I have a shocking confession to make. When I think about the books I love, the books I just could not put down, the books I stayed awake into the wee hours reading, I don’t remember the titles. Sorry. I’m a little better at remembering author’s names—not much—and somewhat better at plots. You may be wondering at this point if I remember anything at all in my favorite books. Why, yes I do.

I remember characters.

Now, don’t get me wrong. If you catch me with my mouth full at a conference luncheon, there’s still a good chance that I’ll fudge the name of a character, but I don’t forget the characters themselves.

Not when they’re really memorable characters.

A wonderful, character will stay with me weeks, months, maybe years after I’ve finished the book. I’ll think about his Cockney accent, or his love of hot chocolate, or the way she beat the hero in what had to be the world’s most hilarious game of killer croquet. Those types of characters aren’t just memorable, they’re alive.

So, one of the first things that I had to figure out when I began to write my own books, was how to make my characters alive. Here are a few things I’ve thought about when I write my own characters:

FLAWS
We’ve all read about the beautiful, blond, buxom heroine, the one who nurses sick baby animals and takes soup to the deserving poor in her spare time. She’s perfect…and perfectly boring. Real people have flaws. I give each of my characters a flaw or two (or sometimes, as in the case of Edward de Raaf, the hero of The Raven Prince, a whole boatload of flaws.) One of Edward’s flaws is his rather nasty temper—a temper that gets him into trouble with the heroine, Anna, at a crucial moment in The Raven Prince. Georgina, the heroine of The Leopard Prince, sometimes speaks without thinking first. Simon, the hero of The Serpent Prince is just a little bit vain…well, maybe more than a little bit. And Emeline, the heroine of next month’s To Taste Temptation is kind of a stickler for rules and manners.

INTERESTS
Everyone has to have a hobby, right? Even fictional characters. Anna in The Raven Prince loves growing flowers, even though they’re not as practical as vegetables. Harry in The Leopard Prince likes to whittle wooden animals the way his father taught him. Lucy in The Serpent Prince loves to sketch. And Samuel Hartley, the hero of To Taste Temptation likes to run for the pure joy of feeling his muscle move.

EMOTION BEYOND THE ORDINARY
In books, particularly in romance books, I want to read about characters who are capable of extraordinary emotion. Emotion that can create or destroy worlds. In The Raven Prince, Edward is a man who is determined to recreate his family—no matter the obstacles that stand in his way. In The Leopard Prince, Harry is willing to stand up to the most powerful man in the county—a man who could kill him—to defend his land and his people. In The Serpent Prince, Simon sets a course that threatens his very sanity…for love of his brother. And in To Taste Temptation Sam has traveled halfway around the world to find the man who betrayed his fellow soldiers.

These are the characters I want to read about. I hope you do, too!

Cheers!
Elizabeth
www.elizabethhoyt.com
www.juliaharper.com