Books from the Backlog is a fun way to feature some of those
neglected books sitting on your bookshelf unread. If you are anything
like me, you might be surprised by some of the unread books hiding in
your stacks.
After being dumped by her faithless fiancé, Claire Spencer has abandoned her dreams of a family of her own tucked neatly inside a picket fence. Instead, she’s plotting her solo course and settling for a quiet life as an independent Williamsburg shop owner. So how does she become a killer’s target?
Sometime security consultant Riley, burned out, disillusioned, and haunted by a young girl he couldn’t save, vows never to work with women again. But when a thug tries to kill the friend of a friend, the woman winds up in his arms, and all Riley’s plans go to hell. Knowing she’s in danger, he can’t walk away.
While dodging speeding cars, ducking bullets, and escaping through murky swamp waters, conventional Claire and freewheeling Riley struggle against their powerful chemistry—if she’s picket fences, he’s barbed wire.
I added Cold Comfort by Ellis Vidler to my TBR on 1.9.13. I have read some of her work and loved it, so to add another book of her to my reading shelf was easy to do…and…escaping through murky swamp waters…sounds like a wild ride and I am looking forward to reading it.
In suburban Austin, Texas, Bea Crenshaw
secretly prepares for apocalypse, but when a solar pulse destroys modern life,
she’s left alone with four grandkids whose parents don’t return home. She must
teach these kids to survive without power, cars, phones, running water, or
doctors in a world fraught with increasing danger. And deciding whether or not
to share food with her starving neighbors puts her morality to the test.
If Darkness Takes Us is realistic post-apocalyptic
science-fiction that focuses on a family in peril, led by a no-nonsense
grandmother who is at once funny, controlling, and heroic in her struggle to
hold her family together with civility and heart.
The book is available now. It’s sequel, If the
Light Escapes, is told in the voice of Bea’s eighteen-year-old grandson, Keno
Simms, and will be released by SFK Press on August 24, 2021.
“Bea Crenshaw is one of the most unique characters
in modern literature—a kick-ass Grandma who is at once tough and vulnerable,
and well-prepared to shepherd her extended family through an EMP disaster, or
so she thinks.”
—Laura Creedle, Award-winning Author of The Love
Letters of Abelard and Lily
“There is real, identifiable humanity, subtle
and sweet and sad, and events utterly shattering in their intensity.”
—Pinckney Benedict, Author of Dogs of God, Miracle
Boy, and more
GUEST POST
WHY AREN’T MORE OLD WOMEN ON OUR SCIENCE-FICTION
SCREENS?
Has
anyone else noticed that there aren’t many old women in our science-fiction
television and movies? Yet, we have no shortage of old men.
It
surprised me when most women Twitter came up with were not old but were perceived
to be. All the women in this list were in their 50s in the latest versions of
these shows, except for one, who was 62.
President Laura Roslin, from Battlestar Galactica, played by Mary McDonnell.
Madison Clark in Fear the Walking Dead, played by Kim Dickens.
Dr. Abigail Griffin in The 100, brought to life by Paige Turco.
River Song from Doctor Who, played by Alex Kingston.
Lt. Nyota Uhura, from the original Star Trek, played by Nichelle Nichols. The cast from 1960s TV made six movies into 1991, and out of the seven core characters, she was the only woman.
Princess Leia Organa of Star Wars fame, portrayed by the now-departed Carrie Fisher.
Sarah Connor from The Terminator series, whom Linda Hamilton has played since 1984. She made another appearance in Terminator: Dark Fate in 2019.
Sarah Connor , in The Walking Dead, portrayed by Melissa McBride. Maybe people think of her as old because her hair is gray, but Carol is living through a zombie apocalypse. It’s enough to make a tweener go gray. It’s not like she can color her hair, something I’ve been doing since 1983, and I’ve just hit retirement age.
Mother Abagail Freemantle in Stephen King’s The Stand, 106 years old. In the 1994 miniseries, Mother Abagail was played by Ruby Dee, 72 at the time.
Ellen Ripley, better known as Ripley in Alien, is arguably the most badass woman character in all of science-fiction. In Aliens, which came out seven years after Alien, 57 years have transpired while Ripley was in hyper-sleep. Ripley is supposed to be 87 in Aliens, yet she’s played by 37-year-old Sigourney Weaver.
The Ancient One from Doctor Strange is a man in the comic books, but is a Celtic woman in the movies, played by Tilda Swinton, who is not ancient.
Professor Minerva McGonagall from Harry Potter, a 70-year-old portrayed by a fittingly old Maggie Smith. Finally! A badass old woman who hasn’t hyper-slept and who first springs to fictional life already old. Smith was 67 in the first Harry Potter movie and 77 for the final one.
Sara Jane Smith, portrayed by Elisabeth Sladen, was a recurring character on Doctor Who from 1973 up until 2011, when Sladen passed away at age 65.
The Oracle in The Matrix, played by Gloria Foster in the first 1999 movie when she was 66.
Chrisjen Avasarala a powerful UN executive from The Expanse. Shohreh Aghdashloo is 68 in the most recent episodes and appears to be a similar age in her role.
Melisandre from Game of Thrones, a witch played by Carice van Houten, 43 when the series ended. In the story, Melisandre is disguised as a younger woman. SPOILER ALERT: When Melisandre finally lets go of her young body, she’s so ancient she turns to dust.
Aereon in Chronicles of Riddick, portrayed by Judy Dench at age 69.
Secondary and tertiary characters played important roles: The clan of older women in Mad Max: Fury Road to whom Charlize Theron transports the young women on their mad ride across the Outback; the Vulcan priestesses in Star Trek; the Bene Gesserit school of witches in Frank Herbert’s Dune;T’pau from classic Star Trek, who made Kirk and Spock fight to the death. There are others, but not many.
My point here is that elder
women throughout history have been the keepers of family and tribal history,
repositories of collective knowledge, nurturers and teachers of the young, and
keepers of peace in the family and neighborhood. It’s far past time to tap into
the wisdom and experience that elder women have to offer. And what better place
to start than with our storytelling?
My apocalyptic sci-fi novel, If
Darkness Takes Us, stars a 70-year-old woman whose only special power is
her fierce love for her grandchildren. Someone needs to put this story on the
screen pronto. Naturally, I would think that, but seriously…
Because here’s the thing: I am
a badass old woman, and I want to see regular women like myself facing down
their fears and insecurities and performing heroic feats on the screen. I want
our stories to show respect for old women as a crucial part of the human family.
It’s not too much to ask.
AUTHOR Bio and Links
2018-10-18_Brenda Marie Smith
Brenda Marie Smith lived off the grid for many years in a farming collective where her sons were delivered by midwives. She’s been a community activist, managed student housing co-ops, produced concerts to raise money for causes, done massive quantities of bookkeeping, and raised a small herd of teenage boys.
Brenda
is attracted to stories where everyday characters transcend their own
limitations to find their inner heroism. She and her husband reside in a
grid-connected, solar-powered home in South Austin, Texas. They have more grown
kids and grandkids than they can count.
Her
first novel, Something
Radiates, is a paranormal romantic
thriller; If Darkness
Takes Us and its sequel, If the Light Escapes, are post-apocalyptic science fiction.
