The wild bunch: Kate Mosse on why we love out-of-control women

From The Girl on the Train to Gone Girl, badass women rule in today’s blockbusters. Author Kate Mosse picks her favourite justified sinnersThis year has been, in fiction at least, the year of the wild woman. Novels driven by vengeful, unreliable female narrators and psychopathically flawed protagonists have topped the bestseller charts – Paula Hawkins’ The Girl on the Train, Renée Knight’s Disclaimer, Lisbeth Salander in The Girl in the Spider’s Web, following in the footsteps of Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl. Complicated, flawed, delusional, violent, transgressive and out of control, these are women seeking retribution and taking matters into their own hands. Mad, bad or misunderstood, they are satisfying to read about and satisfying to write. So where do such characters come from? One of the most commonly asked questions at any literary event is how a character comes to life. Is character the keystone, the first component of a novel? Or is it an idea that first whets the author’s appetite? A period or an object? Or imagination, pure and simple? We give different answers, of course, because we each have our own technique. Besides, the various inspirations for a new book often happen near-as-dammit simultaneously and unconsciously, with lots of conflicting ideas rushing forward at the same time. Continue reading... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'

[ The Guardian | 2015-10-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
News tagged with: #bestseller charts #paula hawkins #lisbeth salander #gillian flynn #literary event

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[ Stuff | 2013-02-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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[ Publishing Perspectives | 2013-02-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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[ Publishing Perspectives | 2013-01-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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[ The Bookseller | 2013-01-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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[ Publishing Perspectives | 2013-01-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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[ Engadget | 2012-12-06 00:00:00 UTC ]
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[ Publishing Perspectives | 2012-11-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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[ The Atlantic | 2012-11-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2012-11-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
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