Of Guys, Love and Writing

It's almost Valentine's Day so it seems like the right time to talk about relationships, particularly those we write about and why we write about the relationships and people in our books.

I love all the guys in my books. They're my "ideal" type of guy. I basically write about guys I'd want to date. They're never the overtly nice guy, or the really good guy, but they are very appealing.

I've got to say, I never went for nice guys. I went for fun guys. The ones who could make me laugh and were always up for a good time, even if it wasn't always something that was exactly legal. They were a little dangerous, not because they were bad but because they weren't afraid try anything if they thought they could get away with it. And they had to be cute, not pretty-boy beautiful, but goodlooking in an all-American way. They weren't trendy because they were absolutely confident in themselves. They didn't need to follow what anyone else did. But they're not insensitive. In fact, they were quite thoughtful, even if they did dumb things every now and then.

And I've never had a thing for blondes, so my guy characters have never been blonde.
So I definitely use my "type" of guy when writing a lead male character. They look and act like a guy I would have wanted when I was in high school. And I actually have just a little bit more fun writing guy characters than girl characters. Even though, all these years later, I can't claim to understand guys any more now than I did when I was 17.

I received an email the other day from a reader who said she's read THE BOOK OF LUKE so many times she's lost count. And she loves Luke (I hear that alot). In fact, she said, she's still looking for her very own Luke in real life. So here's my Luke (although his real name is John). I picture what he was like in high school when I'm writing romantic scenes between my characters. Because my Luke is all grown-up, and he's my husband (and, yes, I'm a sucker for a guy who can play a guitar).