Confession time: There’s a fight scene in my
novel and, even though it made it past the editors and publisher, it still
makes me nervous.
It’s my Meet Cute, but there’s nothing cute
about it. She’s genuinely out to hurt him. So later, when she’s sizing up the
damage, she doesn’t expect him to feel bad about the welt across her face or
the bruises on her body.
Now, I don’t condone violence against women, but
I don’t subscribe to the idea that women should be coddled either, because in
our own ways, we can be violent too. Sure, a guy can live by the rule that he
won’t hit a woman, but what happens if this woman threatens his life? What if
she’s as capable a fighter as he is? Now how about if he can respond with
reasonable force?
Does any of this make it okay to hit her?
Because the stakes are potentially so high, I’m
uncertain about writing scenarios like this. And yet, here it is in the opening
chapters of Chasing Sisyphus. I hope I handled it well enough for
today’s readers. I want to believe that merely depicting a man hitting a woman
isn’t going to hold up the feminist movement.
To the contrary, I hope that this fight scene
exposes my readers to the multitude of questions that spring up around the
concept of violence. In this day and age, where equality and womens’ rights are
finally mainstream conversation, it seems useful to be asking about these
nuances, so we can talk about what the right answers might be.
Big thank you to The Brit Babes for having me
on your blog.
Chasing Sisyphus excerpt:
He couldn’t make out her face, but he sure
noticed her tight silhouette as she walked by the Nova Legion statue. She
seemed a little upmarket for the scene and, come to think of it, he didn’t
remember seeing her leave. She was probably still there, waiting under the
streetlamp like a femme fatale in those movies Keats kept on mute at his desk
on a tiny TV.
Somewhere nearby, a door shut. At any other
time, it would have been another pip of noise in a filthy district. But it was too
quiet around here. Too few people to make a sound like that seem normal.
Anywhere else, it would be the sound you shut out. Here, to Rhys, it was a dog
whistle.
“Keats, I heard something,” he said. “Gonna go
check it out.”
“Not a good idea, Carver. There’s a chase at the
north end. Cap’s called the cars in. You got no backup.”
“Don’t need it. If the kid’s still here, he’s
alone.”
“You’ll be in deep shit if the boss finds out.
How do you even know it’s him?”
“We’ve been watching this guy for weeks. I got a
feeling he’s onto us. Or, if not us, then someone else who wants him out of
action.”
“C’mon, Carver—”
“Keats, I just know, all right? I’m going in.
You got eyes on me or not?”
“Jeez! All right…where you heading?”
“Building two thirty-four on the corner. Going
in via the south entrance.”
“CCTV’s busted on the west side, but I got eyes on
the north exit. Actually, building report says the east and west fire escapes
are busted, too. You keep the south door covered and your boy ain’t going
nowhere.”
Weapon in hand, Rhys crept inside and shut the
door behind him. It was dark. The only light came in from the street through
gap-tooth blinds and dusty windows. It took a second to adjust.
Broken floor tiles and peeling wallpaper lined
the foyer. A lamp hung from a wall, still intact. This might have been a nice
place once, before the city’s worst years. Now it stood waiting for the
official condemnation that would put it out of its misery. Like the rest of
this district.
The stairs creaked under his weight, the ceiling
creaked above him.
“Keats, we got residents here?”
“Negative. Power and water were cut off twelve
years ago. Why, you see something?”
Gunshots exploded above. No time to answer. Rhys
popped the safety and legged it up the stairs.
* * * *
Adria hadn’t counted on the tripwire. This kid
knew someone would follow him home one day. He’d strung a line of empty soup
cans across the apartment hallway. When she kicked that out, a hefty serving of
iced water came down squarely on her head. Gooseflesh prickled her neck and
shoulders. The muscles in her jaw seized in the cold. Against the shock, she
scrambled to her feet, fired up to catch the stomping and crashing in the other
room before it got away.
A figure ran past the doorway.
“Stop!” she yelled.
It rounded the corner. Adria gave chase.
She scanned the room. It was dim at best, thanks
to the streetlights from outside, but she saw enough. Computer equipment and
various peripherals lay strewn across the floor, some still plugged into a transportable
battery in the corner, emitting tiny lights and numbers.
A window slammed shut. The glass shattered.
Shards crunched and ground beneath Adria’s boots as she hurried in pursuit of
her fleeing target.
When she stepped out onto the fire escape, two
hands rammed her into the ladder. The whole balcony shuddered from the
collision. Pain flared down her shoulder, but she kept her grip on the gun. She
held it up with her good arm and fired.
Two shots.
Missed.
She stumbled backward, clutching her burning
shoulder, but the railing crumbled under her weight. Adria grabbed what was
left of it with both hands as her footing slipped away.
It looked like a four-storey drop. Maybe five if
she’d miscounted. Her legs dangled over thin air while from below came the
clatter of broken pieces of railing, along with her gun, as they hit the
concrete.
Overhead, her target stomped away on the rungs
and disappeared onto the roof.
Adria’s shoulder raged. She tried to pull
herself up, but couldn’t take the weight with just one good arm. Her feet
kicked out, searching for a foothold, but the grill beneath had long withered
away to slivers of rust and sharp edges.
Water and sweat dripped into her eyes. She
swiped them helplessly on her sleeves and winced as rough seams grazed the
skin. The railing creaked in her clammy grip. She could always let go. If she
timed her landing right, maybe she’d get away with a broken ankle and a tetanus
shot. Surely it only looked like a long way down.
Then she heard a gunshot from inside the
apartment.
Chasing Sisyphus blurb:
Bounty hunter Adria Yuan is hot on the trail of
her final hit: a notorious hacker wanted by the city’s elite. With the reward,
she can pay for her brother’s surgery and finally get out of Basilica City.
Trouble is, her line of work’s not exactly legal, and she’s barely staying
ahead of the cops who want her target, too.
Detective Rhys Carver may be a little
unorthodox, but he’s a good cop. Born and bred in Basilica, he does his part to
keep his city clean. As clean as it gets, at least. And with Adria suddenly in
his sights, it’s going to take more than falling in love for him to let her go.
As the pair close in on their mark, they are
unwittingly drawn into a high profile conspiracy that could thrust the whole of
Basilica into chaos. Can Adria and Rhys set aside their differences, and their
desires, to save the only home they know?
•
Amazon:
http://mybook.to/chasingsisyphus
•
Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/chasing-sisyphus-the-basilica-conspiracy-jl-peridot/1127259716
•
iTunes:
https://itunes.apple.com/au/book/chasing-sisyphus-the-basilica-conspiracy/id1298768446?mt=11
•
Bookstrand:
http://bookstrand.com/book/chasing-sisyphus
About JL Peridot
JL Peridot was told she stops being a girl the
second she puts on a uniform and steps into the dojo. This was the most
empowering thing anyone’s ever said to her. From her home in Perth, Western
Australia, she writes erotic romance, and sometimes just erotica, while
complaining about all manner of sporting injury.
•
Blog:
http://jlperidot.com
•
Twitter: http://twitter.com/jlperidot
•
Instagram:
http://instagram.com/jlperidot
•
Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/jlperidot
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Excellent essay! And yes, if it was never okay to hit a woman, we'd have no women soldiers. Well crafted scene, too!
ReplyDeleteThank you so much, Adriana!
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