Tag: strong women

Women of Character – Skyrider Bobbi Powers

Where do fictional strong women come from? Well, they are partly imagined, but they are also inspired by lots of real life women of character. At the end of Warpworld, readers meet Rider Pilot Shan Welkin, who is also known as a skyrider. Today, I’d like you to meet real life skyrider Bobbi Powers. I met Bobbi on my first trek to Baja California Sur, Mexico, in 1998.  She was a pilot and a flight instructor, equal parts gutsy and sweet, and I liked her immediately. Since then, I’ve had the pleasure of sailing, flying, hiking, and back-roading with Bobbi…

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Women of Character – My Han Solos

“I don’t want to be Princess Leia!” If you had been among the small group of neighbourhood boys with whom I played Star Wars, back in 1977, you would have heard this phrase a lot. We were, like most kids who were eight-years-old when Lucas’s opus came out, obsessed with Star Wars. For me, our re-creation of the world of Luke Skywalker was not just play, it was a portal to another dimension, a chance to become a swashbuckling space hero. The only setback to playing Star Wars was that, as the group’s only female, I was always cast as…

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