Michelle Maddox | Bad Boys
I'm not sure what it is about bad boys that make them such great characters. In real life, the bad boys - at least to the extent they're shown in fiction - wouldn't make such wonderful boyfriends or husbands. But in the imaginary worlds of novels, they're just what the reader (or writer) ordered!
I remember reading on somebody's blog a very important sentence that changed everything for me, and it was something along the lines of "books are fantasies." I'm not sure why that clicked for me, or why I hadn't made the complete connection before, but it made everything very clear. We might not want the hardened criminal with a heart of gold, the devastatingly handsome demon, or the world-weary master vampire in real life. But we might want him in our fantasies. He represents adventure, excitement, and intrigue - and let's face it, most people don't have much of that in real life. Nor, if we were suddenly given the chance, would we want it!
But in the safety of our imaginations, a rip-roaring adventure with the baddest of bad boys, is exactly what works.
In my Michelle Maddox release, COUNTDOWN, my characters are forced to play a reality gameshow where their lives are at stake. My heroine finds herself paired with a major bad boy - a convicted mass murderer. You can't get much worse than that. However, she starts to think there might be more to the story. Is he really as bad as she's told? Did he even commit the crimes he's served four years for before being released to compete in the game? After all, if he's so bad, why is he trying to protect her?
Food for thought for my heroine as she embarks on the adventure of her life - for her life.
And, after all, this is a romance novel.
COUNTDOWN was loads of fun to write from my very safe desk in my very safe home. ;-) Check out the first chapter on my website.
Happy reading!
Michelle Maddox
aka: Michelle Rowen
www.michellemaddox.com/
www.michellerowen.com/
Labels: bad boys, Michelle Maddox, Romance
3 Comments:
I have to agree. I love me some bad boys in my books because they do and say all the things the author tells them to do, which funnily enough is just what I'd want them to do too, but in RL, it totally doesn't work that way and can be a total trainwreck.
But the fantasy of a bad boy is irresistible, and powerful. It gives the reader a thrill to think a woman can tame that bad boy enough to totally fall in love with her and commit to her, heart and soul. A beautiful dream. RL is definitely not that predictable, but we can dream, can't we? Just as long as we wake up before it's too late! *g*
It's the fantasy of what I call "the redeemable bad boy." As your previous poster said the bad boy that can be tamed by the right girl is a fun fantasy.
Sigh. I miss writing bad boys. I've been writing about good ones for too long now!
A.J. Menden
I must say, I've been reading Stephenie Meyer's New Moon the last couple of days, and Jacob is most notably not a bad boy (for the most part) and yet he's also very compelling. I might be swayed to the light yet! ;-)
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home