Mr. Write

On the Jukebox: "At the Beginning" by Donna Lewis & Richard Marx
Mood: Excited
Quote:"One girl is worth more than twenty boys!" ~ Peter and Wendy
Flair: Modesty

Today is shaping up to be a great day. Grant is out of town and that means I will be spending my time down in the basement enjoying some uninterrupted writing time. Don't get me wrong: I adore my husband and desire his company, but there are times when I can be more efficient if there aren't any tempting distractions. Not to mention that I can skip cooking and go to bed around 2:30 AM if I am in the zone. I expect to crank out some good stuff very quickly. Yay me!

At the moment I'm working on the urban fantasy romance series Ethereal Dreamer. I've spent quite a bit of time crafting strong male characters that each have their own unique attractive qualities. While all my test readers confess to developing crushes on my guys, there are some of my readers who swoon over the handsome professor Simon Peter while others who prefer the clever wisecracking Alex or the spiritual Moroni, or the gallant Stanislaw, or the guy next door Dominic, or even the dreamy and mysterious Endymion. (Sadly, adorkabale Fisher has very few fans even though he's a nice guy...)

I'm proud that each character has a distinctly different personality and that it's hard to decide which one to root for. I'm often asked which of these men is based on my husband and whether any of the others are based on other men I know. The answer is, "None of the above and all of the above." These are fictional characters and even though they have hints of realism to them if you fall in love with the men from my book then you may have unrealistic expectations about romance and marriage. Sorry!

Simon Peter may have Grant's coloring but that's about it. Grant is more like Alex/Moroni in his personality and sense of humor except maybe not quite as outgoing. Grant's not likely to spout flowery prose, sing duets, or put up with Jerusha's shenanigans but he does like Simon's car. Dominic and Fisher (who aren't primary love interests) are based on my brothers and guys I used to date. I drew from the qualities I admired and the pet peeves that irritated me. Endymion is what my dream guy would be like - fun in fantasy but probably really irritating in real life.

Jerusha's father Darris Reniholdt, is probably my favorite and most realistic male in the series. He's based on what I think the ideal mature male would be like. I took things I admired about my own father and my father in law, my friends' dads, bishops, and bosses and mixed them into the the perfect patriarch. He's a handsome dad with graying temples and more laugh lines than worry lines. He's intelligent, prayerful, considerate, deeply in love with his wife, devoted to his family, enjoys his profession, and appreciates the natural beauty around him. I often claim that the character most like myself is Darris's wife Tamsin so that should tell you something too.