RIFF ON ALPHA MALES
Thanks for all the comments on my alpha males and by the by, I find the insistence 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 insensitive 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!
That’s the kind of alpha male I like reading about. Loved Midnight Man!
Thanks Amy! Midnight Man is such an important book for me. I remember my feelings as I wrote it. I had just had my godzillionth book turned down by Harlequin. However, I had just had a novella accepted by Red Sage, which was great. it sort of gave me an inkling that another way was possible. Since I wasn’t going anywhere with ‘mainstream romance’ I sort of gave myself permission to write precisely as I pleased, exactly what I wanted.
When it was finished I sent it off to several places and EC answered first.
Marty, my editor at EC at the time, loved it and I loved her and the whole crowd at EC. I still do. They are supremely author-friendly.
I can still channel that feeling of FREEDOM as I wrote Midnight Man. Very heady stuff…
I love reading about men like that. Give me an alpha like that any day and I will be happy. 🙂
Sounds like the right kind of Alpha male to me, someone who is secure in his masculinity and doesn’t feel he has to prove it. He just is.
I love alpha males! Lisa, your heroes are so alpha but have this intense sweet side when it comes to the women in their lives.
I also love your Midnight series 🙂
Hi Lisa,
I love your books and went through H_ll and High Water to buy Midnight Angel and the total Midnight series. Now, I need to pick up Woman On The Run and Port of Paradise. I could not put Dangerous Lover down.
Can you tell us a little about your next book coming out?
That’s the kind of alpha male that is worth reading!! He has enormous respect for his woman and eventually lets her know!
I love how you write your alpha’s and especially enjoyed your Midnight series, and Woman on the Run. I am impatiently awaiting my order of Dangerous Lover.
And that’s exactly why I love your heroes! 🙂
I love reading about alpha males who are stong and secure in their masculinity without being jerks.
JERK HEROES.
God, I hate them too! the bossy ones, the ones who have to be convinced you’re not a slut.
it took me years to decide to read Alyssa and Sam’s story simply because he was such a JERK at first, at that first meeting, in Unsung Hero. how can you ever forget that? of course he redeemed himself later, thank god
Well I am half way thru Dangerous Lover. No sex yet, but such delicious sexual tension.