Comments on: Every Good Alpha Deserves A Hobby

By: Jackie Ashenden

Jackie Ashenden — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 20:55:49 +0000

Francine – congrats on your contract. That sounds fab! And also thanks re my writing – that’s lovely of you to say. 🙂

Lacey – yes, indeed it does. His foster father used to make them. 🙂

By: Lacey Devlin

Lacey Devlin — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 11:20:41 +0000

I love that your chess hero is going to take up whittling! Does that mean he’ll have his own unique chess pieces?

By: Francine Howarth

Francine Howarth — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 12:54:16 +0000

Hi,

Glad to see you’re sounding up-beat about your writing, which in my humble opinion is excellent. Judging from your entries to M&B’s NV contests your characters are utterly believable and, I enjoyed reading your first chaps etc.

Hobbies for heroes? I guess killing for pleasure sits well with anti hero in a crime thriller Vs hero cop. But, tinkering with racing/rally/classic cars better suits a romance hero as in “Starting Over” by Sue Moorcroft: incidentally, a great romantic read.

Running with “Hobbies for Heroes” theme, the mind boggles in conjuring hobbies for a historical hero! 😉

BTW, I said I’d let you know if I ever got another chance at a publishing deal. Well, it finally happened, my polo player hero hits the book scene July 2012. Bloody long wait, but I celebrated by self-pubbing a historical novella to Kindle. It’s selling moderately O.K., without any publicity beyond that of Twitter, facebook and now blogging.

Formatting to Kindle was a hair-pulling experience, but I cracked it as good as and in some cases better than professional publishers. I now feel confident enough to assist/help other self pubbed authors with formatting for Kindle: free of charge. After all, what are blogging buddies for if not of mind to help others.

The movie trailer, too, was a whole new learning curve and a lot easier than I thought for a simple one. I’m willing to give tips on “how to” but I ain’t making book trailers for no one.

If interested the movie trailer is at my latest blog: http://francinehowarth.blogspot.com

Keep smiling as you are on your profile pic, and good news will come knocking if not already hammering at your door.

I doubt you’ve seen it, but there’s a fun blog for romance writers: published and unpublished. There are weekly challenges and believe me, each and every one test one’s writing abilities, and teaches one to hone, hone, cut-to-the-bone and make every word count. The word limit is always 400: try telling a story in 400 words. It’s cracking romantic flash-fiction. 😉

best
F http://fridaynightwriters.blogspot.com

By: Jackie Ashenden

Jackie Ashenden — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 09:59:22 +0000

Madeline – No worries. 🙂 Glad it was useful! Yes, my heroes tended to be one dimensional too – got too obsessed with conflict to think about character. Doh! Anyway, I’ve found that since I’ve given my boys something to do with their free time, they actually become much more like people and less like ‘generic hero mk3’. AAAAND I just read another blog post somewhere else about how to humanise a hard-out alpha, and that was to give them something that humanises them. A pssion for something definitely makes them far more sympathetic.

By: Madeline Ash

Madeline Ash — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 05:54:08 +0000

Hi Jackie, I really enjoyed this post. Hobbies are something I’d never thought about before. My heroes haven’t tended to have hobbies (and in retrospect, that’s partly why they ended up relatively one-dimensional).

Thankfully my current hero is obsessed with soccer (or else I might be scrapping thousands of words right now!) I should admit that he played professionally, so it’s a career as well as a hobby, but most definitely a passion. And now that you mention it, it’s made him a well-rounded character. I’m going to remember this! Thanks Jackie 🙂

By: Jackie Ashenden

Jackie Ashenden — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 21:38:08 +0000

Lacey – you know, I’m almost tempted to make one of my heroes collect teaspoons. Seriously! As for the chessman, he’s going to be taking up whittling. 🙂

By: Lacey Devlin

Lacey Devlin — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 08:05:26 +0000

LOL I love the teaspoon collection for an alpha. Is that what your chessman is up to in his spare time? 😉

By: Jackie Ashenden

Jackie Ashenden — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 22:50:07 +0000

Caroline – Hehe! I wouldn’t call them hobbies in Presents so much as ‘passions’. 🙂 Maisey’s heroes have had a couple. I reckon some heroes could use ’em! Perhaps someone needs to do the first trainspotting hero!

By: Caroline

Caroline — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 17:31:39 +0000

Great post Jackie! Ummm not sure about hobbies – they don’t come up a lot in Presents hero’s normally (unlike something else that *does* come up! wink, wink!)

But saying that – an architect who love’s old buildings could work. A racing car driver who’s loves cars as well. A writer who loves to travel to research his plots, they couold work. But a Presents hero who train spots – umm I don’t think so. But never say never! Caroline x

By: Jackie Ashenden

Jackie Ashenden — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 06:18:53 +0000

Maisey – well, I kind of got the idea from your heroes you know. They’ve all got something special about them. 🙂 Anyway, yes, it doesn’t necessarily have to be about the conflict. It can just provide a point at which he and the heroine can relate and connect.