The Indelibles

Hey, Laura Pauling here. First time posting on the blog! Glad you're here.

The other day the secret agents at YA CONFIDENTIAL posted some Youtube videos. Go take a look. I'll wait. Scary, huh? But maybe not so hard to believe. I know lots of grown up girls who ask the same question.

I can't help but remember my daughter dancing around the house, the yellow crinoline skirts of Belle swirling at her feet. She was pretty fickle for a three-year-old princess for two minutes later, she transformed into Cinderella and then Sleeping Beauty after that.

Thankfully, girls grow out of the princess stage. But I'd say that on the inside, no matter how hold we are, each of us, as girls/women want to be loved, want to feel special, want to feel beautiful. But I say that beauty lies not in how we look but in how we act and what we stand for.

And for that reason, I love finding kick-butt heroines in the books I read.

Every Tuesday we go to the library. Over the years of scouring the bookshelves; and more recently, virtual shelves, I’ve figured something out.

Girls rock.

Girls are smart. (Hermoine)

Girls fight in battles. (Hunger Games)

Girls survive being the outsider. (Open Minds)

Girls taste the salt air as their pirate ship crashes through the waves. (Dust of a Hundred Dogs)

Girls face the wilderness to find their loved ones. (Untraceable)

Girls play football. (Dairy Queen)

Girls plan and pull off giant art cons. (Heist Society)

Girls solve mysteries while discovering their special powers. (Beautiful Demons)

Girls survive isolation. (Shatter Me)

Girls solve mysteries up in space. (Across the Universe)

Girls fight to be who they want to be. (Become)

Girls can figure out why their best friend died. (The Liar Society)

These girls are beautiful.

Those are the kinds of stories I love to read. Those are the kinds of stories I love to write. Girls of any age in action. Figuring out who they are. Dealing with life. Fighting for their friends and family. Or even their lives. (And hopefully having a bit of fun at the same time.)

It was nice to meet you! Say hello in the comments and tell me about your favorite heroines in books you like to read. What do they fight for? Where do they find their beauty?

Then, head on over to YA Confidential for the cover reveal of my debut YA novel, A Spy Like Me. Yay!

Then check out my blog to read the first two chapters and enter to win a pre-order of Pretty Crooked by Elisa Ludwig and an ebook of Watched by Cindy M. Hogan.

And if you'd like, sign up to receive an arc of A Spy Like Me, and/or participate in the release day in May!

Thanks so much!

photo credit