Men in My Books

When I write, it’s a very intuitive process. I wouldn’t describe myself as a pantster—not only because that sounds mildly derogatory, but because I don’t do that. I often plot in detail and use outlines. But I turn off any part of the brain that doesn’t see the literal story and its surroundings until afterwards. This is because relationships are at the heart of all my stories—including relationships between men and women. And if I start “thinking” about the characters too much, I’ll become aware of sensitivities people might have towards something I’m considering. I’d start to fudge. To smudge things over. To be careful and say the correct thing. Just like everyone else does. I’m human and I’d certainly do that if I was aware of the feelings about this character or genre.

People reading books are seeing their relationships dramatized in the stories. Women, above all, seem to be reading about worlds that mirror their own relationships with men. I didn’t consider this much because male characters don’t stick out to me compared to others. They’re just characters. But when I started thinking about my heroines, I realized the heroines are linked to heroes, to men in the story. I mostly think in plot, situations, and hairstyles. And in what I hear the characters say. What people honestly, truly say to each other. I've never consciously explored a male/female dynamic—but that doesn’t mean it isn’t consciously thought of by readers.

So I’ll be doing a number of posts that discuss my male characters and the heroines who accompany them. I believe the relationships they have, good or bad, are those of the people who read this kind of story. (Such as epic fantasy, in the case of Halogen Crossing.) The relationships these people have in real life—that’s why those relationships cross into the stories. The dynamic between a hero and heroine defines the story I wrote, though it wasn’t usually “romance” between them. But the person who reads any particular sort of book is a certain kind of woman with certain men in her life. Not men in MY life. Men in HER life. And that's a relationship I’d like to talk about.

And there will be more updates.