I like strong men in
romance because I like equally strong women, and let's face it there is nothing
unsexier than a man who lets a woman run him over. As a result, I write alpha
heroes. I write men who know what they want--or at least they think they
do--and go after it. Be that a goal, a prize, a woman, or solitude. Now, there
is a fine line between confident and arrogant, and sometimes my type of hero tiptoes
around that line. OK. They trample it at times, but that is part of their
charm. Probably not. But it is part of their journey.
But how do heroes become
alpha heroes vice any other type of hero?
Well, they start out with
a strong sense of self. They know who they are (or think they do) and can make
confident decisions rooted in an internal code or other base set of principles
from which they operate. This code may be a little skewed, may cause difficulty
in their lives if viewed in black and white with no shades of gray, and it may
not always align with the heroine's own personal beliefs. (Yay for conflict!)
They are men of action.
No, they don't all have to be special-ops military types to be men of action. A
man of action is able to identify what needs to be done and then do it. Whether
that means blowing a bridge to keep the enemy at bay or rewiring a house so the
faulty wiring doesn't light the damn thing on fire. My heroes are capable.
