Bad Boys, My Favorite Guilty Pleasure

Oh how I love a bad boy. Those delicious men who we know are wrong for us, who will just leave behind a trail of broken hearts, who won’t call us in the morning....but give such pleasure between the sheets that we’ll never forget it. He usually puts himself first and does what he wants whenever he wants. They can be the dangerous man on the motorcycle, the arrogant fighter jet pilot, or the evil mastermind that we just know would give up his nefarious ways if only he had the right woman at his side.

And of course, we all think we’re that one woman who can change him. Who can make him finally see the light and become our one and only. Unfortunately that rarely happens in real life. In real life the super good looking douche bag continues to be a super good looking douche bag and that night with him that rocked our world is just another notch on his bed post. Or, even worse, we end up on Maury Povich doing a paternity test to prove that he is your babies daddy. :P

However, in the world of romance love conquers all and we soon find out that our bad boy wasn’t really all that bad. Within his soul was a place untouched by evil, that flourishes under out love. There is nothing that he won’t do for us, and once he realizes that we are the center of his world he will destroy anyone that tries to harm us. Having all of that wonderful, deadly power wrapped around us like a protective shield is a very seductive image. 

Some of my favorite bad boys are:

Ann Rice’s Lestat. Can’t get much more self-centered and brooding, but he tries to do the right thing. 

Ice from Top Gun. Arrogant, hot, and I’d bet oh so good in bed. 

And Wolverine. Tormented, sarcastic, just waiting for the right woman.

I hope you’ve enjoyed my bad boys, that guilty pleasure that’s sure to break our heart but we just can’t resist. Who’s yours?

I was a rotten kid. As a child I loved to torment my brothers and boss around the other kids on my block. As a result, I didn’t have many friends. (Yeah, I know. Sad, but I deserved it.)

That’s when I started making up my imaginary playmates. My first playmate was a boy named Larry. I adored Larry and took him everywhere I went. He would sleep in the imaginary bed across from mine. He would sit next to me at the dinner table. Heck, he even played softball, standing right next to me, although he was never a very good player.

Best of all, Larry was as rotten as I was. Larry was the culprit whenever my hand developed a mind of its own and thumped my brother in the head. Larry took the blame whenever I “accidentally” bumped a bowl full of vegetables off the table to scatter awful-tasting peas across the floor. Larry was with me, egging me on when I dropped water balloons off the roof onto unsuspecting neighbors. Larry was the one who made me stay up late and miss the school bus. Larry was, for all the wrong reasons, the perfect playmate.

Then I grew up and Larry went away. Or did he?

I love writing all the characters in my books, both good and bad. Heroes and heroines alike find a place in my heart. But I have to admit that the bad boys claim a special corner. Why? Perhaps it’s because each of my bad boys, whether or not they turn out to be the villain or the hero, has a part of Larry in him.

For instance, the three Cannon brothers in my Cannon Pack werewolf series are different, but they all have a bit of Larry thrown into their personalities. Jason Cannon has Larry’s uninhibited streak. Devlin Cannon has Larry’s witty sarcasm and Daniel Cannon is the guy who acts more calloused than he really is. In my latest book, CLAWED (Wild Things, Book 3), Conan is a bear (literally) of a man who takes on Larry’s habit of one-word answers. Like Larry, he’s stoic, aloof and sometimes downright rude. But in the end, Conan─again like Larry─will do anything for his girl.

So you see, Larry continues to live. Sure, he went away while I grew up and developed other interests. But when I wanted him again, when I became a writer and needed a bad boy, Larry came back to stay.

Now here’s the question for you. Since most of us have had an imaginary friend at one time or another, does your friend still live on in you? Is your friend by your side whenever you shake your head and answer, “I don’t know who did it”? If no, don’t you wish you had your imaginary friend back in your life?

The character crush...

I first began reading romance novels when I was about twelve/thirteen years old. I'd wander over to a little drugstore near our home and plunk down my month's allowance for every Harlequin Presents novel they had in stock. Ah, the thrill of those crisp, white covers still brings back a fluttery feeling. :)

Those were the days when falling in love seemed simple enough. A little attraction... a little conflict... always a big misunderstanding... followed by declarations of undying love. Believable? Um, probably not. But I devoured the stories as if they were true-to-life guide books to adulthood.

Recently, one of those stories -- a particular favorite of mine -- came to mind, along with the strong desire to read it again. Problem is it's been out of print for quite a while and my dog-eared copy had long ago disappeared on some cleaning spree or other.

Thank heaven's for the Internet and used book sellers everywhere. ;)

It wasn't the story itself, so much, but the characters that captured my imagination. Some heroes have the ability to stay with you over time, imprinted on your heart/mind like an old friend. I still think of Mr. Rochester... Mr. Darcy... Dr. Neil MacNeill (in the book, Christy)... among others. All of them strong, yet vulnerable, men who captured my heart.


Yes, I have periodically developed full-blown character crushes on very Alpha-type men. The kind I would likely smack or run from if I met any of them in real life... Okay, maybe not Mr. Darcy. ;) Books feel ever so much safer, after all. ;)

So, why do some fictional characters appeal to us despite their obvious flaws? Why can we accept actions -- particularly in a hero -- that would disgust us in reality? Yes, it's all subjective and have a lot to do with our own experiences in life, but in this case, I think it mostly has to do with that part of me which thrills at the 'bad boy' personality. At least, as he's portrayed in fiction. Like I said, in life, it probably wouldn't stay so appealing.

Really, how sexy is it when a woman can bring a tough guy like that to his knees?

Today, I do groan inwardly at the 'punishing kisses' of old Presents novels. My first instinct would be to firmly plant a knee to the man's groin. An action I do believe any of my heroines would mimic. So much for romance after that. And yet...

Yes, I've had a bit of a nostalgia trip this week as I skimmed through my 'new' book. I know the story well, so I don't have to read it from cover to cover to fresh my memory on the rather simplistic plot. While I did cringe at the bruising first kisses, I did wind up sighing with pleasure at the end. Yes, it's a guilty pleasure. So sue me.

However, I still wish we could 'see' the story through the hero's eyes as well as the heroines'. I wish I could have really seen him fall in love -- in his own mind -- instead of trying to interpret his feelings from the naive heroine's point of view. That would probably have sent my teen crush into overdrive.

Do you have any crushes you consider a guilty pleasure? A character you hate to love?

~~Meg Allison
Indulge your senses...
http://www.megallisonauthor.com

13 Links about Characters and Characterization

This month at Beyond the Veil we've been posting about characters. Here's a quick round-up:

1) We started out with Xakara talking about Character Crushes (http://paranormalauthors.blogspot.com/2011/08/characters-welcome-and-readers-too.html)  and she kindly included photos of Michael Shanks, Vin Diesel and Nathan Fillion.

2) Then from A. Catherine Noon, we had an analysis of characters from several science fiction franchises (http://paranormalauthors.blogspot.com/2011/08/characters-i-love.html).

3) Sela Carsen ackled mythological characters (http://paranormalauthors.blogspot.com/2011/08/characters-from-mythology.html)  and archetypes, encouraging us to look around as less common mythologies for story research.

4) Characters who cause conflicting emotions (http://paranormalauthors.blogspot.com/2011/08/characters-you-love-to-hateor-hate-to.html)  were the topic of Carolan Ivey's post--a prime example being Severus Snape from the Harry Potter series.

5) Amy/AC Ruttan talked to us a little bit about a favorite historical character, Boudicca (http://paranormalauthors.blogspot.com/2011/08/most-memorable.html),  the spelling of which I had to check several times because nothing looked right.

6) Bianca D'Arc talked about how she is turning HERSELF into a steampunk character (http://paranormalauthors.blogspot.com/2011/08/convention-time-again.html)  for a conference.

7) I am going to continue the listmania I've already started by sharing some links to writerly articles about characterization or characters. First, from my own blog, here is the first entry that came up when I typed in characterization that wasn't one of Meankitty's interviews: http://blog.jodywallace.com/2011/06/whats-up-with-larry.html  This short article is an examination of the character of "Larry" from the Young MC song "Bust A Move". Yes, characterization can occur in works of fiction as short as songs and poems! Let's just say it's succinct characterization (as long as you're not J. Alfred Prufrock).

8) Here's some tips about making character's lovable: http://www.netplaces.com/writing-a-romance-novel/the-nuts-and-bolts-of-characterization/making-characters-lovable.htm

9) Here is a list of deaf characters in romantic fiction: http://www.myshelf.com/deaf/romance.htm  which is more than a little awesome.

10) Author Gabi Stevens talks about writing romance novel protagonists: http://gabistevens.blogspot.com/2009/09/how-to-write-romance-novel-characters.html

11) A slightly older essay from Jennie Crusie about learning tricks from television to use in your romance fiction, including for characterization: http://www.jennycrusie.com/for-writers/essays/the-five-things-ive-learned-about-writing-romance-from-tv/

12) For some snarkier fun (yes, snarkier than Crusie!), here's a look at historical male character (stereotypes) from a website called Literary Dilettantes: http://literarydilettantes.com/2011/03/15/deconstructing-the-romance-novel-characters-edition-part-2/

13) Last but not least -- because (nearly) every character needs a name, here's some character naming tips from Anne Marble with a special section for speculative romance authors: http://www.writing-world.com/romance/names.shtml

It's in character for me to do a Thursday Thirteen at the last minute but I'm actually posting this on Wednesday night! That's slightly OOC (editorial shorthand for out of character) for me but I put not one but 3 reminders on my computer this week so I wouldn’t forget.

Happy reading!

Jody Wallace
So much cyberspace, so little time!
www.jodywallace.com  / www.meankitty.com

Convention Time Again

This time, I'm heading out for the Authors After Dark convention with a few of my fellow Beyond the Veil friends. In fact, Carolan Ivey, Dana Marie Bell, JC Wilder and I are hosting a "Dark & Dangerous Wine & Cheese" during the convention where we'll be giving away a Nook eReader. If you plan to attend the AAD con, please make sure to come to our event!

If you can't come to the con, never fear, we'll catch you up on the goings on in our next blog posts, I'm sure. The convention grew out of another blog I have been part of for a number of years. I don't have much to do with the planning of the con anymore, but I still like to go and show my support. This year, I'm sponsoring the Steampunk Ball (even though I haven't been published in the Steampunk genre yet) and was forced to get a costume because I'm on the "Steam Court."

Those of you who know me may understand that I HATE costumes at this point in my life. Once upon a time, I was really into it. I worked at a Renaissance Faire and all summer I was a mercenary wench (one of the only female fighters the men let into the mercenary guild!) and dressed and talked the part while on the Faire grounds. It was a lot of fun and I loved dressing up. Now... older and fatter, I really HATE dressing up.

But because I'm on the court, I HAVE TO wear a costume. I agonized over this for months and bought and discarded a few different outfits. Finally, I think I have arrived at a solution and if it works out, I will try to post a pic. First, I'm going to be wearing a wig! I've never worn a wig in my life, but I thought if I was supposed to be Victorian, I needed ringlets and I'm just not that good a hairdresser. LOL. So I bought a wig that has ringlets and a giant hat that will sit on top that I've dressed up with ostrich plumes, netting and the requisite Steampunk goggles. (Mine are actually Harry Potter Quidich goggles, but I don't think anyone will notice. LOL)

The hat matches the costume, which is actually a commercially made lady pirate costume that I've altered with a netting bustle and an added long skirt and boots. I think it'll work. (I HOPE it'll work!) I'll let you all know how it works out after the con, which is next week. Carolan may update you sooner (since my turn to blog probably won't roll around again for a while).

In the meantime, please go out and get your copy of DEAD ALERT, my newest (and last in the series) zombie action/adventure book. Funnily enough, if you look right now, the previous book in the series, A DARKER SHADE OF DEAD, seems to have taken a place on the Kindle SF Best Seller List. Wow! I'm really happy about that and hope all of you will check out the books. The complete series is:

1. SIMON SAYS novella in the HALF PAST DEAD anthology
2. ONCE BITTEN, TWICE DEAD
3. A DARKER SHADE OF DEAD
4. SMOKE ON THE WATER novella in THE BEAST WITHIN anthology (which will be released in mass market paperback next month! It's already available in trade paperback and ebook.)
5. DEAD ALERT

Wish me luck with my costume and happy reading!

B.
Bianca D'Arc
Come over to The D'Arc Side... www.biancadarc.com

Most Memorable

So I’m super excited to be a part of the Beyond the Veil. My name is A.C. Ruttan or Amy Ruttan. I go by both. A.C. writes dark and not really overly romantic and Amy writes a bit more…spicy. Both write paranormal.

I thought I would talk a bit about one of my favourite characters from history, Boudicca and how she came to be my most memorable character.





The first time I became ‘aware’ of Boudicca was after reading Pauline Gedge’s The Eagle and the Raven. I was totally entranced and I went on a binge about trying to learn as much as I could about Boudicca of the Iceni.

It’s not mystery to anyone who knows me, I am a history nut.

So when I was writing my first urban fantasy, my heroine Cia had a dual personality in the form of two souls and one of those souls was Boudicca, queen of the ancient Britons. I wasn’t expecting her to be Boudicca of the Iceni.

I kind of had to a double take when she walked fully formed into my mind carrying a big broadsword.

I had this picture of the heroine and sort of what she wanted to do which was kill demons. Lots of demons, I just hadn’t counted on the two souls thing and one of those souls being Boudicca.

Cia’s older soul was crass, opinionated, strong willed and so very angry about what happened to her on the battle field. My heroine’s calm persona, or newer soul, was the great foil of tempestuous Boudicca.

Not that I personally know that Boudicca was tempestuous, but given the legends surrounding her and the fact she took on the Roman Legion to avenge her people and her loved ones and faced certain death you have to think she has a lot of ANGER issues.

Here’s what I mean:

“You should let your souls combine and merge. Let her loose—you fight her too much. It was always part of your problem.”

“Arthur,” I said, very calmly, “my two souls are very different from each other. My newer soul is very level-headed and peaceful. It is the way I prefer to be. My older soul is a vengeful warrior woman. If I let her out she would take over and seek retribution.”

“You are correct in your assumption.”

She is my most memorable character and my most frustrating. She still is one of my most frustrating characters (because I’m writing the sequel).

In writing Incarnate I was able to combine my love of history and the paranormal and as it was my debut urban fantasy I had to show off my favourite historical character. Of course, it’s not like I had much of a choice in the matter. She was quite insistent.

It was also my first attempt at writing first person. I may have published a first person POV before Incarnate came out, but Incarnate was the first I wrote in first person.

It was like Boudicca needed a voice. She also had the urge to kill demons with swords. She quite likes that bit.

“Michael thought you might be needing it so I flew myself to Yellowknife and retrieved it.”

“Thank the goddess.”

A smile curled my lips as I grasped the hilt of my sword. My blood heated as I held the iron in my fist—the intricate designs glinting in the dim light of Damien’s hall. I always missed it when I left it behind.

“I slew many a Roman pig with this sword, as well as a few demons.”

So, do you have a character you’ve read or written, one that just sticks with you and won’t leave you alone? Do you have a character who has entrenched themselves so deep in your soul that you’ll never want to be rid of them?







A.C. Ruttan

http://www.acruttan.com/

Characters you love to hate...or hate to love?

In my first completed manuscript (which is still growing mold in some long-forgotten drawer) my focus was so ferociously on the hero & heroine that the antagonists didn’t even make an appearance. They were just some faceless entities that had, for no apparent reason other than that They Were Evil, scarred the protagonists’ careers, psyches, and lives in general.


My second manuscript, Beaudry’s Ghost, had a bad guy on stage, even a scene from his POV. Confederate Lt. Zachariah Harris was one of those gleefully vicious, vindictive villains that seemed easy-—too frighteningly easy-—to write. (Did I just use three “v” words in a row??) All he had to do was wield sharp objects and attempt to kill the hero in the end.


Third time around with A Ghost of a Chance, I went with a more insidious villain with a subtler technique for working his evil-doings. A method that, in real life, too often sucks otherwise intelligent women into bad relationships. (Aside: How funny that in a book full of concepts like astral travel and all manner of psychic phenomena and sexy shapeshifters, one reviewer zeroed in on this villain as the least believable part of the story! But that’s fodder for another post.)


Creating three-dimensional heroes and heroines seems to come much easier to me. I’m still working on developing equally rounded villains. Not too long ago I was surprised to learn even the great Stephen Spielberg looks back at “Raiders of the Lost Ark” with pangs of regret. After completing his masterpiece “Schindler’s List”, he said something to the affect that in comparison, the bad guys in “Raiders” were ridiculously cartoonish, almost to the point of being an insult to those who suffered an died at the hands of the Nazis. By the time “Last Crusade” hit the screens, he’d given at least one or two of the Nazi characters some depth.


George Lucas, as well, spent three entire Star Wars movies making us fall in love with Anakin Skywalker before he vanished behind Darth Vader’s helmet. Did it change the way you watched Luke Skywalker's story arc? It did for me.


It’s fascinating to know that everyone, even the best of us, goes through a learning curve.


When I think about it, the stories I like best are the ones that make me ambivalent about wholeheartedly hating the villain. After all, no one is born inherently bad. At some point, he or she was someone’s child, grandchild, brother or sister…maybe even a mother or father. As a writer I think it’s my job to bring all those factors into play when creating a character, even the ones who—-for the purposes of that particular story—-were born to be bad. :)


Can you think of characters, evil or otherwise, in a book you’ve read or a movie you’ve seen that leave you waffling over whether to hate or love them? Or who came back as a hero in a sequel? Here are a couple of mine:

• Jimmy Angelov in “Practical Magic” (okay, only because Goran Visnjic is freakin’ HOT!)
• V in “V for Vendetta” – Hero or psychopath?
• Ilsa in “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade”
• Walter White in “Breaking Bad”
• Severus Snape in the Harry Potter books/movies. Whose heart didn't break for him when we learned his real motivation? (Mine did, and Alan Rickman's on-screen interpretation brought tears to my eyes.)

Love to hear your thoughts!


Carolan
www.carolanivey.com

Characters from Mythology

Lucky is the author for whom characters spring fully formed from her imagination and onto the page, much like Athena from the head of Zeus.

Alas, I am no Zeus. Therefore, creating a character for me takes good old fashioned mortal, mental and mythological elbow grease.

Mythology provided archetypes of characters for millennia before Joseph Campbell came along. The Alpha Male, the Nurturing Female, the Brooding Loner, the Kick-Ass Chick -- there's nothing new under the sun.

But myths don't only provide the characters, they can also provide some framework for a story - ways to develop your characters into something more than archetypes. How many ways has Hades been transformed into the Beast who steals Persephone/Beauty from the love and light of her family? In the hands of a skilled storyteller, he's more than a distant immortal, an ideal from far away. He's a man in unending, soul-searing agony until he sees the one being who can give him surcease from his pain and loneliness.

Sometimes, the myths are half-told. They give us a hint of a character or of a story and it's up to us to flesh out those few drops of inspiration. For instance, there are three Gorgons, but we only ever hear of Medusa. In fact, she wasn't even a proper Gorgon - she was a mortal woman cursed into that form by Athena. So what about the other two? Stheno and Euryale? What's their story?

When you're using an archetypal character, it helps to be able to see as big a picture of that character as possible. To go back to Medusa, it wasn't enough to simply see her as a monster with snakes on her head. I needed to know the myth inside and out. That's how I discovered that she was created by Athena for fooling around with Poseidon in Athena's temple. But that still wasn't enough, so I went back to the Gorgons. Why make her a Gorgon? They were protectors, meant to inspire terror in the enemies of the Olympians. In fact, Zeus put the aspect of the Gorgon on his shield, using the image of a power older than Classical Greece to reinforce his own power.

Older than Greek? Okay. I looked up ancient snake goddesses and snake symbolism. Ladon the serpent protected the golden apples of the Hesperides. Blood taken from Medusa's right side was made into a healing potion by Aesclepius. A snake is wound into a symbol of healing in the Rod of Aesclepius. Moses formed a copper snake and twined it around a pole to heal the Israelites. Snakes were regarded as wise and cunning and could even gift people with second sight. Wisdom? Healing? Protection? The worship of a chthonic (earth-based) serpent deity had as many positive notes as it did negative.

Suddenly, there's more to Medusa than a raging bad hair day. There's a character there. Not as neat and tidy as Athena from the head of Zeus, but a character formed from mythology, nonetheless, and with possibilities for theme and symbolism already built in.

So when you look to archetypes and ancient tales to build a story, be sure to cast your net wide. You'll pull in more than you dreamed!

Sela Carsen

Characters I Love

When I saw Star Wars at the age of nine in the theater (or maybe it was The Empire Strikes Back), I had a HUGE crush on Luke Skywalker. Dashing, attractive, daring, he was everything I wanted my hero to be.

Remember the scene in the first part of Star Wars, where they show the two ships fighting the lasers go whizzing past with lots of loud noise?

I hid in my dad’s shirt when that happened.

I also hid when Darth Vader and Luke fought the first time, and when Luke lost his hand. How I hated Darth Vader! That breathing!

I remember a few years back that modern audiences don’t find Darth Vader scary at all, but that the new set of Star Wars movies had Darth Maul as the new big-bad.

Say what?? How could you not find that breathing scary?

Then I saw Space Balls (somehow I missed it when it first came out). Not at all scary, and I tried to tell myself I agreed – Darth Vader isn’t scary.

But I still shiver when I think of him, and that awful breathing.

I didn’t have imaginary friends growing up. Instead, I told myself stories, and others too. I wrote the first one when I was nine; an embarrassing-to-me-now piece about a cat named Marge.

Hey, we all gotta start somewhere, right?

Then I discovered Star Trek on re-runs. I used to watch it on my parents’ old black-and-white TV in their bedroom while my mom was in some other part of the house, sewing or cleaning or what-all. The shows captivated me. I wanted Captain Kirk to be my dad. Or at least an uncle.

Then came the alien probe episode.

I’m sure, if I watched it now, I would find it quite unscary. After all, we’ve progressed light-years from the olden days of special effects. But that probe episode sticks with me, for the sheer dread I felt while watching it. There were a couple others that I found equally riveting, and that had characters that scared me. But the idea of a machine attacking people, to me at the time, inexorable.

Somehow, the Terminator must have gotten my brain scans, because they couldn’t have conceived of a scarier redux on that idea! I mean, it’s a machine, shaped like a man! It could be anyone! Schwarzenegger’s gotten a lot of bad press lately, much of it self-inflicted, but he will forever have my admiration for the portrayal of that heartless, soulless machine in the first movie. Not to mention, he was unstoppable! I know everyone remembers the “Ah’ll be bahk” quotes. But to me, the seminal moment is when the terminator is crushed in the machine and STILL keeps coming, even without his legs working.

Yikes!

I remember reading a quote attributed to Lois McMaster Bujold relative to her character, Miles Vorkosigan. She said something along the lines that she simply imagines what horrible tortures she can do to Miles, and then figures out a way for him to surmount them, and that’s how she comes up with her stories. In the process, she’s created one of the most amazing characters of science fiction. Here is a man who is crippled, maimed, and some might say, deformed. Yet he manages through sheer force of personality to abscond with a mercenary army and then return to take command of that army – despite not being of legal age to drink.

For me, what makes characters, good or bad, memorable is how they handle the consequences of their actions or the actions around them. It isn’t enough to just do “stuff” to a person. What’s interesting is how that person responds to it. I remember my father ranting about the movie The Perfect Storm, because the men upon whom the story is based were drunk and stupid. He felt that was no way to tell a story, since the people involved had no redeeming characteristics. I didn’t quite know what he meant until I saw the remake of The War of the Worlds. Tom Cruise’s character was awful! The portrayal wasn’t bad, as Mr. Cruise is a skilled professional. But the man he portrayed was, to put it bluntly, a waste of time. He didn’t stay with his wife, was a neglectful father, and a coward. Yet the entire movie revolved around him as though he was some sort of reflection of everyman, a modern-day hero.

To that I say, poo. I want heroes like Luke Skywalker. Men and women who take what is given to them and turn it into something grand. Villains who intimidate by a look or a gesture.

Characters, in short, who make me believe, even for only a short while, that they are real, that they live and breathe, and that I could one day meet them.

~A. Catherine Noon

Characters Welcome, And Readers Too!

Greetings, Kittens!

Happy August and thank you for joining us here at Beyond the Veil today. You may have noticed some new faces among us, I'd like to formally welcome our new bloggers and share with the world how thrilled we are to have them with us!

Members aren't the only new thing we have going on at Beyond the Veil, this month we've launched the first of our new monthly themes. Each blogger with touch on the topic of the month in their own unique way. Whether a member brushes by the theme, barely disturbing the air, or dives deep and lays down a point by point dissertation on the whys and wherefores, you can rest assured that it'll be worth the read.

The theme for August is: Characters Welcome: Favorite Characters We Love or Love to Hate

Yes, I watch more than my fair share of USA Network and it was a perfect slogan to pay homage to as we each brought you our personal viewpoints on the characters that touch us the most. Some will be favorite characters we've written, others will be those we've read and still others will be our favorite screen characters, who knows, it may be all three and more if you catch one of us in the right mood!

As the author kicking off this lovefest, I thought I'd play to my strengths and go straight to the idea of Character Crushes. *smile*

I'm a generous veiwer and I hope a generous reader. I may grumble over the things that I'd do differently, but I embrace a good segment of the genre work out there and a few offerings are even met with fangirl abandon.

My first literary crush in memory is Lestat from Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice. Yes, it was Interview and not his redemptive book The Vampire Lestat, that brought that initial crush. Think what you will about that, (people usually do), but Louis' whiney tome could not hide how deeply in love Lestat had fallen with Louis and the family they created with Claudia. I was young and impressionable and I felt for Lestat with an intensity that only a pre-teen girl in the throws of early puberty truly could. I wanted to run off and be forever with Lestat, gathering others as the times changed and forever falling in love and living intently with those that came our way. I was an intense kid.

Running a very close second in the early book based crushes is Nick Andros from The Stand by Stephen King. Nick was the first character with a disability that I'd ever read and I was deeply invested in everything to do with him from the moment he walked across the page. Add to it that he'd just taken a beaten by multiple foes and yet held his own, and all I wanted to do was take care of him and let him know I had his back in the viral apocalypse. As that kind of dedication undoubtedly always leads, Nick is also the first literary character I ever wept for, I mean unabashed grief that struck me consistantly the first few times I reread the book. Adolescence is a trip.

The character of Stu Redman, also from The Stand, has become a clear crush in later years, but that's entirely the work of Gary Sinise portraying him in the mini-series. Technically that makes it a movie/tv crush and I'll happily follow that transition to my most enduring series based crush.

I took to the character of Dr. Daniel Jackson in the original Stargate film. I think that James Spader did a wonderful job of being brilliant and vulnerable and needing to be taken care of by the right person. (Are you sensing a theme within the theme?) Yet as lovely as Spader did, it was Michael Shanks as my beloved Daniel Jackson in Stargate SG-1 that caused me to fall in love.

From the pilot in 1997 to right now as I type, my crush has only grown stronger. And why wouldn't it? Daniel Jackson is perfect and cursed. He's absolutely brilliant, cultured, compassionate, empathetic, intellectually passionate, intense, kind, wholly benevolent and went from cute in the pilot to outright hot in later seasons. Oh and all his girlfriends die or become Goa'uld. She he's got the whole dangerous to love but born to be loved thing that became so popular in vampire fiction recently, but without the fangs and emo brooding. I wanted to break the curse, not necessarily with me, (but I'm at the front of the line), I wanted him happy with someone and I'm still waiting on my movie where he gets married and she survives. Although I'd happily see the "ship" fans and "slash" fans both happy and have him end up with Jack and Sam. But why breakup the band, let's throw in Teal'c too. I'm not like that, it all works for me.

Moving solely to the big screen, I blame Lestat for my insistance on becoming endeared to the ambiguous, chaotic-neutral-striving-towards-chaotic-good characters. (Is my geek showing?) I don't like villains, but I can come to love the redeemable character left with little choice but to act villainous. To that end, the character crush that surprises my friends the most, (and proves they don't really know me), is Riddick from Pitch Black and The Chronicles of Riddick.

Admittedly, I like my men and women of questionable intent a little less questionable on average, but Riddick was clearly another Lestat. His rejection of the things around him don't stem from a desire to be done with the world, but rather from being convinced that the world was long ago done with him. Both were killers but neither come off as murderers and yes, there's a difference. Riddick is the classic example of a character that puts himself first because no one else ever has. He doesn't want to destory the world or to rule it, he just wants to be left alone and he doesn't take well to it when others refuse that courtesy. He doesn't want to be a hero and doesn't think he can be, but he's willing to let that doubt go the first time he's sincerely shown that it doesn't have to be that way.

Riddick, like Lestat needed someone. Not merely someone to love, but someone to die for and in turn, live for. For both of them the entire world would be a different place with the right person at their back, covering their six and refusing to be moved. (I know what you're thinking, I must be an awesome friend. Yes, it's true.)

Since I mentioned Men-of-Questionable-Intent, I can't close without talking about Captain Malcolm Reynolds of Firefly and Serenity. Another wronged and lost man who falls to the criminal side of things when the world moves on without him. The only reason that Mal's moral compass runs truer than Riddick or Lestat's, is that Mal had Zoe at his back. He never had a doubt about her loyalty and knew that they would die together with their boots on--preferably in a retirement home at the age of 100. I wanted Riddick and Lestat to have their Zoes too.

I'd be remiss if I didn't wrap by touching on one of my own characters. After all, I spend more time with them on a more intimate level than I will ever view or read another's creation. The problem is that the first ones to come to mind for this are in stories you can't read yet, because they haven't been released yet. They came to mind first because everything I wanted to say about the characters you can read, threatens to give something away. Still, I'm going to go for it because it's a great chance to talk about Quintus from Ghost of Christmas Past and Dawn's Early Light.

Quintus rather snuck up on me. He was always meant to be a background character, perhaps coming into his own somewhere down the line in an unrelated story. By the middle of the first chapter in Ghost of Christmas Past, I was taken. By the fifth chapter I was in love and by chapter ten I was ready to give him anything he wanted--and I did. The strength, vulnerability, dignity and passion in Quintus run down to his marrow, and his willingness to sacrifice for the agents in his care is extraordinary. After Ghost of Christmas Past I was ready to give him Dawn's Early Light and then to hand over Saint Valentine, but he's so unassuming that he refused to take them. He gets his chapters in all three and Ghost of Christmas Past is as much his story as Torrin's, so it's enough. How can I not love that?

I could go on and on, and I plan to, but not here. Crush of the Week will become a regular Friday feature at Erotic Diaries and will include several characters, so come by, hang out and talk about your favorite crushes!

In the meantime, while I have you here, who are some of your favorite character crushes to date? Have you ever wept over a character in a book? Who's your favorite misunderstood anti-hero? Who do you want to take home to meet your family? Who do you just want to take home? *grin*

And there you are, Kittens.

Character Ramble ~ Done!

~Xakara

Where am I and what am I doing in this leather outfit?

A long time ago in a land far, far away… well, you might know it as Canada, I tapped out my first awfully melodramatic words in the realm of fanfiction.

No, no - don’t run!

Actually, fanfiction was only a sideline in addition to working on my own original works. But I did end up with quite a following in the fanfiction world and one sweet fan email from a young man in Pennsylvania who just adored my work.

Of course you know where that led. Yep, a few years later I left the Great White North to marry the poor fellow and settle down in the U.S. Being a Kept Woman (trademark pending) now I turned my attention full time to writing science fiction and paranormal romance, writing what I liked to read and wanted to read.

I charged into the official writing world with a few short story sales to places such as GRIT Magazine but lived for that yearly bit of insanity known as NaNoWriMo. National Novel Writing Month. In 2008 I bashed out a superhero novel based on my love of comic books, superheroes and all those darned annoying questions I kept asking myself.

Why did the bad guy always get away? What was wrong with the court system that even when the bad guys got caught they’d escape or be freed by the next issue? Who were these people anyway?

A year later the book was contracted by Samhain Publishing and “Blaze of Glory”, the first in a series, hit the virtual and physical shelves in April, 2010. The sequel, “Heroes Without, Monsters Within” is due to be published in January 2012 with a third book in the works.

Here’s the official blurb for “Blaze of Glory”




Saving the world is easy for a superhero—unless you’re a fraud.

Jo Tanis is a superhero, fighting evil on the city streets, using her ability to feed off electromagnetic energy and fire off charges—and it’s all just a show. The Agency captures her and others like her when their powers begin to manifest, pitting them against each other in staged, gladiatorial fights. An explosive implant on the back of her neck assures she’ll keep right on smiling for the camera and beating up the bad guys.

When Earth comes under attack, suddenly the show becomes deadly real. Unable to deal with a real alien, the “supers” are falling in droves. Millions of innocent civilians
are going to die…unless Jo can cobble together a team from among the fake heroes and villains the Agency enslaved. Including Hunter, who not only promises to show
her how to deactivate the implants, but seems to know more than he should about how the mysterious Agency operates.

Forcing a rag-tag bunch of former enemies to work together is the least of Jo’s problems. The trick is determining if Hunter is friend or foe—and becoming the hero everyone
thought she was before the world is destroyed for real.


Not too long after that I ventured into the world of steampunk with “Wild Cards and Iron Horses”, delving into my long lost love of Westerns and adding a dash of the old television show “The Wild Wild West”. Published by Samhain in August of 2010 in ebook form with the print version out in June 2011, it was well received by steampunk fans.

Here’s the blurb for “Wild Cards and Iron Horses”

Their love rides on a spring and a prayer...

During the recent Civil War, a soldier risked his life to save Jonathan Handleston—and lost. With the help of an advanced metal brace on his crippled hand, Jon now travels from one poker tournament to the next, determined to earn enough money to repay the man’s debt.

Prosperity Ridge is supposed to be the last stop on his quest, but his brace is broken and he needs an engineer to repair the delicate mechanisms. The only one available is Samantha Weatherly, a beautiful anomaly in a world ruled by men.

Sam is no fool. Jon is no different from any other gambler—except for his amazing prosthetic. Despite a demanding project to win a critical contract to develop an iron horse, she succumbs to the lure of working on the delicate mechanisms. And working with the handsome Englishman.

Like a spring being coiled, Samantha and Jon are inexorably drawn together. Sam begins to realize honor wears many faces, and she becomes the light at the end of Jon’s journey to redemption. The only monkey wrench is Victor, a rival gambler who will stop at nothing to make sure Jon misses the tournament.

Even destroy Jon and Sam’s lives.

Both “Blaze of Glory” and “Wild Cards and Iron Horses” were nominated for the 2011 Prism Awards, given out by the Futuristic, Fantasy and Paranormal Special Interest Chapter of the Romance Writers of America. Both books came in Second Place in their respective categories.

I’ve also got an unnamed paranormal romance coming out in February 2012 from Carina Press about a private investigator called into a murder investigation by her family. Not *that* type of family-her Felis family who threw her out of the fold years ago because of her disability. But when the murdered victim is also a Felis her family needs the best on the job and the best happens to be Rebecca Dejardin, no matter what her status or disability.

So… that’s about it about me. Aside from my Wookie I’m also presently owned by a fat fuzzaloid named Mitchell who loves to cuddle on hot, hot days and have a Second Life as a clockwork dragon in the steampunk town of New Babbage in the virtual world of Second Life.



And as a true Canadian… *offers tea and scones*

There’s cold beer over here for the rest of you. Good Canadian whiskey if you need it and proper Guinness for those of you who like to chew on your beer.

Have a good day!

Sheryl Nantus
http://www.sherylnantus.com

Saturday Seven: Seven New Things to do at Dragon*Con

Dragon*Con turns 25 this year, and as befits a 25-year-old, it looks hot. The World’s Biggest Summer Camp for Wayward Adults has taken over a new hotel, boosted its TV signal (Dragon*Con TV broadcasts more original programming than most networks—and none of it remotely reality-based), and added even more great stuff to the schedule.


And it’s only a month away. I’m not quite counting the hours, but I am spending way too much time with the official progress report, polishing my name on the guest list and noting all the stuff I want to do. My panels, of course. The concerts and parade, ditto. But this year, I want to try something new. Since I don’t have my schedule yet, I don’t know what it will be, but I do know there’s a lot to choose from. Today’s Saturday Seven is just a sample:


Dragon*Con Masked Ball (10 p.m., Friday, September 2, location to be announced)
The con’s decided to celebrate their 25 anniversary with a grand ball, specifically a grand masked ball. Masks will be required to attend, but not to worry if you couldn’t find anything to match your party togs. Masks—including some created by the con’s Costuming Track—will be sold at the door, with all proceeds benefitting this year’s chosen charity, the National Inclusion Project. Music will be provided by The Ghost Project and their special musical guests. They’re even promising a new waltz written specially for the occasion.


The First Annual Comic Book Babes Contest (8:30 p.m., Saturday, September 3)
Comic book costume contests aren’t exactly new to Dragon*Con. For years, the con hosted a Dawn lookalike contest celebrating the comic book creation of Joseph Michael Lisner. This year, however, they’re expanding the field—and the prize money. The winner will take home $1000. The audience wins, not only in terms of greater variety, but also in the master of ceremonies: Goth geek king Voltaire.


Costuming Fashion Show (2 p.m., Sunday, September 4, Sheraton Grand Ballroom)
With so many mask and costume options in Dragon*Con’s exhibit halls and dealers room, it can be hard to wrap your brain around it, much less figure out what you want. To help, the Costuming Track has invited fifteen vendors to display their complete costumes, at no cost to vendors or fans.


Late Night Puppet Slam (11:30 p.m., Sunday, September 4, Hyatt Regency Ballroom 5)
Having never attended a puppet slam before, I can only assume the show operates like poetry slam, where lots of poets hit an audience with their best shots in the hope of winning a prize at the end of the evening. In any event, hosts Bob and Carl—aka the Sci-Fi Janitors—have invited some of the top puppeteers in Atlanta and beyond to bring their best geeky bits to Dragon*con’s many fans of the unusual.


Jefferson Starship Science Fiction/Rock Opera Mash-Up (date and time to be announced)
In addition to their live show, musical guests Jefferson Starship will participate in a mash-up of founder Paul Kantner’s Blows Against the Empire (the first album nominated for a Hugo) with the Vangelis score to Bladerunner. The show will be accompanied by multi-media projections of set designs from the movie. It should be wild, but I still think the concert will be wilder. But I may be prejudiced. The last time Starship played Dragon*Con, I danced onstage in a sarong.


Professional Photographer for the Fans (September 2-5, Marriott Marquis)
For years fans have bought professional photographs of Dragon*Con guests. This year they can take home a more personal souvenir—a professional photograph of themselves in all their costumed glory. The photographers will even provide appropriate science fiction and fantasy-themed backgrounds.


Workshops, Workshops, Workshops (various times, dates and locations)
Want to learn Tai Chi from actress Erin Grey and paranormal investigation techniques from LiveScience and Discovery News expert Benjamin Radford? What about taking a two day writing seminar taught by bestselling author Jody Lynn Nye? You can do all that and more at this year’s Dragon*Con. Workshops have long been a part of the program. A.C. Crispin’s Advanced Writers Workshop is a perennial favorite. But this year the workshops have expanded to the point where they practically constitute their own track. What are you waiting for?


Well, besides the 33 days until the opening festivities, that is. Hope to see you there!


Jean Marie Ward
JeanMarieWard.com

Friday Five - World Building - Goddesses/Gods of Njoziakti

I'm having a lot of conversations with folks about world building, especially with me working on the world for my YA LGBTQ novel, Path of the Huntress. This week I started heavily working on the pantheon for the gods and goddesses of this world, focusing specifically on the main setting, Njoziakti, which is the homeland of the main character, a continent based on pre-colonized Africa. Here’s a peek at five of the goddesses from that pantheon.

Mamsa Koywe (Ancient Mother)… (Mistress of the Veil, Midwife of the Dead, Goddess of Magic, Grandmother/Elder/Crone) Mamsa Koywe appears as a woman so old she looks as if she should have long ago crumbled to dust. She has existed since the beginning and will be there at the end of all things. Mamasa Koywe can be as cruel as she is loving, but even her cruelty has a purpose. She is never spiteful or petty. She has a lesson to teach, a story to tell, and secrets to keep or to share but only if you are worthy. She challenges those who seek her council and punishes those who displease her. Mamasa Koywe is the master of all magic and the midwife of the dead. Her mastery of magic is so complete that Mamasa Koywe needed no mate to plant the seed of life within her. She used the magic threads to fill her womb with her children and birthed them full-grown. Her children that make up the elder gods are Mamai Taktifu; the mother of all life, Haba Umri; the keeper of time, Eki Kifouku; the caretaker of the dead, and Sahib Mnjozi; the shaper of dreams. Mamasa Koywe is the Crone figure of the Sacred “Trinity” of goddesses.

Mamai Taktifu appears as a middle-aged and abundantly proportioned woman, belly filled with life. She is the goddess who birthed all life, from plant, to animal, to people. Her domains encompass the land and the sea, all places with life begins and ends. With her part time love, The First Man, Mamai Taktifu has birthed many of the other goddesses and gods. Her first children were the twins Seli Windaji; the great huntress, and Binti Inaka, the Grain Daughter. People debate which sister is the maiden of the Sacred Trinity, Seti Windaji or Binti Inaka. To the hunter/gather cultures it is Seti Windaji and to the cultures who prize agriculture above all it is Binti Inaka. Some cultures say the sisters serve in the maiden role together, but most say it is one sister or the other. Mamai Taktifu has three other children by The First Man. Anana Oruba; goddess of weather, Njenhaki; Lady Justice, and Umeli Msafiri; protector of travelors. Fuma Ungaane; weaver of madness and his sister Mga’moto are also children of Mamai Taktifu, but believed to be half-siblings of her other children (for more on the read Mamai Taktifu’s origin story). Mamai Taktifu is the mother figure of the Sacred “Trinity” of goddesses.

Seli Windaji (Sister Huntress) …(Huntress, Sister Moon, natural law, balance, protector of children and women, wilds-fertility, patron of the Unbuwindaji, twin sister of Binti Inaka) Seli Windaji has black skin covering her muscular form and waist length hair that glows luminescent white that she lets flow wild, never braided. When she wears clothing at all it is made of leather, bones and other natural adornments, and she is always barefoot.

The first of Mamai Taktifu’s children, Seli Windaji is a wild spirit, one who runs with the creatures of land and grants light to all who sleep under the Moon’s visage. She is favored niece of Analeta Kifo, Bringer of death, for her skill as a huntress and her understanding of the need to balance life and death. Seli Windaji presides over the natural balance of all natural things, and punishes those who desecrate wild places. Much like her twin Binti Inaka, she was born with a natural glow, but Seli Windaji never shone as brightly as her younger twin. Because of this many cultures focus on Binti Inaka as the favored sister, and fear Seli Windaji for her wildness and her link to the night. She is patron goddess of the Unbuwindaji, a group of highly trained hunters whose chosen mission is to wipe out all corruption from the chaos beyond the Void, and his favored son, Fuma Ungaane. Another of Seli Windaji’s favored groups of people are the Tershain. forest elves, tribes of which live far outside the territories of their city and country bred kin, and rarely if ever come in contact with humans at all. To the hunters of the world, Seli Windaji is the daughter/sister figure in the sacred “trinity” of goddesses.

Binti Inaka (Grain Daughter) … (Gentle Maiden, Sister Sun, agriculture, farmers-fertility, twin sister of Seli Widaji) Binti Inaka’s skin and hair is golden and glows with heat and light. She wears clothing of the sheerest whites and gold trim, and wear gold strapped shoes on her feet. Where she steps golden flowers the shape of the sun grow, with yellow petals and orange centers filled with pollen. The name of the flower are the zwajua, and these rare flowers have great healing properties when ingested as a tea or inhaled in a dried and smoke for.

Binti Inaka is the second born of Mamai Taktifu’s children, and greatly loved among the agricultural peoples of the world. She is the patron of farmers and even has some followers among the country elves. She is known as a gentle goddess, not wrathful or cruel. She is a timid goddess, easily hurt and offended, though more likely to turn her back and pout then last out like her twin Seli Windaji. Not a farmers home would be caught without a well cared for shrine to Binti Inaka, and it is not uncommon for the families to choose to go without rather then let an offering time pass to the grain goddess unobserved. She is often called upon as emissary to plead with Anana Oruba; goddess of weather, for a much needed rain or a repute from bad storms. To the farmers of the world, Binti Inaka is the daughter/sister figure in the sacred “trinity” of goddesses.

Eki Kifouku (she who brings death)… (Death Bringer, caretaker of the dead, guardian of the lands of the dead) Eki Kifouku has many faces, and comes to those who must move onto the afterlife as they have lived in the world. If the person is a good, just person, she is a loving guide, gentle and kind. If a person has done wrong, has been selfish or cruel Eki Kifouku is a frightening sight to behold. No living person is said to know what Eki Kifouku looks like until she comes for them.

As her eldest daughter created all that swam, flew, and crawled, Mamasa Koywe in her wisdom knew that with life must also come death to keep the balance. She weaved magic to create the Veil where Mamasa Koywe gave birth to Eki Kifouku; the caretaker of the dead.

Mamai Taktifu urged her creatures to reproduce as fast as they could, and Eki Kifouku would cull them all just as quickly. Finally both goddesses grew so weary they collapsed beside each other on one of the largest islands. For a long time neither said a word until suddenly Mamai Taktifu began to laugh. At first her sister was cross, but soon the laughter of the creatrix of life infected Eki Kifouku. Both sisters laughed until all trace of spite and discord was washed away, and only understanding remained. Since that time Eki Kifouku and Mamai Taktifu work in balance, displeased when outside forces threaten that careful balance, tipping the scales of life and death.

This is how it REALLY Happened...

Who remembers that movie Clue? When it came out in theaters? *looks around at raised hands* Well....first, you're all old! LOL! (So am I, though, so I can say that). I loved that movie, so campy and fun, with terrific actors, especially Tim Curry who has always been a favorite of mine. Did you know he played the demon in Legend? So versatile!

But that's not my point. Neither is the fact that I think Clue, much like another favorite camp film of mine Murder by Death, pokes great fun at old detective novels as well as putting a board game on the big screen. Here's the point. Right here.--------> For those who aren't old enough to remember, when the movie was shown in theaters, you only got to see ONE of the three or four possible endings they shot. When the movie moved to TV, they showed all of the endings, with "that's how it could have happened. But what about this?" interspersed between the endings, and a final one that said "but here's what really happened."

So which ending is the real ending? In the theater, if you wanted to see all the endings you had to go and see the movie a bunch of times and hope you got a different ending. If you never saw them all, how do you know which one was 'the' ending?

Something similar happened to me with the last book I finished, the steampunk fairy tale currently looking for an agent. Originally it had a particular ending. It was relatively happy with a bit of a weepy little twist. But someone thought it might be too adult for YA. It's a historical fantasy piece, and the ending was perfectly fit to the sensibilities of that time period, but in this day and age you sort of have to fudge a little bit sometimes, especially when the historical sensibilities run so very contrary to modern ones.

So I changed it completely. I've never really done that before. I liked this new ending better, actually, it was satisfying and managed to appease both modern and historical sensibility, I thought.

Another reader said it was too sad and slightly boring. Which, when I re-read it, I could see her point-of-view. I thought she was happy, but it did have a lot of telling and wasn't showing my main character to be as happy as I knew she was. It was too 'quiet' - which apparently is the kiss of death in YA.

So I wrote it again.

I took a little from one pot and a little from the other and blended them together to get ending #3. This ending shows more than tells, and the happiness is practically bursting from the page. My MC gets more of Ending #1 without being overly 'adult', and is still living the life I wanted for her in Ending #2. But this is the first time I've ever, ever completely ripped out an ending after a book was finished. Tweaked, yes, but never completely changed. Beginnings, sure, do it all the time. Middles - of course. But not an ending.

Someday when it's published I'll have to post the Alternate Endings, and you can decide how you think it 'really happened.'