Hero Reflection

I recently finished reading Karen Marie Moning’s Fever series (which I will blog about at length another day) and was totally blown away by the hero she created for it — Jericho Barrons. He is…well, he’s something pretty amazing.

It made me think about my own heroes, which I do like to do since I love all of them. But some I love more than others.

To date, I’ve written…um…20 books. Wow, I can’t believe it myself, actually. In these books, I’ve written a whole bunch of heroes. I thought I’d take a little time to touch on each of them and why I like them. This list in order of my personal preference as the creator and writer of these fine men from least to most loved (by me, anyway).

#12 — MICHAEL QUINN (Lady & the Vamp)

Ah, Quinn. He was a great third wheel in the Immortality Bites love triangle and awesome enough that I wanted to give him his own book where he could be the hero. It took him a while. He whined a lot. He didn’t like being a vampire and wasn’t afraid to say it. And he had a lot of daddy issues. Suck it up, Quinn. You got the girl. You’re an immortal, sexy vampire. Enjoy yourself a little, will ya??!

#11 — PATRICK McKAY (Blaze: Touch & Go)

Patrick, the wheelchair-bound agency manager in my first Blaze Hot Spell got his own book (and a loss of that wheelchair for reasons uncovered in T&G itself) was sexy as hell and rather awesome. If anything, he suffered just like Quinn from being a smidge whiny about his lot in life. Come on boys! Suck it up!

#10 — NATHANIEL (Angel with Attitude)

Ah, Nathaniel, the sexy-as-hell tempter demon in my second book Angel with Attitude. He was rather delicious, actually. Other than a bit of cliched “I’m a demon” behavior (he smoked, thus he was a bad boy) and a smidge of whininess, I’m extremely fond of good old Nate. He’s only lower on the list since it’s been so long since I wrote him and I only spent one book with him. Plus, “tempter demon”? What the heck is that, anyway? I guess it was like a PG-rated incubus. Rock on.

#9 — RYAN SHEPHARD (Blaze: Inevitable)

Ryan, the wrongly-accused thief who lost his job as a PARA agent and has been scrambling to clear his name. Hello there. I enjoyed you a great deal. We only got to spend 200 pages together, my dear. But I have no complaints. Considering how wrong-done-by you were, you managed to hold back any excessive angst about it. I appreciated that. Maybe I was learning my lesson by this point?

#8 — ROGAN ELLIS (Countdown)

In my first attempt at a non-funny, action-packed, sexier story, Rogan was the perfect hero for this book (by my now-dead pseudonym Michelle Maddox). Is he a bad guy? Is he a good guy? Who is he really? He was also the first sign that I dig heroes with scars and extremely tortured lives. *evil smile*

#9 — MICHAEL (Demon Princess books)

Trying to move away from the land of vampires, I created Michael, a “Shadow.” What is a Shadow? Um, I was still working on the specifics of that, really. But they were totally cool. The servants to demonic royalty, my demon princess got a surprise when she realized the super cute and mysterious boy who’s been protecting her is actually, uh, at her command. And he wasn’t all that happy about it.

#6 — JACOB CAINE (Blaze: Hot Spell)

What can I say about Jacob other than he was a lot of fun to write and smokin’ hot? It was the heroine in this book who was the angsty one. Jacob helped her. Well, eventually. It was an enemies to lovers story and I love writing witty repartee between two hot-blooded characters. This book was a dream to write and the sexy Jacob Caine definitely helped a lot.

#5 — STEPHEN FOX (Blaze novella: Catch Me)

I just finished this novella last night so Stephen’s very fresh in my mind. He’s different from my other heroes…and that was very refreshing. He’s a bit rumpled, a bit unsure of himself, and madly and secretly in love with the heroine — his best friend. Getting this beta hero to find his sexy inner alpha in 80 pages was challenging, and lots of fun.

#4 — BISHOP (Nightwatchers books)

Here’s a character readers won’t meet till next June, but he’s very fixed in my mind right now after spending a great deal of time with him over the last few months. An angel sent to the human world to protect a city under attack, he leads a team of both angels and demons. Bishop is snarky, sexy, and…well, he’s a whole lot insane thanks to his difficult fall to earth. My heroine has a talent to help clear the crazy away when it sweeps over him. Love him so much.

#3 — DECLAN REYES (Nightshade books)

He’s scarred up — massively through battle as a vampire hunter. His wounds heal fast as a dhampyr, but they all leave a scar to remind him of the pain he’s experienced (and there’s been a lot of it). He wears an eye patch since his left eye was gored out by a vampire. He’s on a serum that inhibits his ability to feel emotion and desire. What’s not to love?? 🙂 I like writing heroes who are damaged and dark…and it’s not till they meet the heroine that a glimmer of light begins to re-enter their world. To me, Declan is sexy as hell and I want to give him a big hug. Jillian can handle the rest.

#2 — THIERRY DE BENNICOEUR (Immortality Bites series)

Oh, Thierry. You with the hard to pronounce name. (For the record, it’s t-YAIR-ee, but to simplify it like Sarah would, just say Terry). He was the first hero I ever wrote and, after rereading Bitten & Smitten, I see that this guy had a long way to go to actually be considered a hero. Who is he? What does he want? What’s his agenda? Yeah. I didn’t even know. I still don’t, not really. He keeps his secrets very close to his chest both with me and with Sarah. Has he done bad things? Is he an unemotional jerk a lot of the time? Hell yeah. But does he also deserve the love that Sarah (and I) have for him? Uh-huh. And I’m so glad I get to continue to explore this 600-year-old master vampire in my new Sarah Dearly mystery series spin-offy thing. Working on it right now, in fact!

*****DRUM ROLL PLEASE******

And my most favorite hero I’ve written to date is…….

#1 — DARRAK (Living in Eden trilogy)

I think this goes without saying, really. Even Darrak isn’t surprised. Much like I always say about Sarah Dearly, Darrak has a personality all to himself. It was as if I wasn’t telling him how to act or what to say, he told me. Unlike most of my other heroes, Darrak wasn’t all that angsty (except when it comes to Eden). He’s sexy and knows it, he’s cocky as hell, he’s hilarious and sarcastic, he’s a former incubus and ex-archdemon, now a cursed demon who is unrepentant for centuries of demonic mayhem. And he’s desperately in love with my heroine now that he’s infused with humanity forcing him to be one of the good guys. What more can I ask for?

So there you have it, my heroes in a nutshell. I love them all, no matter where they fell on the list. And I can’t wait to see who might be lurking around the next corner for me to torture. Err, I mean, create and cherish. Yes, that.