Why do we love tortured heroes?

Seriously, I'm just asking you readers, what is so gosh darn appealing about them? I know for me it's the fact that inside of a book, I know the hero will change. I know he'll become the better man, maybe thanks to the love of the woman, maybe not... but in the end he will be redeemed.

Is that why we're so attracted to bad boys? Because I gotta admit, what I love to read, and what I love in real life... two totally different things. LOL.

I love tortured heroes, love to see them hitting rock bottom, watching as their life spirals slowly out of control, then watch the metamorphosis begin to take hold. See their first steps back out into the light, see them become whole again... and I just think bad boys have hotter sex. I don't know, is that just me?? *wink*

Point is, I love to write about them. I loved Hatter's lunacy, Wolf's obsession with finding Red again... and Hook's downward spiral into madness as he battles demons from his past.

I just wrote a book, hope to put it up in the next few days... (very different from my normal fare of paranormal/fantasy) This is a sexy, angst riddled, contemporary New Adult novel. I do hope that you readers will trust me to take you on a new journey, (don't worry, I haven't given up on my fantasy/paranormal romances, I love them too much to switch over to contemporary's completely) because Ryan Cosgrove is one of my favorite heroes I've ever written.

He's got dark in him, but he's got goodness too. In fact, he's one of the best men I know. And yes, I'm talking about someone in my head, but for me he's as real as you are. He's a man struggling with something awful that happened to him, struggling to find out who he is, and he doesn't always get it right. Sometimes he falls, and when he does it's ugly and terrifying and heartbreaking. But he's so strong, he wants to be better and he will be. Not just for the woman he's met who he's madly in love with, but because he knows he can't continue on this destructive path. There's a choice to be made, fix himself, or lose himself completely.

I adore Ryan, and to me, he's the ultimate bad boy. See, I don't think bad boys are born, I think they're made and when you strip away the fake, you see what caused them to become what they have... its right there that I, as an author, become intrigued. Because sometimes what makes a monster is something monstrous. So if I can make you fall in love with the villain, I've done my job.

And since this book will be out soon, here's the blurb for their story...

Ryan Cosgrove and Liliana Delgado are on a collision course with destiny. They don't know it yet, but before the night is over their lives will be forever changed.

Spending Valentine's Day at a burlesque bar, hadn't been Liliana's ideal way of spending a Saturday night. She'd much rather be back at campus, doing homework... until she meets Ryan. Tall, athletic, and gorgeous, Lili can't keep her eyes off him, and despite his gruff manners and drunken disposition she's intrigued.

Ryan's got demons, and they're deep, dark, and eating him alive. Regardless of his attraction to the petite brunette he's tired of fighting, of pretending the last fifteen  years haven't been a daily struggle just to get out of bed every morning. That night he decides to end his pain, to leave it all behind and float away into the blessed darkness of oblivion. But fate has other plans for him, Lily finds and rescues Ryan, determined she'll not only save his body, but his soul too.

This is their moment...



I'll have cover art to show you real soon (I hope)! :D

Happy reading all,
~Marie

PS... anyone who responds will have my undying gratitude, since I feel my blog stays entirely too quiet! :p

Diary of a Technophobe

Yeah, so... that's me. I hate technology. Honestly, I'd be thrilled if all I had to rely on again was a typewriter. Not that I ever really owned one, but I love the click, click sound they make. I'm not old by any stretch, but I'm an old soul.

Still... I'm a girl that loves all that's shiny and new. You'd think by now I'd realize I'm absolutely no good with technology, but every once in a while something will come along that will turn my head. That's what the macbook did to me when it first came out. I've wanted one forever, especially since I'd heard macs don't get viruses. Oh... *drool*

Tonight I bought one. A macbook pro, but like that old saying goes... not all that glitters is gold. I've spent hours, hours trying to learn this thing. It took me an hour to figure out that in order to exit a screen I actually had to press the red dot. You see, I'm used to my regular laptop that had this nifty little x in the right hand side of the screen.

I've been banging my head on the wall, trying to figure this thing out, realizing I should have just stuck with my dinosaur since I knew it. But it's like that sexy new guy that comes into your work, you see him and start to compare him to your old comfy one at home and wonder... am I missing out?

Now I know the answer, no... no, I'm not. I want to take this stupid thing back because all I keep thinking about is how many hours I lost writing.

And I am not a happy girl. You see, Trisha is just about to meet Hook. It's a very exciting scene and kind of funny... but guess what, I've been here, messing with this thing instead of writing it.

Argh... am I the only one????

Not so happily typing,
~Marie

Weekend Writing Warriors: A Moment Part 2

So, I know this post is a little early... but I know me and I'll totally forget. So, what is a moment? It's a question I've been pondering all week. Why? Because I got a serious burr up my butt. Totally. I wrote, and I kid you not, a 70k book in 6 days.

Yes, I did.

This week, starting last Saturday. I was walking, thinking about nothing, suddenly a song comes up on my Ipod. Silver Springs. An old Fleetwood Mac song, terribly but beautifully depressing and in the span of a three minute song my muse spoke to me. She told me a story, about a guy and a girl. The things that happened to them, some of them were horrific, but within the ashes burned an ember, a tiny spark of hope and love. And it was that story I wrote. So from a song came a story and a question... what is a moment?

These are the words of my heroine:

So in the end, what is a moment? One action? A single deed? Or is it more? Is a moment like a school of silver fish?  The sum of many singular parts forming one cohesive unit? I tend to think so. Because the moment I met Ryan, that was just one of the sum parts. It started before him. Every tear I shed… everything, it led me straight to him... As I look back on the times I’ve spent with him, loving him, learning him, I’m grateful for the moments. Because in the end, it’s the moments that make life worth living…
So there you go, a moment... I hope to release this book very soon. I cannot even describe to you how excited I am about this one. I cried writing this book, it plucked at every fear, every hurt I'd ever experienced in my own life. It's raw, and gritty, but in the end I think this was a story that needed to be told and I'm so grateful to have been given the oppurtunity to tell it.

Happy reading,
~Marie