time I read them I was too caught up in the plot to pay much attention to the sexism. After the furore surrounding 50 Shades of Grey, a story inspired by Twilight by Stephanie Meyer, I decided to go back and read the Twilight Saga to see what exactly inspired a story about a sado-masochistic relationship. It didn't sound anything like the Twilight I remembered.

I'm only going to comment on this from a feminists perspective, I'll leave the quality of the writing and the Mary-Sue aspects to people more qualified to comment.

So, let me start by saying that as a feminist, on the whole, the books don't offend me or my feminist ideals, though there are a few gripes.

I'll start with the biggest, Bella going to pieces when Edward leaves her in New Moon. I'm not saying women don't go to pieces, I have a friend whose sister, a high-powered executive, was hospitalised for depression when her husband left her. So it does happen, some people do fall apart when they're left. In this book, even Edward is portrayed as being a broken man after leaving Bella, so I cant even argue that this is a sexist representation of women.