The Heroes We Love--and Why by Helen DePrima & Liz Flaherty #Harleq

A while back, we blogged about our heroines. We figured it was the guys' turn this week. I was surprised at how much different it was for me choosing heroes than heroines. Hope you share yours!

by Helen DePrima

As the song goes, “My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys,” or characters who behave according to the Cowboy Code. I still take down Shane, The Virginian, The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come time and again to renew my faith in courage and steadfastness. I grew up reading Gene Stratton-Porter’s novels with their idealized male characters who set an impossibly high standard of manhood; later, I fell in love with Nils Sorensen, the stalwart hero in Elisabeth Ogilvie’s Bennett’s Island series.


Perversely, however, I find myself drawn to the Anti-Hero, men who duck and dodge and whine a bit while performing heroic acts. I loved James Garner as Maverick, whose motto was “He who fights and runs away, lives to run another day.” Alan Alda’s self-deprecating Hawkeye Pierce always stepped up despite his loathing of war; Elizabeth Peters’s jewel thief John Smyth moaned and groaned endlessly while saving Vicky, the willful, smart-mouthed heroine, from her follies.

Creating a believable hero involves walking a tightrope between credibility and appeal, almost but not quite too good to be true. To my mind, flaws add depth. The rancher in my first book, to-die-for in his faded Wranglers, had all the right stuff except for a wide streak of emotional cowardice. Jake Cameron of Cameron’s Pride battled grief and incipient alcoholism and a paralyzing fear of snakes; shame and guilt over a failed relationship bedeviled his son Tom.


I guess we all lust for a hero who checks off every box, with enough vulnerability to need a good cuddle from time to time.

by Liz Flaherty

The hero is commonly the simplest and obscurest of men. - Henry David Thoreau

I think his name was Max. In the movie Notting Hill, he was married to Bella, who was in a wheelchair. They were best friends with William, the movie’s hero, who’d once been in love with Bella. I don’t recall why she was in the chair, but every night, Max carried her up to bed. At a certain point in the movie, when a carload of people were preparing to chase Julia Roberts so that William could “win the heart of fair maiden,” and Max was in the driver’s seat, Bella waved them on. The car was already full and time was of the essence.

Max said something to the effect of, “Rubbish,” stopped the car, picked her up, and put her inside. Where he went, she went. They loved each other to distraction.

Max is my hero.

Tucker, the male protagonist in my Heartwarming book, The Happiness Pact, was a klutz. If he was a
perfect anything, it was a perfect mess. My heroes are always flawed, for sure, but Tucker was even more so than usual. I loved writing him. I love him still.

I read a Susan Kay Law book once—well, actually, I read all of them—and I don’t remember which one it was, but in it, the hero was falling somewhere, was scared…er…witless, and whimpered on his way down. I remember thinking I was sure I could love a man who whimpered.

I like a romance where the guy loves the girl’s kids before he loves her, where he understands as long as she’s a mom he’ll never really come first with her, where he shaves his head when she has chemo.

It’s not as easy for me to remember specific heroes from romances because as a reader, my focus is almost always on the woman’s journey; however, I appreciate the men who are beside them on that ride through life’s jungle.

Comments

  1. I love this post. Yes, big and little flaws (fear of snakes, emotional clumsiness) change a character from a cardboard figure to man I can love. But he has to have a big heart, like Max. That's what makes him a hero in my book.

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    1. I had difficulty winnowing through a lifetime of reading to select a special few heroes. I've also greatly enjoyed creating heroes who (I hope!) touch hearts.

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    2. Hi, Beth. I'm with you on the big heart--it's the most important thing.

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  2. This is a great post. I love hero's. They need to be compassionate, have a weak spot they arent afraid to admit they need help in, gentle yet strong and love the Lord. When I was growing up I loved books from Louis LAmour. He had fabulous hero's.

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    1. Wow, Louis L'amour! Have read any of his books in ages -- thanks for the reminder. His life story reads like his novels.

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    2. When I think of Louis L’Amour, I think of the Sacketts. Great heroes!

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  3. I love the strong silent type who are always there with a shoulder and a tissue but whose secret flaw means the heroine gets to return the favor at the most critical time. Mutual respect and reliance are sexy and hot!

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    1. Your description of a hero is spot-on: mutual support at the right time. Sometimes the support is hard to recognize as such; my heroine in my first novel had to throw a flaming hissy (great fun to write) to screw her man's head on straight.

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    2. You're right on the money. I think the flaws seem to be important to most of us, don't they, and so is mutual respect!

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  4. I like a hero who is goes out of his way to make sure the heroine (or any woman) doesn't see him as a physical threat, who is aware of women's natural tendency to be wary of men and don't necessarily feel safe all the time. Men/heroes I've known and like the best seem to get that without being told.

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    1. What a sad reality that women need to be wary. I made my daughter complete a rigorous self-defense course before leaving for college. I guess it also gave her self-confidence; at this moment, she's galloping across the steppes in Mongolia.

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    2. It is so important, isn't it? I suppose it always was, but when we--or maybe I should just speak for myself--were young, we weren't aware. Sounds like your daughter's course took, Helen!

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  5. I loved this post Helen and Liz and your portraits of heroes. I guess we all have a different imaginary man in our minds when we write romances and for me, that man is a composition of many heroes from books and movies in my teens and youth. Later I began to admire the more steadfast and true kind of man. I loved Tucker, too, Liz!

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    1. If I were to construct the ideal man, for my taste, kindness and a good sense of humor would top the list way ahead of appearance. Handsome men kind of make me uneasy. I thought Richard Boone was immensely attractive.

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    2. Thanks, Janice! I thought Richard Boone was attractive, too, Helen, especially as Paladin.

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  6. Loved Richard Boone as Paladin! Enjoyed reading about the heroes here today...especially since I'm starting a new book with a new hero. Got some good ideas. lol

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  7. Hi, Pat! Can we expect a Paladinesque hero? Lol.

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