#TeamWill

My current heroine is high school drama teacher with a particular fondness for Shakespeare.

I studied the Bard quite a bit as a part of my double English major at university. (I'm still miffed that my professor was not swayed by my theory that the tragedy of Hamlet truly lies in the lives and fates of Ophelia's family. Sweet, Laertes...)  I was a super fan long before that. In fact I credit Kenneth Branagh's Henry V as being one of the major stepping stones that led me to being a writer today.  When he says, "You have witchcraft in your lips" - oh my.

All of which will no doubt colour my heroine's rather dramatic view of the world.

For those of you who love a little Shakespeare, do you have a favourite romantic quote?

I started searching for some favourite romantic lines and lost a blissful hour of my life swimming in them. The man is such a master of sharp wit and subtle pain.  Of warm gooiness and grand proclamation.

How about a quote to live by?  Again - too many to count.  The man just knew how to put words together in a way that made sense!

And funny?  So so funny.

How about a favourite character?

My heroine likes Will's men :).  (She does spring from my head after all.)  When she gets a gander at her hero she thinks something like this:

Up close and personal he’d been rather intimidating.  All darkly scowling eyes and that muscle ticing in his impossibly square jaw he’d appeared to be a Hamlet shoe in.  Now, from a distance, with those curls and proud square shoulders he’d make a fine Laertes. Then again she’d had a good grip on that which was hidden beneath the suit.  A dashing Mercutio, perhaps?

 

Where do you fall on the Shakespeare Scale - from "Don't Know Him, Don't Care To" all the way to "#TeamWill"?

Hero love.....

When I wrote Claiming His Brother's Baby, my January release for Harlequin Special Edition, I kept thinking this is probably my favourite hero so far. I'm sure that will change when the next book comes out, but for the moment I'm just a wee bit in love with Tanner.

 

I like certain traits in my paperback heroes....integrity of course, that's at the top of the list. Honesty (even if he has to keep things from the heroine, because he always has a good reason) Humour, because I love a hero who can laugh at himself. Strength...not just physical, but an emotional strength that he relies on through the worst of it and when the heroine is making him crazy. And vulnerability....something of an Achilles heel for me (Think Jane Austen's Captain Wentworth from Persuasion...because he's my most favourite hero ever!) A big ask? Maybe. But in the pages of a category romance novel, exactly what readers expect and deserve.

 

So, what traits do you admire and demand in your heroes?

 

Leave a comment and go into the draw to win a copy (either eCopy or paperback) of my January release, Claiming His Brother's Baby and I'll announce the winner tomorrow.

 
 
 

 

His Brother's Family

Cassie Duncan knew it was only a matter of time until Tanner McCord tried to sell her house out from under her. Still, the single mom can't help but be touched by the sacrifices the handsome loner makes for her and her son, even babysitting when she's sick! She knows he's keeping secrets—after all, it runs in his family…

Tanner returned to his childhood home in Australia to settle his estranged brother's estate—not fall for the woman who'd borne his brother's son. But one look into Cassie Duncan's blue eyes, and the rancher's heart was lassoed good and tight. He wants to give Cassie everything she's been denied…but doing so means confessing the truth about his brother and might ruin their chances at true family…

Judging A Book By It's Cover....

By Helen Lacey

I love book covers and do tend to look at the covers when I'm deciding what books to buy/read. Of course that's quick to do when trawling a site like Harlequin, Entangled or Amazon etc, because you can flick through titles easily and select what you want with a click of a button. But what I really love is checking out the new releases in a bricks and mortar book store.

Last week I took a trip to my local book store and spent a fun half hour looking over hundreds of titles. I bought two - Half Moon Bay by Aussie author Helen Young (I always buy her books but the cover of this one is fabulous) and The Storyteller by Jodie Picoult. I've only read one other Picoult book, but this one caught my eyes based only on the cover. One of my favourite covers is from an old Doreen Owens Malek

romance called The Highwayman... it's got the 80's/90's bodice ripper cover thing all over it. Plus it's an awesome book.

I'm something of a lazy reader, so I like the cover to tell me a bit about the story...if it's a romance I like a good shot of the hero and heroine in some kind of clinch. If it's sci-fi or fantasy I want something relevant to the quest. Remember the cover of Jaws? A lone woman swimming and a massive shark head looming underneath her....frightening....and there was no doubt what that book was about.

When I look for a category romance novel, I love how the covers tell something of the story. A Presents book about a smouldering Greek hero and feisty heroine will usually have them in a passionate embrace. A home and heart story about a single dad will often have kids on the cover too. And what's a sexy as sin cowboy without his horse?

Harlequin have recently  given some of their lines a cover makeover and my next Special Edition looks like this.....

What do you think?

Do you judge a book by it's cover?

Does a fabulous cover make you love a book even more?

In The Footsteps of....

by Sharon Archer

In the footsteps of ... lots and lots and LOTS of real-life heroes and heroines!

We're on the road in Outback Australia at the moment and soaking up the hugeness of the country, the red soil, the vast skies, the enormous distances. I'm loving reading about the people who came here and did amazing things... but today I want to share something else....  I'm following in the footsteps of the heroines of the Lucy Walker novels that I so adored when I was a teenager living in New Zealand.  Australia and the Outback seemed an exotic, faraway place!

I can't name any of the novels now but I'll never forget the enjoyment they brought me, the thrill of escaping homework and teenage-angst to immerse myself in the Outback, the taciturn heroes - so tall and handsome and capable, the huge stations, and the courageous young heroines, so far out of their comfort zones, who carved a place for their future.

For some reason, it's the names of the rivers that have really stayed with me - the Murrumbidgee, the Darling.  Tonight we're camped at Bourke in Outback New South Wales on the banks of the Darling River!

So, from the photos we've taken so far, I'm going to take you on a little tour of some of the things that a Lucy-Walker heroine might have seen...

The wide open spaces...

Huge dams for watering stock... and perhaps a nice dip on a hot summer day...

A misty morning, ghostly gums and a rich red road....

A wash out on a creek line exposing roots sunk deep in the soil...

A full moon in a billabong...

Maybe the hero would have brewed her a billy tea... though I'm sure he'd have settled his billy on the fire much better than I did!  Looks ready to tip over, don't you think!

I took lots of these pictures at a magic little place we discovered near Nymagee, NSW - Four Corners Farm Stay.  We arrived for one night and, loved it so much, we ended up staying for two weeks!

So how about you... have you explored places you'd read about in a book?  Are there places you've read about that you'd particularly like to explore?

Athletic Heroes... by Natalie Anderson

When I first started writing romance and delved into the 'how to' books and communities, there were a few unwritten 'rules'. I'm not exactly sure where I got the idea from, but it was part of the code that sporting star heroes weren't in fashion - nor were newspapers or journalists. There'd be no real takers readers-wise. That was fine, I could live with it.

Seats in Stadium by Sura Nuralpradid
www.freedigitalphotos.net

But I must admit I do like my heroes to be fit - yes 'fit/hot' as well as just fit. Most of the heroes I've written aren't team sports guys. Sure, they'll support a team but they play as an individual in some kind of fiercely competitive sport and often one that's solitary too - be it distance running, swimming, sometimes sailing. I tend towards the endurance events! Because they do need to be fit. Really fit. ;)

Then, with a number of books written, I did feature an athlete - Jack in Walk on the Wild Side. He's a pro snowboarder, but also owner of a very flash lodge and for most of the book he was recovering from an injury so lazing on the beach in summer. And snowboarding is more of a 'cool' sport (pun intended!) - not a traditional one.

FIT snowboarding hero on the sand ;)

After that I decided, given I come from the rugby champion nation, I wanted to write about a rugby club. This was largely because I'd heard about a PR assistant for one of the clubs getting to be wardrobe assistant at the annual calendar shoot - what a job!!! That idea turned into the opening scene for Nice Girls Finish Last. I continued with the rugby club for my next book - First Time Lucky? - featuring the team doctor. But neither of the heroes in the book were actually rugby stars themselves. But pro sportspeople fascinate me - their drive, their dedication, the sacrifices they make...

I'm currently working on a story where the hero is the brother of an elite rower - he was a rower too, but stopped for various reasons. So still, not a pro athlete hero - I can't quite seem to get past that old 'rule'. But I wonder whether that rule is still valid (or if, indeed, it ever was). There are several hot racing driver stories out, some gorgeous surfer guys... but what about the hurdles or sprints? Anyone?! Are some sports 'sexier' than others do you think? And would you like to read about a professional athlete at the height of his game?!

PS. If you're on Goodreads, there's a giveaway running at the moment for the rugby team's Doctor Gabe's story - just click to enter!

Goodreads Book Giveaway

First Time Lucky?

by Natalie Anderson

Giveaway ends April 18, 2012.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win

Cowards

by Michelle Douglas

I heard the Kenny Roger’s song Coward of the County the other day. Actually, that’s a little white lie. It was The Gambler I heard, but that led me to thinking about Coward of the County, you see? But in the interests of brevity… :-)

It started me thinking about how cowardice is a trait we romance writers never give to our heroes. Villains, you bet, but never our heroes. And I started to wonder, Why not? I mean our heroes are never perfect. It’s vital they have at least one flaw to make them both believable and interesting. After all, part of the joy of a romance novel is to watch the characters grow and to experience that growth right alongside them.

Emotional cowardice is rife in romance—how many heroes have you read who are scared to risk their hearts again after a bad experience or who are simply too afraid to believe in love—but I’m talking about physical cowardice here. Hmm, and I best temper that. There have probably been heroes who have a phobic fear—of flying, of snakes, of heights, claustrophobia, etc. But do you know any heroes in category romance who have been afraid of and do their best to avoid a physical confrontation with a villain?

I can’t.

I can think of heroes who are ugly, rude, angry, overbearing, stubborn, reckless, frightening, ruthless, and even humourless, but cowardly? Nuh uh. (I can’t think of one who is stupid either, come to think of it.)

I can think of heroes, particularly in paranormal romances or romantic suspense, whose speciality is not fighting but who do have some special talent (their psychic powers will save the world, or their super-duper whizzness at computer coding will expose corrupt governments) and, hence, they have a bodyguard (usually the heroine). And when the fighting starts they try to stay out of the way because that's usually in everyone’s best interests. But it’s not that they’re frightened of fighting, they just know they’ll get in the way (and most of the time they get involved anyway).

So my question, dear reader, is this: could you love a hero who avoids a physical confrontation with a baddie because he’s afraid? Even if by the end of the book he has faced his fear and overcome his cowardice?