How Old is a Hero Anyway? by Kate Walker

This week is the one that sees my birthday come around again. And no you can’t ask how old I am! In my head I’m the age of the heroines I write about - and the heroes. And that’s the way it’s going to stay.

But thinking about age, made me start to wonder about those heroes and heroines. I mean, how old is a heroine? Or a hero for that matter? When I first started reading romances, the heroines tended to be young – and often a lot younger than there heroes. Girls of 19, 20 were partnered with men maybe ten or even fifteen years older than them and no one thought twice about it. Because of that, heroes were always well over thirty – sometimes heading for or even having reached forty and so more than likely to consider the heroine a silly little girl – and maybe even call her that too!

For myself, my first heroine was seventeen when she first met the hero - something I’m not too sure would be totally acceptable these days. Another heroine was eighteen to the hero’s thirty. These days, I’m far more likely to be writing about heroines of twenty-five or twenty-six and heroes just a couple of years or so older. That seems right in a Presents romance, though Modern Heat for example can have a younger. less well-established hero.

On the brand-new Mills & Boon Community web site. Someone raised the question of how old - or perhaps I mean how young - a hero can actually be. Would twenty–six be too young? And how about twenty-five? What about a hero who is older - forty – fifty . . . Or one who is younger than the heroine? Many readers I know believe that a man takes a while longer than a woman to grow, mature – achieve something in life. And yet for others the thirty something hero is too old.

It’s perfectly possible to write a heroine or a hero at any age. None of us (thank heaven!) is immune to the wonderful, uplifting, life-changing experience of falling in love at any stage of our lives. And equally age is no barrier to the intense and wonderful feelings that a loving relationship can bring no matter what stage of life we’re at, or how many times we’ve been through this before. Only this weekend I was reading about a man who lost his wife tragically when she was murdered five years ago and is now rediscovering the joy of a new love as time has helped him heal. He’s no spring chicken – mid-forties – but love is no respecter of age. My friend’s mother has just married for the second time and she’s approaching her seventieth birthday and I’ve seen the photos of her wedding day – I doubt if any younger bride could look more starry-eyed and head over heels in love.

But every now and then romance publishers say they are looking for younger readers, that they want to appeal to a younger market. Would younger heroes and heroines do that or is there something else that would appeal to the readers who are the age of my first heroine – in their teens and very early twenties? Is it the years in a character’s life or the life in those years? What about you? Do you care how old the hero and heroine are in a romance you read – or are you happy to accept any age, and any age difference as long as the author convinces you? And because I’m nosy – what about you as a reader? How old were you when you first came to reading romances? Are the publishers right to think they need to attract the younger reader – or are you already there?

Because I’m celebrating this week, and when I celebrate I like to share, I’ll get Sid the Cat to pick two names from the comments that are posted and there will be a signed copy of one of my backlist for the winners.

And if you want to read more about heroes – I’m running a special discussion on the Alpha hero over on my blog.

Kate's latest novel Cordero's Forced Bride was released in Harlequin Presents in February and Mills & Boon Modern in March it is still available on Amazon and the M&B website

Coming up is Kept For Her Baby which is to be published in August (UK) and October – in Presents Extra in America. But before that there is the reprint of At The Sheikh’s Command coming in the Sold to The Sheikh collection in June in the UK.

You can find out more about Kate and her books on her website or for the most up to date news, visit her blog.

The Heroines in Our Lives : : Anne McAllister

As romance authors we spend a lot of time writing about heroes. We appreciate a man of integrity, of honor, of competence, and determination. Drop dead gorgeous looks and a smile to die for aren't much of a turn-off, either.

I can happily spend hours drool-- appreciating -- men like Hugh-in-a-towel and others like him.

And while I don't spend nearly the time appreciating the finer qualities of the heroines I write about, what makes them tick is equally important to my heroes, to my books -- and to my life.

It's the women who raised me -- my mother, my grandmother, my aunts and great-aunts -- who first taught me what being a woman is all about. They taught me compassion and generosity and unstinting love.

They were very different, one from another. And admittedly some of them I found more enjoyable to be around than others. They had idiosyncrasies and quirks that made them individuals. They showed me how many different ways women can live out their lives and become the best people they can be.
Friends I made growing up did the same. Some were funny, some were serious, some were definitely holy, some were just a little bit bad. But they all gave me gifts when they shared their lives with me. So did my sister who, if she minds when I call her General Patton, never takes it seriously, thank God.

And then came my daughter who has taught me even more about grace under pressure, steadfast determination, how to have a sense of humor always and how to be a woman in a man's world.

And my daughters-in-law who have brought even more joy as they deepened my understanding of the many many ways women can be heroines in their own stories and the stories of the men who love them.

Granddaughters, too, are special, joyful and endlessly entertaining. Watching them become heroines in their own lives is a reward I cherish every day.

Writer friends -- most of them women -- who have enriched my life over the past twenty-odd years of my career have taught me so much about life and sharing and giving and always being there, no matter what. I can't imagine what life would be like without them.

I'm thinking about this right now because I'm making a birthday dinner for my mother.

She's 89 today. She is a woman of resiliency, determination, care and compassion. And if sometimes she reminds me of Eeyore, she's entitled.

As my grandmother would have said, "That's just the way she is, dear." And while we may not be much alike, to her occasional dismay, she has brought great joy into my life. And I feel fortunate to celebrate hers today.

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. My mother is a 16 year survivor of the disease. Her life is a testimony to the success of early detection, to good medical care, and above all, to a woman who, faced with it, didn't respond like Eeyore at all.

She didn't sigh and bemoan her fate. She was a heroine. She took charge. She battled back and, with the help of her doctors and her attitude and determination, she came out on top.

Blessings on you, Mom -- and happy birthday.

When a Cover Works

We all know what a wrong cover looks like. The one where the man and the woman on it look nothing like the characters the author created. Or there is an extra arm there. The colors make the hero look orange. The hero looks like a bad version of Donald Trump.

But when a cover works, like this one for my new book, Tempted by the Night, all the right elements converge together like a perfect storm.

When I was asked (and yes, authors are asked what they would like on the cover--they don't always listen, but it is nice to be asked), I suggested a moonlit scene, because the bulk of the story happens at night. I had seen a Harry Potter movie poster that I thought was brilliant--just Harry in the moonlight with a sword in his hand. And I wanted the same dark, desperate, passionate mood on my cover.

Yet the art department and the artist took another view, and put the couple together here, on the dark streets of London, in this fabulous, desperate embrace, as if this is their first and only kiss. And boy, are they going to make it a good one. While murky darkness surrounds them, together they glow. She is his light.

It captures Hermione's and Rockhurst's relationship perfectly. Like I said, when it works . . . But you'll have to tell me if it fits the story. Tempted by the Night goes on sale Tuesday, August 26th. Get a copy and let me know if the cover and the story work for you.

In the meantime, what is your idea of a perfect cover?

BTW, I'm having a contest over on my blog to win a box of goodies from the RWA conference. Drop by, comment before Monday noon, and you could win!

What's in a Name? -- Anne McAllister

We've all heard the "a rose by any other name would smell as sweet," maxim. And no doubt it would.

But the problem for writers is rarely roses. It's usually what to name our heroine or our hero.

Is a Charles the same as a Charley or a Chuck? I don't think so.

Is a Sarah no different from a Sally or a Sadie? Not the ones I know.

Even spelling counts in my world. I just wrote about a Sara in One-Night Love Child who is quite different from a Sarah I have in mind for a future book. And there was no similarity between my Cait and my Kate. None at all.

Are all writers as obsessed with names as I am?

Did they all have their children named when they were in fifth grade? I did. Though I won't tell you what I intended to name them -- and I certainly won't tell them because they'd be horrified.

Still, it mattered.

And why did I need to wait until the last one was born to decide if he was an Ian or a James? Looking at him, both my husband and I knew instantly which he was.

Ask any writer and chances are good she will tell you that without a name, the character won't come to life. And woe betide the author who uses "search and replace" and discovers that as soon as she does, the character dies on the page. Some don't, but it's a chance I wouldn't dare take.

The only time I would dare to do it is if I were the one who got the name wrong to begin with. It happens. Sometimes the character comes along and tells me that I'm wrong. Sometimes my fingers know I'm wrong before I do.

There is a heroine taking shape in my head right now and I wrote about her, calling her Sylvie. At least I've been trying to call her Sylvie. My fingers, however, have been typing Sophy every time they write her name.

Her name is still (I think) up for debate, but I'm beginning to suspect my fingers are going to win.

Suffice to say, for me, naming characters is incredibly important. Knowing their names somehow helps shape the book. And I realized this importance even more clearly when I began to write more linked books.

When I knew ahead of time they were going to be linked, I was careful. But once, writing about a hero named Jack and a heroine named Frances, I gave them friends named Carter and Annabel. They sounded like good supporting-cast names.

How was I to know that Carter and Annabel would start demanding their own book? Worse, that they would demand a book together! I had no idea what an Annabel was like -- but boy, did I find out. And Carter took three books to grow into heroism (in the first all he did was drink beer and eat junk food and make crap out of the hero, in the second, he proposed to the heroine and she said no, and finally, with hard-won maturity he carried the day and got the girl). In the end, he turned into one of my favorites, but it was tricky. And Annabel was no picnic, either!

Lots of authors have stacks of "name" books they pour through for names. I have a few. But mostly I find myself looking in phone books and old census records and diaries and newspaper and magazine articles. Names in lists with meanings don't seem to have much context. I like reading them, but I don't often get a sense of who a person is from a list.

I like it best when names -- and their people -- come in context for me. Then they speak to me, tease me with just enough tantalizing information that I want to know more about.

But it doesn't always happen that way. Originally I began writing books because I wanted to name a son Brendan and my husband, The Prof, didn't.

After enough sons to be convinced I wasn't ever going to budge The Prof on that point, I decided if I was ever going to get a Brendan, I'd have to have him in a book.

I figure I probably owe my career to that Brendan -- and I never had to put up with him as a teenager or put him through college. What a deal!

Do you have favorite names that you picked for kids long before you had any? Or do you now if you're still anticipating?

What about names for characters? Do you have characters in search of names or names in search of characters?