I was always determined to write a female main character, and I like to thinks she's as far from a damsel in distress as you can get.
She's a strong woman.
Some novelists write characters that are based on themselves or based on someone in history. Joanna fits into neither of those two groups.
I wrote a guest post about how I constructed Joanna for the blog Drey's Library.
Read about how important flaws are to making her a real person:
http://www.dreyslibrary.com/2013/04/12/blog-tour-58-nancy-bilyeaus-the-chalice/
