The Phantom of the Opera

Okay, I've talked about this before. Many times.

The Phantom or Erik, is my favorite dark hero.

I’ve heard a lot of nay saying about him, like “He’s a crazy sadistic, stalker, murderer dude.”

Okay, sure, but he’s a broken soul. Scarred and unloved. All he loves is Christine Daae.

The moment the Phantom walked out onto the stage back in 1992 when I first saw it, in Toronto at the Pantages theatre with Colm Wilkinson I fell head over heels in love. I hate Raoul. Still hate that pretty boy to be honest.

And at the end of the opera, when she leaves him for Raoul, but come back one final time to kiss him *fans self* swoon. My husband knows if he wants to get me in the mood fast he just has to put on the Phantom with Gerard Butler.

*ahem* Sorry I know, TMI.

Gerard didn’t have the voice range that Colm did, but DAYUM, even with half his face horrifically scarred he is mighty fine. That scene from Past the Point of No Return gets me hot under the collar all the time.

I wanted to know more about the Phantom. Where did he come from? What happened to his face? This is why I’m so fascinated and attracted to him. What made him the way he is and how can I heal him? 

Not much is known about the Phantom at all, other than his name is Erik and a few snippets from this song:

This face, which earned a mother’s fear and loathing…

A mask, my first unfeeling scrap of clothing…

 Even though Christine left the Phantom, his love for her remained true. He left her alone, but watched from afar. True to her, even though rich annoying pretty boy got her, he remained faithful even placing the rose on her grave years later.

And this final kiss scene *swoon* gets me every time. EVERY TIME.

The musical made such an impression on me, I was 14 at the time, I wrote copious amounts of fan fiction and would act out the musical in my room, alone, singing to the tape I bought from the souvenir stand.

It also helped fan the flames of my burgeoning romance writing career. No I don’t write about stalker/murders with half melted faces …but I’ve been tempted! >:)

It’s safe to say that The Phantom is my first ever dark romance hero.

Who’s yours?

Phoenix Legacy: Officially A Series!

Phoenix Legacy, the second novel, third story in my Phoenix Institute superhero romance series releases in ebook form today!

Night Owl Reviews made it a top pick, calling it a "wonderfully entertaining rollercoaster read."

Here's the official blurb:

Philip Drake is immortal by virtue of a psychic power that heals all but the worst injuries. He’s needed every bit of it as a black ops agent, a life so violent that the line between pain and pleasure is tangled up in his head.

When he walks away from the CIA, the last thing he expects is to discover someone stole his DNA to create a race of super-healers. And that the expectant mother is a woman from his past who’d consider it her pleasure to spit on his grave.

One moment, Delilah Sefton is listening to a seriously hot, seriously deranged man giving her some half-baked explanation as to why she’s pregnant with no memory of how she got that way. The next, armed men swarm into her bar, and she and Mr. Sexy-Crazy are on the run.

Safety at the Phoenix Institute is only temporary, but it’s long enough to put the pieces together. A madman plans to steal her son in a plot to take over the world. And to stop him, she must learn to trust the baby’s father—a man she blames for her greatest loss.

It's no secret I love superheroes and action stories and that my idea of a romance is The Terminator where Kyle lives at the end. But I also want my stories to have some resonance, like Lois McMaster Bujold's brilliant Vorkosigan series does for me, to the point where I've memorized individual lines of dialogue, like this exchange:

"It's an impossible job."

"That happens sometimes."

The exchange is from Bujold's Cordelia's Honor, one of my favorite science fiction romances, though you'll find it on the science fiction shelves. (If you've never read it, well, go buy it!)

There are a lot of sociological issues explored in Bujold's writing along with space battles, political machinations, scheming, fights, and various murders and, oh, some of the best characters I've ever read. Aral. :sigh: 

That depth is why I re-read the Vorkosigan series so often. 

I've no idea if I can do this resonance as well as Bujold and many other talented authors but there's no sense writing something if one doesn't aim high. 

So while I love that Phoenix Legacy is a fast-paced romantic adventure, I also wanted to cram it full of emotional intensity. The warped bond between Philip and Del leads up to their sex scene, which is not conventional in any sense of the word. I can only say that Philip's pain/pleasure confusion plays a large part. 

I'm extremely curious as to how readers will react to the scene and the one before it. I suspect if I say it out loud now, there are more than a few people who'll say "NO! That will never work," so I'm being cagey. It works in context, so I firmly believe. Also, Anne Stuart told me to go for it when I asked her about dark heroes, so that was all the reassurance I needed to let the story play out as it must.  

I think Legacy is very sweet in the end but see the above about my idea of a romance. :) 

The other question that I wanted to explore is how tragedy can follow a person through their lives and how they get accept it and move on. Philip is stuck in a violent moment that he thinks defines him for the worst. And yet...if he didn't want more, he wouldn't have saved his foster daughter, the eventual heroine of Phoenix  Rising, from some seriously bad guys.

Above: Philip saving Beth, in what he views as his one purely good moment in his life. Art is by the wonderful and talented Cassandra James.  

What is forgiveness or closure? Can the past remain in the past instead of defining the future? How does a person define themselves as good or evil? 

After I wrote the story, I was compelled to write an epilogue for Legacy. It put a lump in my throat, in a good way. 

I'm hoping it does the same for readers.   

Corrina Lawson is a writer, mom, geek and superhero thought not always all four of these things on the same day. You can find her at www.corrina-lawson.com