Memories on Father's Day

by Fran McNabb

With Father’s Day next weekend, I couldn’t let the opportunity pass without saying something about our dads.

I want to share a few memories I have of some special men in my life starting with my father. My

dad was from the generation where men left the housework and raising the children to the mother. He was a fisherman, a hard worker who shrimped at night and slept during the day, so my brother and I didn’t see him as much as we would’ve liked. On summer Sundays, however, he’d make sure the boat was clean and he would take the family and our friends out to the islands. Those days made up for all the tip-toeing around the house while he slept. I have wonderful memories of Dad and Mom sitting on his boat overseeing everything and getting the food ready (homemade fried chicken and potato salad) as the children swam and played.

I realized that all men did not leave the childrearing up to the mother alone. I spent many days with one of my aunts and uncle. It was here at their home that I realized men actually helped take care of the little ones. When he was home, my Uncle Jimmy helped with the everyday tasks of raising their children. I’m sure throughout the ages men have done that, but it never occurred to me until I watched my uncle. He’s no longer with us, but when I think about him today I think about those small moments between him and his children that probably went unnoticed to anyone else.

Today it takes two to raise children. My eldest son took on the responsibilities of helping with his one baby from the moment they brought him home. Both of my sons helped to raise their sons and helped around the house. Does it make men any less of a man to do things like change diapers, toss a ball to his son, or mop a floor or iron a shirt? Absolutely not. I think it makes a man more of a man.

And I can’t end this without mentioning my husband. Living with someone for almost forty-seven years and raising two sons together make for some wonderful memories, but it’s the memories of him spending time with our boys that bring me the most joy today. Maybe our sons learned from him because today all my men cook and press their clothes and help around the house. (Yes, I do iron as well. In fact, I love to iron.)

Happy Father’s Day to all the men in your life. If you have a special memory to share, I’d love for you to comment so we can all enjoy it.

FRAN MCNABB lives with her husband on a quiet harbor bayou along the Gulf Coast. She always says that her fictional heroes all have a little bit of her husband in them. Now she can say that since her sons are grown, they too have contributed to the heroic qualities in her novels. Check out her tender romances on her website www.FranMcNabb.com  or contact her at mcnabbf@bellsouth.net. She loves to hear from her readers. 

What makes a romantic hero?

I've read hundreds of romances, have written a dozen or so, and have come to some conclusions about what makes a romantic hero. Typically he has bedroom eyes, washboard abs, and a face "too rugged to be considered handsome." He's Prince Charming in an executive suite, Cowboy Jake on a white charger, or The Beast in his princely form. He's everything you always wanted, but probably couldn't live with -- unless you were the impossibly wonderful and perfect heroine who nabs him.

Hmmm... maybe not. Here are some of my qualifications for what makes a real-life romantic hero:

1.  He helps you in the kitchen. I don't mean he tastes the sauce, says "needs more salt" and goes on about his important tasks while you do the work. I mean he gets in there and chops vegetables, makes the salad, sees you're preparing pasta sauce and asks if he can cook the pasta, and then does it, perfectly, without troubling you for every direction. In a pinch, he also bakes.

2.  He willingly tends the baby. He doesn't think diaper changing is "a woman's job." He knows it 's the job of anyone who loves and cares for that child, and he adores that child. He will get up in the night to walk with a crying baby, letting mama get some rest for a change, or he will come back to bed with the baby sleeping on his chest, carefully cradling the child while everyone gets some rest.

3.  He advocates for you when you're ill. Not intimidated by doctors, hospital protocols, or officious nurses, he sees that you get the care you need when you are too sick to speak for yourself, and he will do the same for anyone else among your extended loved ones who may need the advocacy.

4.  He acknowledges your skills when you're better than he is. It may be more appropriate to the romance genre to have a war-of-the-sexes I-can-do-anything-better-than-you-can showdown, but in real life, everyone gets along better when you recognize he is better at repairing faulty light sockets and he knows you do a better job of paying the bills. Traditional gender roles play little part in deciding these tasks. Please note, though: Real Life Hero will kick in and help wherever the help is needed when the world is in chaos.

5.  He knows when to fix and when to just listen. It may have taken him a while, but he has learned that he can't jump in and solve everything. Sometimes all you really need is a chance to vent your frustrations and someone to hear you do it.

That's just a start, really, but it's an important start. As you think about the Romantic Hero in your life, what other qualities would you add?

Susan Aylworth is the author of 13 published novels and has a part in three boxed sets, all 16 titles available now. Mother to seven, she is "gramma" to 24. She lives in northern California with her husband of 44 years and the two spoiled cats they serve, and she loves hearing from readers @SusanAylworth, at  www.susanaylworth.com, or susan.aylworth.author@gmail.com. You can also follow her on Pinterest and Instagram.

Falling in Love, Time After Time

My fellow bloggers here at Classic & Cozy have written about their conversations and tussles with their characters, especially the heroes. Writers do have the extraordinary privilege of inexhaustible companionship and playmates but I think Romance writers have the best of all possible outcomes.

We get to fall in love, over and over, time after time, as often as our imaginations create the heroes who fulfill all our heroines’ dreams. If we, as creators, don’t fall in love with that guy, how can we expect our heroine to do so?

I’m doubly fortunate in my romantic fictional writing (triply if you consider my personal, real-life romance, to be revealed in February). Not only do I have the opportunity to fall in love with men like David Gitano, Eric Wasserman, Brad Foster and most recently, the soon to be introduced, Mike Argent, I also, writing as Lily Dewaruile, have had the pleasure of meeting and forming lasting relationships with Medieval Welsh heroes such as Garmon Dolwyddlan and his younger friend, Geraint Padarn, who cross my mind and swell my heart from time to time.

However, they have the misfortune of being in competition with my first love, Jehan-Emíl deFreveille, hero and patriarch of my first Medieval romance, set in Wales, Book One of the Pendyffryn series, Invasion. But even Jehan could not stop me from falling for Christophe Maides, his closest friend, who stole my heart when I least expected to be susceptible, especially not to desperate men, adventurers, the worst and the best of their profession—9^th Century soldiers of fortune. And Christophe gave way to his father, Gilles de Maides, in the fifth book, Reconciliation, set in Armenia. 

Mike Argent, hero of my forthcoming “Americans in Love” novel, This Can’t Be Love, will soon leave me, to take his place among the other heroes I have loved and let go, to woo someone else. I don’t mind. Mike has been a delightful compagnon du coeur, during the many months we have been together, as was Bradford Foster of Nights Before fame. I’m sure others will do their best to make up to me for his loss.

I will soon be head over heels in love again. This time with Jehan-Emíl’s second son, Marshal who takes the stage in Justice. And once I have ensured that this wild young man is suitably entrenched in a relationship with the shy and studious apothecary, Tanglwystll, I will abandon him to his fate for the quiet byways of 1870s rural Maine where the kind and industrious, Evie, will encounter G. Rupert Smith, in Pavane for Miss Marcher.

No doubt Evie will entice Rupert away from me. This is as it should be since, as soon as I met her, I knew the sort of man she needed to combat the bullies in her life.  

My fickle love life is never-ending. Falling in love with heroes is as natural as breathing, ask any Romance writer. 

Our Men, Our Heroes by Fran McNabb

Every reader of romance loves a strong, good-looking, patriotic  hero. We love to watch him being a gentleman, butting heads with the heroine, overcoming obstacles, and eventually taking the lady as his partner. I, too, love a well-developed, lovable hero, and I especially love the heroes in my books.

 

That might sound a little strange for an author to say, but I really do love my heroes. I have author friends who say they don’t like their stories or their characters by the time they finish writing and rewriting and reading and rereading the stories. Not me. Sure I hate to read the same words over and over, but I still love my characters, especially my heroes, no matter how many times I have to read the same story.

I truly fall in love with the men in my books. If I don’t, how can I expect my readers to love them? I guess when an author creates a male character she pulls together all the good traits she admires in her own, real-life heroes or what she’d want her ideal hero to be if she could create a live one. Maybe we use traits from our husband, a brother or our dads to come up with the men who make our stories so much fun to read.

The best compliment an author can receive is to have a reader say something nice about a character. We want our characters to live with readers long after they put the books down. I remember my sister-in-law called me one day and told me she was mad at me. When I asked why she told me she couldn’t keep her mind on her work because she couldn’t stop thinking about Jake, my hero in ON THE CREST OF A WAVE. I had to smile and wanted to pat myself on the back. I had done my job!

The most memorable hero I ever read was actually not in a romance. He was Ari, the hero in Leon Uris’s EXODUS. He possessed all the characteristics that I love in a man. When I saw the movie version of EXODUS, I was disappointed because in my mind my Ari did not look like Paul Newman. I loved Paul Newman, but not in my Ari’s role! I think from my first reading of the book (yes, I read it twice) I loved Ari and I think I use some of his characteristics in all of my heroes that I create today.

Do you have a favorite hero? If so, who is he?

Hmmm. I think I’ll sit back, close my eyes and dream about Ari for a while!

Fran McNabb lives along the Gulf Coast on a small, bayou harbor with her husband who just happens to be her very own hero! She has four books published by Montlake, two Indie books, and soon will have one romantic suspense by The Wild Rose Press. Visit her at www.FranMcNabb.com or contact her at mcnabbf@bellsouth.net

Modern Fairy Tales

by Gina Ardito

Photo by  Matthew Murphy
Courtesy of Playbill

This past weekend, my daughter and I went to see a quirky musical called Disenchanted! It's an ensemble tale, told by a few famous storybook princesses who want to set the record straight on that whole Happily Ever After rumor. (Can I just say we loved it? We had a fantastic time and laughed A LOT.) 

In the space of an hour and forty minutes (the amount of time the fairy godmother would allot), these fed-up ladies tackle such subjects as their figures (buxom on top and waistlines narrower than their necks), breaking the color barrier, changing the annals of history to make a heroine into a princess (Spoiler alert: the real Pocahontas was 12 when she met John Smith!), and being happy with yourself no matter how different you are. It's a fabulous, raucous show, and I highly recommend it (but you better go fast; it closes this coming weekend!)

When my husband learned we'd bought our tickets, he asked me, "What is the fascination between you girls and fairy tales?"

I understood his confusion. The week before, my daughter and I couldn't wait to see Into the Woods at the movies. We're rabid fans of Once Upon a Time on television, we saw the Maleficent movie opening night, and we're obsessed with Wicked on Broadway. And of course, let's face it. I'm a romance writer. I'm totally invested in the whole Happily Ever After scenario.

From the time we're little girls, most of us are fed these fairy tales where, if we're good enough, pure enough, thin enough, a handsome prince will come rescue us and we'll live the dream life. But in the last decade or so, writers have been turning these fairy tales around with wonderful results. Nowadays, we're seeing the heroine slay the dragon and rescue the prince; strong, smart, and capable females who don't need a man to complete them; and characters who aren't all good or all bad, but a little bit of both. You know. Real-life humans. 

And just like for real-life humans, Happily Ever After comes with hard work, a few tears, sharing the good times and struggling through the bad times together. Today's princesses don't sit around singing with woodland creatures, while waiting for their prince to come for them. They go out and create their own happy endings. I wonder what stories will be told about these new princesses to future generations.