Holding Out For A Hero
As everyone talks about how they create their heroes, it’s made me wonder, how do I create mine? I really don’t start with a particular type of man in mind—alpha, beta, gamma, whatever. For those of you who aren’t total romance fanatics: An alpha male is arrogant, demanding, and aggressive. A beta is the boy next door—sweet and a little unsure. A gamma blends the two. Apparently, I write gammas. I just didn’t know that until after I had published three books.
Anyway, I thought y’all might like to know how my three published heroes evolved. Geoffrey Hampton (INTO HIS ARMS) was the only one originally created to be a hero. I thought he was an alpha. Who knew? I can’t write a hero I wouldn’t fall in love with. He could be aggressive and arrogant, but he also had to be playful and gentle. He had to be kind. I don’t know that I consciously created that much of him. The only thing I really had to consciously do was tweak his background. He was always the son of a prostitute, but I realized halfway through the book that there was no way the son of a prostitute would be as literate as Geoff, so I made her a courtesan. For those who are wondering what, exactly, he looks like, he exists purely in my imagination. There is no movie star prototype. His last name is my father's middle name.
Diego Montoya (NOBODY’S SAINT) came to me as fully formed as Geoff. He was who he was and required no real work on my part. I was half in love with him from the beginning. Although I wrote INTO HIS ARMS never intending to write a book for Diego, I’m ever so glad that I did. He does have a slight inspiration, although my mind’s eye has tweaked him some. It’s not tough—change Diego to Inigo. “Hello! My name is Inigo Montoya…”
Giles Courtney was an interesting process. He started out as nothing more than a plot device. Since my agent decided that we would pitch INTO HIS ARMS as apart of a trilogy, she said that we needed to flesh him out in that book and set him up for one of his own. I wasn’t looking forward to it. I had never seen him as hero material, so I actually had to create him. Even his name (which most of my heroes have before I meet them, myself) came from my dear friend's husband. Beth and Courtney did so much to help me with the nautical research in INTO HIS ARMS that I acknowledged Courtney by naming a character in his honor and asking him to name Geoff's ship (Destiny). I think that in Giles' book (FOR HER LOVE) he is in conflict about himself because I was in conflict about him. The thing that I still have to shake my head at is that of the three, he became my favorite. He, too, is someone I conjured up on my own, but lately I have noticed a slight physical resemblance in Russell Crowe.
Looking back on Diego and Giles, and looking over the heroes in books that I have out on proposal (one of which is written) I see another common trait. Honor. Even Geoff has an odd sense of it. It’s a trait possessed by every other writer’s hero that I’ve truly loved, as well, and yet, it’s falling out of fashion, it seems.
The criticisms written of my books have never touched upon my heroes. Everyone seems to love them. To me, this says that what I value most—humor, tenderness, honor, confidence—are what we’re all looking for. And they are such accessible traits! Men don’t have to be six foot plus gods with rippling abs. Most of us would take the character traits of a romance hero over the body of one any day of the week!
Got that guys?