Today we’re joined by The Wolf Road author Beth Lewis, where she discusses her novel and television’s badass ladies who influenced her writing.

About ‘The Wolf Road’

Elka barely remembers a time before she knew Trapper. She was just seven years old, wandering lost and hungry in the wilderness, when the solitary hunter took her in. In the years since then, he’s taught her how to survive in this desolate land where civilization has been destroyed and men are at the mercy of the elements and each other.

But the man Elka thought she knew has been harboring a terrible secret. He’s a killer. A monster. And now that Elka knows the truth, she may be his next victim.

Armed with nothing but her knife and the hard lessons Trapper’s drilled into her, Elka flees into the frozen north in search of her real parents. But judging by the trail of blood dogging her footsteps, she hasn’t left Trapper behind — and he won’t be letting his little girl go without a fight. If she’s going to survive, Elka will have to turn and confront not just him, but the truth about the dark road she’s been set on.

9 of TV’s kick-ass women who helped me write tough-as-nails heroines by Beth Lewis

Popular culture is full of awesome women, young and old, and here are just a few who have left a lasting impression on me. They have all, consciously and unconsciously, fed into my writing, maybe as a small personality trait, maybe as a major inspiration, but they’re all there in one way or another. They’re kick-ass in different ways, in all different situations and times, but the thing they have in common is they aren’t stock ‘strong female characters.’ I hate that phrase, like the default woman is weak so a conscious effort has to be made to make her strong. Well, that’s rubbish. These characters are rounded, flawed, vulnerable, brave; they’re leaders, commanders, warriors; they’re powerful and they just happen to be women. They don’t fill a quota; they steal the show.

Clarke and Lexa — ‘The 100’

These women lead their people, once bitter enemies, into an alliance. They see beyond themselves, their needs, their people’s prejudices, and seek a brighter future. They do what they have to do, no matter how terrible, to protect their tribes and that’s exactly what a leader should do. They both make tough decisions, sometimes with dire consequences, but their decisions are respected, if not always liked. They lead because they’re the strongest and most capable and it has absolutely nothing to do with them being female. Their gender is never seen as a sign of weakness or subservience, which is one of the things that makes The 100 one of the best shows on TV.

Cersei Lannister — ‘Game of Thrones’

She had to be on this list. Cersei is my favorite character in GoT. She’s utterly ruthless, but, importantly, she isn’t evil. She always has a reason for doing what she does and that reason is often relatable, even if she sometimes goes a bit far to get what she wants. She’d do anything for her children and that fed into one of my secondary characters in The Wolf Road. She’s just as ruthless as Cersei, and I hope, just as relatable.

Lagertha — ‘Vikings’

Lagertha is about as kick-ass as you can get. She’s a shieldmaiden but also an earl, a position unheard of for a woman in 8th century Scandinavia. It’s a testament to Lagertha’s strength, both physical and mental, that she holds this position while more than holding her own on the battlefield. She’s as good as any man and everyone knows it. What’s more wonderful about Lagertha is she’s based on a real Viking shieldmaiden whose deeds won her fame and power centuries ago. She doesn’t give up, she keeps fighting no matter what, and she doesn’t compromise herself.

Starbuck — ‘Battlestar Galactica’

Starbuck is reckless, arrogant, and infuriating, but you can’t help but love her. She will go further than others, into more dangerous situations. There are pieces of her in Elka, the main character in The Wolf Road, who is just as brash and frustrating. Starbuck is the best at what she does and her skill is unquestioned. She’s needed by the crew just as Elka is needed by another character. Starbuck taught me that you can get away with a whole lot of bad behavior if you know what you’re doing.

Willow and Faith — ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’

Buffy is full of brilliant characters, male and female, but Willow and Faith were always my favorites. They’re opposites, and when they clash, it makes for great TV. Faith is confident, Willow is meek (at least at the beginning). Faith is careless, Willow cautious. Faith is a fighter, Willow a scholar, and so on. There is room for them both and both are as fully formed and well-rounded as the other. Although they both play second fiddle to the slayer herself, I’ve always found them to be more powerful, more flawed, more vulnerable, than Buffy. Women can be strong in many different ways and that fed right into the key relationship in The Wolf Road, between brash and obnoxious Elka and pretty and clever Penelope. They fight and snipe at each other constantly but eventually come to realize they have more in common than they first thought.

River Song — ‘Doctor Who’

Every episode of Doctor Who is greatly improved by the presence of River Song. River is a mystery. She’s cheeky and intriguing and has a dark, crime-filled past. What’s not to love? Played by the inimitable Alex Kingston, River’s character is a masterclass in withholding information from the viewer and it’s wonderful to see the Doctor put so off-balance by her cooing, “Hello, sweetie.”

Jessica Pearson — ‘Suits’

Harvey and Mike are great characters, but Jessica really does steal the show. She’s powerful and intimidating and she demands instant respect. To have reached Managing Partner in a top New York law firm, a male-dominated world, firstly as a woman, secondly as a black woman, is a mind-blowing achievement. She didn’t just break the glass ceiling, she shattered it, and once you’ve spent five minutes with her character, you can see just how she did it. Her authority is absolute and unquestioned and that’s something I wanted to convey in The Wolf Road’s Magistrate Lyon, the hard and dangerous lawmaker hot on Elka’s tail. Jessica was such an inspiration, as everything she does is measured, careful and calculated. She’s always one step ahead, and so is Lyon.

About the author

Beth Lewis was raised in the wilds of Cornwall and split her childhood between books and the beach. She has traveled extensively throughout the world and has had close encounters with black bears, killer whales, and great white sharks. She has been, at turns, a bank cashier, a fire performer, and a juggler, and she is currently a managing editor at Titan Books in London. The Wolf Road is her first novel.