Earlier this month I got together with my plotting partners Jennifer LaBrecque and Vicki Lewis Thompson and the subject of heroes–and what kinds we liked specifically–came up. We each write a very different sort of hero. Jen’s are a bit sophisticated, Vicki’s drawn to the more nerdy sort (and she won’t take offense at that, lol) and I like the rogue. The smooth, funny guy who is unrepentantly male and completely confident in his skin. While we were talking I asked both of them a cool question and wanted to share it here with ya’ll. If a hero could walk right off the pages and right into your life, which guy would you choose? I was asking Jen and Vicki specifically about hero’s they’d written, but wanted to broaden it a bit here.
Though I am married to my hero, if I were to choose a guy I’d written it would have to be Brian Payne from THE SPECIALIST. I adored him. He was cool and smart, charming and sexy, and completely unnerved and in love with the heroine I paired him up with. From the moment he landed in my imagination, I was utterly smitten. As for a hero not of my making, Lord Dain from Loretta Chase’s LORD OF SCOUNDRELS would be my choice. Humina, humina. 
In many ways he was like my Payne. (And if you’ve never read LORD OF SCOUNDRELS, do. It’s still one of my favorite romances of all time.)
So what about you? Writers, if you could choose a hero from your own work, who would it be and why? Readers, if you could magically conjure a hero from fiction, I’ll ask you the same question. Who would you choose? Inquiring minds…
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No hesitation, if I could conjure a hero from a fiction it would be JAMIE FRASER. He’s pretty close to perfect. Even after reading hundreds of books he’s still one of my favorite hero ever.
Ok I lied, I’m hesitating !! What about Kevin Tucker from SEP’s This Heart of Mine Can I pick 2 please
I’ll take Harry Pye from Elizabeth Hoyt’s THE LEOPARD PRINCE. And from my own books? Hmm, probably my first hero, Mark Malone. The Lone Cowboy was a world champion Bull rider, totally alpha, totally male, but a tortured soul with a secret past.
Although I loved Lord Dain, too, and, oh yeah, Brian Payne is right up there. Yummy.
Emmanuelle, I adored Jamie Fraser. Makes me want to go back and read the saga again.
Jillian, Harry was a great hero also, though I must confess it took a lot for me to get past his name. Every time I would read it I would think “hairy pie,” and it would yank me out of the story. I’m a teribble, shallow person, I know, but…
Glad you liked Payne. It’s funny because when I was plotting the first Men Out of Uniform trilogy, Guy was always supposed to be the leader of their crew. Turns out he’s not. Funny how that happens.
I have the books in that series except Guy’s … Darn I am still looking for it tho!
I’m a sucker for Karen Marie Moning’s hero in Dark Highlander, Daegus MacKeltar. Okay, so yeah, he was possessed by 13 souls of dark druids… but nobody’s perfect!
Of contemporary romance? That’s tougher, but I think I’d go with Gage Dalton from Rachel Lee’s “Miss Emmaline and the Archangel” or David Blaine from Ginna Gray’s “Once in a Lifetime.” Older books, but dang they were great characters.
Julie
ok, NOW I can’t go back and ever re read that book. I NEVER thought of his name that way before. Hairy pie… Ack!
Julie, I loved Daegus! He was *wonderful.*
Jillian, sorry!!!:-O It’s still a great book!
I have to go with Hank from Mary Sullivan’s No Ordinary Cowboy. I love cowboys and he is so lovable. He is definitely hero material.
As a writer I love the character I am working on Matt McCoy. He along with his two brothers run a ranch in Montana that they brought back from the brink of bankruptcy to a million dollar operation. He is a man’s man , funny, strong, confident in himself, always looking out for the people in his life but madly in love with the heroine in the book whom he met in passing on an elevator but could never forget and after seeing her several more times in other places he sets out to make her his.
As a reader I loved the character Micah Steel in Diana Palmer’s book “The Last Mercenary” He was strong, confident, ruggedly handsome, able to handle any situation no matter what was thrown in his way and loved with all his heart once he let it start beating for the only woman in his life. Now that is romance and my kind of heroes!