All ABout Alphas 20 - Questions & Answers

Today's question comes from Caroline -

Hi Kate - love the blog and concept!
Unlike Jill my dh is what I would call an Alpha - as a retired detective in the Met police I suppose he had to be! It seems to me that the Alphas I read about (in the Moderns) are always hot shot corporate types / multi billionaires etc. etc. Sometimes I get a bit bored (GASP!) reading about these types. So my question is - Do you think an Alpha male can exist in a Modern who isn't a multi-billionaire / corporate hot shot? Or have I just crossed the line here and it's an absolute no-no for Modern's?
Caroline x

Caroline – the Modern/Presents Romance is a special case in the romance writing world – and now I think that the Modern Heat books are largely coming up close behind. (Please note I said largely – as the editors are always saying It’s all in the execution’ and with any writing one should never say there are hard and fast rules that must never ever be broken).

When I stared writing, way back in 1984, the hero simply had to be successful. This was important because romance is after all a fantasy. The reader wants to be taken away from their real world where bills have to be paid, nappies washed, floors cleaned, houses repaired . . . and into a world where these things matter so much less. They want to feel at the end of a book that the heroine will live happily ever after and part of that ‘happily’ in most people’s dreams is to have enough money not to worry about the cost of anything or their financial security.

My first hero was a very successful photographer – no billions, not even millions in his bank account. Those have come into the romance world as society has changed and probably as we can see that even doctors, lawyers, even managing directors etc can struggle to keep their heads above water. And then there’s the success element – the reader of the Modern/Presents novel wants to see evidence of the hero’s alpha status – and to most people (again I’m not say to everyone) financial success and status is what they see as demonstrating worldly success. In fact it’s ended up that really ‘billionaire’ has simply become shorthand for ‘a very successful man in his own chosen field in the world.’ And that goes into the title as a ‘buzz word’ and perhaps the readers don’t spot any real differences between one billionaire and another.

For me the important thing is that the hero has made his own way in the world. I don’t write about someone who has simply inherited the fortune/company/estate/bank that his father and grandfather and great-grandfather built up, enjoying the success and not putting in the work. Similarly with someone whose family perhaps has an aristocratic history – and he inherits the lot. I need to see someone who is putting in and has put in his own effort, earned his own fortune. So, for example, he has ‘pulled himself up by his bootstraps’ from an inauspicious and impoverished beginning or, in the book I just submitted, the hero’s father lost everything, and he has had to build it all up again.

I have bucked the trend once or twice - The Hired Husband had a hero who entered into a marriage of convenience with the heroine because his company was temporarily in difficulties after his father had died and his stepmother wanted her half of the business. And other authors have done the same – Anne McAllister’s recent One Night Love-Child has the hero, Flynn, working to make his Irish estate pay after death duties etc. It can be done – but, like having a hero who is not ‘tall dark and handsome’ you can get yourself into a situation where your book is a ‘hard sell’ – where it doesn’t have the glamour and fantasy that the reader of this particular line is looking for. And that is part of the huge success of this line. And of course one of the vital elements of the Modern/Presents story is that the hero who has had everything go his way and proved his success suddenly comes up against a situation in which he can throw all the money in the world at the problem and it won’t change a thing. He has to find a very different ‘currency’, and very different way of going about things in order to solve the problem – resolve the conflict he’s caught up in.

The other thing is that money does raise the stakes. Where a heroine has a problem, the bigger the problem the more the emotional intensity , and a problem where, say she has to find a few thousand pounds could very possibly be solved by a visit to a bank – but a few million pounds. . .? Also, if the hero is wealthy there are the problems involved in the way that people react to him – are they attracted by the money/position - or by the real man?

So again it’s a sort of shorthand – it gets the success/position/fantasy part of the story out of the way so that the reader can concentrate on the emotional part of it. Which is what they want to read.

Again when I started out, film stars, singers, authors could all be heroes – I’ve used all of them – but today’s reader knows that sometimes those worlds can be so tawdry, or relationships rarely last that they don’t find them as satisfying at feeding that happy ever after part of the fantasy at the end of the story. I’ve also created heroes who, when the heroines meet them, don’t appear to be hot-shot corporate billionaires – in The Sicilian Brothers duo both Guido and Vito were taking a year out to do something they’d most wanted to do when they’d had to concentrate on building up the company – so Guido was working as a photographer and Vito was a sculptor. This was one of my ways of showing that these guys had more to them than just money-making skills.

So now I need to turn the question back on you – do you think that you can come up with a hero who isn’t “a multi-billionaire / corporate hot shot” and give him the success/status/glamour that the readers want? If you can then go for it – and I hope you succeed. Once again to go back over those often quoted but so important comments – there aren’t any rules and (all together now!) It’s all in the execution.
© Kate Walker 2009

Great Minds Think Alike

Anyone reading this blog can't have missed that Anne McAllister is one of my great friends. In spite of the fact that she borrowed Hugh-in-a-towel so often on our visit to Australia and New Zealand that some people there tend to think that he's HER H-i-a-t. Which of course he is not.

But we share. Friends can do that.

In the same way that it now seems we are sharing another hero - after I showed her my inspiration for Santos she went off and did some more research and now her Sebastian has morphed into Santos (or the guy who inspired Santos). But he won't become a combination of the two - a Santostian - they'll be totally separate heroes and each will be distinctly an Anne McAllister hero and a Kate Walker hero.

But last month when I was talking about Anne's great current book, One Night Love Child, I forgot to mention the one hero we share and who always remains exactly and undeniably himself - a hero who along with Flynn Murray plays a very important part in the book. But he was not the Groom so I couldn't mention him in the posts when we were talking about Here Come the Grooms. This Alpha Hunk appears in several of Anne's books, he also appears a lot in my life (though he has had his nose put out of joint by a certain Flora the Floozie just lately.)

He is of course Sid the cat - sorry - Sid The Cat. The capital letters are important.

And Sid has a starring role in One Night Love Child. He is, he would say, the second lead. The First Cat as you might say. And Sid would like me to point out to you that this is another very good reason for buying Anne's book. He has had walk-on roles, even a small speaking role, in other books, including the book that started of Sara and Flynn's story way back in 2002 - The Great Montana Cowboy Auction. And he was very pleased to find that his starring role in One Night Love Child had not been edited out. He didn't expect that it would be because, of course he is the perfect Presents Cat - tall, dark and alpha - and very very handsome - just ask Flora. Sid is also very glad that Flora does not have a role in Anne's books (yet). He likes the fact that Elmer, Montana, is his own very special place where he can go without being followed (and bounced on) by pestiferous floozies.

He gets about in Elmer, he has lived in various houses in that town, but when Flynn goes back to find Sara after he finally receives her letter, he finds not only Sara but his five year old son - and Sid who is now living in Sara's house.

Sid hasn't yet appeared in one of my books. Perhaps I'm too close to him to portray him properly. Or my characters live in countries he's not sure he wants to visit . He's not keen on the heat and prefers to stay in the shade in summer, so he wasn't too sure about being sent to Spain to appear in Spanish Billionaire. Innocent Wife. But he's sort of considering he might like to branch out a bit, travel further afield.

I told him that if he was to make his home with Santos then he might end up being called El Sid. He liked the sound of that.

And those minds thinking alike? Well, when I got up this morning with this post in my head, I checked out Anne's Blog - and guess who's guest starring over there as well - along with Santostian?

El Sid himself. But then of course Anne has very good taste in cats as well as heroes.

And the winners are -

So Sid the Cat, Gunnar the Dog and - er - Liz the human . . . have done their jobs and picked the winners. (Actually I think Anne roped Flynn in to help Gunnar)

And the winners are:

Alison Bond Manchester UK
Jane Squires Missouri
Carol Woodruff New Jersey

Each of you will receive a copy of :

The Bride's Baby by Liz Fielding

One-Night Love Child by Anne McAllister

Spanish Billionaire, Innocent Wife by someone called Kate Walker

Congratulations to the winners and thank you to everyone who entered. Now that we've done this twice, I think that has made it very definitely a tradition so, hopefully - the Grooms will be back next year (yes - Anne and Liz?)

And those who didn't win - if you get your hands on Anne and Liz's books then you'll still be winners as you'll have some wonderful books to read.

More contests soon - watch this space.

Last chance to enter the Grooms' Contest

Thank you so much to everyone who sent me a private message or posted on the blog yesterday about the earthquake - I was so touched by your concern - they were all so thoughtful. Luckily there has been little or no damage around her, but closer to Market Rasen there was some damage but luckily we avoided it.

And Julie - yes, the Heck Family of hedgehogs are fine. I checked their house and it was unmoved. And when I peeped in (you can lift the lid off) they were so tightly wrapped in grass and leaves that nothing would have disturbed them and even if the house had rocked or moved they would have been thoroughly cushioned against any shock.

Today I'm battling with my latest Spanish hero, Santos Cordero, but I must just remind you that this is your last chance to enter the Here Come The Grooms Contest and give yourself three chances to win all three great books this month. As you know, I'm sharing this contest with Anne McAllister and Liz Fielding. Each groom has asked a question and you have until 29th February to send all three answers to Anne, Liz, and me.

Don’t forget you need to send all three answers to all three authors. I have been receiving some answers which have only the answer to Raul’s question in them.

Here’s Raul’s question: What are the full names of the hero and heroine of Spanish Billionaire, Innocent Wife (Note from Raul- his real name, not the one mistakenly given him on the back of the book!)


Spanish Billionaire, Innocent Wife is published in the UK in March and in Presents in June

Here’s Flynn’s question:

What story did he come to Montana to cover when he met Sara in the first place?


Flynn's book is One-Night Love Child and it's out in March (Presents) - in fact it's out right now as Anne and some others have seen it in the stores - and April (Modern Romance)

And finally Tom:

What colour silk did he become intimately acquainted with?


Tom's story is told in The Bride's Baby which is Liz's 50th Mills and Boon Romance. Out in April both America and UK

Don’t forget, all three answers to Anne, and Liz and to me will give you three chances to win all three books. And as I've read two of the books on offer - and written the other! - I can tell you that there is some really great reading to be won. I loved Anne and Liz's books.


Answers are on websites, along with email links.

Closing date 29 February. Winner will be picked on Saturday March 1st

Voice and a great read

I've been thinking on the same lines as Michelle Styles today. That's because we've both been discussing that elusive thing called 'voice' with an unpublished writer over on the eHarlequin forums. This lady - Melissa - was avoiding reading any other romance books because she was afraid that they would interfere with the development of her personal style, her writer's voice.

I didn't agree - and neither did Michelle. I don't think that reading affects your personal voice - unless you start copying the authors you read and then you just turn into a pale imitation of them. But I always recommend that you should read lots of books by different authors - that will show you that there isn't any one way to write but as many different ways as there are different authors. And each one of those authors will have the readers who love her work.

When I first started out writing romance, I would read lots of authors I admired and I'd think Maybe I should write like that - and then Oh I can't write like that!- and then the doubts would come in to make me think I can't write! But when I told myself that I couldn't write like that - and I shouldn't write like that - I should write like me and tell the story the way I wanted to - that was when I had my first book accepted.

I was thinking about this over the weekend as I got lost in a wonderful book. It was my reward for reading some of the RITA entires I've been sent to judge. There's a real variety of them and some of them, frankly, are not my sort of read at all. This is not to say that they are bad books, but I'm reading them with my critic's hat on - the one that got me my degrees - not as a reader reading for enjoyment.

But my reward book, I read that with real delight. I enjoyed it from start to finish. And as I read it I was thinking that this was one of those books that in the past would have had me sitting with my head in my hands, declaring that I could never write like that!

The book was one of the 3 titles that are the prizes for the Here Come the Grooms Contest. It was Liz Fielding's book - her 50th M&B title - The Bride's Baby. And it's a great read. The characters are appealing, believeable, sympathetic. The hero is strong as a hero should be but he's also wounded and vulnerable and throwing up a defensive shield to ward off all comers. So is the heroine - for her own personal reasons. And because you believe in those reasons, then the conflict is one that tugs on the heartstrings and then gives them an extra twist for good measure.

And because it's a Liz Fielding book, the writing is wonderful too - clear, elegant, easy to read - the sort of writing that reminds me of a quote by Enrique Jardiel Poncela who said:

When something can be read without effort, great effort has gone into its writing.

The other thing that this book had me thinking about is the way that when ill-informed critics declare that Harlequin Mills & Boon romances are 'all they same' they really are talking through their hats- or perhaps out of somewhere much less polite!

At the end of January, I wrote about the other book that is a prize in this contest - Anne McAllister's One-Night Love Child, another great read and I discussed that along with Michelle Reid's May release The Markonos Bride. Two fabulous books that demonstrate just how different each author can make a story, while still writing within the defined parameters of the 55,000 word category romance. Each one has a very clearly defined voice, unique to their individual authors - as The Bride's Baby is unique to Liz Fielding. Each one of them takes the 'formula' - the skeleton of a romance - man meets woman, there is a conflict between them, as they work to resolve that conflict they fall in love and can then move on to a happy ending - and crafts it in their own individual way to produce a gem of the genre - and each is totally unlike the other.

I enjoyed reading each one of them and admired the way they were crafted. Each one of them made me wish I'd written it, but at the same time acknowledge that I never would - and I never should. Because that's not my voice. And if was enjoying reading three such different styles and voices, then it was because they were all different that I got the best enjoyment out of them. If they'd all been - as those critics claim - exactly the same - then I doubt if I would have read all three - and certainly not with the same enjoyment.

.

So although I would have been proud to have written any one of those books - I'm also proud of the fact that I didn't. I'm proud of the fact that I write like me and my brilliant author friends write like them. I'm proud of the way that this genre produces so many wonderful voices who create so many wonderful stories - ones that are not at all 'just the same'.

So if you're a writer remember that it's variety that's the spice of life. That Harlequin Mills & Boon already has a Liz Fielding, an Anne McAllister, and a Michelle Reid, they have a Kate Walker too! They don't want another one. They don't want a pale copy of an original - they want an original - an original you.

I'm still advising would-be published authors to read - read as many different authors as possible, to learn the many different ways that the same basic romance theme can be written. Learn how the other authors do things, how they tackle problems, create empathy . . . Learn, but don't copy. Learn the sort of stories that speak to your heart, and most importantly to your witer's heart. Learn, get inspiration - and then go away and think of Frank Sinatra and do it your way.

I still wish I could have written any one of these great books, but I'm so glad I didn't because if I had then I wouldn't have had the pleasure of reading all of them. I was able to enjoy them so much because I wasn't wondering if I could have done it better - instead I was able to read them and enjoy them as they were - - and to see how these authors did it - which was not the way I would have done.

Thank you Liz, and Anne, and Michelle - reading your books inspired me, making me want to keep giving that same enjoyment to readers through my books too.

As I said, two of these books are prizes for the Here Come the Grooms contest. If you haven't entered yet then get your entry in - these are really great books to win. And if you don't win, but have to buy your copies, well, for my money you're still a winner because you'll be reading some of the best of what romance has to offer.

Here Come the Grooms 3

A couple of weeks ago I read a really good book - and I enjoyed it so much I blogged about it here.

So you'll know that it's no hardship for me - or for Raul - to share this Here Come the Grooms Contest with Anne McAllister's hero Flynn Murray.

So now let me introduce you to Flynn.

Anne's book, One-Night Love Child is out in March and the hero in this story is Flynn Murray, former footloose Irish journalist, now the Earl of Dunmorey.

Six years ago Flynn Murray turned Sara McMaster's life upside down. He swept her off her feet and into his bed. Then he left -- and sane, sensible Sara had never been the same. How could she be when nine months later she had his child?

Now their one-night love child is the center of Sara's world. But suddenly Flynn is back. And he's no longer the footloose Irish journalist she knew and loved. Now he's the scarily powerful Earl of Dunmorey -- and he wants his son.


To enter the Here Come the Grooms! contest, you will need to answer three questions, one each from Flynn, Raul and Tom. Then go to each of our website contest pages and send us the answers.

There will be three drawings on March 1st -- one by each hero -- and the winners get copies of all three books!

Flynn's question is:

What story did he come to Montana to cover when he met Sara in the first place?

You can find the answer on Anne's blog or in the excerpt to One-Night Love Child on her website.

PS - that has nothing to do with the contest.

If you live in the UK and you happen to spot the March edition of either Writers' Forum Magazine or Writing Magazine - you'll find that I have articles in both - one on the 12 Points of writing romance (that's Writing Magazine) and another (in Writers' Forum) where the Babe Magnet and I talk about us both being writers and how we work together.

Now I'm heading for London and the party to open the official year of celebration fot the Mills & Boon Centenary. I'll be back on Sunday.

Two Good Books and more on heroes

The Babe Magnet is a generous man - he likes to share. And what he's shared with me recently is germs. He had a nasty stomach bug that flattened him all of Saturday and Sunday - so, having had that passed on to me, I was flattened some of Sunday and all of yesterday. And it was not fun
Oh well, I needed to lose some weight

But there are silver linings to being flattened - because I couldn't do anything else, I could at least read. I have a batch of books to read and judge for the RITA contest but as I was feeling so rough I thought I'd indulge myself and so I read so tried and tested favourites, thinking that quality reading would distract me from the other unpleasantness of the day.

I was right. I read two great books, relaxed and enjoyed myself - and if you have to be sick then being sick in the compny of Michelle Reid and Anne McAllister is not a bad thing at all.

Regular readers of this blog will know that I make no secret of the fact that no only are these two authors two of my favourite friends, they are also two of my favourite romance writers whose books I have enjoyed longer thatn I've actually had the warm friendship of both of them in my life. In fact they are the proof of the fact that most authors whose books I've loved turn out to be people I like too - and Michelle and Anne are perfect examples of that.

Michelle Reid hasn't had a book out in a while - The Italian's Future Bride was out in January 2007 and since then I've been getting withdrawal symptoms. So it was a real thrill when Michelle gave me a hardback copy of her upcoming book - The Markonos Bride. And as with all of Michelle's books, I opened the first page, sampled a line or two - and then found that hours later I emerged, blinking into the real world, reluctantly leaving behind intense, sexy Andreas Markonos and his vulnerable but feisty estranged wife Louisa. Reading a Michelle Reid is like being swept along on a tidal wave of emotion - her heroes may be strong to the point of ruthlessness, autocratic and sometimes domineering. But she leaves you in no doubt about the vulnerability underneath that power, and the need that drives these men to behave in this way.

I'm not going to give away spoilers for this - or the other book - but knowing that Andreas and Lousia have been torn about by a tragedy in the past, a tragedy that left scars on both of them, you know it's going to take time to heal and rebuild what they had before when the only thing that seems to be holding them together is the intense physical passion they have always shared.

Which is much the same sort of journey that Flynn and Sara have to go on in Anne McAllister's One Night Love-Child, the second of the books I devoured yesterday. I was in 'at the birth' of this book - or at least as part of its gestation when Anne and I toured Ireland last February and it was fun to see the way that our travels, and our stay in Ballyvolane House Translated into Dunmorey - with the constant, pouring rain as well. But a book by Anne is a very different sort of experience from a book by Michelle and Flynn Murray is a very different dort of hero from Andreas Markonos.

He's every bit as strong and intense - he feels the same passion for his heroine - but his campaign to win her back after 5 years' absence is - as he describes it - a process of 'courting' rather than confrontation. Flynn needs to prove to Sara that this time he's here to stay and that can't be done in the blink of an eye and with a protestation of love - no matter how ardent.

Flynn has his own demons to fight - demons that had made him the man he is - and the demons of the other dermands that life makes on him. For some he might not be the expected sort of Presents hero - he has money worries that he struggles with, he's not confrontational or autocratic and - oh yes, he's Irish, not Greek or Italian or a Sheikh. But he is strong and honourable, determined and loving - and those are the things that make a true hero in anyone's book.

But in the true strength and scope of the Presents line there should be room for both types of her - and more. The Alpha hero is not, as I have said so many times before, Alpha because he's cruel or snarling or a bully or domneering - in fact, quite the opposite. An Alpha hero is the man the heroine can rely on the be there for her through thick and thin, cold and heat. The man whose strength will support her, whose courage will defend her and whose love will be with her now and for the rest of their future together 'for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health.'

And that's another reason why I enjoyed both these books - because, reading them with the current Instant Seduction Contest in mind, I was thinking of so many questi0ns I've been asked about creating an Alpha hero and how to make him hard and forceful and have the impact a hero needs - without losing the vital sympathy that is also needed to make him a hero for the reader too.

These two very different books show just how to do that - and they go a long way to prove that there is no right way or wrong way to write a hero - but that it is, as the late great Editorial Director of M&B Jacqui Bianchi once said to me - if you create the hero who excites you, who you could fall in love with, and you communicate that excitement and that attraction then the reader will fall in love with him too.

I think that in many of the attempts at writing for M&B, in the scripts I've read and commented on, too many people aim for the 'Mediterranean Billionaire' hero - I'd almost say the 'Hard Cruel Bastard Billionaire' - and forget that these guys are also men that the heroine is supposed to fall in love with - and hopefully stay in love 'till death do us part.'

In The Markonos Bride and One Night Love-Child, there isn't a hint of revenge - there's no blackmail, no forced marriages, no suspicion that the heroine might be a gold-digger, or in some other way 'no better than she ought to be' - the only 'traditional' Presents theme is the 'secret baby' - that one night love child in Anne's book. But both of these books pack an emotional punch that is what the Presents line is all about - the intense, emotional punch that comes from two people wrenched apart by the past coming together again and needing to rediscover each other, to find out what love is really all about, in order to go into their future together.

And so for my money anyone wanting to enter the Instant Seduction contest could do no better than to read these books so as to see that there is more to that much sought after 'emotional punch' than threats and suspicion or demanding retribution. The real emotional punch comes from seeing the chasm of distance that has come between two people who should have a future together and wondering just how the hell they are ever going to bridge that yawning gap so that they can find that future together. That emotional distance can stab as sharply to the heart every bit as much as - in fact more so - than any ferocious anger or callous demanding of retribution.

Thank you Michelle and thank you Anne for two great reads that absorbed and delighted me even under the rather difficult conditions that were yesterday.

The Markonos Bride is published in M&B Modern and Harlequin Presents in May 2008

and One Night Love-Child is published in Presents in March and M&B Modern in April.

PS I have no idea why the paragraphing and the spacing of this is all to pot - I've tried and tried to correct it, but Blogger is just not having it!