Samhain Publishing

I’m always asked: Who is your favorite male character you’ve written? I’m never asked about my favorite female characters, which is kind of surprising. Or is it? The majority of romance readers are female. Face it, don’t you want to be totally enamored and in love with the hero. Sure, I like a strong heroine as much as the next reader, but it’s the male character that has to grab and hold my attention. If I don’t like him, I toss the book in my recycle bin or delete it off my ebook reader.

Still, I want to warm up to the heroine and see her get her man. Romance fiction, they say, is all about the heroine. She needs to be strong but gentle, kick-ass but feminine, or at least, independent and heaven help us, anything but whiney! Okay, I agree, I don’t like whiney, but what I might consider whiney is another writer’s definition of confusion.

I’m going to ask myself: Vicki, who is your favorite female character you’ve written?

Rose Red is definitely my most charming character. She’s warm, fun, and smart, and doesn’t have many hang-ups, except for being in love with a jerk. But hey, come on girls, all of us have one of THOSE in our past. Can we really blame Rose for being in love with a bad boy, who, by the way, isn’t her hero!

So readers, I’m going ask you: Who is your favorite female character?

Vicki Gaia – a link

This is the imprint on a sweatshirt I’d received from a friend of mine. He thought it was appropriate since I’m a writer, and we had a good laugh over it. With a clear conscious, I can say that my characters are definitely fictitious. Yet, I can’t deny that my personal experiences with friends and family influence my writing.

My husband pointed out in every one of my books, I’ve a main character with a sweet tooth. Okay, I confess. I’m a dessert freak. It gives me pleasure to have my character indulge in dessert and not gain an ounce. Another habit of mine is keeping a pile of books on my nightstand. Sure, I’m going to read them all, sometime, soon. So I keep adding to the pile. My heroines tend to be avid readers, and also keep a pile of books on their nightstand.

Okay, it’s true, certain habits and personality quirks find there way into my stories. But, my characters are composites, bits and pieces of people I know, not a ‘real’ person.

When I wrote Long Strange Trip, a story set in the late 60’s in Berkeley and San Francisco, I drew on my experiences living in the Bay Area. My older sister had attended U.C. Berkeley in 1967, and I remember visiting the campus, the Haight, eyeing the hippies gathered on Telegraph Avenue and being awed by the sight. These memories are sprinkled throughout my book, but my characters, Rose Red and Kenneth Hailey, are unique as their motives. Believe me, my tie-dye T-shirt was relegated to the rag pile ages ago. And my peace sign, well, that’s another story.

So, go ahead, and relax. You can be yourself in front of me. Most likely, you won’t end up in my novel. Now, there might be a certain phrase or word you say that catches my attention. Hey, don’t worry. I’ll ask your permission before you see it in my next book!

Vicki Gaia’s Website