What’s in a (hero) name? – Kandy Shepherd

When it comes to naming a romance hero, there are certain names that do it for me: Matt, Nick, Sam, Tom, Joe and Luke have all starred as heroes in my novels.

But one of my very favorite guy names is Jesse. I don’t know why it conjures up tall, dark and super sexy for me but it always has.

I’ve met a few Jesses in my time—and they’ve all been charming. Did their mothers have some intuition about what kind of men their infant boys would become? Or did they just like the name?

Because Jesse is such a favorite with me, I don’t know why I used it for a secondary character in my first book for Harlequin Romance The Summer They Never Forgot.

The hero of that book, Ben Morgan, had a brother Jesse. That Jesse was quite a heartbreaker became apparent both in that book and the second Dolphin Bay book The Tycoon and the Wedding Planner. Had I thrown away that wonderful name on a secondary character?

All made sense when I went to write the third book in the series, A Diamond in Her Stocking. This was going to be Jesse’s story—Jesse the handsome heartbreaker was going to fall very hard in this book.

Before writing the story I had a strong image in my of what my Jesse looked like:  “Jesse Morgan. All six foot three of him—black haired, blue-eyed, movie-star handsome.”

Jesse Spencer

So did I look for inspiration in gorgeous celebrities named Jesse? How about Jesse Spencer from House and Chicago Fire? I’ve always liked him, even when he was in Australia soapies and teen flicks.

Jesse Metcalf

Then there was Jesse Metcalf. It wasn’t just the Desperate Housewives who swooned over him in the role of John.

No. Handsome as those two are, I knew exactly who could model for my Jesse Morgan. Ian Somerhalder (The Vampire Diaries) fitted the bill in every way—except of course for his name. Ian. I’m sure there are many wonderful romance heroes named Ian. It’s just not a name that does if for me.

Ian Somerhalder

So with an image of Ian Somerhalder (who I think is totally swoonworthy and especially because he is an animal lover) and the name of Jesse Morgan, the hero of A Diamond in Her Stocking came to life. Then, of course, as I wrote he became entirely his own person. I relished every moment of making Jesse worthy of lovely, feisty Lizzie Dumont, the heroine.

By the way, my next book for Harlequin Romance From Paradise to…Pregnant! (June 2015) has a gorgeous hero named Mitch. Mitch is another of my favorite guy names. I’ll share more about Mitch some other post...

What about you? Do you have a favorite romance hero name? Are there certain names you love/hate in a romance hero?

Make a comment to be in the draw for a signed copy of A Diamond in Her Stocking. Please include your email address in your comment if you want to be included in the draw.

Before I go, I’d like the chance to wish you all a wonderful festive season—see you in January!

Kandy’s third Dolphin Bay story for Harlequin Romance, A Diamond in Her Stocking, is a December 2014 release and is available now.

Kandy Shepherd is an award-winning author of contemporary romance and women’s fiction. She lives on a small farm in the Blue Mountains near Sydney, Australia, with her family and a menagerie of four-legged friends.

The Perfect Man For Everywoman

By vagueonthehow

I've just started writing a new single title. It's at such an early stage I haven't even decided on a working title yet, but I already had a pretty good idea of my hero's attributes before I sat down at the keyboard. As always, I based the best bits of his character on my lovely OH. That leaves me free to indulge my fantasies, and dream up a hero who's gorgeous to look at as well as a real Alpha male.  That means tall, dark, handsome, preferably with tousled hair.  Of course, he's got to be well muscled with a good broad chest (heroines for the comforting of). The funny thing is, that description sounds like my OH, too. That's the point where I start trawling the Internet to add a little variation to my mental images. My daughter has a thing for Ian Somerhalder, so he was first up on my inspirations board under the heading "hero". Pretty hunky, huh?

Then, while I was drafting this blog I had Classic FM playing online. Their home page featured a photomontage of a recent performance of Parsifal with Jonas Kaufmann in the title role. Now, I don't care for Wagnerian opera, but the photograph of Jonas having his clothes torn off by a bunch of wicked women (all in character, of course!) almost made me a convert. Oh, yes, and Jonas sings like a hero, too.
Here's a clip - at first I thought it was floodwater sloshing around their ankles, but to judge from the state of those bedclothes, they must have Ribena on draught...

It's going to take a bit of work to track down a likely picture of a heroine for him. His Cinderella is an unhappy girl who has got into the habit of eating to get herself through life's ups and downs. Then a life changing experience leaves her destitute. She could solve all her problems in an instant by selling her home to our hero (above) but disaster changes her. After being betrayed by her ex-boyfriend, she's assumes he's trying to trick her. At first she can't see past our hero's battle-hardened public image at first, and in any case she's too stubborn to take his money. That would be too easy!  It's only when she glimpses the real man behind the mask that she decides a compromise might work - but only on her terms. He's not a man to see a woman starve, though, so there are going to be fireworks. I'm visualising a twenty-five year old Dawn French while I write, but as I can't find any suitable pictures of her, there's currently a gap on my inspirations board under "heroine".

Have you got any  suitable candidates? There's a signed copy from my backlist for the best suggestion!

Christina Hollis has written both Historical fiction and Modern Romance/Presents for Harlequin Mills and Boon Ltd, as well non-fiction for national magazines and prize-winning short stories. Her current release, Lady Rascal is available for download from  Amazon, iTunes  and many other retailers. Christina loves to hear from readers - you can contact her through her website or her blog.