Intrigue's Ultimate Heroes

BJ---have you ever written a book with a royal as a main character before?  I'll admit, I find the idea of writing a royal hero very daunting, and I wonder how you went about it, from kingdom building to the whole concept of the royal undercover as a stable hand, where you're blending two very different lifestyles and attitudes into one man.

Paula, I smiled when I read your question. That was a serious problem for me, someone who writes about what I know -- Montana and cowboys.

So it wasn't just daunting, it was impossible. I realized that I didn't know enough about how royals live to write a character who'd lived in the lap of luxury all his life. That is why my hero is working undercover as a stable hand but the only life he's led is one of raising horses and teaching riding for royals with his mother in his home country.

A lot of things come as a shock to my character once he hits Montana.  While one of his best friends is a royal, Devlin doesn't know that world so when he discovers why his mother was murdered, it's a real character builder in what he choses to do with that information.

The palace intrigue part of the book was AWESOME. I loved that these people were so powerful and evil. I loved the book. Actually, I loved all four of the Ultimate Hero books. I read all four of the books in the shipment in one day! Devlin was a great hero.

Mary Beth 

Two Ultimate Heroes today! My question is with your book, Dani, it sounds like you were dealing with a tight deadline for your hero. What was that like with the wedding just the next morning?

Paula, I know how hard it is to write a book involving amnesia. What kinds of problems did that cause when you were writing it? 

I'm usually the first to groan at an amnesia story, but I liked the idea of a woman who was accused of doing something terrible and not knowing whether or not it was true.  So I did some basic research into amnesia and its causes.  Jane Doe's amnesia was psychosomatic, basically--the events of her life reached a crisis point and she had a mental break, essentially giving herself a clean slate to work with.  It relieved the pressure on her, obscured her pain, and gave her back her ability to function.  But she couldn't be happy not knowing about her past, especially when Joe shows up and accuses her of being responsible for his brother's death.

I did wing it a bit, I admit.  I do know a guy who was left with short term memory loss after an illness, and I know how hard it's been for him to function.  I think it's changed his personality some, the frustration of being unable to work because of his disability has made him more temperamental. So I spent a good bit of time trying to put myself in Jane Doe's shoes and imagining what life would be like without a past you could remember.

I also added in snippets of feelings and memories, just enough to be scary to her, especially when they suggested that her nagging sense of a very bad past just might be true.

I enjoyed giving Jane her past back, a few memories at a time, and watching her deal with those snippets of recollection out of context, like looking at a puzzle piece by itself without the rest of the pieces to make it form some sort of coherent picture.

I'm trying to make "hot southern boys" into my niche. :)  Think Sawyer from Lost, only without the con artist background and the murderous streak. 

Hi BJ!

These two books were tricky to write since two of the main characters are involved in both books and the stories take place simultaneously. I not only had to juggle the story lines, I had to juggle things like weather and time of day. If this was happening in book one, what's going to be happening in book two at that time. And since book one had to be completed and turned in months before book two I needed a pretty clear idea of where both stories were heading. 

The wedding is the catalyst in both stories. The trick is to create a believable premise in which the hero and heroine can fall in love with someone entirely new on the eve of their wedding. I do love a challenge.

Dani

Whew, Dani, I should say! you love a challenge! First off, I can't imagine writing two books that are taking place at the same time. That boggles my mind. The logistics alone are overwhelming!

But I love the idea of the wedding being the catalyst.

I'm curious what you and Paula feel makes an Ultimate Hero. 

This is really a hard question for me to answer, because I think heroes come in so many packages.  Joe Garrison is a cowboy, and he's a cop, but he's also a grieving brother and a bitter son.  The man you meet in the first chapter is just the outside, and each chapter reveals new layers, new depths. 

So maybe that's the answer.  Ultimate heroes are complex, just like real men.  They can be flawed and damaged, but there's a core of steel inside them that makes them ultimately choose the right path and do the right thing.  And as resistant as they might be to the idea of love, when they find it, they have the strength and courage to open themselves to it and let it help them heal and grow.

At least, that's what I think makes the ultimate hero.

This was definitely a challenge.  Lots and lots of copious notes and a timeline with every hour of the day noted.  What time the storm hits. Which set of characters are where at any given time. What part of book one still has to be resolved in book two. Crazy. And may I say never again?  The flow of the second book was so much harder to maintain because of whatever I'd set in place in book one. But it was interesting.

BJ, you and Paula gave good answers to what makes an 'ultimate' hero. To me any hero is a person who does what must be done even when the risks are high. Firemen rushing into burning buildings, police officers facing down armed people, soldiers doing what they are trained, but going above and beyond the call, the person on the street who jumps in front of danger to save someone who can't save themselve. These are true heroes.  

I write about tough guys, read a lot of commando training and survival books, but the embarrassing truth is, I can only talk the talk, I can’t walk the walk. This was made clear to me last night when I heard a noise downstairs. Startled out of sleep, I squealed and jumped blindly toward my husband and ended up on his back.

Him: groan

Me: “There’s someone downstairs.”

Him: groan, groan then something about me getting off

Me: “Sorry. You don’t know how startling it is to be woken in the middle of the night by a loud noise.” (Since his hearing is pretty bad, he doesn’t even wake up to thunderstorms.)

Him: “You don’t know how startling it is to be woken in the middle of the night by someone jumping on your back.”

Okay. Point taken. I go back to my side of the bed. He groans some more and goes downstairs. But first, he dresses. He’s not the type to confront a burglar in his underwear. But while he always puts on his pants to investigate night noises that freak me out, he never takes any sort of possible weapon, not even a can of hairspray from my dresser. Go figure.

After a minute, when I don’t hear any confrontation from down there, I relax.

And then… And then the biggest, giant, HUGE, mother of all bats swoops right up the staircase, straight toward me in the bedroom and starts circling above my head!!!

I broke the Guinness World Record for screaming “ohmygod, ohmygod, ohmygod” the most number of times in 60 seconds. The only reason I didn’t call the police, firemen, ambulance and National Guard was that we don’t have a phone in the bedroom. Frankly, I’m surprised the police didn’t come anyway. There’s a police station a few hundred yards from our house. They had to have heard me screaming.

So the bat circles, giant black bat wings going swoosh and flap, flap. I dive under the covers screaming. After a few moments, I realize I can’t breathe. I don’t dare lift the edge of the blanket. What if the bat sees it, thinks it’s the opening of some cave, and flies in there??? (OK, I wasn’t thinking clearly at the time.) But while the blanket is thick enough to suffocate me, I realize it’s thin enough that if the bat landed on me, I’d feel it. ON ME!!! And if I did, I’d get a heart attack. Guaranteed.

I need to get out of the room.

Risking life, limb and heart failure, I peek out. The bat has landed right above the bedroom door. There’s no way I would walk under that!!! I draw some oxygen then seal the blanket again.

Me: “Get, it out! Get it out! Get it out!”

Him: “It’s just a bat. It won’t hurt you.”

I let silence speak for me. Weighty silence.

Him: “I should get the camera.”

Me (thinking): Not if you still want to be married come tomorrow. But I tone it down to a simple, “Please don’t. Just get the damn thing out.” No sense aggravating the man who holds my life in his hands.

Him: “We could open the bedroom window, turn out the lights and go back to sleep. It’ll go out eventually.”

Me (thinking): Have I married an alien?!?!

So eventually the bat flies away from the door and lands in the opposite corner. My husband tells me this while my brain fights for oxygen under the blanket. My need to get out of the room is overpowering. But what if the bat is disturbed by movement and starts flying again? In sheer, blind panic, I bolt for the door anyway, straight to the guest room and lock myself in. My skin is covered in goose bumps large enough to qualify me for the Guinness World Record for the second time that night.

My dear, darling, hero of a husband gets the bat out of the house and finds the culprit, a bathroom window that had been left open. We settle in for sleep with the bedroom door closed (what if more bats came in) and the light on.

Me, weak with relief: “Thank you, thank you, thank you…”

Him, mildly curious and decidedly entertained: “What would you have done if I hadn’t been home?”

Me: “Died.”

So there. I’m a wimp. Believe me, it’s a great disappointment to me. I always fancied myself strong and independent like the heroines of my books. Thank God, at least there’s a true hero in the house!

Talking about heroes, I’m happy to introduce Karim, hero of Sheik Protector. You might think that his soul is too dark to be a hero, that he is too scarred, too hardened. But if you spend some time with him, I’m sure that you will find that he’s an exceptional man. As the son of a king, he was considered from his birth a threat by his more ambitious brothers and their supporters.

As a child, Karim and his twin brother Aziz survived several assassination attempts that left Karim blind to one eye and severely scarred when his enemies tried to peel the skin off his back with a camel whip for sport.

He grew up to be super strong both in body and character, but he closes himself off, never trusting anyone but Aziz. Protecting his family is of the outmost importance to him. So when Aziz is killed in an arranged oil well explosion, Karim swears revenge, even if he has to give his own life to take his brother’s killers out. And then in the middle of this dangerous hunt, a slip of an American woman shows up, claiming to be pregnant with Aziz’s baby. Karim knows one thing: he will not let her stain Aziz’s honor. But as it turns out, he way underestimates the beauty he plans on keeping locked up in his palace.

I hope you'll enjoy meeting him as much as I did.

Dana

www.danamarton.com

Wayne, I don't even have a copy of the book yet. LOL This month seems slow.

About male point of view...  Hmmm... Well, I've been married for over a decade and a half so that helps . If I'm not sure, I ask my husband. He is also my research subject on all things medical and military. But I do envy romance writers who've been able to partner up with a male writing partner. I know Jennifer Cruise and Patricia Rosemoor have done that and I think the end results are fantastic!

Dana

I am always intrigued by how writers do their job.  I love to read but could not write a book for anything. 

I have read Dana's book and it is very good.  I remember him from the book about the older brother and was happy when this came out. 

I am going to try and start Bodyguard to the Bride tonight.  When does the second book come out?   I enjoy reading books that are set at the same time but I can only imagine how hard that would be to keep up with from a writers perspective. 

Hi guys,

I'm having a great time reading about your books. It's killing me to read about these great stories and know it's going to be 3 weeks before I can get my hands on them

BJ, I enjoy your Montana settings and stories so much!

Dani, it's interesting you're talking about simultaneous stories. I'm working on a 3 book series that takes place within one week. I thought that was hard... I'm looking forward to reading about Xavier.

Paula, I love cowboys too, although I've only written a few. You gotta love that maverick streak.

Dana, how hilarious! Sounds like the time my cat brought home a river rat (huge and alive!) Only my husband was out of town. I've got to say I'm in love with Karim already.

And Donna, I can't wait to meet Jacob. Love that cover!

Wayne, thanks for hosting this forum. How fun! The only thing I like better than writing magnificent heroes is talking about magnificent heroes.

Mallory
www.mallorykane.com
mallory@mallorykane.com

I love this question because the easiest and funnest part of writing these books for me is writing the hero. I think it's a no-brainer why I like writing the male viewpoint -- I can make him do or say whatever I want him to. Hello!

Try doing that with your husband.

Okay, for those of you who don't want your illusions crushed, look away, but these guys are NOT real. For one, they TALK. They don't grunt when you ask them a question like "Why haven't you fixed the sink?" Or in our books, "Why haven't you stopped the killer from murdering us?"

Also these guys appreciate the heroine for her spirit, her tenacity, her follibles. As my husband jokingly? once said, "I always wanted to marry a strong woman, until I married one." We talk back. Heroines talk back. The difference is: heroes think it's cute. Or they toss the heroine over their shoulders and haul her off to the bedroom.

So yes, I love the male viewpoint!

MONTANA ROYALTY, www.bjdaniels.com

I had to laugh, Dana, when I read your story about the bat. When we bought our old house, it had bats. While they moved out, they didn't go far and every once in a while we will get one in the house.

Ours are small but they fly toward air coming in through a window. My bedroom is always open even in the middle of winter since I love fresh air.

Oh yeah, this summer a bat got in and landed on my bare shoulder as it tried to get out my SCREENED window. I knocked it off my shoulder, screaming and leapt out of bed. It landed on my leg, I knocked it off with my pillow, all the while shrieking. My hero? He said in this way too calm voice: Settle down. It's just a bat.

I shot him a look and if looks could kill I'd now be a widow. But he calmly grabbed a towel, picked up the bat and took it outside, then went back to bed and right to sleep.

I can still feel that bats wings fluttering on my shoulder. That is no way to be woken up in the middle of the night. I think I'm pretty tough having grown up in Montana and making a game out of shooing bats out of old cabins with a broom when I was a kid.

But there are limits. Snakes and bats landing on me. Everything else...well, I really wouldn't want to cross a grizzly bear, but I have had to face down an angry owl. It flew down and hit me on the back of the head, then landed on the ground in front of me and started flapping its wings and hissing at me.

 I kid you not, that was one mad owl. I had a shotgun and I thought I was gonna have to shoot him. Fortunately, he let me back away from him.

Not much scares me after growing up outside of West Yellowstone on Hebgen Lake. We had grizzly bears on our patio a lot. My brother and I had one follow us home one night when we'd been a bay over at some neighbors. As kids we were taught not to run, to just ignore them.

I think I was much braver when I was younger.

If  had a preference in a hero it would be a Texas Ranger but actually I'm not one to really care what he is/does as long as he is brave and gets the job done.

I am loving your stories about your trials with bats, mice, bears, owls, etc.  I was born a chicken and stayed that way when it comes to wild creatures.

Dana, your cover say it all. Does that guy really exist? I want to see the guy who modeled for your heo. Look at those shoulders and those muscles. Gad. What woman wouldn't feel safe in those arms.

 You said something about your hero that made me wonder. Do your characters come to you fully formed or do you get to know them as you write? Also I'm curious how everyone plots. Seat of the pants? Or outliner with all the T's crossed before you begin?

BJ Daniels

Me too. I never know what's going to happen! It's frightening! But it's the only way I can write. I'm glad i'm not alone.

I've learned to just trust whatever my fingers type even if it doesn't make much sense to me at the time. Amazing how that works. Anyway, it all seems to work out by the end of the book.

I have a friend who swears that we are getting the stories from outer space and just typing them in. Too bad the reception isn't always good.  

I always have more trouble writing heroines than heroes.  Seems lke I always have to go back and work on the heroine to make her someone worthy of my dauntless hero.  Maybe it's because I'm so taken with Alpha males.  I'd much rather play around with them.  LOL

 As for plotting, I do a little of both. Some plotting, and some pantsing.  Works for me. 

Mallory: Cole, we're up this morning. You're the featured hero on eHarlequin's Ultimate Heroes forum. Could you tell the folks visiting here at eHarlequin a little about yourself? 

Cole: Shh! Keep your voice down. I'd love to chat, but I'm a little busy right now. Amelia just went to sleep, and in case you've forgotten, her home is overrun with heinous traitors who could be listening outside her bedroom door.

Mallory: I do remember that you're in quite a fix. But maybe you could explain what you're doing in Amelia Hopkins' bedroom.

Cole: The reason I'm in here is to protect her. I asked the terrorist leader for her as my reward for getting him inside her home. And yeah, she thinks I'm one of them. She hates me, and when this is all over -- IF we're still alive, she'll hate me even more.

Well, obviously Cole is busy, but at least you got a glimpse of him and his predicament.

This week is all about Ultimate Heroes. I'm thrilled to be here with BJ, Dani, Paula, Dana, and Donna and their magnificent heroes.

As all of you already know, Harlequin Intrigue is all about the heroes. That's why I love writing Intrigues. Because I'm all about the heroes too.

Cole is very much my kind of hero. He's strong, smart, protective and honorable. He's got a job to do, and he'll get it done even if it kills him. He'd rather not have any entanglements complicating his mission, but if an innocent person gets caught up in
the danger, he will defend her life with his. He's careful not to involve his emotions, because in life-or-death situations, emotions equal weakness.

Poor Cole. He doesn't have a chance. The fate of the entire U.S. economy rests on his shoulders, and he's falling in love with the woman he has vowed to keep safe.

We do love to torture our heroes, don't we?

Thanks, BJ. Solving the Mysterious Stranger is Book 5 in Harlequin's Curse of Raven's Cliff series. Luckily for me, it also stands alone as a book/plot.

So Cole and Amelia were given to me to start with, as was the terrorist who took over Raven's Cliff and the basic plot to use pleasure yachts as floating bombs. But as you know, everything about Cole and Amelia and how they save the world was left up to me.

Interestingly, by the time I got the offer to do the continuity, I was already working on a 3-book series of my own in which my heroes have to battle a heinous terrorist. So writing Stranger fed my muse for creating my new series, and the ideas I'd already come up with for my new series fed my muse while writing Stranger.

So I'm definitely going to take your compliment as a compliment

Ellen, I noticed you love to read about Texas Rangers. That's exciting for me, because of the Rangers series I'm doing with Delores Fossen and Rita Herron. I hope we get to do more of them. The Rangers come with built-in fans, don't they? Thank goodn