Tuesday, April 8, 2014

A-Z Indie Books: Girl Power

This post is being simulcast on my author blog.

When a supervillain's weapon turns Earth's greatest male heroes into its greatest heroines, they enter a whole new world. Can Apex Girl, Velocity Girl, the Mermaid, and Midnight Spectre come together in time to save the world?

The idea behind the story was combining a superhero series like Tales of the Scarlet Knight with the gender-swapping of the Chances Are series.  Basically the point was:  what if Superman, Batman, Aquaman, and the Flash all became girls?  While they have to fight supervillains, they also end up dealing with other issues.

Someone complained it wasn't as "deep" as Watchmen, but I would say it's deeper than he gave it credit for.  Maybe not in terms of geopolitical situations, but the smaller, personal situations.  I designed it so each character has something to overcome:
  • Apex Girl (Superman) first has to deal with a very sexist new boss.  Later it becomes awkward for her when the woman she pined for over the last decade becomes her best friend--and yet not the best best friend ever.
  • Mermaid (Aquaman) and Velocity Girl (Flash) kind of flip-flop.  Before Mermaid was a gay man and Velocity Girl was straight and married with a daughter.  Afterwards Mermaid goes home only to find her boyfriend no longer wants her because she has a vagina while Velocity Girl's daughter doesn't recognize her and her wife isn't comfortable around her.
  • Midnight Spectre (Batman) loses all the strength she had spent years building, to the point that she's thrown off the team.  So she has to find other ways to make herself useful, with the help of a geeky boy at her new school.
These issues are not wrapped up all nice and neat in the first book.  They continue on into the sequels, the first of which is featured on my blog in two days.  But if there aren't enough plot twists for some people, well excuuuuuuse me.  I ain't no M. Night Shymalan, which at this point is probably for the best.

You can get the book FREE from Amazon or Smashwords.  The paperback is $8.99 from Amazon and $9.99 from B&N

5 comments:

  1. This is on my list to read; I've actually downloaded it and everything. I will get to it, eventually. But it's a great idea.

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  2. Stopping by from the A-Z challenge to say hi. That's a great idea for a story. Headed to amazon right now.

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  3. I enjoyed it a great deal. Plenty of obstacles and plot twists for me.

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  4. Why does it need to be compared to Watchmen at all? That's a silly thing to say.

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  5. Nice names you gave for the super girls,but i am nor able to figure out whats with the watchman.

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