Strong Female Characters

ysabetwordsmith has posted here (and on LJ) a discussion on this article on "What Do You Mean When You Say You Want ‘Strong Female Characters’?"

I had strong feelings about it reading Ysabet's post, stronger ones having read the article, but... putting those aside for a moment, what do YOU think? What makes a strong character?

30 Days Second Semester: 20, The End of The Purple Bag, Misc-misc

For the 30 Days Meme Second Semester, for the prompt "20) Write the end of the story 'The Purple Bag.'"

misc-misc, no setting

Almost there. Although the temptation was strong to just end her trip here, in the dusty, beautiful bazaar, she’d come too far to stop before the end. Sorrell reached into the bag, wiggling her fingers around. When she’d started this trip, there’d barely been room to get her fingertips through the opening. Now, she had to reach all the way past her elbow into the netherspace.

The trinket that came to her hand was tiny; no wonder it had gotten pushed to the bottom. She pulled it out carefully, studying it.

A puzzle ring, nine interlocking rings twisted carefully together, held by a single bronze pin. A ring. Sorrell stared at it, wondering what its story would be, wondering where it would take her. She had been so many places, on so many worlds, finishing so many lost quests. To have it all come down to a ring…
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Three-Way, a story of Addergoole Yr9, for rix_scadeau'

To rix_scadeau''s commissioned prompt in my Call for Prompts: "an Addergoole student being rescued or assisted in rescuing someone by a teacher or another student whom they fear with good reason."

Year 9, after "It's Going Down."
“This is ridiculous.” Ahouva, pressed between Jovanna and Aeowyn on the lounge couch, shook her head again, staring at the upperclassmen. They had pushed all the furniture to the walls, clearing a wide space in the center of the room, and now Kendon and Jeremiah were talking, quietly and intently, in the middle of the space. To one side, Jeremiah’s creepy little girlfriend, Lolly, bounced up and down like a kid

“It seems kind of romantic to me,” Jovanna sighed.

“It has that façade, doesn’t it?” Aeowyn shook her head. “You’re right, Who, it’s creepy.”

“Kendon and I are fine,” Ahouva continued, too aggrieved to be sidetracked. “There’s nothing wrong with us, and this creep with his creepy girlfriend has to go and get medieval like I’m some sort of possession..”
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