Posts Tagged ‘hero’
I was out on a walk Saturday morning, listening to my iPod, when a song by my favorite band came on and it hit me: This could be Mike James’ theme song.
Mike, you might remember, is the hero in Bree & Mike’s story (the one with the crappy title). He’s the one who wants everyone to think he’s a playboy so he can avoid romantic entanglements with nice girls like my heroine … the one who doesn’t think he deserves a nice girl to love and love him.
The song that seemed to fit him to a T is Depeche Mode’s “Wrong.”
I reached the wrong ends by the wrong means
It was the wrong plan
In the wrong hands
The wrong theory for the wrong man
The wrong eyes on the wrong prize
The wrong questions with the wrong replies …I was marching to the wrong drum
With the wrong scum
Pissing out the wrong energy
Using all the wrong lines
And the wrong signs
With the wrong intensity
When it comes to Mike, all true. Well, he does say the right things (at least the right things for an outrageous flirt), but for the wrong reasons.
I shouldn’t be surprised. Depeche Mode has been my favorite group since high school, and I often find ways to apply their lyrics to life. In college, I quoted “New Dress” (about how changing a vote can change the world) in some political science paper.
Now I’m wondering if this makes Mike more of an anti-hero. Oh, he’s definitely not as dark as Gareth, the alcoholic since age 14 who’s trying to escape his abusive father by taking refuge with my almost-as-messed-up heroine.
But Mike at least fancies himself a “bad boy,” courtesy of his past.
I love this story. I hope I can find someone who likes it as much as I do.
There’s not much to report here. Despite having a wisdom tooth removed Monday, I’ve been keeping up with the writing.
Mainly, I’ve been busy exploring my hero’s reasons for stripping and my heroine’s motivations for wanting to be married by 25. (With one less wisdom tooth — I’m now down to one — I’m having trouble seeing any wisdom in either of their hangups.)
Bree & Mike’s story is now up to about 42,000 words, leaving me to add 13K more to get it to category length. It’ll probably take a couple more read-throughs to get there, but I’ll do it … and then all three of the stories in my “Women of Willow’s Grove” series will be ready for prime time.
I spent some time tonight reading through parts of Bree & Mike’s story, and I’ve come to the conclusion that he might be the best hero in my Women of Willow’s Grove trilogy.
Not surprising, considering he was going to be Erin’s hero (until Brad got in the way). He sprang, fully formed, from the depths of imagination … with a little helpful inspiration in the form of a guy I used to work with.
He’s Greek-god gorgeous (of course!) and he’s not afraid to use his looks to fuel his playboy reputation. He earns extra cash dancing at Willow’s Grove’s only male strip joint, has an aging cat named Augie and isn’t at all the playboy everyone thinks he is.
See? Already he’s more interesting than Brad and Dustin combined … No wonder I haven’t gotten many nibbles on my query for Brad & Erin’s story.
I have other heroes that I like, too. Matt is great and I love Damien best of all. But Mike James will always be my first. And as such, he’ll always have a special place in my heart.
Thanks, GI — wherever you are.
My time away from the day job, fortunately, has not meant a vacation from writing.
I must say I haven’t gotten as much accomplished as I’d hoped: A couple thousand words written in editing mode and three rejections received from agents.
Still, at least I’ve been getting something done. That’s no small feat when I can’t seem to settle to any single project. Not one of my stories is demanding my full attention.
I’ve been doing some reading, too. As I’ve mentioned before, it seems that when I’m reading more, I’m writing less. I read Jennifer Crusie’s “Faking It” and now I’m zipping through Vicki Lewis Thompson’s “Chick with a Charm.” (It’s the sister story for the one I read last month, “Blonde with a Wand.”) The hero and heroine are great. Can’t wait to see their happy ending.
In fact, I’m about to take myself to breakfast, where I intend to finish the book. Then I’ll camp out at Starbucks for a few hours and hopefully get some more writing done.
I’m trying to go back in and add a more substantial conflict to the second Willow’s Grove story. My hero and heroine, Cassie and Dustin, meet at Brad and Erin’s wedding and dislike each other immediately. Then they find out they’re working together (he’s an FBI agent assigned to a kidnapping case and she’s the police reporter covering the story). I have the witty banter down cold, but they don’t have any deep-seated reason for their squabbles — yet.
I hope to rectify that situation soon. Her roller coaster moods remind him of his bipolar mother and she doesn’t want to get involved with someone who’s only in town for a short time. It should help me expand the story to the required length. Right now it’s at about 49,000 words, which means adding at least 6,000.
Subscribe
Popular Posts
Reading Alley
