Welcome to my wee slice of the Romance Weekly pie.
Here are my responses to this week's jackpot questions:
What ages are your characters?
Well, it depends. My immortal characters can be hundreds of years old, but usually appear to be between 35 and 45. My heroine's tend to hover in the cusp around 30. For my paranormals, anyway. In my political thriller, The Tin Man (coming August 30 from CHBB), my hero is 45 and the heroine is 38.
What special things or places inspire you to write?
History, mythology, and things paranormal and occult are my primary inspirations. All my stories are tied in a big way to Scotland and/or Celtic myth and culture. Even in my thriller, which is set in iconic locales within the United States, the hero is an ex-pat Scot from Edinburgh.
What is the one message you hope women will receive when they read your stories?
This one is tougher to answer. Messages? Depends on the book. All of mine have different underlying themes. In The Queen of Swords, it's to trust fate and the magic of love. In The Knight of Wands, my next paranormal, it's not to let other people make you doubt your worth; in The Tin Man, it's not to let the media fall into the hands of those who would use it to manipulate public opinion and to be a critical thinker and not buy into propaganda without questioning the source and their motive.
Time to pop over to hear what the lovely and talented Sarah Hegger has to say in reply to these same three questions. Take it away, Sarah!
The age thing is where you paranormal writers get to toss away the rule book.
ReplyDeleteIs it? How so? An editor at a romance publisher told me the mainstream romance audience likes their heroines to be between 26 and 32 (or something close). What have you heard?
ReplyDeleteI agree, character's ages depend on the story.
ReplyDeleteCritical thinkers - love 'em!
ReplyDeleteI think there is an expectation for certain sub-genres of romance to have characters of a certain age. But readers are often looking for "the same but different", so why shouldn't older or younger characters work? Just sayin...
ReplyDeleteTerrific answers!!!
ReplyDeleteI love that your stories have ties to Scotland. It's a beautiful country with such a rich history.
ReplyDelete