"My early morning sojourn to the morgue has left me exhausted. I get out of the car cradling a Timothy's Emporium bag that contains a large coffee and two bagels with Taylor ham and egg. I'm starving." *

My character PI Cate Harlow eats. I mean really eats; normal food like pizza, panini, and pasta. And she likes her Merlot too. Add to that she’s got a damned good sex life with her ex-husband, a hot charming NYPD detective. I wrote her that way because she is a normal, healthy woman and normal, healthy women eat, drink wine and enjoy sex. On top of that she’s a top-notch private investigator who tells her clients, “Trust me, I’m very good at what I do.” That’s my girl!

With all the hype over Sports Illustrated finally putting plus-size, (they say plus-size, most women say normal-size), model Ashley Graham in a bikini within the pages of their magazine, it may be time to note that many female characters in fiction would simply say it was about time. They would probably add that it should have been done well before now. Real women, real food, real bodies.

Truthfully I have never read a book where the male and female characters go out to eat and all the woman orders is a diet soda. They both eat and eat well. I like that. 

The thing is that the female characters in popular books are not exactly following the road to diet Hell and they never have. If they work out it’s to maintain a body that can do the job it needs to do. In Cate’s case, she plays tennis to strengthen her legs and stamina so she is able to outrun the bad guys and to physically defend herself when necessary. She doesn’t worry if her body fits the stereotype of what’s acceptable today and she’s not the only one.

Sara Parestsky writes her character of V.I. Warshawski as a woman who drinks Johnny Walker Black Label, and definitely enjoys a good meal. V.I. keeps herself in shape, (she runs) and, like Cate Harlow, packs a pistol. Thankfully the fictional female character has been coming into her own for quite a few years. Society needs to play catch-up.

Several years ago, a new genre in romance as well as some crime /thriller books featuring what some publishers refer to as “plus-size heroines” was born. Women readers were tired of swooning, starving women to whom they could not relate. No one really wants to read, “John put his strong, muscular arm around Jane’s tiny waist to keep her from falling to the floor in a faint.” Of course, to be fair, with all the fainting and everything, she may just not have time to eat and that can account for a tiny waist. But seriously, why should John be the strong character and not Jane? I say we give Jane a good dinner and a glass of wine. Even Scarlett O’Hara, a woman with the fabled corseted 17-inch waist, liked to eat and imbibe.

Most women are, in reality, larger than size eight, let alone a size zero. Shouldn’t our fictional women reflect that? When the statement was made that Cate Harlow wore a size eight and a half shoe my publisher asked if I would change that shoe size to a size six. When I asked why he said, “Well, a size six just sounds dainty.” Needless to say, I did not change her shoe size.

Frankly, society is never happy about a woman’s shape, even if that woman is fictional. If there’s not too much meat on the bones, there’s not enough. If there’s “a bit more” she needs to traverse diet hell, and if the weight is right, society will see the measurements somehow are not. Real women deserve to take the lead in literature and be the strong protagonist. As authors, we can take that lead and facilitate that change.

I will continue to write my female characters as strong and representative of real women. Cate will continue to eat, grab that bottle of Merlot, and keep herself strong. I will also continue to read authors who have strong relatable female protagonists and encourage readers to do the same.

Real women do eat real food and so do fictional ones. And I for one say, it’s about time.

*Excerpt from Sins of the Fathers, © 2014 copyright Kristen Houghton all rights reserved.

Kristen Houghton's new novel, DO UNTO OTHERS, book 4 in her best-selling series, A Cate Harlow Private Investigation is available at all book venues.

Published both traditionally and independently, she is the author of nine top-selling novels and is hard at work on a new series that features a paranormal investigator with distinct powers of her own. Houghton is also the author of two non-fiction books and a collection of short stories.