Real People. Real Life. Real Love

The Greek root for "hero" means "sacrifice," something I keep in mind as I'm developing my guys: It's not what they have, it's what they're willing to give up, that defines their manhood.

 Love that. I'm not fully awake yet despite having been up for a couple of hours...picnic, party hangover.

But I loved how you defined/defended what you write and why you write it. Love that you didn't say, "Okay, so here is what you need to do to write for SSE." and instead told us what we should love to write about in order to try our hand at the line.

Any advice for someone wanting to try their hand after reading your inspiring post? Perhaps the dos or don'ts?

Rae

You're an inspiration to me!  Really.  I have a partial that's being looked over by Mr. Griemsman in SSE right now.  I'm trying to be still and sit tight, too - I'll remember to study Patience in Publishing 101.   I realize the editors are incredibly busy people. 

I am truly inspired by your tenacity and the way you embarked on a journey that was probably a little frightening for you (like it is for me), since you knew so little about it.  All I know is, I love to write and create characters that become so real to me that I could swear they really lived and breathed somewhere in this world! 

"What especially fires my jets about being an SSE author is that there's virtually no limit on the kinds of characters I can write about - especially the heroes. Betas, blue-collars, guys-next-door...SSE says, "Bring ‘em on." Which I love, because, you know, what makes a man heroic has nothing to do with his social status or Dun and Bradstreet rating and everything to do with the kind of man he is."

That's what I like too!  I get a little bored with the same type of H in some lines.  I don't want alpha-males all the time.  I think H's come in all shapes and forms, and from all walks of life!

Thank you so much for telling your story! 

...for writing SSEs is to be found in the podcast with Gail Chasan (my aforementioned lovely editor ;-)) and Susan Litman -- maybe, if I ask reeeeally nicely, Rae would post a link to that?  

Because there's so much variety in the line that trying to nail the "dos and don'ts" is nearly impossible.  Yeah, SSE is one of the last bastions for true, traditional romance -- but what differentiates it from, say, Supers or Har American or Romance involves more subtleties than I could even begin to define.  So I'll leave that up to the editors.

But as Susan L. says in the podcast, while the heroes can range from plumbers to billionaires, from the guy-next-door to princes and sheiks, the heroines need to be women the reader can identify with.  As she says, even in the sheik stories the reader should be able to think that the story *could* happen to her.  Because of that -- and the line's tagline of "a woman in her world," I think the stories are perhaps more heroine-centric than in some other lines.  

Anybody see NO RESERVATIONS with Catherine Zeta-Jones and Aaron Eckhart, the (very well done) remake of the German movie MOSTLY MARTHA?  That, to me, is a very SSE type of story -- overworked, closed-off, professional woman suddenly finds herself guardian to her niece after her sister's death; both are - in a way - brought back to life by the patient, sexy, irreverent totally Beta hero.

If I could pick one word to describe SSE, it would be heartwarming.  Which are my favorite kinds of stories to read or watch, so it only makes sense that I write them, too!

I love Beta heroes. I love the regular guy type. I can't understand or relate to the sheiks or millionaires at all. To me, they're very unrealistic. The heroes and heroines in the home and hearth lines are people that you can meet on the street or when you step out to get your paper in the morning or while you are doing yardwork. Every day people.

Karen, your characters have a really good sense of humor, too. There's comedy in your stories.

LindaC

Just finished copying/pasting it into my keeper file!

I'm been a fangirl of yours from your days at SIM and was so happy to see you move into the SSE neighborhood! The mix of reality and romance in your books is perfect and are great learning tools for those of us still working to break into the biz.

"...at heart, SSE is a great place to find stories about real people dealing with real-life situations, stories about family and friends and kids and, yes, babies, because that's what life is for a lot of readers. That's not to say those who prefer more escapist category reads won't find plenty of sheiks and princes and such - another great thing about SSE is the variety within the line, in character types, tones and sensuality level. ..."

So well said!! While cowboys and military men rock my world I love the fact that each month SSE readers get an assortment of heroes and heroines to chose from --- sort of like the Hershey's miniature chocolate bars! The all-american Milk Chocolate (totally cowboy/cop/military!), Special Dark (alpha...yum!), Mr. Goodbar (for those heroes who are a bit...nuts?) and Krackel (chocolate and rice crispies - how beta!)

Good thing I love them all!

Betty -- all you have to do is go up to the "Alternative formats" drop-down menu, click on "Podcasts," and find the one you want.  Just make sure your sound is turned up!  (But take heart -- I didn't realize how easy they were to access, either!)