Guest Blog: Sharon Hamilton: Bad Boys Do The Dumbest Things!

Some of my favorite characters are bad boys. In True Blood, I don’t think there are any good boys. Every single one of them has something really quirky about them. They all have flaws, and are all “bad” to a certain extent. There really isn’t a hero, although they have heroic moments.

Look at what Eric is going through now. (Spoiler) He’s killed Sookie’s Fairy Godmother. He’s challenged his King. And Bill won’t have sex with his relative. He’ll drain a stranger, but he won’t cross the line he considers improper.

I remember reading Kressley Cole’s Hunger Like No Other and her hero’s claws ripped the heroine’s expensive underwear to shreds, which made her angry. I loved reading where he was trying to be gentle, but finally got frustrated and just gave up.

In Pirates, Johnny Depp’s character, Captain Jack Sparrow has so many quirks and flaws in his personality we love him dearly for it. Though he doesn’t get the girl, he is the bad boy hero of the story.

Bad boys have always been a pleasure to watch, to read and to write. There is just something about them that makes us want to get to know them, and makes them unforgettable. Even Jamie Fraser in Outlander, becomes somewhat of a bad boy later in the series.

I recently read Jessica Page Morrell’s book, Bullies, Bastards & Bitches: How to Write the Bad Guys of Fiction. One point she makes on her chapter about creating unforgettable characters is that as a reader we want to learn about people we will never meet in real life. That the fear factor, that raw emotion we get from being scared either by what the character does or what the character will encounter, is one of the strongest emotions a good writer evokes. This doesn’t mean the story has to be UF or apocalyptic, just that bad boy characters bring that strong emotion to the table, which enhances and enriches the plot.

And in romance writing of any genre, stronger emotions equals sales.

BIO:
Sharon Hamilton loves all things paranormal: Guardian angels, Dark angels and vampires. Her characters follow a spicy road to redemption through passion and true love – not exactly what they taught you in Sunday School!

She has owned and successfully operated a sales and marketing company, been a business coach and corporate consultant, a speaker and guest panelist. Her completed manuscripts have finaled in three contests within the last twelve months: two in the erotica category in 2009 and again in 2010 for Maryland Romance Writers: Reveal Your Inner Vixen (for published and unpublished authors) and for paranormal in the 20010 Duel On the Delta. She is an active member of California Writers, Redwood Writers, Romance Writers of America, as well as three local chapters in San Francisco and the Silicon Valley. She also is a member of FF&P and Savvy Authors, and is a regular contributor to two blog sites.

Sharon lives with her husband, sixty chickens and two Dobermans in the heart of Wine Country: Sonoma County, where all her stories take place.

BLURB for Angel:
Claire, an unconventional Guardian angel, is sent to stop a talented Brazilian-born painter, Daniel DePalma, from killing himself. He has been skillfully preyed upon by a dark angel posing as his best friend and agent, poised to take the artist's soul. Warned she must never let her charge sense her presence, the Guardian cuts corners and takes risks. The painter begins to understand that the muse in his dreams is a real angel. She believes her unusual attraction to this handsome male and the fact that not all her human memories have been washed away is proof that something is wrong. Or perhaps she was destined to meet this man.

As she inspires and helps him repair his life, they fall in love, breaking all the rules of the Guardianship. The seductive dark angel, who covets the Guardian as a higher prize, offers the two lovers something Heaven cannot: to be together for eternity. Will their love stand the test of time and be able to span two worlds, or will they succumb to the dark forces of the Underworld and remain together forever?

Sharon Hamilton
Life is one fool thing after another.
Love is two fool things after each other.
http://sharonhamiltonauthor.blogspot.com/
http://www.sharonhamiltonauthor.com/