Tawny Weber is my guest today. She tells fun stories with lots of little extras that make the story feel real. One of the things I enjoy in any book is good secondary characters. Tawny discusses her view of secondary characters and why they are important to a story.
Writing a new book always means getting to know a lot of
characters. Not only the hero and
heroine, but all the rest of the cast that creates their world. In my February Blaze, A SEAL’s Seduction,
Blake and Alexia are clearly the stars.
They were two characters who came, fully formed, into my head. Both with distinct emotional baggage, with
strong personalities and even stronger opinions. But oftentimes I think it’s the secondary characters who provide
the most interesting contrasts for our stars.
Secondary
characters are the means to which readers get to know our stars. Through those friendships, family
relationships, adversarial jousts, etc, the reader sees first hand who this
person is and how they handle life.
Which is one reason I often include pets in my stories. I think how a person reacts and interacts
with animals, small children and the elderly shows more about their character
than pages of introspection.
A SEAL’s
Seduction is peppered with strong secondary characters. Michael, Alexia’s brother is so fun. The
only son of an Admiral, he’s the headliner of a gay burlesque show and male
model. And he’s a sweetie. Cute and upbeat, he’s faced the similar
emotional challenges as his sister, but he has a very different way of dealing
with them. He is a wonderful contrast
for Alexia, and works really well to show her soft side and help the reader
understand why she’d make the decisions she did growing up.
And then there are the
Admiral and Mrs. Pierce. They were SO
fun to write. Uptight and rigid on the
surface, with a deep love of their children that both the reader, and their
children, don’t see at first. As is
often the case with parents, it’s their behavior, both past and present, which
define the heroine’s beliefs. Her
rules, her fears and her standards come from the history she has with her
parents.
But my absolute favorite of
all the secondary characters in A SEAL’s Seduction is Lieutenant Commander Cade
Sullivan, Call sign: Slick. Cade’s
hot. He’s sexy and sweet, he’s a
leader. He’s the high school football
quarterback, prom king, class president and sweetie who tutored young kids on
the downlow. Like most SEALs, he’s
driven. Powerful and strong, with a
clear view of his purpose in life and a devotion to duty that’s
unbeatable. And did I mention that he’s
hot? Whew! So hot.
Cade is
technically Blake’s boss. He, Blake and
Phil were best friends since their BUDs training days, nicknamed the Three
Amigos because they were always together.
They even ended up a part of the same SEAL team. It was while Cade was leading a standard
mission that Phil was killed. Like
Blake, the loss of his best friend hits Cade hard. And like Blake, that loss becomes a major driving force in how Cade
views his career, his life and his choices.
So while I really did love so many of the other secondary characters in A SEAL’s Seduction, Cade is definitely my favorite. Which comes in handy, as I wrote him his very own love story as soon as I finished A SEAL’s Seduction. Titled A SEAL’s Surrender, is out in just about a week (March, 2013).
- How often do you read a story and fall for one of the secondary characters? Are there some that you just HAVE to read their story?
#####
A SEAL'S
SEDUCTION
Subject: Navy SEAL Lieutenant Blake Landon
Current
Status: Two weeks of enforced
leave
Mission: Distract
himself in any way possible
Obstacle: A
woman who tempts him to break the rules…
including his own!
Navy SEAL Blake Landon
(a.k.a. “Boy Scout”) knows the rulebook inside and out. Checked. Rechecked. But
when a mission ends badly, his entire team is ordered on leave. And that’s when
Blake sees the tall redhead whose dark eyes suggest that the rules— especially
those in bed—are made to be broken.
Scientist Alexia Lane has
sex on the brain—partly for work, but mostly because she needs a man who makes
her girly parts do the happy dance. Her only no-no? No military dudes. But
Blake’s rockin’ bod promises delicious pleasures, and Alexia is halfway to
sexual Nirvana before she can find out he’s actually a Navy SEAL.
And
where one rule is broken, more are sure to follow…. Excerpt
Tawny Weber has been writing sassy, sexy romances since her first Harlequin Blaze hit the shelves in 2007. A fan of Johnny Depp, cupcakes and color coordination, she spends a lot of her time shopping for cute shoes, scrapbooking, and hanging out on Facebook.
14 comments:
Tawny
I have to agree with you about secondary characters they really help make a story lots of fun and of course it they end up with their own story I have to read it
I loved a SEAL'S Seduction it gave me hours of reading pleasure
Have Fun
Helen
I loved the secondary characters so much in my first book, I wrote four sequels following those characters!
I have great fun with secondary characters. They sometimes get the best lines just to put my main character in her place.
Nice write up, and cool that your secondary character got a love story of his own. It's great when they get a life of their own. :))
I love secondary characters. They can really make a story. Sometimes I hope the author will write their story in a later book.
Great post, Tawny. I do love interesting and quirky secondary characters, like those that Charles Dickens wrote in his books. They add so much color to the stories.
I'm reading Elizabeth Hoyt's Maidenland series and I've noticed that she gives secondary characters very strong roles in books that are not their own, even their own POV. It's interesting and makes reading the next book in the series seamless.
Congrats on your hunky, lovely heroes and the release of your latest book!
Hi Sia! Hi Tawny! Tawny, congrats on the forthcoming release of A SEAL'S SURRENDER. I've got A SEAL'S SEDUCTION on my TBR pile screaming at me not to do any work but "Read me, read me!" It's a very noisy little book, that one! LOL! It's fun setting up great heroes in a current story, isn't it?
Helen, thank you so much for reading A SEAL's Seduction! I'm so happy you enjoyed it that much :-)
Secondaries are really wonderful, aren't they :-) I've gotten hooked on secondaries so often, I'm practically bouncing on my toes waiting for the author to put out their story LOL.
LOL Diane, now that is definitely a love of secondary characters!! And as an author, isn't that when you know it's working -when those other people insist their story gets told.
LOL - I love the idea of a secondary getting the best lines- especially when those lines bring the main character into better focus and put them on the spot, L.G.
Ciara, I hope you let the authors know you love those characters and want their story. I wrote a series last year - Undercover Operatives - that had an FBI Special Agent who had so much reader email asking for his story that, yes, he got one :-) I loved him, but it wasn't until the readers showed so much interest that I was able to give him his own book. It'll be out in May *g*
HI Jo and yay - Bandita company always rocks!!!
I adore stories that build that strong, ongoing sense of community through secondaries. Like you say, when a character has enough weight in one story (dialogue, insights, pov) there is such a seamless feel to the entire series.
And thank you so much for the sweet congrats *g*
Fo!!! Hi :-) Another awesome Bandit whom I adore! Thank you - I am giggling over A SEAL's Seduction being noisy. Now I want to put cartoon legs and arms on it and show it jumping up and down, yelling "Read Me."
I adore writing secondary characters into their own story. In part, because I already know them so well by the time their friends' story is finished *g* but also because there is always a sense of rightness when its finished.
Hugs and thanks for stopping by!
What's the level after secondary? Those are the ones I really need to work on.
My second and third books both have a secondary character I really liked and it would be cool to follow their stories.
Hey,
This was a fun interview - and not because me and Harlequin don't often meet:)
When I start WIP#2, I *can't* wait to work on the secondary folks...think it may be more fun than the leads... perhaps :)
PS... thanks for the kind words Wednesday :)
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