1. Our 10-stop review tour begins July 15th. Hosted by Tribute Books, you can read the full schedule here and find out how to win $25 in an Amazon gift card or PayPal cash.

2. Check out the cover for Wasteland Renegades, (coming soon!), and you’ll have another chance at a $25 Amazon gift card. Just in time to re-stock your bookshelf for summer reading.

Now, back to our incredibly awesome Woman of Character already in progress…

I met Laura Lee Connery on a film set, of course. Canadian by birth, Laura Lee had been working as a stunt performer in LA for several years but had decided to move back home to Hollywood North. She was talented and determined, as were most Vancouver stunt women, but what I loved about Laura Lee was that as much as she loved her job (and she LOVES her job), she always maintained an appreciation for life off the film set and never sacrificed her own identity for success.

WWC: Welcome to the Warpworld Comms, Laura Lee! Thanks for taking some time away from hitting the ground to talk to us about what it means to be a strong Woman of Character. Can you tell us what project or accomplishment are you most proud of?

LAURA LEE: There are two I am most proud of. First, I represented Canada  at the ’95 Extreme Games, in Halfpipe Rollerblading, and I placed 3rd in the world. There were 6.3 million people around the world watching and right before my run I thought I was going to puke and pass out. I took a deep breathe in and went went for it. I did well. After that I felt like I could do anything.

Second, I won a World Stunt Award for Best Water Work on Jurassic Park 3. After years of hard work and big stunts I was being recognized by my peers.

WWC: Who were your heroes or role models when you were growing up?

LAURA LEE: Olympic Gymnast, Nadia Comaneci; I wanted to be just like her.  Also, my Dad, Brian Connery. In his day, he was a top gymnast and top spring board diver in Canada. Today, he is 75 and still skiing double black diamond runs and trekking the Himalayas. He is also a wonderful Dad. When I was growing up, we were always doing something in the mountains, so I never watched TV or saw a fashion magazine until I was 18.

WWC: Were there any times in your life where you felt you were either held back or discouraged from pursuing a goal because you were female?

LAURA LEE: Not as a child. My father never let me get away with playing the girl card. He always believed I could do things and pushed me to try and never let me give up. I developed a belief in myself from that experience.

Later on, when I first discovered stunts, I asked how to get into the business. I was indirectly told by a female stunt coordinator that I would never make it. This was almost 20 years ago when there were very few stunt women in Canada. I am defiant and thought, “Don’t tell me I can’t do something…I will show you”. When I won my stunt award I thought of her.

My female agent in LA told me I would never make it in stunts because I don’t have a “flirty” personality. Defiantly, I decided I needed to succeed based on skill, persistence, and determination. I trained my butt off.

WWC: And it shows! Do you have a favourite female character–either in books, television, or movies? What do you like about her?

LAURA LEE: Shirley Muldowney.  Although this character in the movie Heart Like A Wheel, is based on a real person, I admired what she did and accomplished.  Being a woman in the 1960’s, she was determined not to take no for an answer, and went on to be a top fuel drag racer in a field of only men.  She was the first woman to receive a license from the National Hot Rod Association to drive a Top Fuel dragster.  She was the first person to win two and three Top Fuel titles.

What I admire about her, was her ability to push through female stereotypes.

WWC: What do you think it means to be a “strong” woman?

LAURA LEE: A strong woman knows herself, believes in herself, and goes after what she wants. She takes action and pushes through the fear that holds so many of us back. She stays true to her values and expresses herself honestly and authentically.

WWC: What words of advice would you offer girls or young women today?

LAURA LEE: Follow your Heart.

[pullquote]The more you do the fearful/uncomfortable thing, the easier it becomes. Keep the goal in sight and be persistent.[/pullquote]

Really take a gook look at yourself and figure out what you want and what you love. Then go after it. Get a clear picture of your goals and the steps you need to take to achieve these goals, then take the steps. When fear comes up it is usually a fear of the unknown, so push through your comfort level and do the thing and it will become less fearful. The more you do the fearful/uncomfortable thing, the easier it becomes. Keep the goal in sight and be persistent.

WWC: What does the future hold for Laura Lee Connery?

Right now I am one of the top female stunt drivers, I hope to do this for years to come.

I have been challenging myself for years physically, now it is time to challenge myself emotionally – public speaking, for example. I would like to work on expressing myself better.

I have a dream of being a motivational speaker to inspire and encourage young girls to go after their dreams. I am not clear enough on this to call it a goal yet.

WWC: Here are a few clips of Laura Lee in action…

WWC: Well you’ve been an inspiration to me! Thanks so much for joining us Laura Lee, and we’ll look for you onscreen.

After completing highschool, Laura Lee moved to Vancouver, where she graduated with a degree in environmental studies. Always adventurous, she quickly became the Canadian National Champion in half-pipe rollerblading, and would go on to place 3rd in the world at the 95-97 X-Games. This experience took her to Los Angeles, where she discovered the world of stunts.

For five years, Laura Lee worked in LA, as a professional stunt performer on feature films and television. After meeting her best friend and partner, Canadian stuntman Duane Dickinson, she decided to move back home to Vancouver. Twelve years later, she continues to work there as a stunt performer.

Laura Lee’s extensive stunt resume includes films and TV series such as Twilight – New Moon, The Hulk, Jurassic Park 3, Smallville, Battlestar Galactica, and The X-Files. In 2002, she won a World Stunt Award for Best Underwater Work on Jurassic Park 3.  Over the last few years, Laura Lee has competed in Drifting, (a type of car racing), and now specializes in stunt driving.

In her free time, Laura Lee enjoys meditating, reading, traveling, walks with her dog, and spending time with friends and family. She has a special interest in Qigong, the Chinese practice of aligning breath, movement, and awareness for exercise, healing, and meditation.

You can find out more about Laura Lee at  www.lauraleeconnery.com

Thanks so much to all of our Women of Character who shared their stories with us. Are you a Woman of Character or do you know one? We’d love to hear from you.

Blood for water

~ Kristene

If you had been among the small group of neighbourhood boys with whom I played Star Wars, back in 1977, you would have heard this phrase a lot. We were, like most kids who were eight-years-old when Lucas’s opus came out, obsessed with Star Wars. For me, our re-creation of the world of Luke Skywalker was not just play, it was a portal to another dimension, a chance to become a swashbuckling space hero.

The only setback to playing Star Wars was that, as the group’s only female, I was always cast as Princess Leia when I really—I mean really, really, really, REALLY—wanted to be Han Solo.

Don’t get me wrong, Leia was great. She was spunky, intelligent, and ended up rescuing her rescuers with that crazy gargbage chute escape. (How was she supposed to know a tentacled monster lived down there, or that the walls would slowly start compacting the trash?) But let’s get real, Leia was a princess. She wore a dress (gown?), she pleaded to Obi Wan Kenobi for help, and she was selflessly devoted to her cause. Sharp tongue aside, Leia was about being good, pure, and sacrificing everything for the well being of others. As women are supposed to do.

Blech.

Okay, okay, I’m being a bit hard on her but I (really) wanted to be Han Solo. There were no female Han Solos out there. Have a look and then  tell me you don’t see the difference…

Compared to some of the other fictional role models out there, however, the difference between Han and Leia was minimal. I was a child of the 70’s and 80’s, which meant I grew up with sci-fi/fantasy images like this:

Occasionally, fictional females could be brave, intelligent, sassy, and strong, but they had to do all that behind the real heroes—the men. Even one of my all time fave TV shows, Battlestar Galactica was not immune to this.

Or, females could be the heroes, but they also had to be really pretty and wear dresses and makeup and have awesome hair. They usually had a male overseeing them, too. Why? Because they were women. Duh.

It wasn’t until the late 80’s that fictional female heroes who didn’t conform to the stereotypes started to show up on my radar. I will never forget this moment:

More and more, fictional females would start taking the lead. Some would even replace their former male counterparts.

When I created the character of Ama Kalder, for Warpworld, I wanted her to be the kind of woman eight-year-old me would have been happy to play. Because of that, Ama swears, she drinks, she fights, she can’t cook worth beans, she hates dresses, she has her own boat, and she wants to do whatever the men do, no matter what anyone else thinks of that. Eight-year-old me would have loved Ama, I bet some of the boys would have wanted to play her, too.

Ama is not invincible. She’s also not a man loosely disguised as a woman, an important distinction. Nothing irks me more than the idea that in order to be a kick-ass hero a female character must rid herself of all female traits.

As the second book in the Warpworld series, Wasteland Renegades, undergoes the final polish before publication, I’ve been thinking about what makes a woman strong, both in fiction and in real life. In Wasteland Renegades, Ama’s independent and rebellious nature gets her into all kinds of trouble, and her strength is tested in a way she could have never prepared for. I think for most of us, women and men alike, we only find out how strong we really are when things are at their worst. Sometimes strength is standing fist-to-fist with an enemy, but sometimes it’s just holding on when the world tries to break you in hundreds of small ways.

Through my adult life, I’ve been lucky to connect with, and be inspired by, a whole crew of strong women. These gutsy females are leaders, adventurers, entrepreneurs, risk takers, humanitarians, and, in all cases, have taken the road less traveled. They live in every corner of the world and are all ages. They have been, and continue to be, my Han Solos.

Over the next few weeks, I’m going to share some of these amazing Women of Character, their stories and their words of wisdom with you. If you’ve got a Woman of Character story of your own, please share it with us. You never know who you might inspire.

As Han would say…

“Here’s where the fun begins.”

~Kristene