Why I love a Warrior Hero by Michelle Styles

There is something about me which does love a warrior, particularly a battle-scarred warrior. I like exploring a psyche which has gone through a baptism of fire.  Battle inevitably dehumanises people. People have to behave in ways that might be honourable in war, but are not necessarily honourable in normal life. When they step outside the bubble which war creates, they have to confront their old life. Or at the very least encounter people who have not been through the hell they have suffered.

 Once someone has gone through a battle, they are forever changed. The innocence is gone.  They have experienced death. They may have killed.  They have seen people be killed.  They may have lost a limb or be marked in some way. They may be in constant pain because of their injuries. And they may have learnt that while physical injuries heal, mental anguish can continue unabated.

 They have to ask - -why did I survive? Why (perhaps) did my best friend die? Why did someone I thought better than me die? Could I have done more to save him? Could I have done more to save people who depended on me?

For me, my warrior heroes are not coming from an easy place but as they get to know the heroine and fall in love with her, they inevitably find their humanity returns. His growing love for her means that he can long for a life which is different from the one he has known. He can also worry that his growing love makes himself vulnerable in away he wasn’t vulnerable before and to a warrior, being vulnerable can be a fate which leads to death.

I also love the fact that warriors are inevitably self-made men. A warrior can inherit titles, prestige and wealth. His father or grandfather might have been great. But a warrior is only as good as his fighting ability.  He has to prove himself. I find these sorts of heroes are more interesting as they have done beyond being born to deserve their good fortune.

Good warriors are also intelligent. They have to be able to understand the intricacies of battlefield strategy, for instance. They also have to know how to work with other people. One warrior cannot stand alone against a hundred but several warriors working together can. History is littered with examples.

A warrior believes in something. He has some reason to fight. He has a code of conduct. It might not be something we would want to adhere to today but it exists for him.  With my heroes, before I started writing Viking warriors, I had to be clear in my own mind that my heroes were not into raping women. They had their own code and knew where the lines were drawn. This is not to say that others did not indulge, just simply that I had to be able to write a warrior that I could fall for.

Do why do I love a warrior? Because they are complicated but rewarding. And they stand the test of time.

Michelle Styles writes warm, witty and intimate historical romances for Harlequin Historical. Her latest Return of the Viking Warrior is out now. Her next book Saved by the Viking Warrior will be out in September 2014.You can learn more about Michelle and her books on www.michellestyles.co.uk

Elizabeth Hoyt meditates on torturing the hero

I went to see IRON MAN the other day—and loved it!—but I thought the beginning was interesting. When we first see Tony Stark, the future Iron Man, he’s got a glass of Scotch in his hand, he’s wearing a designer suit in a Humvee full of soldiers, and he’s boasting about bedding all the MAXIM cover models from the year before. Hmm, I thought, not particularly likable. Not particularly heroic, in fact.

It’s what happens next that turns Tony Stark into a hero.

The convoy of Humvees is blown up, Stark is shot, and he’s taken captive by shadowy terrorists somewhere in the Afghan mountains. When, in the next scene, a hood is pulled off the bound Stark’s face, I actually leaned forward in my seat. Stark’s expensive suit has been shredded, he has cuts and bruises on his face, and fear and anger are bright in his eyes. Suddenly Stark the prisoner was a whole lot more interesting than Stark the playboy.

Now, I’m not a sadist. I don’t actually enjoy seeing the hero brutalized in a movie or book. But in order for an ordinary man to ascend from his mundane life and become a hero we want to root for, sometimes he has to suffer.

A lot.

In my new book TO TASTE TEMPTATION, my hero is Samuel Hartley. He’s a wealthy Colonial merchant visiting London on business. At first he may not seem like hero material—until we get to his backstory. Six years before Sam was in the Colonial army, fighting the French in the French and Indian War. During that war the regiment he’s been assigned to lead through the wilds of the American woods is attacked and massacred, with only a handful of men surviving. It’s what Sam did during that awful day that’s torturing him. The hard choices he made and the actions he took. Six years later he’s still not over the war completely.

And to me that makes Sam an interesting hero. One with conflicts and nightmares. One with a tortured past. I hope you enjoy TO TASTE TEMPTATION!

So tell me who your favorite tortured hero is and I’ll pick one person to win an autographed copy of THE RAVEN PRINCE!

Cheers!
Elizabeth Hoyt
http://www.elizabethhoyt.com/

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Good Morning!

MELISSA LEAVITT, if you can contact me via my website, I'll send you an autographed copy of THE RAVEN PRINCE!

Thank you to everyone for participating in the discussion!

Cheers!

Elizabeth