Houston Author Talks About Importance of Writing Strong and Realistic Female Characters

Houston author JL Clark's love of writing shone through at an early age. As a fourth grader, her teacher took a short detective story she wrote and turned it into a printed book for her as a gift. This early encouragement — combined with her love of reading and telling stories — meant that she was destined to write.

Her passion lay in telling stories of worlds that only existed in her imagination and led her to publish Lilith Links, the first in a series called The Avalon Relics. The series focuses on the life of a young woman named Sophia Bennett, and it was important to Clark to make Sophia a strong — but real and relatable — female character.

Part of the reason for this is because, in her other life, Clark is a psychologist who specializes in child and adolescent psychiatry. She wanted to write a real and positive role model not only for her patients, but also for adolescent girls around the globe. And there was one other reason, which she explained to Houston Matters’ Edel Howlin.