I
like women but I don't understand them. My knowledge of female anatomy, physiology,
and psychology is current because of my personal interest and because I needed
to be as up-to-date and correct about these aspects to accurately inform my
students in my Human Sexuality, Developmental Psychology, Marriage and Family,
and Aging courses. But even after twenty-five years of teaching these courses
and dialoging with my students of both genders relative to these complexities,
I still don't understand women at a gut level. To compound this paradox, I
write about them almost exclusively; in every one of my novels female
protagonists out number my male protagonists about four to one.
I
find men to be generally one dimensional, women to be multi-dimensional. Men
are like windowpane, women like diamonds. Rotate the first in a sunbeam and the
light is hardly refracted; rotate the other in a sunbeam and you get a
different pattern with each turn or twist. These are obviously generalizations
written in the full light of the fact that there are exceptions to every rule
in human behavior.
Ellen,
in Echoes of Ellen, reveals her
character in the stories she wrote. In Flood:
A Saga, Margaret Vanderzen, Hannah Yoder, Claudia Raber and Vivian Conklin
show their capabilities and determination when faced with adversity. Rea Parker
in Five Women in Black demonstrates
resiliency in spite of the nasty turns of fate that beset her. Levelheaded and
dynamic Alexis in The Footpath is my
favorite. The Rental showcases Suzie
Q, who although 'slow' maximizes her limited abilities with aplomb and charm.
This is a partial list; there are others who you may find equally interesting
also. Please let me know your favorites.
I
think it takes a lot of courage, or maybe a large measure of naiveté, for a man
to feature a woman as the primary protagonist in a novel; I inhabit the latter
realm. I build my stories around women in the hope that by so doing I may more
fully understand their complexity as well as to show my appreciation of them—and
sometimes I even fall in love with one.
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