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Blatant Book Promotion:
Check out the cute little book icons I put on the sidebar ;-). Click on the EXCERPT link and it takes you to my site where you can enjoy a few pages of GLOW writing.
There. Never say I'm not accommodating to good suggestions. If it makes sense, you'll see me figuring out how to do it. So y'all feel free to give me suggestions to make this blog BIGGER AND SELL-IER, okay? Sorry, I don't have a better word than sell-ier at 8.30am. Coffee hadn't kicked in the brain cells yet.
I was hanging out (okay, read: PROCRASTINATING) yesterday at a writer's blog, a really good blog by the way, made me green with jealousy at all the wonderful thingamajigs her blog links to, but anyway, I clicked on this link and that led to another link and that led me down the usual procrastinating path of just being a link whore. I find that people would reply to other people's blogs at their blogs and then refer to it as a link, so that's where link whorage begins. BUT ANYWAY, the topic that was being bandied around and discussed intensely was that the alpha male is boring romance readers and that's why there are now somewhat beta lovers, you know, like nerds are in, for example. A nerdy millionaire who is beta but yet a wonderful lover in bed.
Hard for me to buy, personally. In my head, KILTS AREN'T FOR EVERY MAN:
So can any of you give me a few examples of this new kind of romance hero? To be honest, I'm a Super-Alpha Ho when it comes to romance, in books or in life. Okay, I don't mean the kind that would slap a woman around. That's called a Loser. But I mean that I enjoy reading about a man who is arrogant and slightly sexist (well, I can dream, okay, since most of them are very sexist if they are arrogant), who's protective of his woman and will go after anyone who doesn't treat her with respect.
For this type of guy, there's a point where peaceful discussion goes into stupid territory, and he'd tell you so, whether you're his boss or co-worker or employee, doesn't matter. Your hackles will go up and you want to argue exactly the opposite, not because you disagree with him, but because he was so damn alpha about it ;-). That kinda romance, heh.
I look on my bookshelves and TBR pile (by my bed), and I can safely bet that 95 percent of the books there are variations of the Alpha Male. I don't know whether I've ever read a Beta Dude. Or if I did, maybe I threw the book against the wall and forgot about it. I would like you, who are reading more than I am these days, to tell me whether this trend is true and that you find yourself reading about beta heros and liking the fact that he's in touch with his feminine side (Yeah, yeah, my prejudice is showing, so sue me).
I mean, romance is about an ideal, right? Is the ideal man changing? I want to know.
When I went to a Kilt Kounty Fair, I saw plenty of kilted gentlemen who looked like the above picture. But I also saw:
Guess which one did I start writing a romance story about? Guess under whose kilt I wanted to check? ;-)
I mean, would you really go for BETA Highlander
:
or:
Uber-spy author want to know.
EDITED TO ADD: Not that there's anything wrong with geeks in kilts, okay? :-D
Bear with me while I learn. The first button likes the POST. The second button likes the BLOG site. Please help me by "liking" me. Thanks!
3 comments:
In Karen Kendall's Unzipped (A Blaze) the hero was a geek-beta with untapped alpha potential. How's that for a description. I loved him.
I love the alpha in my heroes, too, as long as they aren't total cretins but have a healthy dose of respect and understanding for the heroines.
Hi Gennita. I'm just trotting over from RBL and I have no idea how to respond to a blog.(heck, most the time I screw up on the board!) Anyway, this is SarahR and I have loved your kilt series the past few days! I have to say some of the pics were umm...well, unsettling. Okay, it was the eye that freaked me out, but I liked the others.
Anyway, you were asking about beta heros and I have to say that some of the books coming out now do have a less than alpha male in them. I haven't meet a true beta male in anything I have read, but there are some that kinda start out betaesque (yup there's a new word for ya)and end up alpha. Anyway, that's been my take on the situation. I sure hope I don't read anything that reminds me of Revenge of the Nerds. That would give me more nightmares than I can handle and I'm still having nightmares from "the eye". By the way, love, love, loved The Creature;)
Mary Stella, You see, I think think that's a trick...you have a nerd that tapped his alphaness, so in the end, his alphaness is what attracted the heroine, right? I haven't read the book, so don't want to have it come back and kick me in the teeth but that's how I read your take on it. But thanks for the recommendation! You're the only one to give me one! :D
SarahR! Thanks for dropping by. I'm glad you enjoyed Da Creature, LOL. It's been that kind of a week. Usually, it's pretty sedate here. We only show vegetables caught in compromising situations, but it seems, the girls here can get rather...umm...vocal about kilts for some reason.
Hugs!
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