Lorenda Christensen's Blog, page 11

Let’s Talk about Sports Romances, Baby!

In today’s blog we’ll sit in on a conversation between two Firebirds talking about the combination of two of their favorite topics: romance novels and sports.  Let’s see what Jamie Wesley and Priscilla Kissinger have to say…

Jamie: Honestly, my favorite, but also the very first sports romance I ever read, I read in 1994. At that time I didn’t even know there was such a thing as sports romance. Loved sports, loved romance. But it never occurred to me to merge the two. Because on the surface they’re very, very different.

My mom took me to the book store. Remember those? Anyway, I was browsing the romance aisle and picked up one that caught my eye. I flipped it over to read the blurb. It was about a woman whose dad died and she’s now the new owner of the Chicago Stars professional football team.

The heroine falls in love with the coach of the team. The title of that book was It Had to be You by Susan Elizabeth Phillips.

 And my life was changed forever. I loved that she was writing about sports in a romance novel.

Priscilla: I’m ashamed to admit that I haven’t read It Had to be You. I started SEP’s Chicago Stars series with Nobody’s Baby’s But Mine, book #3, and just never went back to read the first two. But SEP did a great job introducing characters from previous books and weaving it all in neatly so I never felt like I had missed anything by starting with #3. The writing was so good, I instantly fell in love with the team, and the extended characters involved with the team, like a sports agent.

Jamie: I totally agree.

Priscilla: Similar to you, I grew up watching sports and loving sports. And it’s just a natural part of my life.  To find a book that combines the sports world I’m crazy about and the romance world that I’m drawn to emotionally was enlightening. It’s hard for me to say which Chicago Stars book is my absolute favorite because really I love them all and have most of them on my Keeper Shelf.

At this point in the conversation, Jamie started looking into SEP’s website, and we got completely sidetracked going over the book titles, reminiscing about beloved characters, etc. Proof of how attached we both are to this series. But with a little nudging we got back to the topic.

Jamie: Another one of my favorite sports romance authors is Rachel Gibson who writes a series of hockey books.  She published her first hockey book in 1998, which meant there was a four-year gap between SEP’s first book and Rachel’s book. It also shows how unusual sports romance books were back then.

Priscilla:  During that time, unpublished authors were told not to write about the sports world or a sports hero because it wouldn’t sell. But SEP and Gibson were selling. Was it because readers didn’t want more of the subgenre or was it that publishers simply didn’t want to buy more?

Jamie: Well, I could see a publisher possibly saying, “Well, we already have our sports romance author, so that niche is filled.”

Priscilla: Or, were publishers not seeing any other manuscripts of the same caliber of SEP and Gibson so they didn’t have any to buy? Who knows?

Jamie: You know the first romance I ever wrote has a sports hero. Now, it’s my first book so it needs a lot of work and may never see the light of day. But when I started writing it I didn’t know about all those rules. I simply thought “why wouldn’t I write about sports?”

Priscilla: When I started writing and as I learned more about our industry via RWA, I heard about the rule. So, being a rule follower rather than a rule breaker, I’ve never written a novel with a sport hero.

Jamie: I’m a rule follower, but my mindset isn’t that I’m breaking a rule, but rather, if I like it, then there’s probably others out there that will like it, too.

Priscilla: That’s a great mindset! One of my critique partners in my MFA program, Katie Kenyhercz, has a series out now featuring a fictional NHL team in Las Vegas. They’re great reads and she’s doing well with them. I’ve always wanted to write about a Latino baseball player.

Jamie: To that I say, go ahead and write your Latino baseball player. Because the world wants it! Just don’t make him like Alex Rodriguez!

Priscilla: HAHA! No way!

Which created another sidetrack conversation about baseball, Mike and Mike (an ESPN Radio talk show), and Jamie’s long ago and long dead crush on Alex. Priscilla made it clear that she’s never had a crush on A-Rod, but could there have been another MLB player crush? She wasn’t telling. 

Eventually they got back to writing, with Priscilla asking Jamie about any updates on her writing journey.

Jamie: Yes, I sold to Entangled!

Priscilla: And is there a sports theme involved in this book?

Jamie: It’s sport-ish. The hero isn’t an athlete, but he is a sports radio host—like Mike and Mike!

Priscilla: Oh, that’s awesome. I listen them every morning getting ready for and driving to work. I’m working on revisions for my agent, but there isn’t anything sport-like in this manuscript. I’m brainstorming a new series and I’m thinking there will be some type of sports—even if it just involves a local softball team. J

Oh my gosh, look at the time! Somehow we’ve managed to talk for nearly an hour. That’s what happens when you get two sports crazy and romance-lovin’ writers together on the phone.

Before we head out, we’d like to know: What about you guys? What’s your favorite sports romance? Is there a series or a sports romance writer we haven’t mentioned that you’d recommend? We’re both always looking for a great sports romance book to read!

 And if you’re not into sports, is there some other niche or professional field you’d like to see more of in the romances you read and write?

Enquiring minds wanna know! 

 

 

Breaking Out of My Comfort Zone – Can I Do It?

I’m a creature of habit. I like to eat the same things, watch the same TV shows, shop in the same stores, visit the same websites every day. You get the idea.

When it comes to my reading habits, I’m no different. Obviously, I love romance, but more specifically I love contemporary romance. Ever since I discovered romance twenty years ago, it’s been my preferred subgenre.

But I wasn’t always so narrow in my reading. When I was a kid, I was in love with The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe. Now, when I think about reading fantasy novels, I’m like, “Umm…I don’t know about that.” Granted, some of my reticence can be attributed to evolving tastes. There’s no rule that says you have to always like the same things forever and ever. And there’s no question that the most joy I get from romance novels comes from watching two people fall in love. I don’t need dead bodies or supernatural creatures to make the book interesting to me.

On the other hand, there’s a whole world of romance I don’t partake in as much as I used to. People who know how much I love contemporary romance are kinda shocked when I tell them that Shannon McKenna is my crack. She writes romantic suspense, and I’ve read everything she’s ever written. Back in the 90s before her publisher/legal woes, I goggled up everything Dara Joy wrote. I guess her books can be characterized as futuristic/paranormal romance. But if she were to publish those same books today, the odds of me checking them out are slim to none.

That’s a long-winded way to say I’d like to diversify my reading. Two years ago, when I first realized I should branch out, I read the first Harry Potter book. I read the second one last year, and currently have the third one checked out of the library. At this rate, I’ll be done by 2018. Lol.

More proof of my lack of diversity: out of the 50 books I read last year, 2 were young adult, 2 paranormal, 1 historical, and 5 romantic suspense. Everything else was contemporary. A few of the contemporary novels were erotic, which definitely deserves its own category, but they were still contemporary.

I could read mostly contemporary romance for the rest of my life and be okay, but I know there’s a whole world of romance (and non-romance) I’m missing out on. Maybe I’ll discover an author and/or a series that will make me fall in love and slap myself for not trying it earlier. I suspect I will and there’s only one way to find out – by taking some chances on what I choose to read.

Therefore, I’m more determined than ever to read different types of books in 2014. Keep your fingers crossed that I can stick to it. I am a creature of habit, after all.

Do you like to stick with what you know and love or do you like to branch out? What are your genre ratios in reading? Got any good recommendations (that aren’t contemporary romance) for me?

AND . . . CUT!

Wayward words are hiding on your pages…..

 Every writer overwrites. Yes, it’s true. All of us have to attack our babies…er…manuscripts with a sharp eye for wayward words defying the delete key. Now these wayward words are allowed freedom on the page until the story is written, the second and maybe even the third draft, is complete. At that point, it’s time to stare at the manuscript’s word-count and accept the glaring numbers with a groan. You’re over the accepted limit for your genre. What do you do?

You cut. But…but…here come the excuses –

“My plot will suffer.”  No, it won’t.

“If I cut a scene, the story will fall like dominos. Be a mess on the screen.” Nope, that won’t happen, either.

So, what do you do? You focus on finding and deleting those wayward words and phrases that aren’t necessary to your story.

 How do you do it? By making a plan—start with the big picture and narrow your focus.

–Look at the overall story line and keep it focused. How? Focus the story on the major elements of the genre you chose. Remember, your readers are picking up your book because it falls in a genre they love reading. Give them what they want.

 –Follow the main character[s] storyline all the way through the book. If there are too many gaps between their scenes and the secondary scenes, then cut back on some of the secondary issues.

 –Cut an entire subplot, especially if you have two of them when going after major word counts.

–Sometimes, the tone of the story loses its impact when there is too much going on. We don’t always see that there is too much story and it’s diluting the overall picture.

 –Trim all description.

 –Make scenes do double and triple duty by combining locations, characters and dialogue if possible.

  –Trim every extra word that’s unnecessary in a sentence. This can amount to a lot of words. Do a search and replace for—just, really, very, honestly, both, that, about, sort of—for a few examples.

 Below, I’ve added some links for other ways to trim those wayward words.

http://fantasy-faction.com/2011/cutting-the-flab-eliminate-extraneous-words

http://www.rachellegardner.com/2012/04/how-to-cut-thousands-of-words/

http://rebeccabelliston.wordpress.com/2013/01/16/writing-tip-5-trim-the-fat-and-cut-the-easy-stuff/

http://editorialass.blogspot.com/2009/11/writer-question-how-do-i-cut-text-from.html 

Those are a few ways to grab your manuscript and shake out the chaff. How do you cut, chop, delete when the word count has grown beyond the margins?

Science Fiction for Romance Lovers

Romance lovers, I think, tend to be more interested in reading about people than about technology, which may lead some of us to shy away from science fiction.  Not me–I’ve been a science fiction fan far longer than I’ve been reading romance.  Many science fiction authors write as much about people and their relationships as they do about spaceships, computers, and laser cannon. 

I’m not talking about Science Fiction Romance, which deserves another post to itself, but about writers who identify solidly with science fiction.  It won’t surprise you to hear that the five authors I’d like to recommend are women.  I readily confess that I don’t have nearly as much time to read as I did years ago, so I’m undoubtedly missing some newer writers.  

I fell in love with Anne McCaffrey’s Dragon Riders of Pern series when the first novel, Dragonflight, came out in 1968.  In fact, I wore my paperback copies of the first novels out and splurged to replace them with hardbacks (still on my shelf) when they were reprinted.  Pern is a Lost Colony, and the books cover centuries of its history, including the romantic entanglements of its inhabitants, both human and dragon.  Yes, of course, dragons–not shapeshifters, but telepathically bonded to their human riders (causing interesting complications when the dragons mate) and the essential factor in the survival of civilization.  The novels were not written in internal chronological order–I’d suggest starting with Dragonflight.

 McCaffrey also wrote several other series, some with collaborators.  The Freedom’s Landing series is my favorite of the others, but they all tend to include romantic subplots.  McCaffrey’s son Todd inherited Pern at her death and has continued the series. 

Marion Zimmer Bradley’s Darkover is another Lost Colony, although in the later installments in this long series the Rediscovery by the Terran Empire adds new layers of conflict.  The paranormal element in this series is the telepathic power with which the ruling class maintains its position, and the many novels follow the relationships and fortunes of several families.  The series ranges from short novels written as paperback originals in the late 1950s to complex trilogies written in the 1990s.  After Bradley’s death in 1999, her collaborator Deborah Ross has continued the chronicles of Darkover.  

Lois McMaster Bujold’s Vorkosigan series often does involve space ships, scattered as it is over a wide-spread human civilization, but it centers on the adventures, romantic and otherwise, of Miles Vorkosigan and his family.  Shards of Honor and Barrayar include the courtship of Miles’ parents, who meet as officers on opposite sides of an interplanetary war, while in A Civil Campaign we find Miles himself finally ready to settle down and court a charming young widow.  There’s plenty of action, both military and interpersonal, in the rest of the series.  Bujold also writes award-winning fantasy. 

While McCaffrey, Bradley and Bujold are long-standing favorites of mine, Naomi Novik’s Temeraire series is a more recent discovery, beginning with His Majesty’s Dragon (2006).  Yes, dragons again, telepathic, intelligent, and bonded with their partners.  But this is an alternate history series, in which His Majesty’s Aerial Corps fights the Napoleonic Wars on board enormous dragons, led by Temeraire, the rare black dragon, and his pilot Captain Will Laurence, who was perfectly happy as a Naval officer until the dragon’s egg he was transporting hatched unexpectedly.  Thanks to one species of dragon which will only bond with female pilots, there are a few women maintaining a low profile in the Aerial Corps, an interesting challenge given the early nineteenth century social structure.  I love these books. 

I’m not sure how to categorize Gail Carriger’s Parasol Protectorate series, but since I got the omnibus edition (there are five novels) from the Science Fiction Book Club, I’m going with it.  These novels blend the paranormal (werewolves, vampires and ghosts), alternate history, steampunk (mechanical ladybugs!), and romance (ah, that alpha werewolf).  I’ve only read the first novel, Soulless, which is definitely a romance, but my friend who carefully avoids paranormal gobbled up all five in a row.

 I have novels from all of these series on my totally-out-of-control shelves of books To Be Read, and the ones I have read remain on my keeper shelves.  But I’m always up for something new, so if you have favorite science fiction titles or authors, please share!

Winner Winner!

I am happy to report that the winner from my blog on Friday is the one and only Robena Grant! Congratulations, Robena. If you’ll email me at Terri@TerriOsburn.com we’ll get you all squared away.

Thanks to everyone who came out to play on Friday. It was the perfect way to kick off the Belated Blog Tour.

I Never Meant For This To Happen

When I started writing the first book in the Anchor Island Series, MEANT TO BE, there were a lot of things I didn’t know. For one, that there would be an Anchor Island Series. When I wrote the book, everything happened on the real live Ocracoke Island, NC. I knew pretty early in the writing that Sid and Lucas would get their own story (UP TO THE CHALLENGE.) I also knew by the end that Will and Randy would as well (HOME TO STAY – April 2014.)

And that’s all I had. I didn’t know the struggle to bring tourism back to Anchor would be a theme throughout all of the books. I didn’t know when I off-handedly mentioned Sam Edwards in the early parts of MEANT TO BE that three years later he would be the hero of book 4 (MORE TO GIVE – Fall 2014.) Heck, I didn’t even fathom there would be a book 4.

For me, this is what makes a series so fun. The surprises. The way a story and setting can take on a life of their own. The characters become our friends. We root for them, laugh and cry with them, and miss them terribly once their book is over. They linger in our minds and we want to visit them again. See what they’re doing. How that HEA is progressing.

With series, we get to do that. We don’t have to say goodbye forever. (Though re-reading allows us to visit our favorite places any time we want, it’s nice to get new stories, too.) Many moons ago, I found a book by Jo Beverly in a used book store. Somewhere around the halfway point I realized the book was the fourth or fifth in a series. 

The hunt was on. 

It was her Company of Rogues series, which if you know those books you know is very long. Luckily, I got in relatively early, but I probably spent a good decade or more following those characters.

The really fun part? She has another in the series coming out this year! (A SHOCKING DELIGHT – April 2014) That’s a twenty-three year span, and readers still clamor for more. That’s a power that’s hard to beat.

So let’s talk series. Love ‘em or hate ‘em? (I admit, if I find a book that is 4th in a series now, I might be less inclined to make the commitment.) What are your favorites? Let’s add to our TBR lists. One lucky commenter will receive a kindle copy of UP TO THE CHALLENGE!

Terri Osburn is the Amazon and Wall Street Journal bestselling author of the Anchor Island Series. Find out more about the author and her books at www.terriosburn.com.

BONUS: This blog stop is the kick off to my Belated Blog Tour for UP TO THE CHALLENGE. As part of the tour, I’m giving away a new Kindle along with an Amazon gift card. To get yourself in the running, enter through the Rafflecopter widget on my website here!

 

Home To Stay

Kat Cantrell’s Book Birthday Party

Kat Cantrell is having ANOTHER Book Birthday Party!!

 

Hi everyone, Happy New Year and thanks for joining me in celebrating Kat’s newest book birthday for her novel, Pregnant by Morning.  She has become quite the book procreator!

 

Amazon Link:  http://tinyurl.com/me4vcr6

 

Here’s the back cover blurb that will make you want to own a copy today!

One magical night in Venice brings two lost souls together…until a positive pregnancy test changes everything.

What was meant to be a one-night affair has turned into much more for Texas businessman Matthew Wheeler. Something about Evangeline, the mysterious woman he met at a masquerade ball, propels him from his self-imposed exile. He’s finally able to forget his tragic past and lose himself in this incredible woman.

But letting go has a price.

Evangeline’s pregnancy announcement brings reality to their Venetian villa. Are they ready to take their secret affair public? Or will their romance end with the morning light?

 Congrats, on your latest release, Kat! I loved that Pregnant by Morning is set during Carnevale in Venice! Italy is one of my favorite places on earth. Was your research based on any great memories of visiting in the past? Any hot Italian guys involved? We require deets and photos, please!

Italy is amazing! Venice is my favorite city in the world and though I visited it many years ago, it’s always lived in my memory. I knew I’d eventually set a book there. I wish I had some juicy deets, but I visited with my sister and it was just us girls! We had so much fun. In lieu of pictures from my own visit, here are some of a real palazzo which inspired the one Matthew buys in the book.

 

 

You described this setting so well, it feels like I’ve been a frequent visitor to this palazzo. (I wish! Especially if it came with Matthew cooking one of his many dishes for me. )

Speaking of hunky heroes who cook, this book is Matthew’s story, a character from your very first published book, Marriage With Benefits. Did your readers ask for his story to be told, or did that hunky Matthew guy pitch a tent in your brain and make annoying campfires until you finally told his tale?  

Both. I knew I wanted to write his story the moment he announced to Lucas (his brother) that he had to leave. But contractual obligations prevented me from getting to it right away and boy, did readers let me have it! I lost count of the number of readers who asked, “Where’s Matthew’s book??” It’s here, ya’ll!

I loved Evangeline’s backstory. A beautiful, world renowned vocalist, who after botched throat surgery wakes up unable to ever sing again.  How did you come up with this great story idea?

Great question. I read about how Adele had throat surgery and I thought, “Wouldn’t it suck if they messed it up and she couldn’t sing anymore? What would she do then?” I had to know the answer to these questions. Voila. Evangeline was born. And boy, was she destroyed when she lost her voice…

So, this makes book number five now right? Or is that six, if we include the paranormal? You’ve been one busy gal! And perhaps a bit wishy-washy when it comes to choosing a genre–is that a sign of schizophrenia, or just being a well-rounded person?  How do you find the time to write so many books a year while holding down full-time jobs as wife, mother and worker outside the home?

I can’t imagine why you’d be confused. Matthew and Evangeline’s book is my fifth on the shelf; fourth with Harlequin Desire. Carina published my paranormal, Mindlink, which was so fun to write but so involved! It took me two years to write and I couldn’t have done it while holding down a job. Fortunately, I was able to take some time off to be a stay at home mom, but now that I’m back in an evil day job, there will be no more paranormals for a while unfortunately. *cue sad face* Maybe one day. And yes, trying to do multi-genres means there’s something wrong with me. LOL

Clearly this book involves pregnancy. (Due to Matthew’s and Evangeline’s inability to keep their hands off each other because they are both too sexy for their shirts, pants and dresses!)  While the love scenes are hot, this is a Harlequin Desire after all, I felt they were very emotionally charged. And the language not as explicit as some might expect. Do you find writing the smexy scenes to be fun, or are they tough to do? (Personally, they are not my favorite and are ALWAYS better after indulging in alcohol

Ha! Yes, the title made the surprise pregnancy not so surprising. Desire is more about emotions than anything, which is why I love writing them! But I will admit the scenes are difficult to write and only get more difficult. I don’t like to be repetitive so the only solution is to make the physical side of the relationship match the emotional side, which changes from book to book. It’s never “just physical”; the scenes tie to the character’s journey. Then it doesn’t feel so mechanical, you know?

Yes, and you do it incredibly well!

Kat, I’m a big fan of yours! What else are you writing for all of us to enjoy?

Aww. You’re so sweet. I’m glad you asked! I have a back-to-back trilogy coming in July. The series is called Happily Every After, Inc., about a matchmaker who does makeovers on her female clients. The first book, Matched to a Billionaire, is a marriage of convenience story in which our hero finds his match is anything but the easy-to-ignore wife he expected. I can’t wait to share this story with readers!

 

Kat read her first Harlequin novel in third grade and has been scribbling in notebooks since she learned to spell. What else would she write but romance? When she’s not writing about characters on the journey to happily ever after, she can be found at a soccer game, watching Friends or dancing with her kids to Duran Duran and Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Visit Kat online at katcantrell.com       

Sign up for my newsletter here!

 

 

Answer the survey question below and you’ll be entered to win a print copy of Pregnant by Morning (United States Only)  Just click on the  link and vote for your favorite kind of hero. (But we’d love if you left a comment below as well, just so we can say thanks for stopping by!)

 

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Going Dark. When it comes to heroes , how far should you go in giving them a dark side?

Lee Child, writer of the Jack Reacher novels, said recently in a radio interview that he believes the reason so many of his readers are women was that Jack Reacher has a ‘feminine emotional intelligence.’  Reacher conducts relationships in a way that women understand, relate to and can trust.  That last word is the clincher for me.  Dark, brooding, devilish he may be but a good hero is fundamentally trustable. 

In a way, I’ve come straight to my punch line. While I enjoy a hero who is complex, perhaps even capable of extreme behaviour, I need to feel that as I fall under his spell, I can safely invest my emotions.  I won’t feel let down at the end.  If a hero can’t offer this emotional fulfillment, I’m not reading romance, I’m reading a different kind of novel.

Romance is  escape – we know that whether we write it or read it or both.  As life meanders on in its perplexing fashion, delivering its horse droppings wrapped up in shiny paper, we like to be reminded that there are such things as joy and happy endings.   Heroines have their psychological dilemmas to work through alongside the external, physical ones.   And the heroes . . . well, on top of being desirable and attractive, they often represent the side of human nature the heroine is trying to confront or perhaps, to avoid at all costs.  By default, heroes are often ‘the dark side.’  In my historical novel, The Dress Thief, my lead character Alix falls for a man, Verrian Haviland, who insists she confronts her shadowy past and the reality of war in Europe, when in fact, she’d rather dress up and pretend nothing bad was happening.  With her abiding fear of abandonment, loving Verrian means loving a man who leaves her to fight what he considers a necessary war.  (Hint: he comes back.  I know HEA doesn’t stand for He Ends Awfully). Verrian’s dark side is that he doesn’t gratify his girl’s need for security. He makes her grow up.

At the heart of a good romance is the notion that beyond the pain and rejection of the present lies the hope of happiness.  And being happy, according to Plato, is the common desire of all humanity, and I’m not arguing with Plato!   Given that we sometimes like to create heroes who are challenging, damaged or who exist outside society’s norms, how dark can we go?   Well, these days I think, pretty dark.  Jon Hamm as Don Draper in Mad Men wades in obsidian waters with his drinking and womanising.  He is hard and callous at times; think how he turned his back on the gay character Salvatore Romano, or refused to forgive British character Lane Pryce his paltry embezzlement, driving the poor fellow to suicide.  I reckon that twenty years ago, a character such as Don Draper might have existed in popular media, but he wouldn’t have been allowed to survive and prosper.  (Note, I’ve only watched up to series 5, so no sneaking in and telling me how he ends up ).   Today, with our more fluid moral codes, we love Don. Well, I do–  though I’d hide his cigarettes.

So what is dark, exactly?  Well, here’s a couple of lists.  The following manly vices are not dark, or IMO, not dark to the point where we’d give up liking the man:

Drinking

Smoking  

Driving a performance car, too fast

Notching up sexual encounters in youth

Being divorced

Experimenting with drugs when young and unfettered

Fancying the pants off the heroine, while having no intention of a long term relationship (Until chapter three, anyway)

Serial monogamy (terms and conditions apply)

Causing death, injury to others, brawling, firing a gun, doing time in prison (terms and conditions, ditto)

 

These vices are, IMO, too dark to make you care for the man.

Getting drunk and violent, with no intention of stopping

Smoking with kids in the room (Hey, they’ll find a cure for cancer by the time junior’s grown up!!)

Driving a performance car, too fast, without concern for other road uses, or small, furry creatures.

Still notching up youthful sexual encounters when old enough to know better

Being divorced because he was a grade II, gold plated sh*t to his ex. Add to his, leaving his kids because he can’t deal with commitment

Still taking drugs while old enough to know better, doing a bit of dealing

Fancying the pants off the heroine, with no intention of a long term relationship long past chapter three

Serial monogamy, with emphasis on serial.

Causing death, injury either for self-gratification or reckless stupidity.  Being in prison for same.

 

The difference between the two lists is form one stuff.  List one describes a person with human failings that are redeemable and in some cases admirable.  A soldier fighting for his (or her) country against an oppressive foe can be on the side of the angels.  That same soldier coming home and getting into bar fights, taking on loudmouths and bullies, has us rooting for him.   He may end up in jail, but we know he’s sound at heart.  List two describes schmucks and losers.  The sort of men you’d warn your daughter off, or if you’re young enough to be my daughter, I’d warn you off.

 

And that, I think, is clincher #2.   Paint your hero as dark as you like.  Make him flawed, testosterone fuelled, overly blunt, nay, rude.  A risk-freak, even a recreational drug user but if we’re going to care for him, his baseline must be trustable and moral.  I mean, apart from Jon Hamm’s mesmerising good looks, why do we go back for more?  Thinking about it, the one thing for me that makes Don Draper worth emotional investment is that he loves his children and in spite of everything, is there for them.  He doesn’t do a perfect job, but he tries. 

 

After that, he can be as dark as a pot of Marmite.  He can be a vampire who has to have his daily quart of O-positive, or a warrior who slaughters hundreds in the name of freedom.  He can like imaginative sex, kinky or even weird sex (so long as it is never coercive or vicious).  He can do two-wheel turns in his Ferrari round hairpin bends, so long as it’s only his own life he’s putting on the line.  I truly believe that no romantic hero can depart from that baseline.  You may disagree – I look forward to your comments.

 

Natalie Meg Evans

The Dress Thief, published by Quercus Books June 2014  

 

Forget Me Not