We’re getting near the end of Loooooove week. What? Here…we explain it all on Monday’s post.
The lucky winner of yesterday’s “Name your fictional town” contest, chosen by Rachael herself: Becca, who wrote, “I would name the town Lester, as a bad joke on the pronunciation of Leicester.”  Congrats, Becca — you’ll be receiving a copy of Rachael’s brand-new book, HOW TO KNIT A HEART BACK HOME!
Today’s the last day of our probing questions with Rachael. Tomorrow, we have an extra-special surprise for everyone and the biggest prize this week! Don’t miss it!
Knitty: How did knitting and romance find themselves together in your novels?
Rachael: I’ve always been a writer, but I was, for a long time, a more “serious†writer. I wanted to write Great Things (which, of course, never got written, as things with such weight attached to them often don’t). Then in 2006,  I took part in National Novel Writing Month (an online challenge to write a novel in the month of November). I knew, that Halloween night, that I had one evening to figure out what I was going to speed-write a novel about. I knew I loved two things: romance and knitting, and perhaps if I wrote about what I loved, the going might be easier. And it sure was. I put a knitter and a sheep rancher together (both need wool, but not for heat; they generate enough of their own), and they took over the story. It was a fun, wild ride, and I realized at the end of the month that I loved my little book, and that it was better written than my serious stuff ever was. Over the next year I doubled its length and did revisions, and eventually took it out to find agent representation, and the rest is history.
K: Has anyone you loved (romantically) ever knit for you?
R: Oh, yes. An old boyfriend learned to crochet just so he could make me a yellow afghan, in honor of the first short story I ever published. And my wife, Lala, knits me socks. In fact, she’s almost done with my Christmas pair! (From 2009, okay, but they’re coming! 75% done!)
K: What is in the water in Cypress Hollow? It seems to attract hot men like bees to honey.
R: Ha! Someone once pointed out to me that it seemed like all the men in Cypress Hollow had great butts. I never knew I was someone who really appreciated that side of a man until I reread some of my work—yes, the heroine always, at some point, is behind the hero, admiring the view. Huh. Illuminating.
And then, of course, there are the men like Elbert Romo and Pete Wegman, the older ranchers and town locals who probably had great backsides in their time, but are now more well known for being loving and kind and funny, and I adore them just as much.
K: Is Cypress Hollow based on a real town or a whole bunch of towns that you’ve spliced together?
R: It changes—when I first created it, I thought I was making it up. Now, I realize that I’ve drawn from many small towns I’ve known. In my head, it’s a cross between tiny Pescadero (south of Half Moon Bay) and the coastal ranching town I lived in during my teens (Arroyo Grande). And when people from small towns write to me and say that I got it just right, that people really DO interact the way they do in my books, it makes me feel fantastic.
K: Would you rather own a yarn store or book store?
R: Bookstore! For sure. No, wait. Yarn store! Seriously, interesting question. I hadn’t ever stopped to consider the fact that my first heroine, Abigail, owns a yarn store, and my second heroine, Lucy, owns a bookstore. I worked in a small-town bookstore for five years, so I know that commerce, that kind of trade, better than I know the yarn industry, but I certainly know the PRODUCT sold in yarn stores. But my brain is so tied now to being at my desk, creating worlds, that it would be hard to work retail in any form. I consider those who own yarn and bookstores my heroes, and I respect their chutzpah and bravery in the face of today’s often stormy economy. I pledge to continue to do my part in the form of purchases!
It’s our last book-day giveaway…maybe today will be your lucky day!
This time, to win, leave a comment to this post by Thursday, March 10th at midnight, eastern time. In your comment, tell us what your fictional heroine does for a living. Rachael will pick her favorite and that lucky person will win a copy of HOW TO KNIT A HEART BACK HOME.
See you here again tomorrow for the big finale! A present for everyone AND the biggest prize yet!
Easy – librarian. Badass librarian. She drives an orange Dodge Charger and dyes her hair strange colors, somehow with her boss’s approval. She dyes and sells her own yarn on the side, too, and teaches the kids (did I mention she’s a children’s librarian?) how to knit, spin, dye, and enjoy fiber.
I think all my fictional characters would be librarians! Knitting librarians… even though that might be too much a stereotype.
Hmmm…well, I work in insurance, which is not very fiction-interesting so….
I think I would make her a member of the Natl Park Service park police, working in the Presidio in San Francisco since a) I am a mystery buff, so that would lend itself to investigation and etc and b) I can see the Presidio from my house (really!), and often run into the the park police officers around the neighborhood, and they are always nice folks. As a bonus, women in uniform can be pretty damn sexy.
She’s an archeologist and a baker (in the off season for archeology). Since those are the two things I love as much as knitting I would happily live vicariously through her. 🙂
I have purchased and read both books and can hardly wait for more! I’m one who has always scoffed at “romances”, but not the two that Rachel has written! Maybe it’s the knitting/yarn part that makes it so special to me? Please, MORE, and soon! (I’ve marked October!)
My male fictional hero would be a CEO = top executive type = and a good, loving guy!
She does voicework for kids’ animated TV shows. I think there would be interesting social interaction possibilities when you’re dealing with someone who is used to being heard, but not seen. 🙂
Mayor of your small town, but pushed into the job when the corruption of the previous mayor comes to light. She’s lived in the town forever, so she understands its needs, but needs to learn the political side and how to get what she wants.
An oceanographer, just like me! But she gets to do a bit more glamorous work then me.
Hm. I think she might be a matron in an orphanage, since I am writing a paper about 19th century orphans right now and from the archival sources I’ve been reading I am really appreciating the hints I get about the orphanage matrons. You’d have to be a strong personality to succeed in that job.
Yarn store owner! Most definitely.
She’s a student who works part time at the university library and finds interesting documents in the library’s collections that no one seems to know anything about. And, of course ;), they just happen to apply to her research paper. 🙂
Yarn store owner! Most definitely.
My heroine would be a sherrif or police officer, who is armed not only with a gun, but also knitting needles 😀
Night shift at a shelter of some sort. Some time for knitting; some time for patching souls together.
Being a “writer” can be fun and challangeing. I’ve read about becoming a writer and have taken courses, and attempted to find a book subject. I can learn from you, that I simply have to keep going with the ideas and write and rewrite. I certainly see your success.
My fictional heroine would be a skin diver. There is so much to reveal in the oceans and seas. It is a vast empire and can make a good and adventuresome living opportunity.
Ah, the heroine of my first (NaNoWriMo) novel was a cinderella type figure, housekeeper for her father, but making fabulous creatures from the fabrics in her late mother’s wardrobes. A recycling crafter.
Mine is the owner of a bookstore/bakery cafe combo in a small-ish town and when her kids come home afterschool they come to the store and do their homework in the front window and have a snack and then read until mom is ready to go home… oh, right, fictional character – NOT wishful thinking… well either way – that’s what I would write/do if I could choose…
hrm.. Two things, she would do. She’d work as a cashier/waitress at a pizza place, and volunteer at a local library in her spare time, because like me, she adores reading and books.
Lydia plays banjo in a bluegrass band.
that’s a no-brainer. she is a shepherd
I would want my fictional heroine to be a technical editor for knitting patterns and maybe a part time yoga instructor. Both sound like fun to me!
She is an Inventrix, working in a think tank, knitting her way through the brainstorming sessions…..
My fictional heroine would be a rock star. Not the Lady Gaga type, more the jeans and sneakers belting it out Melissa Etheridge type. Plenty of time to knit on the bus between shows.
Interesting that “librarian” was so popular. Personally I’d like to see your character be an at home Mom…that’s just as much a career choice, especially when done well, as anything else. Maybe the most important career of all..and a complete luxury in today’s economically demanding world.
My fictional heroine would be like me: A middle-aged administrative assistant who knows a gazillion things off the top of her head, but is able to stop everything, close the door, and let someone have a good cry.
My heroin would be a nanny. A very good way to be undercover and to hear about all the gossip around town or at the playground when picking the kids up from school. So I am talking about some sort of detective novel… and of course being a nanny is a very good alibi to knit as well!
She the proprietor of a knitting cafe, Nibbles and Needles.
I think the heroine in my novel would be a medical transcriptionist. It’s a job she can do at anytime of day and it leaves her free to travel as everything she transcribes is done online. It also allows her to knit at her own convenience. My ideal job. 🙂
A full-time mom, with a side job of something a rather adventurous. I’ve been thinking lately that it would be fun to read something like that.
My fictional heroine is a homeschooling mother and small business owner, just like me!
I think she’d be some kind of executive, bank president, etc., in her business suits all day and nobody would ever suspect she was a knitter in her spare time.
She would work part time as a barista and be a rock singer at night. Not famous, but furious 😉
A homeschool mom (like me). The hardest job in the world.
I think my fictional heroine would be a zoo keeper. Zoos are funky places.
She would be a translator, translating knitting books of course. And Rachael’s books! Into Venetian dialect.
I think my heroine would be an internet researcher, too caught up in the Web (ha ha!) to look up and see the man who loves her is right in front of her nose!
A chef/baker making wonderful food, incredible cakes and of course a badass Knitter 🙂
I’m not positive about her job but her real talent would be to unite people unwittingly. Introduce people and they would marry. (eventually)
My heroine would be a travel critic. That way she’d get to see the world, visit all kinds of yarn shops and have lots of airplane time for knitting.
My heroine would be a professional opera singer, the wife of a pastor, and mother of 5 boys, with all of the duties each of those professions requires!
Like me, a Physician Assistant: can be placed in lots of venues around the world; meets lots & lots of people. Potential downtime for knitting if working midnights or walk-in clinics.
Our heroine is a stay at home Mom who helps her family financially with her knitting. Just like in the days of old where the knitting of socks earned the money to feed her family.
OK, stick with me! My heroine travels through time for a living, but she is NEVER caught without a sock or other portable project in her pocket. You never know when you’ll need to have your knitting with you when time traveling!
Flossie Moon goes into town during the week to work in the Huffy Bike factory, leaving her 3 little girls to raise themselves.
My fictional heroine is a reporter at a small-town newspaper, who takes her knitting with her to school board meetings so that when the board goes into executive session (to discuss personnel matters) she can work on her projects. And then when they come out she can point out how much she’s done as a way of letting them know that yes, she did notice they were taking an hour to talk about something that perhaps should have been part of the regular meeting, and that gets a bit more detail out of some of the board members for the next day’s newspaper.
My heroine is currently a student at University, much against her boyfriend’s wishes. She dreams about making her living as a high end clothing designer. When she finds herself alone and pregnant, though, she turns that situation to her advantage, developing a line of unique baby knitwear designs and patterns. But the real question is, will her boyfriend swallow his pride and allow her to support him in the style he’d like to become accustomed to? (sure he does.)
mine would be a medical researcher who knits at night to de-stress
She would be a professional namer—she gives all the beautiful names to the paint and yarn colors. What an amazing and inspiring job that would be!
She would own a Candy/Ice Cream store. She would love coming to work each day and smell the wonderful sweet scents of the items in her store. She would love the customers who come in because young and old would smile and laugh while enjoying the items. There would be a comfy section for groups to gather for knitting circle, book clubs and special events.
An aerospace engineer that knits models of spaceships.
either a sheep rancher or the owner of a combination bookstore/yarn shop/bakery cafe–the kind of place where I’d like to spend my days!
My fictional heroine is a lowly office worker with a sharp sense of intuition who becomes entangled in a series of murders. She also knits and lives in a condo complex with elderly neighbors.
Oooh, fun! My fictional heroine works at a knitting magazine (my dream come true–I love to knit, I edit magazines for a living). The intrigue comes when she purchases a unfinished antique wedding sock at an estate sale. Curious about the original bride-to-be and why the socks were never finished, the heroine embarks on a journey into the past and unearths secrets better left forgotten…
She is a doctor who loves to create anything out of fibre
I would have her as a machine and parts buyer at the local paper mill. She would have been working there for over a decade, working her way up from the bottom of the company. As a result, all the employees at the mill would come to her for advice and friendship.
Her free time would be spent teaching knitting as a therapy to teens recovering from abuse or illness.
She tells fortunes in the mall.
My heroine, Stella, is a librarian. She dreams of owning her own book/knitting store. (Just like me)! I think the two go together like chocolate and peanut butter!
I would want the heroine to be one of those high end shoppers (there is a word for it I know) that stock stores with all of the hottest trends. I’m picturing her in Cypress Hollow, completely out of place yet somehow still very commanding.
My heroine would run a cafe/computer repair shop with her significant other called Bits N Bytes – she would run into a great cross-section of people, potentially have access to places others wouldn’t and folks seem to let their guards down relaxing over comfort food!
My heroine would be a data entry clerk. She sticks it out in her job to support her passion – knitting, of course. Her bland surroundings and job responsibilities only enhances her creative ability once she leaves for the day and takes in her colorful home full of her extensive yarn stash and multicolored needles.
My heroine would be a lawyer. High pressure job, knitting as a stress reliever and counterbalance. She knits in the courthouse between trials/hearings, etc.
My character, Percy, works at the boardwalk in the summer, taking tickets at the biggest roller coaster on the pier.
My heroine would be a roller derby superstar who knits.
She is a television production manager and goes on site to events to manage the television crew. She knits for her sanity!
My heroine would be a well respected stay-at-home mom.
My heroine would be a technician at the local Sleep Study Lab. Since she sleeps vicariously through the clients, she would be able to spend all of her time being heroic and, of course, knitting.
My heroine is a gold miner in California in the 1860’s who knits her own socks.
My heroine Rachel would work in a book store full of knitting books and mysteries.
I’d have to say a veterinarian. I don’t think I could do all the knitty gritty stuff. Perfect romance between the rancher and vet though!
My heroine would run a drive through knitting store called Stash & Dash that would have touch screens leading up to the drive through window to explore the various yarns and accessories offered.
My heroine would be a cupcake baker! The creativeness of her cake decorating would be mirrored in the creativity of her knitting.
Unfortunately, her job seems to take over her life and making wedding cakes for other happy couples whilst she is permanently single has made her jaded when it comes to love.
She breeds collie dogs. She uses their fur to spin yarn to make pathetic little dogs with no hair coats for the cold Maine winter.
My heroine owns her own stable with acreage. She loves horses and enjoys trail riding and teaching students to ride. She manages the stable, as she also has boarders. She takes care of each horse, as if her own.
She is a bookkeeper who during her breaks at work reads the knitty blog and knits herself into an alternate reality where she steeks with abandon and all of her sweater panels match up when time to seam them together.
My heroine owns a chocolaterie named the Chocolate Tree, started by her grandmother. She loves creating new delicious concoctions and knitting new designs.
She’s the daughter of a not-very-well-to-do French merchant. She does some sewing and knitting to make extra money for her parent’s business.
My heroine is a tireless researcher and activist for awareness on female reproductive diseases in honor of March being Endometriosis Awareness Month!
She’s a female George Schaller, following the health of the natural world! ( I’m an ESL teaching couch potato with a cat lying on my arms as I type.)Schaller has spent more than 60 years trekking the world of wildlife.
She travels across country on an RV!
My heroine is between jobs. She’s a well-educated woman who gave up her career to raise her kids – and now that they’re back in school, she finds that her old job doesn’t appeal to her anymore. What does she do – return to a job she hates, go back to school for something new, or turn her knitting from hobby into profession? Or, my heroine runs a yarn store, but it’s really a cover for her secret life as a CIA agent.
Modeled after my BFF – she lives in a small central California town where she has a catering business, is in charge of the local cemetary board and is on the small town’s citizens advisory council. She moved back to said small town a few years ago, after working as an attorney recruiter in SF, to take care of her aging dad, who’s diabetic and needed somebody to look after him after his wife (her mom) died. She and her local buddies are on top of everything happening in the small town and keep things running smoothly. (All of the above is true but of course I’d fictionalize it when I wrote my novel 🙂
My heroine owns a baked goods store…not a true bakery, but more of homemade baked stuffs place. Where you can sit and eat and talk and of course knit.
Fredonia keeps house for her father, since her mother died, and runs the ladies aid society at his church. She bakes, knits, spins, weaves, and sticks her nose into the business of ever family in their small frontier town. She hoped to get a school, when she was younger, but that hope died with her mama, as did any real hope of marrying Brownsville.
My heroine is a nurse in the NICU where she takes care of her precious little babies and in her spare time she runs a knitting group that makes tiny hats and blankets for her little patients.
Athena is a spinner/knitter who works as a mixed media artist and is also a medium at her studio located in a small British town. She solves mysteries connected to her patrons. As a matter of fact she will only allow pieces to be commissioned if she perceives a sense of incompletion in the life of the client!
My heroine is a historical researcher, and uses that in the process of the novel to figure out the Deep Secret! And a knitter, of course.
Forensic accountant who is on a roller derby team on the weekends, and participates in a knit group on Tuesday evenings.
My heroine owns a mail-order plant business that specializes in flower bulbs, perennials and roses. She’s been an avid knitter since she was a child and will knit socks for anyone who sits still long enough for her to measure their feet…wait a second, that’s me!
She’s a computer programmer and math geek who loves designing and altering anything knitterly.
Perdita is a mystery writer. She’s a loner (until the end of the unwritten book) because whenever she’s near someone there’s a murder. (Murder She Wrote Syndrome is what Perdy calls it) So rather than just be traumatized, she’s a traumatized writer.
I’d love to own a yarn store – with plenty of classes to teach newcomers to the arts.
So m heroine would own a yarn store too!
Amilia would be a detective who knits and she is investigating a foreign company smuggling drugs inside fake Mini Mochis and Zauberballs.
My heroine would be a dam engineer, just like me, knitting early in the morning to fortify herself for another dam day.
My heroine is a travel writer! She goes to many exotic places, and makes it her mission to find souvenir yarn on every trip.
My fictional heroine would have to be an architect designing ways to turn urban areas into self-sustaining green homes. She would have animals and plants, while trading her handmade goods with others.
My heroine would own a laundrymat/bar with a yarn store attached!!
for beer knitting and a little domestic work!
She runs her family’s organic farm, of course. Cows, pigs, chickens, fresh produce and balsam products. The sheep herd is coming – slowly. Babydoll Southdowns, to be exact. Her dad always told her they were too small to be any good; she’s going to prove otherwise.
My heroine is an educator at the local historical re-enactment village. She demonstrates all the ways people way back when used to make do and innovate to get what they needed. Her charm and ability to think on her feet get her out of any sticky situation!
Who wouldn’t fall in love with a yoga instructor who runs a combination studio/yarn store called Twisted Up. When the project gets too complicated, it can be set aside while catching your breath doing asanas.
i would love an action heroine. Maybe a female Jason Bourne or zombie killer that likes to knit in her down time 🙂 Every heroine needs down time. What’s better than to knit some socks out of tofutsies to combat smelly feet when you are running in persuit of someone or running for your life 😉
I’ve read the book (and it’s fantastic!) and don’t have an entry, I just wanted to cast a vote for Garret because he cracked me up.
My herione would work in a florist. But not one of those awful commercial places. She would have a farmstand-type place where she would sell wildflowers and in the summer there would be huge bouquets of peonies out front, scenting the sidewalk.
She is a cop, a detective in a midsized city. Not many of her fellow officers know dhe knits for stress relief.
She works in the Egyptian section in a museum as the person who knows everything about the artifacts.
Love all the responses! My fictional heroine works for a non-profit housing organization. She’s more comfortable in overalls than stilettos!
Vampire Slayer! No, seriously, my fictional heroine would be God. Or President.
I have been reading the Bones books so I would forensic pathologist (I probably spelled it wrong).
I just Rachael’s first book. Loved!
A librarian who knits, of course! She would be a reference/public services librarian in some sort of specialized setting — a rare book room, a health sciences library (like me!), a Classics library….
She would be a wine steward. She’s passionate about wine and knitting, of course! Debbie in alaska
She would own a high-end deli called What’s For Dinner? where all of the food is homemade with love.
My heroine would run a dog-hiking business, picking up people’s dogs and taking them for hikes in the mountains, then dropping them back off at home, happy and tired. There is a business like that near me!
my heroine is a linguist. she loves translating epic ethnic patterns from all over the world!
My heroine is a geologist! She loves to find rocks of all sorts on the beach, hiking trails and stumbling over her new and possibly dangerous lover. 🙂
she would be an editor who takes her knitting and a book with her every where
Hey, that’s me! Never thought of myself as a heroine, so thanks for making my day! 🙂
My heroine is a struggling romance writer(natch)who has just inheireted her sister’s children and yarn store…
she would be a grad student studying textile production in ancient Mesopotamia (they had lots of sheep and wool!)
Mine just quit her job after getting about a half dozen secret admirer gifts over the course of Valentine’s Day. She’s in a bit of shock.
My heroine would be an artist-blacksmith who also knits.. because that’s who I’m trying to be!
My heroine would be an average, young–23-25–high school teacher who happens to stumble on a secret that traces its way through a large, suburban community. After school and with a large stack of essays in her bag, she spends all of her free time unraveling the mystery.
My heroine would be a spook in a secret government organization. Extremely intelligent, well-read, eloquent, confident but no one can know what she does.
My heroine is the owner of a retreat center for knitters. She has dogs, cats and horses. Married with two kids. Lives in Vermont.
My heroine would be a full-time mother of five running an online craft business in her “free” time.
My fictional heroine would be a teacher. She would be a teacher of adolescents who helps them to find what they truly love to do and what they can do well. So many teachers focus only on what students need to learn and not what they already know. Helping someone realize their strengths is so powerful. Of course, she would be a knitter, too 😉
My favorite fictional heroine is an English SpecOps agent and often lost in a good book.
rollerderby astronaut cowgirl. (who knits.)
She would be a linguist, teaching at a university!
My heroine would work at a coffee shop. She loves meeting all the people of the town there and, of course, hearing all the gossip.
My fictional heroine is a forensic scientist.
My heroine would be a wildlife photographer who uses a camera with super long-range lenses – I wonder what she sees in the distance in her photos when she loads them onto her computer?
She designs publications, cards, signs, pamphlets, billboards, flyers, journals and magazines, and is webmaster of a couple of friends’ business sites; and she is an hobby artist and crafter on her own time. This way, she knows what’s going to happen before anybody else, and she knows who the movers and shakers are, and who they have problems with. She works along with others, caterers, florists, bookkeepers, etc., to coordinate themes for events and publications. Her motto, concerning the profusion of fancy fonts, geegaws, and over-decoration on homemade publications, is “Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.”
My heroine is a wildlife photographer, which comes in handy when she finishes a knitting project, she takes amazing photos of them! I’ll definitely be reading this book. I’m intrigued!
my heroine would be an alpaca farmer, provider of fleece, and spinner of yarns.
My heroine would be a Starship Captain and would knit her way across the universe.
My heroine would own a bakery. It would serve fresh baked bread and pizza dough as well as breakfast-type food. And would have local artist displayed.
My fictional heroine would be a nurse who works in a suburban hospital, where a series of citizens come into the ER and die of strange ailments or injuries. She somehow puts two and two together and realizes that there’s a serial killer on the loose whose victims she has treated. (And of course, she knits!)
My heroine would be an owner of one of those strange little shops that seem to carry a bit of everything. It would be full of odd little nooks, a big black cat would watch you from atop a high shelf and the dust would dance in sunbeams. If you asked her, the owner would be very happy to tell you the tale of each item and how she came to have it… and of course, its price.
My heroine would be a slightly older woman whose life is in flux and must determine her new path in life. Her kids are grown, her job sucked so she left, and she’s at loose ends. Knitting helps her focus, keeps her sane and may just help her find her way!
My heroine would be a renowned crafter of absinthe. Her unique concoctions are sought after worldwide. She lives at the end of a long, winding dead-end road with her Newfoundland pooch, a small flock of sheep, and a lot of knitting projects.
My heroine would own a yarn/used book store, which seems heaven on earth to me, combining my two greatest loves. She would also design knitting patterns and sell them online.
Oohhh, I think she would.. be a search and rescue scuba diver. Cause it would make such a sweet work setting, and fit with amazing mystery plots.
My heroine would be a financial planner in a small town. It’s a vastly underrated profession and you get to know a lot of people’s secrets.
My heroine would be a nurse who works for a Indian reservation clinic and falls in love with the native American doctor but his family and the reservation residents disapprove.
My fictional heroine is a medical librarian; sometimes she runs across journal articles detailing a brain injury due to knitting needle puncture, but that’s not enough to deter her from her hobby. 746.1! (that’s Dewey Decimal for “Yarn preparation and weaving”)
My heroine would live in an old farmhouse that has been partially converted into a B&B. She’d run retreats for knitters and spinners. Of course she’d grow her own fruits, veggies, and flowers.
I’ll go with teacher, just because I feel like I rarely see them in romances (unless they teach small children, to show they’re good with children and have saintly patience–can’t relate!). But my main preference is that whoever she is, she isn’t improbably successful or expert before she’s 30. I know it’s supposed to be a fantasy, but honestly, very few people are that good! I like someone who is, like me, doing the best she can, even if it’s nothing all that special.
My heroine is an Opera Singer, with a voice like an angel and powerful enough to give you chills. She’s a country girl gone city and world wide! Her interests and desires are as diverse as her vocal range.
My fictional heroine is an artist that can’t quite decide where to focus her talents. She mostly just adores color and making stuff. Her current passion is for glass beads and pottery and is trying to figure out how to combine the two. She works from a fabulous studio that is on the back of an 18th century farmhouse. It is all windows and it overlooks an incredible view of the Appalachian Mountains.
My fictional heroine would work at a religious organization on campus, and interact mainly with (somewhat immature) college students, and no hope of meeting anyone…until one day…
She works as a salesclerk at a small bookstore–but after hours she is a shaman, and sends her spirit out into the world to heal for her clients, and to pursue the answers to their questions.
In my story, the heroine works as an executive assistant for the CEO of a large IT firm. She deals with all the details of the executive’s work life, all the reporting and scheduling, and still finds time to feed her creative soul with yarn!
She’s a tax CPA… because honestly, do tax CPAs ever star in books? Nope. And do people just assume they are incredibly boring? Yup. This heroine would give a better name to not only tax CPAs, but knitters too- hip, fun, knitter and successful career woman. (P.S. guess what I do for a living 🙂 )
A married mother of 3 boys who rents out a cabin to travelers that come to her small town in North Dakota.
A pageant coach. Think of the potential pageants she could coach!
My heroine would do what I’ve always dreamed of doing–being the sole librarian in a small coastal town in the UK–driving the bookmobile. She’d get to hear all the gossip, and investigate things all over the community.
She is a nurse who does volunteer nursing in underprivileged areas.
My heroine will be a Small Farmer with a bit of diversity – berries, free-range eggs & wool perhaps? It’s difficult to work the land, go to Farmer’s Markets & find time to knit much less meet the love of your life……
Corporate lawyer in a small firm. But she hates her job and is searching for something with more purpose.
My heroine is named Portfolia Dropov. She’s an advertising copywriter in search of the perfect job creating ads. She is definitely a Mad Woman.
My heroine is the owner of an art gallery and includes all media including FIBER!
She works in video conferencing.
I am thinking of a heroine who will have lived a little, loved a little & maybe hurt a little and is currently rebuilding herself (self-awareness, career…)who ends up finding herself finally at home in a mid-American rural town.
She is a minister in a small town, trying to keep her church from falling apart. Her favorite part of her job is telling stories at youth services, but she has to spend much of her time in dreadfully boring meetings that she cant even knit through!
My person would be a fictional writer who knits for the needy while taking in underprivileged children.
She works as a clerk in the grocery store. EVERYONE in the town has to eat. She sees everyone while @ work!
Since I would probably write a fantasy, she would do something fantastical like train dragons or conjure spells or both.
My heroine would get to do all the wild stuff I haven’t done. She worked with a vet at the zoo, and as a tight-rope walker at a small traveling circus, and as a fire dancer at a RenFaire. When the book I’ve been thinking about writing starts, she is actually desperate to find a position as far from her family’s occult store as possible, and waitresses at a roadhouse in a podunk Southern town, and sings karaoke in her spare time.
She’s a psychiatrist who will pick up her knitting while her patients are in session, laying on her couch with their back to her. She has a thick UK accent!
She would be a goat herder and cheese maker and spinner of goat wool!
My fictional heroine is a consultant to Fortune 500 companies in the area of human-computer interaction, someone who specializes in making sure that people and machines are each allocated the tasks that they do best when software is designed and used. She’s a fierce knitter with awesome math skills and a wicked sense of humor, including but not limited to visual puns incorporated in her own knit designs.
I would love a heroine who belly dance and used this a mysterious alter ego.
She raises angora rabbits for angora yarn.
My heroine would run a cozy, casual tea shop with a little corner for crafters to hang out. Most likely she would do this after leaving a stressful job. (Or maybe I’m just daydreaming!)
In my first NaNoWriMo my heroine, Marlowe, had recently ditched retail to do art and paint full time. She had a studio and an agent and upcoming solo shows and everything. I still want to finish that book someday…
Mine would be a trapeze artist by day and circular needle wielding crime fighter by night!
Why she knits of course! Part time to sell things at a local craft fair. During the spring and summer months, she is The Monkees tour manager 🙂
a dietitian (ok, thats because I am one), who encourages patients to stitch rather than eat when doing consults with patients who stress eat…
She’s a nurse!
My heroine would knit sweaters for the homeless. And to give her some unknown super powers, she would be able to do a sweater in less than 33 minutes!
My fictional heroine loves to knit and crochet sweaters for homeless but her favorite and most important past time is writing articles for her favorite knitting book.
My fictional heroine would be a nurse-midwife, work which takes her into a variety of homes, connecting w/most of the women in the town by doing well-woman care between deliveries. All kinds of possibilities come to mind for narrative.
My fictional heroine would be a domestic goddess by day and The Knit Crusader by night (while the kids are asleep).
My heroine would be a music teacher,farmer and fiber fanatic.
My fictional heroine would be a single mom who has for many years taken whatever jobs have been available to support herself and her child. As the child nears adulthood she starts to think again about her dreams of younger years. Opening a Bed and Breakfast with a Tea/Coffee Room that has a large common room where the customers can come and knit, chat and share with each other. Kind of like the old large kitchens used to be with a large open fireplace. Of course the hunky new neighbors dog next door gets loose and noses his way through the screen door into the middle of the current craft class……
My heroine would own a combination yarn, spinning and weaving shop with a tea shop on the side to serve her regulars who meet in a plush setting in the rear of the store.
My heroine is a vet, who makes house calls and encounters the most curious and entertaining animal owners of her clientele along the way.
She’s the narrator for audio books…and knits socks on double point bamboo needles while she reads aloud. Because 2mm bamboo needles are silent!
My fictional character marries a widowed cowboys with young children and moves from the big city to ranch life!
1) A deployed soldier
2) the owner of a small lumberyard
3) landlord that owns a building with several storefronts
I will quit for now!
An amazing violist! Fighting crime with music!
……a baker in a small seaside town nestled in the mountains. You can never tell what she’s knitting till she washes the flour out!
Elementary school teacher by day, professional roller derby star by night. Her roller derby name can be Miss Take, because every good teacher loves word puns, and every woman over 40 probably would feel roller derby is a Miss Take after the first injury.
She’s a spunky mystery-solving teen who also chairs her school’s Stitch-and-Bitch Club!
I am going literal heroines here. It is a tough match between Elizabeth Bennett, Jane Eyre, and Anna Karenina. I will go with Jane Eyre. She suffered without being a “damsel in distress”. While having survived her hardships, she grew into a strong, confident, and compassionate woman. While in the end, capturing the heart of tormented Edward Rochester. <3 <3
Oh yea, she was a governess <3
My heroine is a pianist in a piano bar. You’d be surprised to hear what people will say in the hearing of a musician! What a way to gather information!
My heroine is a School Lunch Lady. She is there to smile at the kids and give them a healthy lunch.
Lives on a farm in highlands of Scotland, has horses, loves to ride and knits everyday as a form of meditation.
My fictional heroine would be a court stenographer – who would then fight petty crime on the side using the knowledge she has gained in the courtroom to dispense justice!
As I write historicals, most of my heroines don’t have a profession/career/job per se. One of my heroines was a seamstress by day and a singer in a public house at night on the Victorian goldfields at night. Another, while not a nun, was living in a nunnery until a marriage was arranged. Yet another was a sheep-herder on one of the Shetland Islands in the 700s (and yes, there was a hunky Viking involved here).
My heeoine is a technical writer by day, and an avid knitter by night!
I,ve always thought that a travel writer focused on telling local fiber stories would be a great job for a heroine adventurer.
A technical writer for a computer hardware firm who years to write mysteries instead, and accidentally includes some dialogue from one of her novels in a manual for a piece of networking equipment, thus causing a group of computer geeks to try to track down a woman they feel must be in horrific danger.
yearns, not years. *headdesk*
A fictional heroine should knit for a living, be in such high demand that the world comes to her to knit fabulous garments and objects. The fiction is that all she does is knit, no designing, no pattern making or following, just fabulous knitting.
A deaf lady who writes for a newspaper with her thoughts of anything related to deafness, knitting, and people that she meets 🙂
My heroine would be a high school English teacher who teaches in the inner city and tells the many tales of the families she touches.
She’s a textile archaeologist, researching knits and spun thread through history and around the world, back to the cotton used to spin mummy wrappings in Egypt… (It’s a horror/adventure story).
My fictional heroine is an anthropologist studying traditional cultures, and researching their traditional spinning, knitting, and weaving techniques, while solving murder mysteries.
The heroine would be an assistant and true friend to an extremely wealthy female philanthropist. The Philanthropist being the famous, media savy character, the heroine -the smarts and rock behind all that happens. Of course she is also a knitter who produces products the envy of her philanthopists high class elitist friends.
My dream job (oops, I mean my fictional heroine’s!) is to be an architectural historian who stumbles into mysteries when exploring and researching all of the fabulous buildings she encounters. Lots of time for knitting, reading, and tea in between the galavanting.
My heroine, Esmeralda would own and operate a shelter for abandoned cats. While cats are her first love, she also teaches children in the local shelters how to knit and crochet.
My heroine would be having a change in life. After reading about raising sheep she decides it’s now or never and gives up her highly successful job in the city to try her hand at farming. The hero, of course, would be the local vet who thinks she’s trying to pull the wool over his eyes!
A wheelchair confined librarian, who works in the public library of a large city and is a knitter of little insects known as computer bugs that sit on computers !
Freelance copy editor and foster care mom for a local animal shelter
My heroine would be a horse trainer and a former champion barrel racer.
My fictional character’s job would be Queen of the World! Her political platform is Peace, Love and Understanding. New rules would include: stipends for stay at home moms and Knit in Public day is a national holiday.
My heroine owns a yarn shop and spends her time helping others find a creative outlet.
She raises alpacas in a small North Carolina coastal town.
She’s a freelance photographer who sells artistic travel prints.
My fictional heroine, Edith, is indeed raising mermaids and mermen for one day to realise her dream of colonising the seven seas.
She cares for women with Alzheimer’s and dementia, reminding them of their love and talent for sewing, knitting, crochet, the activities their hands know even though their minds don’t.
she’s great! ^^
My heroine would raise sheep and be a ‘spinner of wool’!!
Mine is the high school secretary.
My fictional heroine, Hadewich, slays dragons. This is how she acquires her profitable kingdoms, her husbands and eventually a new fetching armor (knitted by the Ms. Olympia of the Eastern Kingdom)
My fictional heroine would run an artisan’s school, something like John C. Campbell. It would be in an old barn with outbuildings for the weaving and other things, it would have acreage for sheep and it would have a small inn for retreat attendees! And it would have lots of teachers who would teach all kinds of artisan crafts.
my heroine would own a little bakery cafe, with a diner style. the kind of place that you can sit and enjoy a milkshake and a slice of banana cream pie, or a cup of coffee and a freshly baked scone. there would be booths and a counter, and fun tables for afternoon knitting clubs!