#blue canary

blue bird of friendliness......

[ID: A digital sketch page of an original character. She's an androgynous-leaning white woman with chin-length dark hair and round glasses. The first sketch depicts her from the chest up, bloodied and heavily bruised with a calm smile. She wears a rustled and slightly torn button down. Over her shoulder is a chibi angel in a long coat and scarf. The second sketch is of her leaning over a balcony, with a can in hand. She wears an athletic hoodie. In the lower left is a post from @/eden-has-rotted, reading "me: chat what do we think / the angel and devil on my shoulder: can you not call us that please". In the upper right is a "currently playing" screen for Birdhouse in your Soul by They Might Be Giants. End ID]

First up, some women from books that I've loved over the past few years:

Jude Duarte - The Folk of the Air Jude is cunning and conniving and so fun to read about. Her ruthlessness is vital to her character, and yet so is her compassion. I loved reading her exploits and have revisited them many times

Blue Sargent - The Raven Cycle She's been on my mind lately as I've reread the series. Literally the most teenage girl of all time. She copes far better than I would with a life-long curse and the way she interacts with the world is fascinating

Emily Wilde - Emily Wilde's Encyclopeadia of Faeries Emily is clever and kind and stressed at all times, which is really the ideal academic to me. I love the way she sees the world and her thirst for knowledge and her passion for her work

Bree Matthews - The Legendborn Cycle Reading about Bree and her grief and her heart and her power will always resonate with me. She's in so far over her head and is so determined to handle things, and I cannot wait until I get to read the next book

Anne Shirley - Anne of Green Gables I have known of Anne since my childhood and probably watched her movies, but reading the first few books throughout last year solidified her as an icon for me. She's feisty, driven, and imaginative.

Kay Amal Khan - The Doors of Eden She's trans. She's a physicist. She's trying to say the multiverse with a couple of neanderthals and a talking rat. What's not to love? I adore her kindness to the other characters and her belief in positive change

Matsuda Misaki - The Sword of Kaigen Reading about Misaki and her relationships to her family and her relationship to her own power and skill devastated me and still ruins me a little every time I think about her. Her care for her kids also!

Katniss Everdeen - The Hunger Games To this day she remains one of my favourite characters of all time. I just can't help but like her. Her worldview is understandably limited but her genuine love for people and progress stand strong.

Some OCs that I'm grateful for:

Riona Gallagher-Milton by @asoulofstars is a character who has been in my life coming up on ten years and everyday she grows a little more and I feel so privileged to witness that and sometimes have a little hand in it. Her resilience and internal strength and optimism, despite everything that happens to her, are all so, so important to me, and I'll never stop being grateful that Jordan let me borrow her for Bodyshare.

Cara Piranesi by @saturnisfallingdown is, perhaps, not a character I know tonnes about but everything that I do know means that she's right up my alley and I cannot wait to see what becomes of her and her angel companion and the story of Blue Canary! genuinely think about this so often

Anna Basri by @niceofthenine is at least sometimes considers her a woman (iirc--and if not i apologise!). i have loved getting to know Anna over the last few years and she has rapidly become a character who i think about frequently. she's so much fun and so devastating and i love her

And, simply because there was a time when i very much struggled to write female pov characters, a little shout out to myself for my female pov characters:

Author Wilshire & Edna Koch from the Spider Prince Trilogy were such fun characters to construct and write. Both of them really just appeared in my head and set up shop and learning about them through the writing process was so much fun. Really helped me to fall in love with writing again. Their friendship with each other is also incredibly important to me!

Mélanie Sophia 'Ace' Jackson from (the currently defunct and unavailable) Secret Identities was the first female pov character that i felt confident writing, and i owe this little oc so much for that. she's a lot of teenage angst wrapped up in a character who used to be a lot more like me than she is now, but she remains special for the sheer fact that i loved her so much and she grew so much. she's still telling me new things about herself that flesh her out and make her feel ever more real to me

Ruby Alecart & Ela Molu from a current wip, project cd, are characters who i am still discovering, but they are already so much fun. they're creative and expressive in their own ways, messy and grimey and bitchy, but full of genuine sincerity too. Both Ruby and Molu have lost a lot, and i'm excited to see how they play off of each other

Was this mostly an excuse to share books I love and people I love and things about writing that I love? perhaps. happy international women's day!

Stolen From: @loyalhorror <3