And now we come to…
I’M NOT A MAN
I cannot begin to tell you how many emails I get telling me that I am a man. (I also get tons of email speculating that I am either Shannon McKenna or Linda Howard, which is much more flattering).
I’m not a man. Trust me on this.
I’m not Shannon McKenna or Linda Howard, either. However, I think I might have a handle on some aspects of a man’s mental make-up. I got married very very late in life after many years working in a very difficult, very challenging, very hard profession that required a lot of travel alone, sometimes to fairly out-of-the-way and even dangerous places. I would never even remotely presume that I am as brave as my heroes, who are mainly soldiers or law enforcement officers, because I’m not. However, I do know what it’s like to do a hard thing for a long time and somehow I think that gives me some insight into my men.
Still, it’s fairly flattering that some feel my men are so well-described I could only be one, myself. That’s the highest form of flattery. Thanks.
I’m sooooo looking forward to chatting with you all!
Best,
Lisa Marie Rice
Heheh.. I’m so amused that you posted a whole post to say: I Am Not A Man! Brightened up my morning. Thank you.
Since we’re at it, I’m not a Navy SEAL or a Ranger, either!!
I guess it is a compliment is a weird sort of way! Even while you are thinking “whaaaaat?” to being asked if you are a man, you have to stop and think “hmmmm that means my men are so well written that people figure I HAVE to be one” That would help me deal with being asked that LOL
The neighbor boy didn’t know I was a girl until he saw me in my first day of school dress (Kindergarten!), so I’ve been there! ROFLOL!! I was a tomboy with short hair and my name can be for either sex, I guess as a 5 year old he took things at face value! *wink*
I keep thinking about that scene from the movie Austin Powers… “she’s a man baby!” LOL
Think of it this way, you are becoming an urban legend on the net. 🙂
Katiebabs! I sooooooooo almost retitled this to that… but it is so rare an author titles the posts that I figured I SHOULD use it *g*
But it was hard to resist.
I don’t know. I can see how it can be flattering but really isn’t it saying no woman can write a ‘correct’ male character? I am not saying it doesn’t happen. There are romance novels where the men don’t sound at all like men.
There are some that almost get it right. And there are women romance authors who have written believeable men. So to say – wow this is so good – IT HAS TO BE A MAN – comes across as insulting at shit to me.
Of course I couldn’t write myself out of a paperbag. And it isn’t like you can do anything about it anyway so really you take it very well. Always better to be flattered than pissed off *g*.
Sybil,
On another message board a poster was pissed, if that is the right word because she honesty believes that Lisa is a man or some group or duo who wrote Dangerous Lover(please! ugh). Minaly because that character of Jack and his background was so on the mark and insightful. She goes on to say that Lisa is deceiving the public and not being honest, etc… (GRRRR)
I kept my silence on that one, because regardless if is a writer is male, female, vegetable it doesn’t matter especially if the writing is sooo good.
Why do people think Lisa maybe a man? This whole conversation sound like the Twilight Zone! LOL
Sybil, I see your point. I’m just so ridiculously optimistic sometimes I look to the positive of the statement.
I think Suzanne Brockmann writes a very good male POV also. There are other authors out there that do, but they have their pictures on the web and do book signings so people KNOW they are women. I think when an author is not known, then people start the speculation.
But, not being known is the right of the author too so I’m not saying it’s okay people do that, just speculating as to WHY they do it.
I agree Tracy, it is a great way to look at it ;).
Hi there,
I never considered you to be a man by the way, this speculation is totally new to me. But if I was asked to compare you to similar authors, McKenna and Howard would be a great choice. There are many things I like about your work, but what I consider really, TRULY wonderful, is, that you can sell me vanilla sex like no other person. Today’s erotic romance is full of toys and sex shop atmosphere and kink. Depending on your reading mood and tastes that can be quite pleasurably, but more often than not, the true relationship between hero and heroine gets lost under devices, fetish gear and dildos. That’s also why many PG 13 romance novels project more eroticism for me today than any hardcore erotic romance. And to conclude my raving, thanks for writing such gorgeous stories about larger than life alphas, feminine women and good ‘ol charismatic vanilla sex. My only complain is, that there aren’t enough LMR novels out there, *cough*!
I agree with you, Katie, wholeheartedly. And I like more feelings to be shown between my hero and heroines. Emotion! Especially from that alpha male. Whether it surprises the hell out of him that he’s showing some emotion toward his woman or it elates him to kingdom come that he’s found someone who can bring it out of him, just give me some deep, soul deep, emotion when they know they’ve found their mate, made love for the first time — it doesn’t matter when — there’s plenty of opportunities in a book to do that. That makes me love that hero all the more. Hence, my comment in an earlier post about John Huntington!
Hi Sandy M. SIGH, John Huntington – isn’t he just gorgeous? He and Linda Howard’s Richard Worth (from Now You See Her) make up my favorite hero combination *g*. Ms. Rice’s heroes incarnate this special brand of possessivness without having any obnoxious, obsessive tendencies of a dickhead. And despite the age of emancipation and kick-ass heroines, I love that in the case of this author’s books women are allowed to be treasured and adored and protected, without them having any doormat qualities like those typical Harlequin Presents whimps. Did I mention that I adore this author? 🙂
I never thought you would be a man but I like you male character’s voice. Midnight Man was the first e-book I dared to buy in the scary Internet. (I was quite afraid of the unknown back then. I always thought someone would steal my credit card number and took off with all my hard earn money.) Before that I never think e-book would be as good as print books. Your book changed my perception. Midnight Man would always be the best book (e or otherwise) I ever read.
No question really, just curiosity when your new book would be released?
RIFF ON ALPHA MALES COMING–
Thanks for all the comments on my alpha males and by the by, I find the insistance that I am one a little puzzling, but let’s move on.
The key I think is that my men really, truly respect my women. Now in princess-talk ‘You don’t respect me’ is code for ‘you won’t do what I want’. That’s not the kind of respect I mean. I mean admiration-respect. John Huntington, in Midnight Man, truly admires Suzanne. She does something — create beautiful interiors — he admires and couldn’t do not in a million years. not with all the training in the world. He’s an alpha male but not an insenstive clod and he understands very well that there is magic in what Suzanne does. He lives in spaces designed by her and those spaces make him feel better, work better, live better. And Suzanne has enormous business sense and gives him excellent business advice. She’s been running her own business longer than he has his and she’s fantastic about giving him tips and advice. At some point in the future, John is wrongfully sued and could lose everything. Suzanne keeps her head and finds him the perfect lawyer and John gets out of the mess. He appreciates that. He appreciates her.
Claire is very empathic, she understands people deeply. she was very ill for a very long time and that developed her empathy enormously. She and Bud have a passel of kids. Bud loves his children deeply. He would unquestioningly die for them. But he is often baffled by them, can’t understand their motives, their reactions. But Claire does, and that family is a happy & loving one mainly because Claire keeps things on an even keel.
And Kowalski — well he flat out thinks Allegra’s musical talent is divine. Imagine a music lover who gets to live with Mozart. A good lover who gets to live with Paul Bocuse. An art lover who gets to live with Picasso. That’s how much he admires her art. He considers the fact that he gets to surround her with love and protection so she can work to be the greatest gift of his life.
I don’t know if anyone has read WOMAN ON THE RUN. Sam Cooper is another alpha male with communication problems. Julia, his wife, runs interference for him with the rest of the world. he had been drowning in loneliness before her. She is like his plug into the world.
My men appreciate their women, who give them inestimable gifts. That they love and protect them is in their eyes nothing in comparison to what they receive from their women.
That’s the kind of alpha male I love writing about!
Hi, here I am checking in from hanging out in America with my family, thanks for the heads up, Sybil! Hi, LMR! (sorry I didn’t have time to call you before I took off!)
I’m so gratified to be confused with LMR’s wonderful work–would that I could be so prolific and creative to have written it all, but alas, I am so not. But I do NOT get why people think my books are written by a guy. Never have. I think they’re very female in their sensibilities, and so are LMR’s. A purely female fantasy.
In any case, loved to hear people loving up your books, Lisa Marie, because I adore them too. Hugs to all . . . talk to you later!
Shannon McKenna
hahaha! I never thought that you were a man. I just thought you were an excellent writer.