Hot Rod: The Man, the Myth, the Legend…

Got word from my lovely Stand-In epic ninja editor today that Hot Rod is sold! Now he’s free to rev engines world-wide as he races to the checkered flag for his HEA…

And no. It’s not a racing a book. 😉

But his name is Prince Rodriguez Anguiano (See where Hot Rod came from?)

It was interesting working off of a prompt, with characters that were sort of outlined for me. But I learned something very quickly, well, it’s something I knew, but it really drove the point home: It’s ALL in the execution. I got a very loose, basic description of two characters, and their situation.

The characters I was given were SO different from what I would normally take on. And I ended up loving that! Hot Rod specifically is such a shameless playboy. I don’t usually write a playboy hero, so taking on this man who saw sex as a sport and finding a way to make him work for me, someone who doesn’t care much for that type, was a fun challenge. To try to dig in and really ‘get’ him was so rewarding and in the end, he has become one of my favorite heroes.

My first thought when I got the description of his character was Latin Hugh Grant. A man who had the ability to charm his way out of incorrigible behavior. Even more, I saw Rodriguez as a bad boy who, beneath it all, was a good man.

I really enjoyed taking a look at an alpha hero from a different point of view. A man who had it all, power and charisma, but chose to live a very shallow existence in order to avoid deeply painful emotional truths.

I was really thrilled when my editor said she liked his character, because in some ways it was hard to get right. With him, it was about layers. That he could behave in a shallow manner, and yet not be shallow through and through. That he could be irreverent and fun, but beneath that badly damaged. A man who could charm a room, or tear it apart if he had to protect the woman he loved.

Because a lot of the set up of this book was laid out for me, it really gave me a chance to see how much character matters. I mean, I knew it mattered, but I could have taken the same outline and made Rodriguez a severe, cold character who dealt with his issues by being a loner, and I would have had a completely different book with a whole different tone. I could have taken my heroine and made her shy and demure and that would have changed it further.

Character matters. it’s the characters that make a book different. The characters that make readers care. Characters can come into a book with familiar themes and make it fresh by having their own unique reactions that relate to their background and personality.

Don’t underestimate the power of good characters!

And don’t underestimate the power of Hot Rod. 😉

Also, you might have noticed I have a new little tabby up there in my bar thingy beneath the banner (I am a tech wizard. And yes, those are the real terms.) you can look at my new Romance Trading Cards there and find info about getting some of your own! If you’re at RWA, make sure you come find me and I’ll give you some!