Babes in the book

Do you like babies in your romance novels? For me, the reality of living with babies dictates their level of involvement in the story.

 In something very steamy, where the characters want to make spontaneous, uninterrupted (key word!) love at any opportunity, a baby character might not work as well (though, of course, such passionate love scenes could result in the creation of a baby character.) A sweet, community-based love story practically cries out for babies. And the way the hero and heroine interact with a baby in a book can reveal so much about their personalities.

In my new e-book release Something About Joe my baby character, eighteen-month-old Mitchell, is pivotal to the story. He brings hero, hot biker nanny Joe Martin, and heroine, single mom banker Allison Bradley, together—and also keeps them apart. It is her passionate love for her child that makes Allison fight her attraction to Joe, as she must make life decisions based on Mitchell’s happiness as well as her own. And Joe’s feelings on fatherhood present a stumbling block that he has to work to overcome.

I chose to make Mitchell eighteen months old as he is old enough to have a strong, vibrant personality, say enough words to communicate his feelings about Joe—but young enough to sleep through important scenes between Joe and Allison!

Something About Joe is a reissue of my first published novel Mitchell’s Nanny, and was written at a time when my daughter was still young enough for me to remember her baby behavior and write it into Mitchell. I don’t know why I wrote about a little boy with red hair—maybe a subconscious yearning for the second child I was not destined to have? Whatever, I loved creating this cute little boy and he seems very real to me!

I’ve heard people say they won’t buy a book with a child on the cover—others that will pick it up just because there’s a baby on board. I’d love to know your thoughts about babies in books—or on TV and in movies.Personally, I have a weakness for “secret baby” plots—I love the tension that the secret brings to the story.

Leave a comment to win a free download of my new e-book Something About Joe. Be sure to include your email address.


Something About Joe is available for just $0.99c at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords and other e-retailers.

Kandy Shepherd writes fun, feel-good fiction. 

http://www.kandyshepherd.com

(Baby photos courtesy of www.stockvault.net)