Who's In Charge Of This Operation, Anyway?

It's, like, ELEVEN days before THE HUNTER

Thanks for all the bad girls in romance suggestions here and by email! I've written the titles down for future great reads.

Here is my broad definitions of a "bad" girl in romance:
1) Not only is she experienced, she doesn't carry a huge boulder on her shoulder about who she is. You know those faux bad girls--everyone misjudged her and she's really a virgin or semi-virgin when the hero finally gives her a chance to enjoy his wonderful sex organ. And of course, everything is easily explained away in one paragraph.

2) She must have some sense of self-mockery. There are some really bitter bad-girl secondary characters that I've read and man, who can like them? They are just bitter mammas who's going to end up as sour pusses in their old age.

3) If it's a story of redemption or a change in the bad-girl's outlook in life, please make it believable. Lust will not change this girl into a lovey-dovey sweetheart, so there must be more to her male counterpart, that special man that "tames" her wild heart. Convince me, please. Don't have her just look at him and go "oh, I must really have him, therefore let me change my whole outlook on life right now."

4) Make me care for her. There has to be one element in the story that makes me see why she is the way she is, and in spite of her bravado spirit, there is something vulnerable that the hero can work on. If she is hardened all the way, it'll be a tough sell in a romance. So, there has to be a very tough balancing act between making the character stay true, yet giving her some lightness. But that's what layering is all about. Even an assassin like Linda Howard's Lily in Kiss Me While I Sleep (who isn't really bad, bad) has soft edges.

The reason why I'm interested in this topic right now is because I love writing kick-ass heroines. Most of my female characters are operatives so they have to be tougher than most. There is a "bad-girl" streak in them and I enjoy exploring it. However, I don't want them to be cookie-cutter Gennita Low bad girls, one being able to replace the other in any of my books, so I have to go deeper each time and pull out something different.

Marlena Maxwell's inability to share all of herself, to commit.
Tess' stubbornness and her pride. Reject her once, can't do that to her twice, she figures.
Vivi's unwillingness to let go of her past.

My heroines aren't "bad girls," per se, but rather, they have the bad-girl 'tude, especially when they confront societal norms. It's the 'tude that I'm after ;-). So now I have my current problem, and her name is Hell. And she's a tough one because she won't let me see through her good operative act! Since I don't do character sheets like some authors, I'm just blindly writing on, hoping that she will, in some future scene, let me know her little secrets. Then I'll pounce on them and go AHA! I know how to hurt you, darlin'. ;-) But she's too damn smart right now.

Gah. I hate smarty-pants bad-girl spies.

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