WHEN A CHARACTER DEMANDS HIS OWN STORY


Everyone admires a man with power. Such men are the heroes of fiction, movies, fantasies and, sometimes, real life. Shapeshifters, Vampires, and Demigods to Navy Seals, firefighters, and cops. They loom large in all forms of media from games to books.

Sir Argus Wherlocke, the hero of IF HE’S DANGEROUS, is a man of power. He is handsome(of course), in that sensuous, gotta-have-him way of most heroes, strong, intelligent, and gifted with the power to mesmerize. He has another trick or two up his elegant lace trimmed sleeves, but being able to get people to tell him all their secrets, to believe what he wants them to, and even – on occasion – do things they might not want to is a pretty powerful gift. It certainly helps Sir Argus in his work as a spy and an interrogator for his government. It also inspires the sort of envy that gets him into big trouble.

Sir Argus has skipped through some of the other tales of the Wherlockes I’ve written so I knew he was demanding his own story. When a character keeps appearing even when a writer hadn’t intended him to, that’s usually what that means. I tried to ignore him. His gift isn’t exactly an easy one for others to deal with. Sure there’s that attraction of the Alpha male, but one who can make you tell him everything and do whatever he wants? One who could take away all your will? Not one a woman would run to. More like run away from – very swiftly.

Then one day I was reading a a book and got stuck on the word resistance. Took me a minute to figure out why I kept looking at that word. I mean, really, it isn’t interesting at all. Not even slightly quirky or amusing. But I couldn’t stop myself from going back to that one word when I tried to continue reading. Then it hit me – that’s what was needed to get Sir Argus I-can-bend-you-to-my-will Wherlocke his own story. He needed a woman who could not be overpowered by his hypnotic voice and night sky eyes, at least not in the way others were. So was born Lady Lorelei Sundun – seventh child of the Duke of Sundunmoor, intelligent, independent, and just a tad eccentric.

Now I just had to figure out how to get these two people together.

Since Argus had been such a pest, whispering in my head, butting in where he wasn’t supposed to, I put him in prison. Had bad guys pound on him a little too. There was the first hole I wrote myself into. I’m good at that. So – Argus in a prison, bruised and battered. Nice for my revenge on him but a little tricky to get the heroine in that picture somewhere. It took a while but I did come up with a solution and thus begins the story of Sir Argus and Lady Lorelei Sundun. Argus wanted his lady – and I gave him one. I hope you’ll check out IF HE’S DANGEROUS just to see how hard a powerful man can fall.

The first chapter is available to be read on my website: www.hannahhowell.com
I also have a teaser in my notes section on Facebook.