
Hello and welcome to GingerMyrick.com!
It seems I have said this fairly often since the beginning of the year, but I suppose it is a good thing. To any of you who are newbies, I happily greet you for the first time and hope you will become a regular visitor. To those of you who are familiar with the website, welcome back, and thank you for your support.
I will be giving away an ebook version (Kindle or Epub) of the winner’s choice of Ginger Myrick books. For full descriptions click here. Or you can wait for the soon to be released Work of Art: Love and Murder in 19th Century New York. Comment to enter.
This time around the theme of the blog hop is Heroes and Villains, and my contribution is:
MY HUSBAND: HERO OR VILLAIN? YOU DECIDE!
For anyone who has visited my blog before, there is the high likelihood that you have heard me rambling on about writing what you know. Here are my thoughts summed up from a previous post: “I am an unremarkable person, so I write about ordinary characters. My protagonists are not gods and goddesses nor paragons of virtue, and my antagonists are not evil scheming demons without a shred of decency. They are all utterly human with human strengths and failings. I believe this is what makes them real and believable.”
There is also a very good chance you have caught me in the middle of a rant or rave about my wonderful but childlike husband. Well, hubby is quite possibly my most familiar subject (He should be after nearly two decades together!) and no matter how I try, he seems to find his way into my writing time and time again.
In the dedication section of The Welsh Healer, I write, “… and as ever, the basis for each one of my male protagonists is my husband, Terry. While the physical description may change with each new telling, the heart of the hero remains constant and is the one that beats in you.” I know, aww … right? But the fact of the matter is that it can be quite frustrating. I’m sure my readers, no matter how loyal, get tired of reading about a tall, dark, angry guy, who seems to hold some sort of unexplainable and irresistible charm for an otherwise intelligent and discerning woman. In El Rey there was no real villain, just a very human guy making stupid mistakes that provided enough plot twists and turns to keep
the book from being too ordinary. In The Welsh Healer, the ordinary guy turned into a not so ordinary guy with a slightly more prominent dark side but still mostly a normal human being. Are you getting the idea here?
Usually my stories come as a whole, the plot predetermined and the characters with distinct, fully-formed personalities. This time, however, it seems that my muse had different ideas. My soon to be released third novel is titled Work of Art: Love and Murder in 19th Century New York. It is the story of Del Ryan, an Irish immigrant with a touch of clairvoyance working as a lady’s maid for a wealthy society matron in upper-class … well … 19th century New York. In this book I wanted to give a very different look to the love interest, and I thought I could fool my brain for certain. Of course, I intended this man to be a far cry from my loving husband, and he very well should have been. Things certainly started out that way. The man is a well-mannered, silver-tongued charmer who looks like a
golden Greek god. Meet Cillian Arthur:
He was dressed in a natural-colored wool suit complete with waistcoat and contrasting ascot. The light brown shade set off his warm skin tone to its best advantage and made his sky-blue eyes blaze the brighter. His face, with its angular planes and chiseled features, could have provided the model for the works of art she had seen in the new museum, man’s concept of perfection. The wavy hair that framed his handsome face was a touch darker than the straw boater, which sat atop it, practically the shade of ripened wheat. Everything about him suggested a golden, celestial light. He was the most peerless being she had ever seen, and to Del he looked like an angel.
Not to be unduly harsh on hubby, but this guy could very well be his polar opposite in every way, and it was purposefully done. But, slowly and surely, he started to exhibit similar characteristics to those of my wonderful, supportive spouse. There is also a tall, dark, angry guy, who seems to hold some sort of unexplainable and irresistible charm for an otherwise intelligent and discerning woman. He started out with a bit role and eventually bloomed into a full-fledged character with a substantial influence on the story. Please allow me to
introduce Jimmy Sheehan:
Del was taller than any other woman she had ever encountered, but Jimmy towered over her by a full head, the crown of hers only reaching as high as his chin. He was powerfully built from all the physical labor he performed, broad-shouldered and rock hard without an ounce of excess flesh on his lean frame. His whole rugged person looked as if it had been carved from stone. He was brutally handsome, with devilish good looks. He had jet black hair and brown eyes with russet highlights, and as a child he had been called ‘Satan’s Spawn’, because he was hot-tempered as Old Scratch himself.
But which one is the villain and which is the hero?
I suppose it is a fine line, and circumstances usually determine onto which side of virtue a character stumbles. But really, can two such disparate personalities inhabit the same body? Well, they can, but which one is the hero and which is the villain? I leave that for you to decide. If I have done my job well, this time the reader won’t be able to sort them out until the final chapters. To tell the truth, I really wasn’t sure who was who until I got a good way into the writing.
I will say that the REAL hero is a little silver cat who looks suspiciously like the picture at the right. Yes, Mr. Stinkerpuss saves the day! (which will actually be the title of a children’s book someday!) And fortunately for you readers, there are many facets to hubby’s personality. I hope you will not become bored anytime soon.
Anyway, thank you for stopping by. I hope you will check back from time to time. Make sure to visit the participating blogs listed below, and don’t forget to comment to enter the drawing.
1. Nyki Blatchley 9. Joanne Hall 19. Sue Millard
2. Martin Bolton 10. Jolea M Harrison 2o. Rhiannon Douglas
3. Adrian Chamberlin 11. Tinney Sue Heath 21.GingerMyrick
4. Mike Cooley 12. Eleni Konstanine 22. David Pilling
5. Karin Cox 13. K. Scott Lewis
6. Joanna Fay 14. Paula Lofting 24. Kim Rendfeld
7. Ron Fritsch 15. Liz Long 25. Terry L Smith
8. Mai Griffin 16. Peter Lukes 26. Tara West
17. Mark McClelland 27. Keith Yatsuhashi
18. M.Edward McNally