By Bonnie Edwards
I’d like to say from the cabbage patch, or even that a stork delivers them in the dead of night, but the truth is, heroines are born in weird and interesting ways.
A lot of times secondary characters scream out for books of their own. Sometimes readers will ask so often about a background character the seed for a new heroine is fertilized. Voila! A connected story comes about.
Connected stories please the readers, editors (and marketing folk) like them and writers get to play in a familiar world again. Readers aren’t the only ones curious about former lead characters. Writers want to know how they’re doing, too.
On occasion heroines appear not from inside a story, but from outside, so to speak.
Take Morgan Swann, for example. She’s my heroine in POSSESSING MORGAN.
I was working on another story entirely. This one was aimed at a different Harlequin line, when I realised my heroine would have known (and still did) people who walked on the far side of the law. Growing up in her neighborhood, it would have been impossible to avoid knowing some rough characters, or schoolmates headed down different, and more dangerous, paths. At some point, her best friend fell into stealing cars.
Fast cars. Expensive cars. Morgan stole for money, yes.
But more for the thrill.
And that, my friends, was a lightning bolt moment.
Morgan Swann never set foot in the story I was writing, but she existed for me. Fully formed. She was feisty, tough and out for herself. She was scared, but loved the thrill of boosting cars, the hunt, the adrenaline rush of excitement.
I loved this teenager. She had her reasons for falling in with the bad crowd: frail, scaredy-cat human reasons. The universality of her need as a powerless teenager spoke to me. She broke my heart.
No sooner had she walked on stage, than I wondered how to make her a heroine. I loved this character too much not to try to give her a happily ever after. Even bad girls can be brought back from the brink. Right?
So, a reformed bad girl who no longer steals cars, but who’s still feisty, still determined and still chasing the thrill.
What better place to write her story, than in a Blaze?
I’ve had some great fan letters about Morgan. I hope she touches your heart the way she’s touched other people, like me.
But if quirky heroines aren’t your thing…what is? Cool, aloof blondes? Warm, artsy redheads? Maybe the earth mother type? Who are your favourite heroines? And if you can explain why, I’d like to hear it.
Remember one lucky commenter will win a copy of POSSESSING MORGAN, so you can see for yourself how I turned this babe around!
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Leave a comment or question for Bonnie to enter to win POSSESSING MORGAN. If you’re reading this post through a feed on Facebook, Goodreads, or another social network, please visit the comment trail at Muse Interrupted to be eligible for the draw.
To read Bonnie’s bio and the back cover blurb for POSSESSING MORGAN, see yesterday’s post. To learn more about Bonnie and her books, check out her website.