Guest post: The creation of Dead Reckoning by Paul McMahon

Please welcome Paul McMahon, who's here to write about the creation of his prison-comedy novel, Dead Reckoning.

~

You can think too much about writing – that’s the crux of it. This realisation is what inspired me to stop procrastinating and start to write my novel in the first place.

Before I write about my novel, I’ll give you an insight into how I wrote it, and suggest to you that my unusual approach freed my subconscious to write my story for me and what has made it so unique. I’ll give you a one sentence bio only because details from my background became relevant to my experiment. I’ve been a Prison Officer for over a decade. I undertook my training at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and graduated in 2001 whereupon after securing an agent I quickly realised I loathed most acting industry folk and opted to work behind bars with people of the equivalent moral order.

As a Prison Officer I’m portraying the most complicated role of my life, engaged in psychological warfare all day long and I needed some kind of cathartic creative outlet. However I found writing daunting and I couldn’t see the wood for the trees. So Dead Reckoning began life as a writing exercise to combat what can broadly be categorised as ‘block’. The experiment consisted of playfully punching random keys on my computer, the letter combinations of which bore occasional thoughts and thereafter words which spun off into non-sequiturs, before breaking down into jibber-jabber and back up again cyclically, interspersed by the occasional mass word-cull. Not a conventional approach to writing – but then the resultant stream of consciousness, present tense, philosophical prison-comedy, is far from a conventional novel.

This strange practice isn’t as peculiar as it might seem as the product is – that I was actually writing. Even if the outcome is simply flexing your vocabulary in preparation, this is in my opinion infinitely better than introspectively strategizing without writing a word.

In light of my approach it goes without saying I didn’t plan a plot, but upon reading my ramblings after a long break I realised that when you string enough unconnected events together, a reader will imbue the order of them with meaning as we all bring a unique blend of subjectivity, when decoding the entangled semiotics in amalgamations of words. In this sense, the author really does die. Furthermore the characters themselves became compassionate even though I didn’t write any of them that way. My literary lesson was that as in life, sometimes good characters do bad things and bad characters do good things.

And so the process of writing a novel had started of its own volition. I wrote and read; selecting a detail that presented as interesting and then textually weaving it together with another detail, in an unrelated segment eventually yielding the bones of a plot, upon which I explored and expanded. This knitting together of plot points and characterisation happened over and over again until a basic narrative structure grew organically out of nowhere.

Once I’d an idea of a story I immersed myself in the protagonist and invented an entire back story for him in the same way actors who apply the Stanislavski approach do. I reverse engineered his character – writing in personality traits that would explain his decisions and the actions taken by him. Once I’d a fully developed character with clear motivations I allowed this to inform my overhaul of the entire body of work, meaning some major plot point alterations as they no longer fitted with the character. The novel naturally mutated. This approach was an uneconomical use of time for sure but it meant that the character and the narrative became inextricably linked in a manner that I don’t believe I could have accomplished tackling writing in the conventional sense.

Dead Reckoning is a tale revolving around addiction and staff corruption inside a fictional London prison. The plot is a vehicle for the exploration of the human condition and the struggle to find ones individual moral compass. The prison was useful for this being a universe in microcosm. A prison-comedy sounds like a malapropism but the humour within the hidden society of captives is what lubricates the necessary reciprocal social exchange relationships between staff and inmates, which allow each prison to operate in spite of massively disproportionate ratios in favour of the prisoners. In the job this is called ‘jail-craft’ or ‘banter’ and if you don’t have it you’re not going to survive. In light of this I felt the subject had to be tackled as a black comedy and I am incredibly proud that the lads and lass’s who work in prisons across the country and the prisoners who have read the book agree that the tone is spot on.

There are other ways to stimulate creativity that I found useful – I simultaneously undertook a Master’s Degree in Criminology whilst writing Dead Reckoning in order to get a better understanding of the academic view on the occupational culture of prison officers. I found gratifyingly that the conclusion of my thesis into ‘The motivations for discretionary rule enforcement amongst prison officers’, began to affect how I refined subsequent drafts of the novel. I was able to factor in endless empirical research to my characterisation – such as Muir’s 1977 typology of workplace behaviour – in the development of the protagonist Mr B and use Adams 1963 equity theory to explain Gav’s motivation for corruption. I believe the qualitative academic research I undertook and my first-hand experience of the prison system root this work of fiction in reality. It took a few years for Dead Reckoning to take shape and essentially write itself. This author saw marriage, fatherhood, bereavement, life threatening injury and separation, but the novel was always a constant place of refuge for me.


I’d be extremely grateful for any feedback from those of you that have read my Dead Reckoning already, as I love the fact that readers are actually helping me to better understand my own novel. Weirdly wonderful but true.

~

To find out more about Dead Reckoning, and to purchase a signed/dedicated copy, visit Paul's website. Standard copies can be purchased for Kindle and on paperback at Amazon.co.uk.
You can also follow Paul on Twitter.

Guest post: Quirky audio books lampoon social issues, by Adele Park

A very warm welcome to Adele Park, who's here to write about her very original Quirky Audio Book series.

I have a quirky sense of humor.  So much so that I lather the quirk on every audio book I produce.  Writing on the fringes has its benefits:  no one expects me to be normal.  I see it as an opportunity to unleash a litany of snarky comments on social issues.  The sell lines for both my audio books put a fine point on this: When radio and polygamy collide… Jitters - A Quirky Little Audio Book and When marijuana and reality TV collide… Yikes! Another Quirky Audio Book. Those who aren't amused by stuff like pot and polygamy might want to look elsewhere.

Being free to roam about the cabin of craziness has led to the genesis of some pretty wacky characters.  I like to place them in a secluded spot called Navel and see what happens.

Navel is more of a state of mind than a physical location.  It is a cosmic portal which opens to those in need, starting with Joseph Stratton, the kindly polygamist who founded Navel in 1957.  Stratton, along with a gaggle of pubescent wives, was fleeing his religious brethren in Salt Lake City when he stumbled into the wild orange groves of Pitt County.

Jitters and Yikes! both feature full casts of actors who advance the plot using first person narratives.  Most of the characters are supreme narcissists who give lopsided accounts of what is happening.  It's up to the listener to decide what is true.

Having wandered off the literary reserve, I also take advantage of the chance to experiment with different forms of narration.  From a writing perspective, narration is a convenient way to string together an array of random ideas.  In the Quirky Audio Book Series, it also serves as the voice for the town of Navel.

In Jitters - A Quirky Little Audio Book, the story centers on a shock jock named Nancy Neptune who unwittingly finds herself working at a radio station in Navel.  In keeping with the radio theme, Jitters is narrated through a series of newscasts.  Yikes! Another Quirky Audio Book offers a more conventional form of narration through a succession of pieces called Examine Our Navel.  The protagonist in Yikes! is a marijuana enthusiast named Blue McKenna.

Using satire, I explore issues ranging from gay rights to freedom of religion.  By exploiting the absurd, I try to illustrate the effect certain attitudes and acts of discrimination have on society.  But mostly, I'm just going for the grins and giggles.

You can find out more about Adele, including where to buy the audio books, at the Yikes! website and on her blog.

Guest post: Writing Crashing Eden, by Michael Sussman

It's a pleasure to welcome author Michael Sussman, who's here to share how he wrote his young adult fantasy novel, Crashing Eden.


My first novel, Crashing Eden, tells the story of Joss Kazdan, a 17-year-old juvenile delinquent who is depressed and guilt-ridden following the loss of his younger brother. After suffering a concussion, he awakens to a beautiful sound that no one else can hear. He becomes convinced that it’s the primordial vibration of the universe, and by attuning himself to it he experiences ecstasy and feels at one with the cosmos. Things get even stranger when friends of his are able to construct a device that produces this same Edenic consciousness. I don’t want to spoil the story, so I’ll just say that what starts out so promising, soon leads to generational conflict and cataclysmic destruction that threatens the very survival of humanity!

You may wonder: How did I come to write such a strange novel? I believe the story emerged from the convergence of the following three strands of my life.

1. Adolescence was a painful and confusing time for me, when my struggles with depression first began. I experienced mood swings, became increasingly introverted, socially isolated, and had to contend with deep feelings of guilt, self-hatred, and suppressed rage. These experiences were influential in my later becoming a psychologist, helping others to cope with the ravages of depression.

2. During my later teens, I developed a passionate interest in Eastern mysticism. I read books by mystics and gurus, started to meditate, and even joined a cult called Divine Light Mission. In my quest to transcend mundane existence, I also lived for a while in a commune located—I kid you not—in Paradise, Nova Scotia.

One night, I suffered a concussion in a car crash in which I was a passenger and was lucky to survive. Like my protagonist in Crashing Eden, I spent the days following the concussion in what I can only call a state of grace, filled with deep feelings of gratitude and joy.

3. Throughout my life I’ve been interested in world mythology. I’m especially intrigued by the widespread myths suggesting that humans have degenerated from an ancient state of grace, symbolized by Paradise or the Golden Age.

To sum up, I believe that my history of depression and experience as a psychotherapist allowed me to get inside the head of my adolescent protagonist and find his voice. My fascination with mysticism and my personal experience of grace led me to conceive of a transcendent state to which my protagonist aspires. And my familiarity with the Golden Age myths provided a framework for the story.

From there, I used my imagination to envision how the God of the Old Testament might react to an impudent gang of teenagers who discover a way to crash the Gates of Eden. That’s when the story gets really interesting!

 
To purchase a copy of Crashing Eden, you can visit:
Amazon.com: http://amzn.to/KHk6aE

Amazon.co.uk: http://amzn.to/Nazmzj

Barnes & Noble: http://bit.ly/KST7Fy

Smashwords: http://bit.ly/IPTc0l

Keep up-to-date with Michael:

Website and blog: http://www.MichaelSussmanBooks.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/MichaelBSussman

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/CrashingEden

Guest post + giveaway: Luba Lesychyn, author of museum mystery Theft by Chocolate

 
Please welcome Luba Lesychyn, author of the delectable mystery, Theft by Chocolate. She's here to fill us in about the creation of the novel, and also give the chance to win US$150 towards a very satisfying chocolate stash! Read on to find out more about Luba, read the blurb, and enter the giveaway.

You can also visit Luba's blog to stay updated and purchase a copy of Theft by Chocolate.

A cinemaniac’s journey to writing a museum mystery

Anyone reading my bio would conclude it was a no-brainer for a person who had worked in Canada’s largest museum for more than twenty years to write a novel set in a museum. Ironically, it was actually my love of movies that led to the writing of Theft By Chocolate, a sassy museum mystery about a woman looking for chocolate, love and an international art thief in all the wrong places. So how did I get from Point A to Point B? Well, it occurred via what seemed like a lot of wrong turns. But as I look back, I realize I was always headed in the right direction and ended up in the most perfect of destinations.

One of my earliest childhood memories is cuddling in my mother’s arms in a movie theater during a screening of a Doris Day/Rock Hudson movie. The proximity of a cinema to the family homestead meant it was a regular stomping ground, and as soon as my big brother and I were old enough, we were hitting the Saturday double-header by ourselves.

As for my writing, the first time I realized I loved to write was when a short story I had penciled was a big hit with my grade four classmates. But after primary studies and high school, I passed on English Lit due to my dislike of and clear inaptitude for literary analysis. Instead, I majored in history and minored in art history. I did write my first book then, namely my Master’s thesis about a ruling family in a tiny principality in Renaissance Italy, but for some reason it failed to become a bestseller. It did, thankfully, fulfill the requirements of my program. (BTW, I recently Googled it and was shocked to find you can actually access the work on line through my university’s eLibrary. A must-read for anyone with masochistic tendencies!)

After graduate studies, I landed in the offices of the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto and other than completing a magazine journalism program in the evenings, the only writing outlet I had consisted of drafting marketing materials and descriptions for courses, lectures and workshops for the Museum’s Programs Department quarterly brochure.

But then I discovered the Toronto International Film Festival and for the next twenty plus years I took vacation time to attend the Festival full-time. And when the beloved friend who introduced me to TIFF moved abroad, I began writing emails to her reviewing my screenings and reporting on festival adventures. Many more friends were interested in the annual journal, and they told their friends, and they told their friends. My list of recipients grew exponentially and each year, the size of my reportage amounted to a small book. When platforms such as web sites became user friendly for techno idiots like me and blogging became a norm, my journal took on new forms.

I loved reporting on TIFF to my audience, but I finally had to give it up to save my sanity and salvage my film-festing enjoyment. But what was a writer to do? Well, I enrolled in a screen-writing program and completed a screenplay. Then I started Theft By Chocolate in a summer writing workshop, later completing it in a creative writing program.

Movies will forever be my first love and no matter what the subject matter of future novels, I will always find a way to use film as a motif in my stories. The art form is embedded in my soul. But how perfect was it that I was able to intertwine so many of my passions in one work – film, chocolate, museums and writing? I hope readers will enjoy the film references as well as the homage I’ve paid to movies like To Catch a Thief with Grace Kelly and Cary Grant, and Audrey Hepburn’s and Peter O’Toole’s How To Steal a Million. Theft By Chocolate is a modern story, but it’s told with a bit of that Old Hollywood charm and humor.


Blurb: Theft by Chocolate
Chocolate addict Kalena Boyko wasn’t prepared for this. Heading to work at Canada’s largest museum as an administrator, she hopes for quiet and uninterrupted access to her secret chocolate stash. Instead she’s assigned to manage the high-profile Treasures of the Maya exhibition with her loathed former boss, Richard Pritchard.

With no warning, her life is capsized and propelled into warp speed as she stumbles across an insider plot that could jeopardize the exhibit and the reputation of the museum.

After hearing about a recent botched theft at the museum and an unsolved jewel heist in the past from security guard and amateur sleuth Marco Zeffirelli, Kalena becomes suspicious of Richard and is convinced he’s planning to sabotage the Treasures of the Maya exhibition.

Her suspicions, and the appearance of the mysterious but charming Geoffrey Ogden from the London office, don’t help her concentration. The Treasures of the Maya seems cursed as problem after problem arises, including the disappearance of the world’s oldest piece of chocolate, the signature object in the exhibit.

Theft By Chocolate is inspired by a real-life and never-solved heist at a Canadian museum in the 1980s.


The giveaway
Do you love chocolate as much as Kalena, the heroine in Theft By Chocolate? Here’s your chance to indulge in $150 US worth! The Giveaway Grand Prize is a gift certificate to a delectable chocolate online retailer. Winner chooses from one of three sites: http://www.chocosphere.com/, http://www.hotelchocolat.co.uk/ , or http://www.dlea.com.au/ . To be eligible for the Grand Prize, enter the Rafflecopter below. Remember to sign up for Luba’s email announcements (worth five entries). On occasion she’ll send out exclusive announcements for special events, blog posts, giveaways and free swag! On July 31st, the winner will be chosen at random and notified via email.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Guest Post: Elisabeth Wheatley, author of the Argetallam Series

Welcome to Elisabeth Wheatley! Elisabeth's the sixteen year old author of the Argetallam series, published by Chengalera Press, and she’s here to talk about her life as a young writer.

I’ve always had an active imagination. When I was little, my mother used to take me and my brother to our local library for “story time.” The library was then in an old brick building and there were cracks near the ceiling that had been badly patched and looked kind of like holes. One time, my mother told me that that was from where fairies came in and out of the library. I believed her for years.

When I was about six, I wrote (and proudly illustrated) a very short picture book about my dog and pet goat. I put it together with duct tape and since I couldn’t spell my goat’s name—Count—I wrote “123” instead. Not too long ago we found it again. My brother thought it hilarious.

I was about eleven when I created the world that would eventually be home to my Argetallam Saga. I jotted down unnumbered story beginnings on paper, but never finished a manuscript until after I got an old laptop for Christmas one year. Once I had my computer (which I affectionately christened “Sonya”), there was nothing stopping me from staying locked up in my room late at night while my fingers whirred over the keyboard.

There have been enough times where I didn’t get schoolwork done on time because my mind was far, far away in my imaginary world. My dear mother, otherwise so patient and encouraging, has had to take away my computer three times so that I would catch up on my math assignments (I kept count because I practically went into writing-withdrawal when it happened). Since we live in the middle of nowhere, with no internet connection to our house and all my friends miles away in the city, I got into the habit of getting up at 5:00 in the morning to get my work done so that I could spend the rest of the day writing.

I’ve found that the best way to balance writing and being a high school student is to make a schedule. I’ll formulate a schedule, keep it for a few weeks or months, get sick of it, and make a new one. (I easily suffer from schedule fatigue and get bored.) I rarely talk to my friends on the phone. I usually text or email them and they have learned not to take it as an insult when I don’t want to talk. They know I’m usually working out some scene, plot twist, or other story issue and they indulge me.

Besides, who really cares about some celebrity’s love life or school work when there’s a fight scene to be written? To be honest, I often daydream during class and start thinking about wizards, elves, mythology, and—my very own creations—Argetallams. How can grammar compete with that?

In short, I love writing. To me it’s as basic as breathing and I don’t intend to stop any time soon.

--

If you would like to find out more about the Argetallam series and purchase a copy, visit Elisabeth’s website here.

Guest Post: The Evolution of Taste by Kate Evangelista

Kate's debut young adult novel, Taste, was released today! She's also here to share the story of its evolution. Here she goes!


I was a high school teacher when the beginnings of Taste first came to me. At the school I taught at, there was this practice of ringing a bell in the afternoon to signal that all remaining students on campus must be at the guardhouse to wait for their parents to pick them up. I always wondered why they did this. What was it about the campus during the afternoons that students aren’t allowed to roam around after a certain time? The practical reason would be that the nuns who ran the school were at prayer and need absolute silence. But the writer in me would not leave it at that. The practice of ringing the bell sparked my imagination. I began thinking of more supernatural reasons as to why students didn’t need to be on campus past a certain hour. This is why the beginning of Taste shows Phoenix waking up in the library to the ringing of bells.

One would think that because of my burst of inspiration, I would have begun writing Taste, but that wasn’t the case. Being a teacher took over every aspect of my life. I only had time to sleep, and there was barely enough of that. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed teaching. Every time I saw understanding in the eyes of my students after a lesson, I was elated—I actually helped someone learn something. But, deep down, I knew teaching wasn’t for me. Every time I woke up in the morning, I would ask myself: Is this what I want to do ten years from now? And the answer was always no. It took me a couple of years to get around to writing Taste. I finally realized that being a writer, sharing the stories of the characters in my head, was my life’s work.

Now, when inspiration strikes, I don’t wait years before I act on it. I know this is a cliché, but time really is too short to waste on doing something you don’t find fulfillment in. Okay, I’ve digressed from the main point of this post. Bear with me because it might happen again at some point!

Anyway, when I finally sat down and started writing Taste, it was still titled Lunar Heat. I was going for a play on words that involved the Lunar Garden in the story. For those who’ve read Taste, you know where the Lunar Garden is. At the time, I didn’t know anything about writing. Sure, I could write, but formatting, proper grammar, and pacing was beyond me. I didn’t even understand how to properly use the first person narrative. But the lack of know-how didn’t stop me. I kept writing until I had a first draft ready.

When the first draft was complete, I made the mistake of asking my friends to help edit. What I love about friends is that they will never hesitate to compliment you on everything you do. For a writer, this is a good ego boost, but it doesn’t necessarily help you grow within your craft. Unless you have a friend who is willing to give you constructive criticism about your work, stay away from letting friends edit your work. That’s one lesson learned in this process.

The first draft was around the time I started doing my research about the writing process. I even had the guts to submit Lunar Heat to agents without the manuscript even being close to ready. This endeavor ended in a pile of rejection letters. Save yourself the agony and make sure to learn a thing or two first. I wish someone had told me that at the beginning. But, of course, like with many of us, we learn things on our own. So, I started following blogs that had anything to do with writing. And one of them actually featured an ad for a writer who was looking for a critique partner. I didn’t know what a critique partner was, but I took a leap of faith and answered the ad. This leap led me down the path of many emails exchanged between many critique partners. Some of them I still keep in contact with. One of them even became my sister in writing. Check the dedication of Taste and the acknowledgement section to understand what I mean.

Armed with new knowledge about writing, I set about editing Lunar Heat to the ground. When you think you’ve edited your manuscript enough, that’s a sign that you need to edit it some more. But one thing I learned through this process is that you don’t need a perfect manuscript. There is no such thing as a perfect manuscript. Those are mythical creatures. Why is this? Because your future editor will still ask you to change many things within the story. What you need to do is get your manuscript to a point where editors will see the potential in the story and want to help you make it better. How do you know when you’re there? When you start getting request for partial or full submissions.

After editing for about a year—yes, you got that right, a year—I began submitting Lunar Heat to agents. And after six months, I finally got “The Call”. I thought to myself, finally, I have an agent, next stop, publishing. So, I eagerly waited for my agent’s editorial notes for Lunar Heat. Yes, folks, more editing. When he was satisfied that Lunar Heat was ready for submission, we changed the title to Taste and he sent it out to editors. Long story short, and saving you from all the heartbreak that comes with this part of my life, after five rejections from editors, my agent lost confidence in submitting Taste. It was downhill from there. Another lesson learned, you never want an agent who losses confidence in your writing. Nothing good comes of it.

So, after a year of nothing happening with my agent, I decided to let him go and start querying Taste to other agents and smaller publishing houses. My goal was to get Taste published so I could share Phoenix’s story with the world. This meant more editing. And when requests started filling my inbox from agents and publishers about full submissions, I thought to myself, here we go again. Another chance.

Finally, two months after parting ways with my agent, I received an email from Crescent Moon Press. They wanted to publish Taste! I was finally going to be a published author. My dream was coming true. And you know what I realized after my excitement and elation wore off? More editing to come.

Basically, Taste evolved the way it is today because of all the editing that’s been done to it. The biggest lesson I learned through writing Taste was to love the editing process. I realized that getting the story onto the page is important, but it is through editing where you find the diamond in the rough. Editing is where you find the real story, where your creativity is challenged the most. Some hate editing, and rightfully so, because it’s not the easiest process. You need to learn compromise and always remind yourself that all the notes and suggestions are for the good of the story. At least, that was what I kept reminding myself. Once I opened myself up to the editing process, I realized that there was so much more to learn when it comes to being a writer.

I guess, at the beginning of this post, I set out to show all of you how Taste’s story evolved through the years, but in the end, I showed all of you how I evolved. It’s funny how things work out that way. With Taste’s release on April 30, 2012 (which is so surreal, by the way, that I’m at this point already) I know that my journey to being a writer is just beginning. That I have more stories I want to share with the world. That I have so much more to learn and so many more people to meet.

I would like to take this moment, to thank Sophie for letting me take over her blog today.
Sophie, your continued support means a lot to me. We may live a pond away, but one day we will meet and the first thing I want to do is give you a big hug. Thank you for always being there. And Ireland is becoming a reality now more than ever.

~

Kate, you're a fantastic writer and person, and I'm so happy for all your success! It's a pleasure to have gotten to know you. Ireland, here we come!

~

To learn out more about Kate, her novels, and to find out where to purchase a copy of Taste, please visit her blog.

Guest Post by author Katie Dale: Literature's top ten bachelors

As part of the blog tour for her new novel Someone Else's Life, Katie Dale is here with a fantastic guest post. Check it out below, and watch for the review of the book coming soon!

~

So today is February 29th! That rare – once every four years – occurrence!

What are you going to do with your extra 24 hours? Go out and celebrate? Stay in bed a little longer? Propose to anyone…?

Why not? Allegedly, a law passed in 1288 states that February 29th is traditionally the day when a woman can propose to a man – and if he turns her down, he has to pay her compensation ranging from a kiss to a silk gown in order to soften the blow!

So, girls, what’re you waiting for?

If Mr. Right hasn’t come along yet, there’s no shortage of them in fiction. Here’s my countdown of the Top Ten Swoonworthy Literary Bachelors I’d propose to in a heartbeat – if only they were real! Which one would you choose?

10. Heathcliff (Wuthering Heights)

If you like your bad-boys broody and mean, they don’t come any broodier than Emily Bronte’s mysterious orphan, Heathcliff. Taken in by the kindly Mr. Earnshaw, he immediately falls completely in love with his daughter Cathy, and theirs is one of the most intense, passionate, destructive, doomed love affairs of all time. Perhaps a bit high-maintenance, though?

9. Edward Cullen/Jacob Black (Twilight Saga)

I don’t wish to take sides, so the Twilight guys vie for ninth place. They’re both seriously gorgeous, seriously devoted, and seriously strong, but while having a boyfriend who cannot die has its advantages, I’m not sure I could stand to grow old beside someone who stays forever young and beautiful – and I’m not sure I’m quite committed enough to become a vampire just yet (I’ve read what happens!). Jacob may be the better bet – who doesn’t love a beautiful wolf – but I’m not sure the whole aggro side is worth it?

8. Stefan/Damon Salvatore (The Vampire Diaries)

More vampires vie for eighth place, and though I have to say that while on paper Stefan is Mr Perfect, Damon Salvatore swings it for me. The glint in his eye, the hint of danger, the bad boy who’d turn good for the love of the right girl…Irresistible. If only he didn’t keep killing everyone.

 

7. Mr Rochester (Jane Eyre)

Almost a human Damon Salvatore, Mr Rochester is a tormented soul. Rough and callous, even mean to begin with, he melts in the company of Jane, the one person he finally learns to trust and to love, and finally finds redemption. He’s Heathcliff, but with a happy ending, albeit blind and crippled. Love wins the day.

6. Benedick (Much Ado About Nothing)

Forget Romeo (he falls in and out of love at the drop of a hat) Shakespeare’s Benedick is witty and charming and self-deprecating and is all about the verbal sparring – but beneath all that is a heart of pure gold. Fun to be with, brave, and witty – good combo!

5. Aragorn (The Lord of the Rings)

If it’s a hero you’re after, look no further than Middle-Earth’s own saviour, Aragorn. Whilst Frodo goes off to destroy the ring, it is up to Aragorn to rally the troops and fight all the bad guys to buy Frodo time. Plus he becomes King. Bonus.

4. Prince Caspian – Another royal hunk, Caspian (alright, Ben Barnes) is brave and dashing and achingly gorgeous, and lives in beautiful Narnia. Plus if it doesn’t work out, just nip back through the wardrobe/painting/station and it’ll be as if it never happened!

3. Mr Knightley (Emma)

Sigh. Mr. Knightley is one of those guys. He isn’t the alpha male, he doesn’t dash into the fray at the slightest excuse, doesn’t suck blood or pull a canine – no, his is a quieter sort of swoonworthiness. He’s charming and kind and generous to all – he’s the best friend who knows you better than anyone in the world and isn’t afraid to call you on your faults – but loves you deeply despite them all. A definite keeper.

2. Rhett Butler (Gone With The Wind)

Rhett is almost the antithesis to Mr. Knightley, but he’s all the more irresistible for it. He’s charming and dashing and witty and teasing and slightly obnoxious, but honourable and brave and kind too. Like Knightley, he’s not afraid to tell Scarlet her faults, but instead of chiding her he celebrates them, and loves her just the way she is. Sigh.
Speaking of people who love people just the way they are…

 

1. Fitzwilliam Darcy/Mark Darcy (Pride & Prejudice/Bridget Jones)

These two kind of come as one (same name, same actor, pretty much same character). Darcy is misunderstood at the outset – thought to be proud and obnoxious and arrogant bad-boy. When really he’s a thoroughbred white knight. His good opinion once lost may be gone forever, but if you earn it, he’s devoted to you for eternity. A fair deal, methinks.

I just have to add one more contender – Andy from Someone Else’s Life (represented by the gorgeous Andy Garfield). He’s kind and loyal and supportive and sexy – a definite Mr. Right – but then I’m biased because I invented him! That’s the great thing about fiction – you can make your very own Mr Right be whoever you want him to be!

Who’s yours?

Katie Dale

Author of Someone Else’s Life

Published by Simon & Schuster February 2012

Website: katiedaleuk.blogspot.com

Twitter: @katiedaleuk

Guest Post: Nadine Rose Larter – author of Coffee At Little Angels

A warm welcome to Nadine Rose Larter, my very first guest poster! She's here to talk about her debut novel, Coffee At Little Angels (review can be found here)...

Hi Book Lovers!

I must first thank Sophie for inviting me here to share a bit of my story. I am sure her kindness will not be overlooked by the cosmos

A bit about me...

My name is Nadine Rose Larter and I was born in a small South African town called Molteno, tucked between the mountains in the heart of the Karoo. After my last year of high school I moved with my family to the city of Port Elizabeth where I now live with my son, my fiancé, and my two step children. I’m a bit of a free-spirit and have never been happy having a “day job”. I spend my days writing, or thinking about writing. Sometimes I do a bit of work. Usually I just write and call it work.

I have always been a writer. I started writing poems and short stories when I was little, and I have intermittently kept diaries since I was about nine years old. In the last two years I have started taking my writing more seriously and have made the decision to become a full-time author. I have no formal education, aside from a year of Literature and Creative Writing study, but I am constantly trying to grow as a writer. Sometimes being a wife and mom makes fitting it all in a little tough but I am learning how to juggle it all slowly.

Next month, my first novel, Coffee at Little Angels finally comes out in paperback. I have worked pretty hard to get it all to this place and though I’ve done it mostly on my own, I would never have coped without the help of some pretty damn incredible friends and family members.

A bit about my book and why you might like to read it...

I wrote Coffee at Little Angels after a high school friend of mine died in a car accident. I locked on to the idea that had he died just two or three years earlier his death would have been even more excruciating to deal with. I was devastated by the loss of course. This was the boy who gave me my first kiss. He was a sweetheart with blue eyes and a beautiful smile. And he is missed by many. Including myself. But...in my case I don’t always miss him as though he is dead. I simply miss him as someone I haven’t seen in a while. Someone who I would love to catch up with sometime, should we be fortunate enough to bump into each other in the street. It often feels simply as if we no longer live in the same town.

I tried to write this book in a way that just about anyone can relate to it. It’s not aimed at any specific demographic and was not designed to carry across any specific message or agenda. You may notice that there are few proper nouns in this novel. There are no last names or town names. I didn’t forget to put them in. I left them out because I hope that Coffee at Little Angels will be the kind of novel that absolutely anyone can pick up and feel like they understand it. I hope that you will pick it up and feel like it could be about you.  Other than that, Coffee at Little Angels is just a book. I do hope you like it, but if you don’t, I will simply try harder with the next one.

Download a sample chapter here: http://katalina.co.za/?page_id=198

Buy the ebook here: http://katalina.co.za/?p=387

Ebook will also soon be available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iBookstore and Sony Readerstore.

Other ongoing projects...

One of my biggest writing loves is an internet project I created called The Poetry Project. Basically The Poetry Project is a project where South African poets and photographers get together to express their works symbiotically. Through this project I have met some of the most incredible people in this country and it has truly been such a blessing to get to know these people. I have taken a giant break from The Poetry Project over the last couple of months because I have been so focused on getting my book out, but I will soon be reviving the project and injecting new life into it, with the help of some old friends and hopefully some new ones too.  Once the first Poetry Project book is out I am even considering making it an international project because I think the comparison between different countries and different styles of writing and taking pictures could prove to be quite interesting.

For more information visit The Poetry Project online: http://www.thepoetryproject.co.za/

Otherwise my second home is The Katalina Playroom. Here I share my love for literature and writing. I do blog challenges and pretty much indulge in whatever takes my fancy at any particular moment. I like to think that it is a place where you can find some good inspiration as a writer. http://katalina.co.za/

Other contact info:

Follow me on twitter: @Nayes1982 & @KatalinaBooks

Say hi on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/nayes

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5012087.Nadine_Rose_Larter

LibraryThing: http://www.librarything.com/home/NadineRoseLarter

BookBlogs: http://bookblogs.ning.com/profile/NadineRoseLarter

Thank you again for having me here today. I wish you all day of happy surprises!