Karina Cooper, Author, Paranormal Romance, Steampunk, Historical Urban Fantasy

A Blog for Writers: Women and Adversity, Karina Cooper, Part 4

Karina comes to conclusions about the career she has chosen to pursue.

I feel very fortunate to have made (writing) my career. I am faced with the opportunity not just to do what I love, but to write the things that resonate with others. Regardless of the flak I might get from others—regardless of the opinions that tell me I should just write “mommy porn”—there is a readership for stories that don’t follow the path better known. There are readers for the mainstream and there are readers for the sub-culture, and once you find your tribe, there is nothing better.

Women in the writing industry have each other. They have the men, in the industry or not, who support what they do, because what we do is good. And if we want to spread our wings and step outside the romance fold, if we want to bring sexual agency and freedom of action to our female characters, if we want to make them tougher or gentler or smarter or dumber, that is what we can do. That is what we should do. Things are getting better. It may not feel like it, but things are improving, slowly and surely. We need to hang in, because speaking as an author and a reader: those women have books that I want to read.

I don’t want to see this hardship push those women into silence. And in return, I won’t be pushed into silence.

Happy reading, everyone.