The Wickedly Wicked Life of Women: From Classic Lit to Chick Lit

     While I’ve been working on a novel for NaNoWriMO, I’ve found myself doing research on evil mothers and evil women, in general in literature. What is it about fairy tales, fiction and chick lit that readers love a good female villain? Some people call them strong, diabolical or jealous and probably, most recently, “bitch” captures all these words into one modern meaning of the femme fatale. Just for fun, I thought I’d compile a liset of all the Evil Women who we love to hate (and some we’ve even grown to love) from Grimm’s Fairy Tales to contemporary Chick Lit:

Wicked Witch of the West - The Wizard of Oz by Frank Baum

The Stepmother – Hansel & Gretel; Cinderella; Snow White all by Brothers Grimm

Maleficient – Sleeping Beauty by Phillip Margolin

Lady MacBeth – MacBeth by William Shakespeare

Goneril & Regan – King Lear by William Shakespeare

Nurse Ratched – One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey

Corinne Dollanganger – Flowers in the Attic by V.C. Andrews

Cruella de Vil ¬– 101 Dalmatians by Dodie Smith

Queen of Hearts – Alice in Wonderland ¬by Lewis Carroll

Miss Trunchbull – Matilda by Roald Dahl

Miranda Priestley – The Devil Wears of Prada by Lauren Weisberger*

Vivian Grant – Because She Can by Bridie Clark*

Mrs. X –The Nanny Diaries & The Nanny Returns by Emma McLaughlin & Nicola Kraus*

Sidra DeSimon – How to Sleep with a Movie Star by Kristin Harmel*

*Chick Lit “Evil at Work” characters adapted from the Chick Lit Club, Retrieved at http://chicklitclub.com/top10evilatwork.html on November 19, 2010

     Fascinated by the concept of the evil female villain, myself, I am working on adding my own femme fatale to the growing list of chick lit antagonists. Taking key components from many varieties of the story of Cinderella and modern elements of chick lit and contemporary fiction, I hope one day Ms. Marguerite of The Cinderella Complex will one day make it on one of the lists. She is an evil woman, not unlike the evil stepmothers of preceding literature who antagonizes my leading heroine at every step of her journey to independence.

Who did I forget? Let me know. I’d love to hear it! Post your favorite evil women from chick lit or anywhere in the media.

Wish Upon A Star: Not Just a Blog Title

where you wish upon a star.....

My blog title comes from a dream, a wish and a combination of sayings....I wanted to create a blog that followed me on one (or even many) dreams throughout my life. Currently, one of my focuses is on my dream of becoming a published chick lit author. This blog follows me on that journey...as I wish upon my own star...along the way I read a lot of chick lit novels. I review a lot of chick lit books and audio books and I share little snippets from my day that makes everything personal and unique about my wish.

As someone who loves writing (and also a good play on words), I considered various literary terms and famous quotes for my blog address. I thought about my favorite stories as a child and how they often had two things in common: 1.) they always seemed to "live happily ever after" and 2.) they began "once upon a time"....From there, my train of thought moved onto fairy tales and then to Walt Disney...and that's when I heard the tune to "When you wish upon a star" playing in my head.....how can I make it my own? even just a little? Hmmm....I pictured the little cartoon, Jiminy Cricket...I envisioned people clicking on their mouse to visit my blog.....and I pictured bright, twinkling stars over a blue sky...and so it came to be:

where you wish upon a star: a place where I can share my dream of becoming a chick lit author and the journey I take to get there...

more and more elements became intertwined as I've continued writing in this blog, mostly including stars, dreams and anything chick lit...

"The Only Requirement of having a Dream is Believing In It" ~ Molly Barker