Bachelor #1 American, First Lieutenant Jackson Spencer, U.S. Army Air Force fighter pilot
Bachelor #2, Englishman, Squadron Leader Basil Godfrey, Royal Air Force fighter pilot
Bachelor #3 Englishman, Warrant Officer Seamus O'Malley, Royal Air Force policeman
Mel: Hi boys!
All: Hello Mel!
Mel: Let's jump right in, bachelors. Where would you take a girl on a first date?
Basil: A picnic to the Sandwick Castle ruins. The view is marvelous and we'll have champagne and delightful desserts.
Mel: Desserts? Wow, that would be cool with all the rationing going on.
Seamus: There's an Italian restaurant in town. I would take my girl there for a romantic candlelit dinner.
Jack: Antonio's?
Seamus: Why are you snickering?
Jack: No reason. Great choice. I hear they have a great chicken fettuccine Alfredo. [kiss] Perfetto.
Mel: What about you, Jack? The theme seems to be dining. Would you take your date to Antonio's?
Jack: Of course, I love Italian, but it would depend on the girl and what she likes. For a first date, I would love to take her swing dancing, but if she's up for anything, I would fly her in my plane.
Mel: Wow, a plane ride? That would be a memorable first date. Next question, what three things do you never leave the house without?
Jack: Clean underwear. That doesn't count as one of my three, does it? That should be a given. Let's see, my ring and a picture of my girl. My third would be my whistle and flying jacket. The whistle is attached to the jacket, so those two count as one.
Mel: A whistle?
Jack: Technically, pilots blow on the whistle when they bale out in the Channel and need to be rescued, but they have become lucky charms. Mine was a gift, so it's extra special.
Basil: Pilot gear, a cigar, and keys to my Bentley.
Seamus: All of us should bring our identity cards. If we're stopped and can't identify ourselves, we could be detained as spies. My other items are my cross and pocket watch.
Mel: What are your best qualities?
Basil: Debonaire and a great pilot
Jack: [laughs] I hear I'm a fantastic kisser.
Seamus: Lalalalala. I don't want to hear that.
Jack: I heard you're a 'ruddy brilliant' kisser, O'Malley.
Seamus: Who told you that?
Mel: Seamus, your face is the color of your hair! Jack, who did tell you that?
Jack: [shrugs] Girls talk to each other and don't always notice when guys are listening, but to get back to the question, I would like to add that I'm fiercely loyal to the people I care about and would do anything for them and I mean anything.
Seamus: You would do anything. No doubt about that. Did she really tell the other girls that? Blimey, I can't think right now. Can I skip to the next question?
Mel: Why are you still blushing? Okay what's your favorite quality in a woman?
Seamus: Trust
Jack: Hey, what's that look for, O'Malley? I'm all about trust too. For me, it's a woman who isn't afraid to be herself, even if it goes against the norm and I'll probably get in trouble for saying this, but an hour glass figure doesn't hurt. My girl has nice curves. Ooo, la, la.
Basil: Loyalty to king and country and a nice bum.
Jack: Oh yeah, a nice bum.
Seamus: You lot are terrible! She is going to kill you when she sees you, Jack.
Mel: At least they're being honest. Next question, you've just been told you have a few months to live, what do you do?
Jack: Darlin', we're soldiers. Basil and I are fighter pilots and Seamus is a policeman. We could die tomorrow. I, for one, live every day like it would be my last and enjoy it with the people I care most about. Then hopefully, when I die, I could take a few Krauts with me.
Basil: Spencer is right. If I knew I was going to die, which is a strong possibility nowadays, I would spend my days fighting the Jerries to my last breath.
Seamus: I would be with my family and my girl.
Mel: With today being Thanksgiving, how do you make the holidays special?
Jack: I'm thousands of miles away from my family. So the holidays would be special if I could spend it with them. If not, I would celebrate in the officers' mess with my soldier friends who are like brothers to me. Hopefully, my girl will be there too with lots of mistletoe hanging around.
Basil: Before the war, my family held the grandest parties for holidays in London or at our country estate.
Seamus: I love spending Christmas with my family. Dad plays his fiddle and my sisters dance. Mum cooks a goose. Hmm, Christmas pudding.
Jack: Stop O'Malley. You're making me hungry. Roasted turkey with dressing. Green bean casserole. You're evil, Mel asking a question like that with rationing going on. Can we go back to talking about girls?
Mel: Okay, I'll put you out of your misery. For our final question, so the ladies can know just how dishy you boys are, which actor would you like to play you in a movie?
Jack: I would want to play myself, but if I had to choose, Justin Hartley. He'll have to wear colored contacts, though. I have handsome baby blues. [bats eyelashes]
Basil: Ben Barnes
Mel: Ooo, Prince Caspian.
Basil: Yes, but shorter hair in back.
Seamus: Simon Woods
Jack: With or without the crazy Mr. Bingley hair?
Seamus: Not funny, Spencer.
Mel: Thank you boys for answering my questions. So, ladies, which hero would you choose? For you Connor fans out there wondering where he is, Connor is in the manor library snogging his girl, but he might come up for air and stop by in the comment section, along with my other boys should any of you have more questions for them.
Now writers out there, did you see what I did? Imagine your heroes and other characters on a dating game and ask them questions like these. Their answers may surprise you.
In my Honour series--Napoleonic spy-mystery-romances--I have what I think of as my Magnificent Seven. The movie by that name starred Yul Brenner in 1960. There was this scene of the seven men reining to a halt atop a rise as shown on the dvd cover on the left. Instead of cowboys imagine five English cavalry officers from the 15th Light Dragoons
during the Napoleonic wars, specifically the Peninsular War (war in Portugal and Spain). Add two English spies--a serious young Englishman and a young French émigré who pretends to be a fop (an effeminate fribble; a name borrowed from a celebrated character of that kind, in the play Miss in her Teens (1746) by David Garrick and you have my seven. Just like the men who made up the Magnificent Seven my heroes have a variety of character flaws and strengths.
Take Major Quentin Bellaport from the first book, Honour’s Debt. He’s a fairly ordinary man who quarreled with his father as a young man, stormed off to join a regiment and has never made peace. Not that he hasn’t tried. In the stubbornness department the apple didn’t fall far from the tree as they say. His father has been recalcitrant when it comes to letting by-gones-be bygones. Quentin has a strong sense of honor which he follows despite inconvenience and obstacles. He’s trustworthy, courageous, and determined to repay a nonmonetarya debt. His main flaw is an ability to see a problem from another’s point of view. Fortunately for him, the heroine in Debt is more than ready to teach that.
In book two, Honour’s Choice you’ll find the serious young Englishman. Hadleigh Tarrant, who orphaned as a child was raised by his uncle, the Earl of Tarrant. Interested in beetles, Hadleigh collects and studies them. The more easy going emigré and fellow orphan also raised by the Tretains, André Ribeymon (the pretend fop), convinces Hadleigh to join him in becoming a government agent. Captured, Hadleigh is tortured but reveals nothing. He is near death when discovered by the heroine of Choice. Recovering, Hadleigh becomes depressed, turns to alcohol as a buffer but then realizing he is in love fights his way to sobriety and the decision to pursue his love. That she is eight years older, a bit of a dowd, and stubbornly resistant to his courting does not deter Hadleigh. He gives up believing it best for her until André hints she is in danger.
In book three, Honour’s Compromise you’ll find Lieutenant James Vincouer. A young man, brash and bold, he is also courageous and willing to give his life for his friends during the dangerous retreat through Spanish mountains in the dead of winter when the English army is pursued by a force five times larger led by Napoleon. He is almost captured but saved by Spanish guerillas and begins sending intelligence reports to the commander of the English army in Spain which is led by the future Duke of Wellington. Beneath his bravado Jamey hides a broken heart. He of course would disagree with that assessment. Hasn’t he after all given the woman who broke his heart the sobriquet of The Glacier? Aren’t the battle royals they have proof there is no love lost between them? If he has gone out of his way to rescue her, it is only because he is a gentleman, he protests. Jamey doth protest too much but he proves remarkably stubborn in admitting the truth of the matter until Cecilia faces extreme danger.
Captain Lucian Merristorm is a regency bad boy. He is known for drinking, wenching, and galloping into battle with no regard for death. Most do not realize it is what he desperately seeks.
Major Lord Blake Danbury, youngest son of a duke. He is besieged by ennui—extreme boredom—and cannot be troubled to be bothered by anyone or anything. Ordered by Wellington to escort a young French lad to England he has no idea how far from lethargic detachment he will come before he discovers the lad is a lady.
And what of young naïve Lieutenant Samuel Goodchurch who can be taken in by one and all and goes through life quoting from the Bible? Molded, hardened, and scarred by the battles in Spain will he retain the gentleness, the kindness that first guided others to protect him?
Seven very different men who all share an underlying goodness even when they don’t realize it. Some are more flawed than others; some have longer journeys to travel to the truth of whom they are and what they hold most dear. All share a love of country, the desire to protect the women they love, and a willingness to go to any extent, accept any hardship to do so. Are their flaws more important than their strengths? What characteristic do you consider the most important in your heroes?
I have to confess something. I’m a slow writer so why I put off writing this blog until the last minute, I will never know. I started composing this while getting dressed and putting my face on. Normally I can multitask with the best of them, but today, not so much.
That’s why I’ve got on one dark blue sock and one black sock. And I’ve got one eye closed. You see, I was attacked by the mascara wand and now, may or may not be permanently blinded in my left eye.
Note to self: Separate my socks better and under no circumstances DO NOT type and attempt to apply make-up at the same time.
Now to the blog topic. Heroes. Pause for the appreciative sigh………… and batting of my one good eye. How do you take your heroes? Tall dark and handsome with magnificent hair they sweep away from their piercing blue eyes, chiseled jaw lines and full lips ripe for kissing, broad shoulders, a dusting of chest hair veeing down to their rock-hard abs, narrow waists and just enough hip action to hold up their pressed Wranglers.
Unless your heroine is Barbie, you should shoot from something a little less Ken-like.
Some might argue that we read to escape reality, and I’d have to agree, but I love reading and writing about men who’ve been tossed headfirst into the throes of real life and escaped with their dignity intact. I love men with battle scars and life experiences under their belts. Having said that, I believe it’s our job as writers to make these regular Joes interesting enough for us to fall head-over-heels in love with as much as a the picture perfect man in the listed above.
If you want to read about an on-the-run hero who is so beat up and unrecognizable the heroine calls him Frankenstein for the first half of the book, read Walking After Midnight by Karen Robards.
The hero in my latest work-in-progress is a small town sheriff. Ho-hum right? What if I tell you he’s an on-the-wagon alcoholic that he struggles to keep secret? And his brother owns the local bar. The sheriff plays the saxophone in a weekend band—at the bar where everyone is more than willing to buy him a drink. A little more interesting, right? What if I told you the sheriff always seems to need a haircut, a shave, an ironing board, and just rescued the heroine from an amorous pig hours after he arrested her for having a gun the bank parking lot? A little more intriguing? Hmmm. Still lacking that awe factor. What if I add that the sheriff gave up his dream to raise his ex-girlfriend’s teenage son—a kid that’s not even his—just to give the kid a better life?
Heroes come in all shapes, sizes and degrees of hotness. So, tell me, how do you like your heroes?
Hugs,
Reese
