“How about a short piece on tough girls, weapons, being one of the boys … you’ve probably already got content since you’re the toughest girl in the mystery community!” So said the delightful and talented Rosemary Harris when she emailed her invitation for me to contribute to Jungle Red Writers this week.
I never set out to be one of the boys, but equally I was never particularly drawn to dolls as a child. I had an Action Man (GI Joe to those of you across the Atlantic) but I hit my older sister with him and he snapped off at the knees, thus losing something of his active-duty status at that point.
We did have
a Meccano set, though, in a proper wooden box, which fascinated me. I remember
making a kind of greyhound trap for our long-suffering Siamese cat, so one of
us could race along the hall trailing a cat-toy, and then release her to chase
after it.
(But that,
as they say, is probably another story.) Looking
back, it seems to me that my interests have always leaned towards those
considered in the boys’ domain, from sailing to shooting, cars to construction.
I was
brought up on a boat. Sailing was considered a very masculine pursuit unless
you were the cook, or the skipper’s girlfriend. But I was an astro-navigator,
able to find my way by the position of the sun. One of my most treasured
possessions is still my sextant. I grew to expect prejudice, even though I never
really understood it.
Then I got
into my cars and motorcycles and became a freelance photo-journalist specialising
in motoring. When I started out, back in 1988, I was just about the only woman
in that field. Even today there are barely enough in the UK to cover the fingers
of one hand. Although I say so myself, I got rather good at dealing with
smart-alec remarks.
Which
brings me to writing, by a roundabout route. The last thing I expected when I
started my crime thriller series featuring a former Special Forces trainee turned
bodyguard, Charlotte ‘Charlie’ Fox, was that I would encounter any kind of
misogynist attitude. Charlie herself has had to deal with plenty. Women in the
British Army are seen very much as second-class soldiers, even today ― OK in
support roles, but not up to the Real Stuff, as Charlie has found to her cost.
I used to
say that I wished I’d used a different name to write the novels, something like
Chris, or Alex, or Max. Zoë is so obviously a girl’s name ― in fact, it’s the
Greek version of Eve, and so you could say it’s the original girl’s name. Or perhaps I should have gone for disguising
initials like JK Rowling, who famously said she didn’t write the Harry Potter
books as Joanne Rowling because she thought boys might not read them if they
were obviously written by a woman.
But now
I’ve changed my mind. Hiding my gender is treating the symptoms rather than
curing the disease. I write action thriller with a human heart so why should I
have to hide that? Charlie is not a guy in nylons, she’s a tough but vulnerable
person in her own right. She’ll weep for injustice, but kill you in a heartbeat
if you cross that line in the sand.
So I’ve
decided that I’m not going to change. If people don’t think I can write
convincing fight scenes, car chases, or gun battles based on no other evidence
than the fact I’m a girlie, that’s a great shame ― but it’s their shame, not
mine.
What about
you, Jungle Reds? How much gender prejudice do you encounter in writing or in
your daily lives? Why can’t the boys openly write romance? Why are thrillers
seen as a predominantly male preserve?
And as for
being the toughest girl in the mystery community, I keep telling everyone, I’m
just a pussy cat really …
Zoë Sharp opted out of mainstream education at the age
of twelve and wrote her first novel at fifteen. She became a freelance
photojournalist in 1988 and wrote the first of her highly acclaimed Charlie Fox
crime thrillers after receiving death-threat letters in the course of her work.
She has been nominated for Edgar, Anthony, Barry (twice), Benjamin Franklin,
and Macavity Awards in the United States, as well as the CWA Short Story
Dagger. The Charlie Fox series was optioned for TV by Twentieth Century Fox.
Zoë blogs regularly on her own website, www.ZoeSharp.com,
on the acclaimed group blog, www.Murderati.com,
as well as twittering on Twitter (@AuthorZoeSharp) and fooling around on Facebook. The latest
book out at the moment is FIFTH
VICTIM: Charlie Fox book nine.
