Guest post written by author Jaime Lee Moyer
Jaime Lee Moyer writes fantasy and science fiction, herds cats, is an occasional poet, and maker of tangible things. Her first novel, Delia’s Shadow, was published by Tor Books, and won the 2009 Literary Award for Fiction, administrated by Thurber House and funded by the Columbus Arts Council. Two sequels, A Barricade In Hell and Against A Brightening Sky, were also published by Tor. Her new novel, Brightfall, is out now.
When most readers think of fantasy heroes, single mothers aren’t at the top of their list – especially a single mother pushing forty or a little older. Heroes are usually tall and strong young men, frequently handsome, and go on quests far from home. The hero fights dangerous battles against evil foes, and, much of the time strength, and skill with weapons wins the day. Being clever or solving puzzles rarely enters into victories on the side of what’s good and right. And while they protect their homes and the “land” in general, I don’t think I’ve ever read a fantasy novel where a man in the role of hero is concerned with protecting his children over all else.
To be fair, men over forty are rarely heroes either. The path to herodom is for the young and largely inexperienced, with painful on the job training, but fantasy moms – when mentioned at all – are left behind to keep the home fires burning. Some heroes’ mothers may be widowed, but they still stay home.
Lots of single young women take on the role of hero these days in fantasy novels, most of them in ways they never did before, and I cheer for every single one of them.
But representation matters, and I decided before I wrote a single word that Marian was going to be older than the pretty young woman in the original Robin Hood mythos. I wanted this story to be a look at the lives of the characters after the legend we all know ended, how the people in the story had changed, and how their lives were different now. And I knew I wanted an older Marian to be the star of this story.
In Brightfall, Marian is settled and comfortable in her own skin, has weathered the heartache of Robin abandoning her and ending their marriage, and raising twins all alone. Marian at forty has a new life, a new love. She has moved on, as so many women in all of history have had to do, her children are healthy and thriving, and she is deeply content with her life.
Then her life with Robin and the reasons they parted, a past Marian has worked so hard to put behind her, shatters her new life. Friends from their outlaw days are dying mysteriously, and the same cruel killer steals the man she loves, and threatens her children. Her old friend Tuck suspects a curse is to blame, and asks Marian, the witch of Sherwood Forest, to find the person responsible and keep anyone else from dying.
For the first time since Marian’s children were born, she’s forced to make a choice about the best way to keep them safe, and neither option is a good one: Leave home for the first time since her children were born to find the killer and end the curse, or do nothing and hope the killer doesn’t look her children’s way. That isn’t an easy decision to make, but in the end, Marian knows she never really had a choice. She bargains with the Lady of the Fae to protect her twins, leaves her children with a trusted friend and sets off to find the killer.
The hard truth is that as long as that person wanders Sherwood freely, the danger to her children will never end, and their safety is the most important thing in her world. Marian is the only one who can do the work of finding this person, because it will take thought and cleverness, and skill in magical craft to track this person down, and put an end to the threat.
This isn’t an easy journey for Marian, and she’s in danger from the start. She’s forced by Tuck to take Robin with her, reopening old wounds, and finds unlikely allies in a trickster Fae Lord, and a soldier who lost his faith following King Richard to the Holy Land. This trip changes Marian, reveals lies and heartbreaking secrets, and sets her on the path to rebuild her life a second time.
My definition of a hero has always been an ordinary person who is afraid of what they have to do, or what they have to face, and they do it anyway.
Marian is the hero of this story. She deserves to be.
