15 January 2014

Winter Wonder Man Blog Hop & Giveaway!


What makes a hero in movies and books wonderful to the point your toes curl? 

The short answer is he over comes adversity. He’s put into a situation where the easiest path is to give up, but there is something inside him that drives him on, to continue even when others gives up. So while the odds are against him, he would rather fail doing something that is right or something he believes than never try at all. Heroes have hope when all others have no hope.

That type of hero turns my head and heats my blood right up. Wowser! Someone I might never would have thought was attractive suddenly has me salivating.

The longer answer depends on which hero draws you in. You have the flawed characters, redeemed by either love or their own drive. The superheroes, obviously. You have the unsung heroes, the unknown heroes, the regular guy heroes. The heroes of unusual size. Frodo anyone? Die Hard gave us John McClane, a balding middle aged guy who wasn’t the Fabio cover model, but his strength and perseverance made him super sexy. And some might argue with me about this but Christian Bale’s performance in The Machinist was such a flawed person that his redemption at the end turned him into someone that opened our own eyes to our flaws.

Of course, seeing the eye candy heroes on screen is nothing to sneeze at. What red-blooded heterosexual woman didn’t backtrack every time Thor’s chest was bare? Or the desperate kiss Aragorn gives to Arwen? Or Channing Tatum’s ass? Just to make a side note here, I actually did a little research for variety for this blog and there’s a website titled Hot Men of Hollywood (on tumblr) that I got a little distracted by. Perhaps I’m a little shallow for my own personal type of hero. (wink, wink)

Heroes between the pages aren’t that much different than their counterparts on screen, except instead of visual we have to use our imagination. In my opinion, that’s a little bit sexier because we can incorporate our own fantasy man into the scenario. My favorite literary heroes are the men who start off as shallow or cold and become better men through love. Lisa Kleypas writes these types of heroes awesomely (is that a word?). My favorites: Sebastian, Lord St. Vincent from Devil in Winter & Nickolas from Prince of Dreams.

Then again, sometimes the anti-hero is the best type of hero.  Spike from "Bufffy" was a great anti-hero.  

Call me crazy, but I always loved the bad boy, the not-quite-sterling-hero.  My first crush was a cartoon character named Jason from Battle of the Planet, a Japanese animation brought over to the US in the late 70’s, early 80’s.  And there was Han Solo, of course.  Forget Luke.  I would even root for some of the secondary characters in books, like Ramsey O’Keefe in Amy J. Fetzer’s My Timeswept Heart
 

Writing a bad boy is a delicate balance of keeping that heart of gold while at the same time having him make terrible choices.  I want my reader to want to reach into the book and shake him silly.  In my book Dreamland, Dicen Burke is one such character.  He’s a rock star that crashes down to Earth when he overdoses.  While in a coma, he travels to 1927 and meets Juliet, who makes him realize that he has to confront his demons.  Luckily, he wises up without losing what made him so appealing to begin with.  If the readers love him and hate him (at times), well then, I’ve done my job.

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Thanks for visiting with me on this Blog Hop! I’m giving away one PDF ebook of any of my titles (winner’s choice)! All you have to do is leave a comment & a way to contact you. No contact, no win. I promise not to spam you, I just don’t have time to track people down.

 ALSO...friend me on Facebook ( https://www.facebook.com/bethdcarterauthor ) or follow me on Twitter (https://twitter.com/BethDCarter ) for upcoming blogs, book tours, releases & give-a-ways!

20 comments:

  1. Thanks for the giveaway

    parisfan_ca@yahoo.com

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  2. whoa lady! you had me at Aragorn, and then you superhad me at channing tatum's ass! Fantastic post. now if you'll exuse me, i must google this hot men of hollywood site you found.

    thumbalina2323(at)yahoo(dot)com

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  3. Aragorn definitely is my type of hero then for me is Thor(Chris Hemsworth) oh yes..

    anovelgathering2013(at)gmail(dot)com

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  4. Really interesting post...so many appealing guys to work with!

    vitajex(at)Aol(dot)com

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  5. My favorite qualities in a guy: protectiveness, loyalty, humor
    jasdarts at hotmail dot com

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  6. Qualities I look for in a hero are: protectiveness, strength, intelligence, kindness and good humor.

    humhumbum AT yahoo DOT com

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  7. Spike was a great antihero. At first all we desired was for him to die, and then for Buffy to say she loved him and really mean it. Sexy hero's are so dynamic in the packages they come in.

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  8. Aragorn is my type of hero.
    bituin76 at hotmail dot com

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  9. I would love to mix up a whole bunch of different men who have qualities I admire and create the perfect man for me!
    susanmplatt AT Hotmail DOT com

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  10. alpha and smart

    bn100candg at hotmail dot com

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  11. My perfect hero is tall, muscular, confident, loyal, Alpha, bad-ass, intelligent, protective, vulnerable and majorly damaged -- but ultimately redeemable!

    Thanks for the amazing giveaway!
    elizabeth @ bookattict . com

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  12. Dominant and strong men are tops

    devynsmom95@yahoo.com

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  13. My favorite is an alpha hero. One thats strong, caring, protective. I love a sense of humor! And a six pack and guns doesnt hurt anything. lol Thank you!
    shadowluvs2read(at)gmail(dot)com

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  14. I love a caring, protective hero, one who can go all alpha male, yet doesn’t feel threatened and even encourages their loved one taking the lead and taking charge. A sense of humor is also important. It doesn’t matter if it’s just goofiness, dry humor, wit, etc, just some type of sense of humor. He has to be able to deal with feelings, not all, oh I’m a guy, we don’t do those things, over-macho crap. I want a guy who’s secure in his massculinity (you know, not afraid to wear pink or scared people will think he’s “gay” or “a girl” for actually doing/enjoying things like going to the theatre or dressing fashionably). Loyalty and fidelity are extremely important as well as being able to cook. A guy who can cook is super sexy. And romantic at heart as well.

    tiger-chick-1(at)hotmail(dot)com

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  15. Love the looks of the guy in the side panel with the long hair. Juliee Fitze - jfitze2@hotmail.com

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  16. Aragorn. YEP. Channing Tatum's ass. YEP...LOL
    capefearlibn at gmail dot com

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  17. The hero that captures my heart is sexy and wild, loyal and kind but has an edge to him and does the unpredictable.
    Flirty.feisty@gmail.com

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  18. Love the post, I am a huge fan of the possessive, sexy alpha hero. Love the bit of danger and wildness. Thanks for the giveaway.

    fsteph55(at)yahoo(dot)com

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  19. My hero is strong and protecting. I love a man who knows me so well that its almost like he could be psychic at times. The bad boy is great at this - he can be moody and distant, but surprise you and come through at random moments. ghwasd at gmail dot com

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  20. My favorite hero is faithful, protective and has a great sense of humor.

    jmesparza821 at gmail dot com

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