Musings and My Thanks

I happened to mention over the weekend (On Twitter, on Saturday night while I watched The Oregon Ducks pwn Stanford) that I’d heard M&B had received some negative feedback about the cover (and one would assume the content…not the story but the hero and heroine and the fact they were of different races) of The Highest Price to Pay.

Twitter, I said, because I talk to Twitter, wouldn’t it be nice if they heard the positive things I’d heard? Because I have. I have heard nice thing, after nice thing about that book from people who come from all different countries and backgrounds.

I figured maybe one or two people would go to the trouble to contact M&B. But no! Lots of you did. I can’t even COUNT how many of you did. It ended up on Tumblr, and on Facebook, and on blogs. And I am so stunned and blessed by the outpouring of support.

I think we’ve effectively shown just how in the minority those with an issue regarding the hero’s race are and I am PUMPED about that!

So thank you, so much. Really.

That leads to my musings which are unconnected in some ways. It’s come up a few times in conversation and on the nets about the heroes in Presents/Modern being wealthy. Some people expressed a distaste for it (which is fine! Diverse likes and dislikes make the world go round, after all).

But it got me to musing about why we generally write a wealthy hero in Presents.

First of all, the Presents hero is the alpha male. He’s the leader, the best in his class. He’s very often pulled himself up from nothing, and if he lost it all tomorrow, he would have the tools to gain it all back again. He’s in control and he’s generally a Type A personality. Which naturally puts him in the position at being THE BEST in his professional life. (his personal life is another matter!)

I was also thinking that the wealthy hero appeals to that same thing in readers the playboy hero appeals to. A playboy hero can, and has, had whoever he wants. And yet suddenly he meets the heroine and it’s not enough. He wants HER and the fact that he could have anyone else has become meaningless.

Wealth, I think follows a similar line. He’s the man who can have anything, and yet when he meets the heroine he sees how lacking his life has been. That ultimately his money, his power, don’t make him happy and don’t fulfill him.

(We could go into other ideas about the fantasy of being cared for, and having a man who has the means to do it, and that’s certainly valid too)

As a writer I certainly find it interesting to deal with a man who has everything materially but is so damaged emotionally. His problems aren’t solved by the material and often, they’re magnified.

So that’s me, being thinky before 8am. Egads.

Thank you all agian for you support. For reading my blog, and my twitter and my books. You guys make it happen. 🙂