Friday, July 26, 2019

Mutiny on the Moonbeam by Rie Sheridan Rose + giveaway

Hi there! Pleased to be guesting here on I Smell Sheep.

Today I’d like to talk about a theme that runs through several of my novels (including Mutiny on the Moonbeam.) This is the device of a girl pretending to be a boy. Most of us go through a tomboy stage as kids, and maybe that is what makes this such a fascinating trope for me. Three of my novels to date feature a major character who is later revealed to someone else to be a female. I’ll give you the names of the books, but not the characters, because one of them is supposed to be a big surprise. 😉 The Lute and the Liar, The Luckless Prince, and Mutiny on the Moonbeam all have young women who don trousers and pretend to be male.

What is the reasoning behind this choice? A woman can be strong and independent without wearing pants! Of course, she can.

But then it becomes a matter of logic. In most fantasy societies, you see a reversion to somewhere around Medieval or Renaissance Europe as far as mores and customs. These societies were male-dominated for the most part, and women were to be seen and not heard in most cases. So, a girl who wanted to be able to move freely about the countryside and fit into situations more traditionally seen as male—like the decks of a pirate ship—would want to blend in. To do that, it makes sense that she would put on trousers and hide her femininity.

It is also amusing as a writer to see the sort of trouble that you can put your heroine into as she tries hard to not get discovered. Do the men reveal secrets they wouldn’t discuss around a lady? Does she get cuffed for insubordination and then apologized profusely to once her secret is revealed. How does she react to that?



Things to think of if you put a girl into a situation like this:
· Where will she get her clothes. Steal? Buy? Make?
· Will she change her hair? Cut it? Pull it back? Dye it?
· Will she disguise her voice or act younger to make it logical?
· Will she confide in anyone? Pro—ally to help sell it. Con—someone who can sell her out.
· What, if anything will cause her to reveal her secret? It might be fun to have a character who never tells anyone the truth...

Each of my heroines has a different reason for their subterfuge, and each reveal is different. Their personalities all define their reaction to the necessity of “becoming other.” And the trope is not confined to fantasy. It will work in other historical genres as well. My Steampunk heroine was quite taken with trousers when she needed to wear them for a while. Luckily, we don’t have to pretend to be boys to wear pants these days!




by Rie Sheridan Rose
August 1, 2018
199 pages
Publisher: Mocha Memoirs Press; 1 edition
Branwyn St. Clair is running from her wicked stepfather when she stows aboard the first ship she comes to. Little does she know it is the infamous elven pirate ship, the Moonbeam. When cabin boy, Johnny Pate finds her in the hold, they form an uneasy alliance.

Life aboard the Moonbeam is not what she expects. The ship soars through the clouds in search of plunder But the biggest theft of all has already occurred...



About the Author:website-FB-twitter
Rie Sheridan Rose multitasks. A lot. Her short stories appear in numerous anthologies, including Killing It Softly I and II, On Fire, and Hides the Dark Tower. She has authored ten novels, six poetry chapbooks, and lyrics for dozens of songs. These were mostly written in conjunction with Marc Gunn, and can be found on "Don't Go Drinking with Hobbits" and "Pirates vs. Dragons" for the most part--with a few scattered exceptions.

Rie lives in Texas with her wonderful husband and several spoiled cat-children.

GIVEAWAY
a music CD of songs I wrote the lyrics to 
As airship pirates are one of my favorite things, I want to offer a copy of the music CD I wrote with Marc Gunn, (https://amzn.to/2Y9xZs0) to one of the commenters on this post. I will sign and mail it to the randomly chosen winner.

6 comments:

  1. To clarify, the CD is a music CD of songs I wrote the lyrics to. :)

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  2. But it's a fantasy world, so even if it's like the medieval period in some respects, it doesn't have to be in all respects. In fact, I can guarantee it won't be, anyway, unless the author is a meticulous historian. Its social makeup can be whatever you want it to be. So it can be a fantasy world that doesn't have sexism in it. Seeing that again and again does start to wear.

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    1. You have a point, but I am a conventionalist, I guess. It didn't fit my concept for it to be easy for any of my girls to wander around in skirts. I suppose it is old-fashioned of me, but there you go. :) I may keep this thought in mind for the next time. It would be nice to consider a world without sexism or prejudice.

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    2. It would be refreshing to read about.

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    3. It gets tiring when there can be any number of other deviations from the real medieval ages, but the one thing people think we absolutely need to have for "historical accuracy" is sexism.

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