Kristen Ciccarelli hails from Ontario’s Niagara Peninsula where she grew up on her grandfather’s grape farm. She’s made her living as a baker, a bookseller, and a potter, but now writes books about bloodthirsty dragons, girls wielding really cool weapons, and the transformative power of stories. Her novel The Last Namara is published on October 12 by Gollancz, and here she talks about her quartet of favourite heroines…

 

Sabriel – I mean, she can bind the dead with bells! Do I really need to say more? ;) Sabriel is an Abhorsen, which is essentially the opposite of a necromancer, which makes her inherently cool. But the thing I love most about her is how solitary and serious she is. I had trouble finding myself in the stories I read and watched as a kid, but I found myself in Sabriel.

 

 

 

 

Eowyn – Reading The Lord of the Rings as a teen, Eowyn was very much a symbol for me. She was a girl who picked up a sword and rode into battle along with the very men who’d told her to stay behind, where she belonged. And then, to everyone’s surprise, she does the thing none of them can do: she slays the Witch King. Eowyn showed teen me I could go up against monsters and defeat them. That I could do the things others said I couldn’t do.

 

 

 

 

 

Lyra – I love that the protagonist of The Golden Compass is a rule-breaking rascal who doesn’t think about the consequences of her actions so much as the rightness of them. She does what she believes she must do, and it inspires the loyalty of everyone she meets. Fun fact: the tattoo on my left arm is an illustration I did of Lyra, Pan and Iorek Byrnison. That’s how much Lyra meant to me growing up.

 

 

Sybil – Another heroine I found myself in was Sybil from The Forgotten Beasts of Eld. She’s a powerful wizard who doesn’t need anything or anyone—she can very easily take care of herself and the pack of mythical creatures bound to her. Sybil was the first truly powerful woman I ever found as a protagonist in fantasy fiction. The Forgotten Beasts of Eld is my favourite book. I reread it almost every year and not only do I always love it just as much as the first time, I also learn something new from it. It’s almost as if it grows as I grow.

 

 

 

The Last Namsara is published by Gollancz on October 12. Kristen Ciccarelli will be appearing on a panel with Melinda Salisbury, Alwyn Hamilton and Amy Alward at Islington Library on November 2. More details and tickets here.