I absolutely love and respect strong women! Heck, I had a fabulous one as my life partner for over three decades. I try to impart that same strength and resolve to the female characters in all of my two dozen+ books, and that is especially true in my four horror novels. Over time I’ve received many kudos and positive reviews about the female leads in those stories. Let me introduce you to my four women of horror, two at a time.

TRACY RUSSELL

In Fire Dance, Tracy Russell, along with her nine-year-old son, Joey, has come to the small retirement town of Smoke Tree, California, in the Anza-Borrego Desert, where her mother is seriously ill. A single mom, Tracy bears the wounds of an ex-husband who gambled away everything they owned before running out on them. Tracy has managed just fine, and a relationship is the farthest thing from her mind, especially with her mother dying of cancer.

But Tracy did not count on meeting Mark Alderson, at the moment a bartender at the local country club. Mark, a decent man with a troubled past, has been on the run from the law for a while. Bringing this pair together, amid the resurrection of an evil entity from the area’s past that threatens the entire town, proved a challenge. When her son is taken by this entity, Tracy—with Mark’s help—shifts into another gear, and you won’t want to get in her way.

DANA BOWEN

The Gold Rush town of Lodestar, California is the setting for The Burning Ground. Dana Bowen, an “odd duck,” some say, is the town librarian. Her wounds are extremely deep. Over a decade earlier, as a college student, Dana was gang-raped by three lowlifes, and left for dead. She now exists in anonymity, by choice.

Barry Cordell, once an ace pitcher for the San Francisco Giants, had his career derailed by an accident, leaving him unable to step back on a mound. Also living in anonymity, he has come to the Sierra foothills to hike and “be one with nature.” He has an early chance encounter with Dana, as well as a young boy named Billy Grider, who will play a key role in the story.

The area was once the domain of the Maidu, a small tribe. During the Gold Rush, an entire village and its people are destroyed by miners, who in turn are wiped out by…something. The spirits of this tribe, consigned to shallow graves, are ultimately trapped there.

As the paths of Dana, Barry, and Billy continue to cross, the tormented spirits of the Maidu people are released from their graves by artifact hunters like Ray Grider, Billy’s lowlife father, and others. The ensuing carnage in and around Lodestar is palpable. Can Dana Bowen, summoning newly found resolve, join Barry in confronting these vengeful spirits?

In next week’s post I’ll introduce you to Janet Lowell from The Modoc Well, and the character from Demon Shadows that I consider my most challenging “makeover,” Gail Farringer.