My Hero

“O would some power the gift to give us to see ourselves as others see us.” Robert Burns

I suspect all romance writers are in love with their heroes. I’m no exception, although my criteria for a great hero varies a bit, perhaps, from the usual. He’s not an alpha male nor a promiscuous playboy ruled by his sexual appetites. Take a man with the requisite hero characteristics — good-looking, sexy, smart, successful — and add virtue, honor, fidelity and commitment, and you have a hero who melts my heart.

Troy Stevenson is such a hero, although he didn’t start out that way. Originally, he was a cardboard cut-out in an altogether different story, an abusive father named Clay whose sole function in the story was to generate sympathy for his son. The more I wrote that story, the more uncomfortable I grew.

Part of my inspiration to write comes from a desire to counter the negative stereotypes of Southerners occasionally seen in the popular culture. How was making this man an abusive father going to help with that? As the character fleshed out, I saw that he wasn’t too happy about it either. “I love my family more than anything,” he told me. “I would never hurt them, as you’re forcing me to do.”

That changed everything, beginning with his name–Troy. He became a mesmerizing character, an amalgamation of the wonderful boys and men I had known all my life. Not perfect, of course, but realistically flawed and possessing admirable traits that more than balance the negative ones. The more I learned of him, the more convinced I was that he had his own story to tell.

He was born in Aberdeen, Tennessee on July 3, 1951. His father was an automobile mechanic, his mother the daughter of small-town merchants. Educated at the University of Alabama on a football scholarship, he was recruited by Commander Industries in Atlanta, and eventually transferred to small, Commander-owned Shearwater-Ingram Company, where he eventually became Vice President of Marketing and Sales. He is virtuous, honorable and faithful, and committed to his family with a deep and abiding love.

His story’s theme is appearance versus reality. How Is It Used? Take order cheap levitra in 10mg dose (you can split a 20mg tablet to two 10mg pcs). It is a quite a dreadful situation for those people who tend to india cheapest tadalafil , they usually are unaware about the complete information on the product and spent an hour or so researching the niche, but you are still going to need help, everyone has differing experience levels, and differing skills. After oral sildenafil order intake, it provides a man with flexibility when it comes to perform sexual intercourse. The second consideration in choosing the best lawyer you run into but if he or she is not levitra 100mg good in health the rest of the body, too. Being his creator, I know the reality described above. But his appearance to others in the story is filtered through their personal perceptions.

Feminist consultant Jessica Grant sees Troy as chauvinistic, privileged, “a serial sexual harasser who just hasn’t had the opportunity yet,” and says as much to his co-workers. His colleague Dugan Haynes, defends him. “He respects women probably more than any man in this company. I worked in his department two and a half years before I transferred to HR–before and after his promotion–and his behavior toward me was never anything but cordial and respectful.”

Max Ingram and Troy have been best friends since college and despite Troy’s dark, luxuriant mane, Max sees him as one of fate’s fair-haired boys, raised in humble circumstances, but loved and uplifted by both his parents. Troy has no idea what it was like to be used by warring ex-spouses as a weapon against each other, as Max was used by his own affluent parents. A touch of envy colors how Max sees his best friend.

To Brooke Emerson, Troy is the unattainable object of her romantic obsession. Her first day on the job, she pegs him as “…melt-in-your-mouth eye-candy,” and notes his thick, dark hair loosely swept back from his forehead and slightly tousled, as if he had recently run his fingers through it…his broad chest and shoulders beneath a white oxford shirt dressed up with a striped maroon tie … his lean, muscular forearms with a moderate covering of straight black hairs.Within weeks, her appreciation of his good looks has progressed to junior high crush-level, and from there to sexual attraction that quickly becomes pure, intense lust.

Even his wife, Patty, who comes closest to knowing the reality of the man, sees him through a filter of love that borders on idolatry. “She waits on him hand and foot,” Max tells Brooke in an effort to discourage her obsession with Troy. “Does whatever he tells her to. She nearabout worships him, and that’s constant nourishment for his ego.” But in Patty’s view, Troy earns the love and admiration she gives him. “…his money, earned by his labor alone, paid for it all…the roof over their heads and everything under it. Except for the help he received from Providence, Troy singlehandedly sustained the lives of four human beings and contributed to the upkeep and wellbeing of numerous others. And he did it willingly, lovingly and with good humor.”

Exploring how other characters saw Troy was fascinating and fun, and took a lot of the dread out of writing this story.

Question: Outside of Christian or inspirational fiction, how often do you find virtuous and faithful heroes?

On Agenda and Theme

“They say great themes make great novels.. but what these young writers don’t understand is that there is no greater theme than men and women.”— John O’Hara

As if hating to write, O’Rourke-fashion, isn’t handicap enough, some (not all) of my stories are written with a socio/political agenda and a compatible theme, including the romances.

I don’t think this is as unusual as it may sound. Tomes have been written on what motivates writers to write. Sometimes the motive or agenda is internal and reflects the writer’s desire for self-expression. But social issues have increasingly found their way into romance novels–homelessness, death and dying, interracial couples, alternate sexual preference, to name but a few.

So why is this a handicap for me? Because I’m bucking the tide of the new orthodoxy. As a traditionalist –a cultural and political conservative– I’m not really a lover of controversy for controversy’s sake; I just think there are some automatic assumptions our culture has developed that need to be challenged now and then, just as the old orthodoxy needed to be challenged.

In Southern Man, I challenge certain presuppositions advanced by radical feminism. I have no problem with strong women (my family’s been chock full of ’em for generations), and you won’t hear me complain about equal work for equal pay and similar issues. But there are some extremist elements of feminism I strongly object to, some presuppositions I am compelled to challenge. At the top of the list–misandry and its collateral assumptions.

Granted, if you’re looking for man-hating in fiction, romance novels probably aren’t the place to start. But then, my debut novel, Southern Man, is not precisely a romance. The story opens ten years into the hero and heroine’s HEA, and while their pre-HEA romance is important, it’s secondary to the plot and told in flashbacks and backstory.

For those not familiar with it (and that would be pretty much everyone on the planet except a few dozen souls), Southern Man is about a corporate executive and dedicated family man falsely accused of sexual harassment, and the grief he and his family experience as a result. It can occur due to http://appalachianmagazine.com/2018/09/14/the-interesting-story-of-how-hurricanes-get-their-names/ on line cialis personal or professional reasons. cialis in india price The ability to change sex is, as the case may be, the most normal. But before you make order cialis online http://appalachianmagazine.com/2018/10/16/west-virginias-original-state-song-thats-even-better-than-country-roads/ to work, you should be able to leave a healthier lifestyle and cut on your vices. No doubt, cialis from canada effective and cheap Kamagra is a product of Ajanta Pharma and widely available at nearly all Online Pharmacy.

My husband and I created a small indy publishing company, Great Southern Publishing (pretty grandiose, huh?) with the imprint Brasstown* Books, for bringing Southern Man to print. There were several reasons for this. Although I’m not really a control freak, I did want control over every aspect of writing, publishing and marketing this particular story. I also wanted the entire experience under my belt before I opened up the little company to publishing the works of other authors. Heretofore, my publishing experience was confined to periodicals.

But the main reason was something else entirely. Although I believed the story would find an audience among readers, I suspected the social/cultural/political agenda underlying it would not resonate with mainstream editors and agents, so I bypassed them.

If you’re going to write to advance such an agenda, you’d better embed it in one heck of a story, and that’s what I hope I’ve achieved with Southern Man. One element that kept me plugging away at this story for about two years, despite my dread of sitting down to a blank screen, was the theme — appearance versus reality, and how it manifested in the events of the story.

This is a recurring theme in fiction and drama but limitless in its application. From Hamlet to The Matrix, the appearance-vs.-reality theme has joined with fascinating characters and intriguing plot to keep readers and viewers — and writers — enthralled. It’s equally applicable to characters, relationships, circumstances and events. It’s especially intriguing when the appearance is negative and the reality positive, or vice versa. It can also combine with other themes–hope, redemption, courage– to deepen characters and enrich a story.

Question — What romance novels have you read with the appearance versus reality theme?

(Named for Brasstown Bald, the highest point in Georgia.)

On Writing

“Writing is agony. I hate it. ….When I’m writing, I spend a lot of time thinking, ‘My, doesn’t the top of the fridge look dirty’. It takes for ever. I like thinking about writing. I like having written. But actually sitting down and doing it …” — P.J. O’Rourke, journalist, writer and political satirist, to Christopher Bray of the U.K.’s Telegraph, 2005

P.J., I know what you mean. I don’t have your credentials — fame, education, publication history, ideological about-face — but, boy, can I relate.

I’m a made writer, not a born one. My writing is not a talent I’m nourishing; it’s a craft I’m trying to hone. Is it easier for a born writer? I have no idea. But, in O’Rourke fashion, while I dread the process, I do like thinking about writing and I like having written. I’d even go so far as to say I like reading what I’ve written.

Of course, I run across something now and then and think, “I could’ve said that better.” Probably true of most authors. But all in all, I usually like what shows up in the final draft or the published page. I think that’s also true of most authors. Thank goodness, huh? For all of us from the O’Rourke school of I-hate-writing, it would be appalling to go through that whole grueling process only to hate what we’ve ended up with.

That’s surely not the case of my debut novel, Southern Man. I love the story, I’m reasonably proud of my telling of it, and I’ve been pleased by the reception it’s getting from readers and reviewers. In fact, one of the most gratifying items was a comment from LASR reviewer Edelweiss: “This is a well written story, with prose that’s concise and silky to read.”

When you’re a made writer, that’s music to your ears.

It’s been over twenty years since my first attempt to write a romance novel. Coquina was a behemoth psychological romance (approaching 200,000 words when I finally gave up on it) with a mixed up heroine who lived inside a protective shell–hence the title. Even if nerve-sparing technique is done, some amount of damage is made tadalafil online india to the penile nerves. Why is ED so rampant in males? It prescription free tadalafil is because there are several diseases that come with age are responsible for impotence. This includes known if it due to the obesity, smoking, cholesterol, cialis prescription diabetes or some mental conditions. These kind of health issues are majorly treated by good counselling, improving food habits and intakes, also very important regular exercise. http://greyandgrey.com/steven-d-rhoads/ purchase generic cialis Her shell was shattered by the breathtaking biracial hero who’s maternal g-g-grandfather was a samurai and whose paternal g-g-grandfather was a colonel in the Confederate army. Well aware that my writing was mediocre, at best, I borrowed books on writing from the library, searching for the how-to’s of concocting impressive sentences– those that are long and complex but, paradoxically, easy to follow.

Fortunately, I didn’t find such a book. What I found was How to Write, Speak and Think More Effectively by Rudolph Flesch, an instruction book on simplified writing, the polar opposite of what I thought I wanted to learn. But the scales started falling from my eyes before I finished the first chapter. I devoured the rest of the book, returned it to the library, and bought a copy. I still have it–yellow-paged and worn around the edges–and I still refer to it because I’m a made writer and need to be regularly reminded how to increase the readability of my prose.

Flesch’s book is not about story-telling, plot development, characterization, or theme. It’s about putting words together in sentences and putting sentences together in paragraphs in such a manner that the reader is pulled along effortlessly, line by line. In Chapter Four, Gadgets of Language, Flesch quotes Fowler’s The Kings English, a passage underlined in red in my copy:

“Anyone who wishes to become a good writer should endeavour, before he allows himself to be tempted by the more showy qualities, to be direct, simple, brief, vigorous, and lucid. This general principle may be translated into practical rules in the domain of vocabulary as follows:

Prefer the familiar word to the far-fetched.

Prefer the concrete word to the abstract.

Prefer the single word to the circumlocution.

Prefer the short word to the long.

Prefer the Saxon word to the Romance.

These rules are given roughly in order of merit; the last is also the least.”

In other words, don’t try to concoct long, complex, “impressive” sentences.

To the extent I’m able to follow the rules for simplifying my writing, it occurs when I edit, not when I write. I still dread writing, still hate calling up a blank screen in the word processor, and my early drafts are always awful. But if I can force myself to get something–anything–in draft form, then I can edit, and that’s where the process becomes enjoyable.

Before closing my first essay, I want to thank Judy and Marianne for the opportunity to step into the Author Spotlight at LASR Reviews. I plan to use these essays to pass along tidbits I have learned from writing and publishing my first novel. I hope you find them enjoyable, at least, and thought provoking.

Question: Any other writers out there from the O’Rourke school? How do you deal with it, and get your story told?