Introduction:

As many of you may know, I am a member of a wonderful collective of international paranormal authors known as the Supernatural Underground.

Although most of my Supernatural Underground colleagues live far away in North America and Canada, several are located just across the Tasman in the Lucky Country, aka Australia. One of these Tasmanauts—given she has crossed that 2000 km stretch of water several times now for conventions and writing retreats—is Nicole Murphy, author of the Dreams of Asarlai (Harper Voyager) trilogy.

Today I am delighted to welcome Nicole back to “…on Anything, Really” as part of her Blog Tour to celebrate publication of her new Fantasy-Romance novella, The Right Connection.

So without further ado, here is Nicole with her guest post on:

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When The Heroine Swoops In To Save The Day

If you’re like me, the moment you hear of anyone swooping in to save the day, you think of Tarzan. Maybe you will then go on to think of George of the Jungle, although there was less saving of the day there.

Tarzan is pretty cool. The whole concept of swinging through the jungle is aces in my book and I’m really pleased Edgar Rice Burroughs came up with it.

Tarzan was far from the last man to swoop in to save the day (and most often that involved saving the heroine from some stupid problem she’d got herself into) and after a while, all those men saving those hapless women gets a girl down.

I grew up reading Lewis, Tolkien, Brooks, Moorcock, where it was pretty consistently the hero swooping in. Even when I discovered romance in my late teens, I was still often finding that at the end of the day the hero would swoop in, save the heroine, declare his undying love and then swoop her away to a perfect life.

And I got over it.

Now, it must be said, there are times when it can’t be avoided. In my contemporary romance ‘Arranged to Love’ (which I hope you’ll all be able to read later this year), the hero Jack is the only person who can save the heroine Maddie from the mess she’s in. But a) it wasn’t her mess to begin with, she was trying to save her father and b) he has to sacrifice in order to save her. It’s not an easy choice for either of them, but it is the final act that allows them to admit their love for each other and their determination to overcome obstacles to be together.

But there are times when you can make the choice, such as I did in ‘Secret Ones’. Initially, the dramatic final act of the book featured Maggie getting in trouble, and Lucas saving her (sorry for the vagueness, don’t want to spoil it). I liked it, because Lucas had to use his human skills and it was a nice juxtaposition against the fact gadda power (magic) couldn’t save her. But about the time that I was getting ready to submit it was when I lost all patience with the ‘hero swooping in to save the heroine and the day’ trope. I changed it and in the published version, Maggie saves Lucas. I lost that lovely touch of the human saving the magical being, but I gained a fabulously strong ending for a wonderful heroine.

In my latest publication, ‘The Right Connection’, the fact that Taylor (the heroine) is the one who swoops in to save Roden (the hero) came about quite organically. In that society, war is fought using telepathy. Fighters (the muscle) are on the front line, doing the hard yards, while the soldiers (the brains) are locked away safely, directing the fighters via their telepathic communication. So when Roden gets in trouble, Taylor is the one who’s free to do something about it. And she does, even if he doesn’t welcome her involvement.

I had a ball writing this story. When I got to the point of realising how much trouble Roden was in, and how Taylor was the only one who could save him, I gave a pretty big cheer. I love it when a woman gets to show what she’s truly capable of.

But I must end this with a plea – if I end up in the middle of a jungle in some sort of ridiculous danger, TARZAN COME SAVE ME!

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About Nicole Murphy:

Nicole Murphy has been a primary school teacher, bookstore owner, journalist and checkout chick. She grew up reading Tolkien, Lewis and Le Guin; spent her twenties discovering Quick, Lindsey and Deveraux, and lives her love of science fiction and fantasy through her involvement with the Conflux science fiction conventions. Her urban fantasy trilogy Dream of Asarlai is published in Australia/NZ by HarperVoyager. She’s just commenced a new venture, In fabula-divinos (http://thetaletellers.wordpress.com) which is aimed at mentoring up-and-coming writers. She lives with her husband in Queanbeyan, NSW. Visit her website http://nicolermurphy.com and you can also follow her on Twitter: @nicole_r_murphy