I decided to do this because I noticed that a lot of the authors I read are male, and as good as most of them are, there is a distinct lack of strong female characters and quite frankly I'm tired of it.
When I was a kid I read Tamora Pierce's "Song of the Lioness" quartet over and over again, purely because I saw both myself as I was then and the person I wanted to become in Alanna - in a lot of ways, she was like me as a kid (bad temper, inferiority complex, etc.), but with the strength and the guts not to give up and to fight on to become a person worthy of respect.
But Alanna was it. I devoured the rest of Tamora Pierce's Tortall books looking for more characters like Alanna, but I didn't find them because Tamora Pierce doesn't simply repeat the same character over and over again as her protagonist - it makes her a better author, but it disappointed me as a kid. Unfortunately, however, everywhere else I looked fell markedly short of having decent female characters that I, as a girl living in the 20th century, could relate to.
And I'm still lacking in strong female characters. So I'm turning to female authors in the hopes of uncovering more of them.
The first book I've picked up specifically with this in mind is "Empress" by Karen Miller. Regardless of how the character Hekat turns out, I will be reading more of Karen Miller's work purely for the beautiful fluidity of the text; reading "Empress" is like listening to someone tell a story in an unfamiliar dialect of a familiar language, where there is nothing to stop you listening to and understanding the words, but you still find yourself hearing many more unexpected layers of meaning than are first apparent. There's a richness to the text that's just lovely to read.
Where I go after Karen Miller, I'm not sure. But then part of my decision to go for female authors is to prompt me into trying new things, and not just sticking with authors I've read before, so yeah. We shall see. :D
Edit: I really shouldn't look at Amazon. I want to buy the PS1 original versions of FF7 and FF8 now. (I have PC adaptations, which I have managed to get to work with Vista, but it's only a matter of time before Vista borks them in some way.) ::bites nails:: Have no money. Must not purchase.
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I haven't read fantasy in years. I stopped being able to take the majority of what I was reading seriously and couldn't find anything as good as what I'd fallen in love with initially. A dearth of good recs, in retrospect. If I can cogitate any up, I'll pass them your way.
Or is this female authors/characters in general? I'll think about it in the morning when I'm awake.
Someone not liking the Tortall books = no comprende. I reread them recently and they're just as good as I remembered - quite a feat considering how awful my taste was as a kid.
WRT to genres: I do tend towards fantasy, but I will read pretty much anything - even romance novels, although if I'm looking for strong female characters I think I might have my work cut out for me. I did stop reading fantasy for a while for the same reason as you, it seems; it is all too easy to have the smallest detail throw you out of a fantasy world, and then that just ruins the rest of the story. If you ever feel like getting back into fantasy, though, try "The Lies of Locke Lamora" by Scott Lynch; I got hooked when I read the first page and luckily the rest of the book was like that too, so if you like what you read on the first page you should like the rest of it.
If you can think of any recs when you're awake, preferably for female authors but I'll take strong female characters by men, too, I'd love to hear them!