Men as Heroes. Plus an excerpt from "A Knight's Captive"

Heroes - charismatic, caring, compelling. A great hero 'makes' a romance. There are bold heroes, quiet heroes, wounded heroes, heroes who become heroic, charming heroes, clever heroes... the list goes on.

To show what I mean, here is an action scene from my latest Kensington medieval, A Knight's Captive. It's mentioned by Kathe Robin of Romantic Times in her 4 Star review of my work. In it, the hero Marc acts as a hero should and rescues the heroine, Sunniva. (I love having my hero and heroine rescue each other!)

EXCERPT:

"Rot in hell and back!" Marc bawled, bringing his sword round in a close, lethal arc that raised sparks on the bastard's belt buckle and rent a bloody welt across his chest. "No sanctuary here - you are dead!"

He stamped on the jerking creature and raised his sword, aiming for the heart, when a low moan beside him had him tumbling to his knees to guard her. At the same instant, her two attackers crawled away, stumbling through the door and out.

Marc let them go. Dropping his sword, he gathered Sunniva into his arms, whispering over and over in Breton, "You are alive. Safe. Safe, my angel. Safe."

He had been so afraid she was harmed that having her trembling but whole beneath his hands was overwhelming. Tears stormed into his eyes, swiftly followed by rage.

Where was her father? Her brothers? Where were the useless escorts, meant to protect?

"Hush, hush," he crooned, rocking her back and forth as he struggled to keep his own grief and anger in check.

He dared not look at her too closely while he had tears in his eyes and looked so unmanned, but the warrior's sense in him told him she was not fatally hurt in the flesh. He could smell no blood or sickness on her and though she shook, she did not grimace or writhe in pain.

The injury to herself, however: her integrity, trust, humor, spirit - Marc furiously blinked away the moisture in his eyes as he prayed that Sunniva would soon recover and forget.

"King Christ, ruler of heaven, let her not be afflicted by night terrors, as my poor Isabella is. Let her know peace."

He should be raising the alarm, since none of the other fools of the pilgrim party seemed to have realized yet that anything was amiss. He should be returning to his own three. In a breath, his memory went back to the fire that had carried off his elder brother Roland and his wife: on that dreadful night he had cradled his niece Alde in his arms, even as he was now clutching Sunniva; he remembered how his and Alde's tears had mingled as they clung to each other.

Sunniva did not cling. She was still too stunned to do anything save take great gasping breaths and shiver. There was a dark, welling bruise on the left side of her cheek and her eye was puckering, threatening to close altogether. Tears had streamed down her face; he saw them glistening near her nose and quivering lips. Such a red, soft mouth -

"Do you hurt anywhere else?" he asked softly, relieved when she shook her head. Longing to wipe away her tears, he held her close.

BLURB:

A KNIGHT'S CAPTIVE. The perfect prison is in his arms...

In the year 1066, England struggles against Norman invaders, and two strangers cross paths on a pilgrimage fraught with peril - only to discover a love worth any danger..

Crowning glories - a blog about my love of hair

I admit it. I have a 'thing' about hair in my writing.

Not in real life. My hair is brown going grey and tough. It goes its own way and if it's cut 'wrong' then it will spike. I have it cut short and leave it alone. We get along fine. But in my romance novels, I love hair.

What colour will the herone's hair be? How long? Wavy? Curly? I always like to imagine my main female character's hair.

Many romance novels have blond or auburn haired heroines. Sunniva, my heroine from A Knight's Captive is a spectacular blond:

"Uncle Marc! Is she not as beautiful as the sun? That is what her name means. She is Sunniva, Sun-Gift. Do you not think she is like the sun?"

"Steady, little one. You will wake your sisters. But yes, you are right. She is most comely."

I kept in mind the meaning of her name all the time I wrote her - and her hair.

It's a sweet vice but I have to be careful. Sometimes I have have my characters spending too much time 'fiddling' with their own or others' hair - stroking, patting, tweaking, adding flowers. My heroes are usually as hair-fixated as I am and sometimes I need to remove some of their petting.

Why a dark-haired hero? I've never quite understood that romance 'guide'. Guillelm in A Knight's Vow is blond, a golden dragon. (Again, I use the colouring as my own reminder and key to character) Marc in A Knight's Captive has darker hair and a beard which he shaves off - to "reveal" himself. I've written dark-haired heroes but to me it's not an essential.

To celebrate brown hair, my bull-leaping heroine Sarmatia has long, brown hair:

"Still sprinting, Sarmatia shook her long brown hair out of its plait, laughing when a colt started back from her. She mopped her sweating face and pointed to the stream. The stallion wheeled round and headed for the water, Sarmatia keeping pace with his easy canter. One by one, they lost the other members of the herd to the lush grazing of the stream meadows, but they themselves drew closer, the horse's long mane and Sarmatia's hair mingling on the breeze in a weave of shades and textures. As they ran the sun poured golden from them both, like spray from sporting dolphins."

Her hair is different from the people of the Northern tribe where she settles with Fearn, the hero of . Fearn is a red-head, and many of his tribe are auburn or blond. Fearn has red hair to mirror his quick temper and to hint at his paranormal powers. I wanted him to 'show up' and he does!

Bronze Lightning

"Kutatos had not told her that Ramose was Nubian, dark as a rare pearl. And the man beside him, fully as tall, white as Ramose was black— her breath hissed in her throat when she looked on Fearn for the first time. The healer had red hair, a red-gold beard. He glittered in that fierce Kretan sunlight. A bright stare mirrored hers then Fearn bowed his head."

Sarmatia clearly likes red-heads because she has a chestnut horse, too.

I like to use hair to confound stereotypes. One of my heroines, Ahhotpe, is blond - but she would never have a "blond" moment. She is a dangerous, calculating, kindly, devious princess. She makes the most of her unusual colouring in the court of her father, the Pharaoh Sekenenre, and uses her blond hair to her advantage.

So I have fun with hair. I've had curly haired heroes and heroines, long haired heroes and heroines, shorn heroes. I've had heroines caught by their hair - Joanna, the heroine in my third knight novel, A Knight's Enchantment is trapped by her long hair while trying to escape.

Next time I will have to celebrate the naked scalp. That, for me, will be a challenge. Here’s Ahhotpe again:

"He applauded her invention in emerging not from the riverbank but from the Nile itself. No other woman would have had the courage to make a path for herself through the tall papyrus, risking the malice of snakes and other riverside creatures. When she first appeared, rising from the river with a beating of birds’ wings, sun flashing on her pale hair, even Sekenenre had trembled. The waterfowl fluttered around her outstretched hands as though waiting to receive a blessing, then passed in a rush of color straight over Sekenenre’s head."

One of my heroes - in Silk and Steel, a short novel from Siren - is grey-haired. He is young but his

hair is grey. The contrast to me is delicious and it also hints at deeper trouble. His hair has turned grey as the result of the shock of what he has been forced to be, in order to survive - a gladiator.

(All photographs by courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)