mustaches and such

After writing on heroes and heroines, I thought about some of the no-nos where it comes to the model photos which frustrate me as they are not what I think make for attractive people. From what I can tell though readers have a different take on this.

One no no is mustaches on men before they reach old age. What on earth is wrong in our country that we don't have movie stars who wear mustaches? Yes, there areTom Selleck and Sam Elliot but anybody else? I love mustaches on a man and yet, it's not what I can describe in a book if I hope to sell it to romance readers.

It's okay as I'll continue imagining these guys with nice mustaches, not the overdone handlebar type and not the little skimpy, pimp type but a solid, masculine, he-man mustache like John Wayne had in Rio Grande-- the movie where I think he was the best he ever got for looks.

When I write historical books, I know back then that very few men of mature years were without facial hair. Originally I wrote most of them with mustaches... and removed the reference when I recently edited them.

I will still imagine these guys with their mustaches and any reader who likes facial hair, can do the same-- and hair on the chest... another big plus in my eyes. I won't say I want to see hair all over a man's body. There can be too much, but nice hair on a masculine chest-- give me that any day over that waxed look that appears to be so popular with the male models today. Yeah no hair does enable more visibility of those muscles but a hairy chest is so macho. Doesn't that count?

To add to the silliness of our times and how hard it must be for men, who care what women find desirable (where women don't agree), I came across this video which I thought was funny. The movie would probably be good but not sure I'll see it since we have dropped Netflix for now anyway.

romance heroine as sweet little thang-- or not

Where it comes to describing the romance heroine, what I know gets dicier. I've read a wide variety of them from slender and gorgeous, to plain, to pudgy, to handicapped. Some are brats to begin and grow... some appear to stay brats. Some are out fighting the bad guys. Some are Miss Kitty from Gunsmoke. It's safer to describe my own heroines.

I can't think of a time where I wrote a long lengthy intro to the heroine. Mine have generally been seen as pretty or even beautiful by others, but their own view of themselves is less linked to their appearance. If they know others see them as pretty, they think it's convenient but not necessarily how they see themselves. 

Some I've written as being slim by nature; some work at it, a few have been curvy. I have yet to write about a pudgy heroine but these are women in the prime of life from 21 to mid 30s (I have an idea for one that would be late 50s but it's going to take finishing something else before I get into that one). Mostly they have careers: home decorator, photojournalist, teacher, painter, sculptor, lawyer, psychologist, wantabe writer, folk singer, and one mom/homemaker. 

They fall in love with men who range from border patrolman, investigator, architect/builder, cop, high school principal, truck driver/manager of animal rehabilitation center, mechanic, photojournalist/writer, cowboy, to wealthy financier/entrepreneur.

Only two of mine have had children from before they met the hero-- epilogue sometimes adds to that. They have been blondes, redheads, brunettes, , all different lengths of hair, and all Caucasian. I tend to write about what I know hence the careers and backgrounds of my characters.

These woman face trials and tribulations through the man they fall in love with as well as what life throws at them. They face these problems with strength; and if they don't know what they want or how to be strong to begin, they will figure it out. They are as apt to save the hero as be saved. They do not lose themselves in falling in love with him although they make adjustments in their lives necessary for a relationship. If not to start, at least by the last chapter, they, like their heroes, will grab life by the horns and make of it what they want it to be.

Finding photos of my heroines was even tougher than the men. Pretty is easy to find. But strong looking women who still fit my own heroine mold, less so. I think readers like to imagine what these people look like and yet at the same time, people on the covers are known to sell better (I now have three without people; so we'll see). I used to have one cover, with what I would consider an ordinary heroine on the cover, as I described her to be inside, even readers who liked the book hated that cover. And yet what I write is not a story about goddesses (generally) but about women, who feel real to me, as though they could be someone I know and would like.

Below are a few of the images I purchased at Canstock, which I believe fit my heroines. I have bought many thinking they'd work and never did although someday who knows; so I keep them. They might inspire a new book if not end up a best friend in a trailer.

 Here's the thing I think you might notice about them, unlike the heroes, they look like the kind of women you could see in a grocery store or at work. They're pretty but not to the mythic/goddess level. That might be less true of the women in the historical novels. I'll give that some thought when I begin to put them into their covers and trailers.

A beast of a hero-- or not

Okay, here's the truth of romance novels. The men matter more than the women. Where it comes to chick lit, the women matter most. I know, I know romances are aimed at female readers (although more than a few men also read them-- a good example of why is found in the Bruce Willis action film, Red where he's reading the romance titles he knows she reads to find out what she wants from a man). 

In romances, yes there are frequently beautiful women but that's not as important as who the hero is. If he's not interesting, often handsome, definitely strong, the book is going nowhere. These are books about men who can do when doing needs doing. The following is a descriptive phrase for the hero in Desert Inferno.

          When a truck finally did come bouncing down the driveway, Rachel sighed with relief. Standing at the top of the step, she waited. Still feeling a little dazed by the death she'd witnessed, she realized she'd forgotten to put on shoes.

          A large man unwound himself from the green Bronco, his eyes hidden behind the brim of a Stetson and reflective sunglasses.  Her immediate impression was of one big man.

          Even shaky from her experience, her artist's eye couldn't ignore the sheer grace with which he moved that long, lean, body as he strode across her yard.  When he reached the porch, he stopped, not climbing the three steps.  He looked at her for a moment, perhaps expecting her to speak; then pulled off the glasses. 

          His face was craggy, with a hawk-like nose, a long scar across one cheek, a square jaw, covered with a day's growth of bristle, and magnificent tawny, almost yellow eyes, rimmed with dark lashes. Nobody could call it a handsome face, maybe some would even see it as ugly, but it was mesmerizing to her. Beneath his Stetson, his hair appeared to be dark blond, a little long on the neck for a Border Patrolman. 

          "You the one who called?" His voice was deep, resonant. Those, golden eyes, appeared to look right through her.

He's the only hero I've described as ugly but he's the kind of ugly that can also be seen as beautiful. He was the most impossible to find images to fit because while most of us know that ugly can appear beautiful, finding a face that fit among the model images is not easy. I adored writing about him, and Rachel fell almost instantly in love. What did she look like? Well beautiful but to that story, it wasn't nearly as important as what he looked like. 

To add to Rainy Day Romances a piece about the inspiration behind each of my books, I realized once again how important men are to the stories. I wrote most of my stories long before I had to find images for them. Then they were described in the books but they were rather dreamlike for how I saw them, the kind of faces we see in dreams. When I went into ePub, there came a need for covers, trailers and that meant real faces. That's when I began looking through model sites for photos I could buy the rights to use.

So for fun, the following are a few of my heroes. These all come either from CanStock or Jimmy Thomas's site. Incidentally for those who find fault with too many Jimmy Thomas images out there on romance books-- does it bother you how many Ryan Gosling characters might be out there in the movies? What about when Clark Gable played diverse heroes? George Clooney? I think not. Thomas is a symbol for romantic heroes and he does a darned good job at being that.