Wordsmith– I also write books

What characteristics do you like in a heroine?  If you are inclined, give us an example from one of your books or one you’ve read.

Few readers (even when reading comics) like cardboard characters.  Flesh-and-blood reality means they need at least one flaw.  Mixed-race Kitrina Piermont in Windward Whisperings  doesn’t want to take risks, particularly a risk of the heart.  She’s had setbacks with the loss of her parents and their tanked sail-making fortune.  Scraping by as a sailboat designer, she lives in the cottage of her family’s former estate.  The hero (in this reunion story) admires her high-energy presence.  Kitsy’s bubbly enthusiasm and interest-in-everything makes her a star.  Incidentally I made up the nickname, Kitsy.  It has a happier sound than Kit.  In the book I use kitten-like descriptions such as “arm strength of a kitten.”  As a designer-builder of sailboats, she methodically takes projects from start to finish.  Her stability makes others trust her.  But her flaw, fear of risk, takes her out of her comfort zone.  Something terrible happens to tweak her neural pathways and let romance grow and thrive.