One of the questions I get asked most often (aside from 'Is your hair naturally curly?' — the answer to which you can find in my FAQs) is "How do you create your heroes?"
Creating a hero can be pretty complex, from their mannerisms to their backstory, I write pages and pages of exploratory background, watch them interact with their families and heroines before they become fully realized. But, when it comes to how they look…. well, I have a little help.
From some very pretty men.
For Max from Compromised, I thought of him as arrogant, but vulnerable when you get under his skin. He has a way with words that makes me smile, almost as much as when he gets one-upped by his heroine Gail. Who better for this than
Marcus from Revealed is the ultimate nice guy, but with a swashbuckling soul. So I started with my celebrity tall-boy crush (my love for him knows no bounds, I even saw License to Wed) and mixed in a little from in his Horatio Hornblower days.
You have to admit, pretty awesome combo, right?
Recalitrant. Gruff. Dreamy. That's Byrne from The Summer of You. And in my mind it is also
For my upcoming Follow My Lead, my hero Jason is an often exasperated, but ultimately charming Duke. With red hair. And that red hair and decided charm comes courtesy of
What can I say? Sometimes the life of a romance novelist is very hard. We are constantly searching for inspiration.
Happy Reading until next week!
Published on January 30, 2011 18:33
BTW: I have Follow My Lead on my Wish List so I can order it as soon as it is released--can't wait!