Welcome, everyone, as we here at The Novel Approach continue the Countdown to GayRomLit with Featured Author KC Burn! Enjoy KC’s guest post, and then be sure to follow the instructions below to enter the giveaway she has planned just for you.
Good luck!
Obviously, as a straight woman, my characters are not little carbon copies of me. I do try and give my guys some variety in their quirks, foibles, and traits, but when it comes to their likes and dislikes, a lot of that is going to reflect what I like and don’t like. Not all the time, because differences are what make people interesting, in the real world as in books. For me, though, writing about something I have no personal experience with, but have researched, is different than giving a character the love of something I dislike. It’s far simpler and less disingenuous for me to give characters an interest in either something I like, or something I don’t know about & have to research, than something I dislike.
Like… musicals. I’ve seen a few, and enjoyed some, but mostly it makes me uncomfortable to have people sing at me (American Idol makes me cringe, even the ones who can sing well). I find the tendency to break into precise, choreographed dance numbers completely destroys my suspension of disbelief. I’m not even all that comfortable at live concerts for bands I love! Even if one of my characters **claims** to be a lover of musicals, most likely, there won’t be much detail, because I’d have to spend too much time on something I dislike.
What you will see, throughout most of my books, are characters who like many of the same things I do. The celebrities I think are hot are ones my characters like. Many of my characters tend to have geeky interests, even if they aren’t geeks themselves, like enjoying Doctor Who or Star Trek. A number of them wear guyliner because I LOVE guyliner (really, when your first adolescent crush is on all of Duran Duran, I think you don’t have much of a choice). I don’t listen to a lot of popular music, and so I rarely mention my characters musical tastes, because it might be weird if all they listened to was 80s alternative/new wave, punk, and industrial, as I do.
One of the elements I hit time and again – and it’s rather geeky – is board games. I love playing board games. And not your standard Monopoly or Clue, but ones that are more involved, more strategic, and frequently take hours to play. If you watch Big Bang Theory, the guys are often playing board games. I have played or own almost all of the games that appear on that show. Wil Wheaton has a great YouTube channel called Table Top, where he and other actors/geek celebrities show you how to play various games, and I’ve purchased a few games based on those videos.
One of my favourites is Settlers of Catan – I have all the expansions and a version of it on my phone. The game even gets a brief cameo in my book, Cast Off. In fact, I’m planning a series with a full on geeky hero who loves board games, and Catan will likely be only one of many board games that will get mentioned. The best thing about it? There’s a board game café – that’s a café with hundreds of board games where you pay a flat rate to play as long as you want – near me. When I start up this series, I can call my time there research. Best kind of research, in my opinion. Now, if I can just get a couple of hot guys to strip at the same time, I’ll be set!
So… geeky heroes – do you love them or not? I’ve got a $10 Amazon gift card for one lucky commenter.
(The Deets: All comments must be relevant to the author’s prompt question to qualify in the drawing || Comments must be received by 11:59pm Pacific Time on Sunday, October 4, 2015, to be eligible || No residency restrictions apply || Author will be responsible for prize delivery)
Blurb for North on Drummond: Sandy Bottom Bay, Florida – Come for the Haunts, Stay for the Beaches!
Drew Drummond might call himself a psychic tarot reader, but he doesn’t believe in the supernatural. The business was left to him by his grandmother, and seemed the best way to rise above the chronic criminal behavior of the Drummond family. Despite his efforts, few of the townspeople consider him a good romantic match. Being gay only makes finding love more difficult.
When Cliff Garcia, Drew’s teenaged crush, moves back to town and joins the police force, Drew doesn’t think he has a chance. After all, the skeptical cop considers Drew’s profession on par with professional con man, and Cliff had spent his entire school career feuding with Drew’s volatile brothers. Despite the obstacles, Drew and Cliff begin a fiery relationship.
Just when Drew starts to believe they might have a chance, he suffers a head injury and begins having visions of the future. If Drew tells Cliff the truth, he’ll lose the man he’s falling for, but keeping his new ability a secret is no longer an option. If he can’t convince Cliff he’s for real, a murderer will walk free.
Available At: Loose Id || Amazon || Barnes & Noble || All Romance eBooks
Author Bio: KC Burn has been writing for as long as she can remember and is a sucker for happy endings (of all kinds). After moving from Toronto to Florida for her husband to take a dream job, she discovered a love of gay romance and fulfilled a dream of her own—getting published. After a few years of editing web content by day, and neglecting her supportive, understanding hubby and needy cat at night to write stories about men loving men, she was uprooted yet again and now resides in California. Writing is always fun and rewarding, but writing about her guys is the most fun she’s had in a long time, and she hopes you’ll enjoy them as much as she does.
Links: Website || Twitter || Facebook || Newsletter
I love geeky heroes. And probably like you, it’s because I understand them. I have heard so much about Settlers of Catan, but never played before. Enjoy your research. :)
You should play sometime! So much fun :)
Great post! I guess it is normal your own tastes and quirks, after all you create them so there must be a little piece of you in each one (whether it is your taste in music or your dessert choice…). As for geeky characters, I do like them a lot. I like peculiar people, and I love to read about other people’s hobbies and interests.
I like peculiar people, too!
I adore Geeks as heroes. I mean I am a geek myself so I feel with them :-) I was always the strange Girl in school. I like games and I played World of Warcraft and several other Games over the last years.
I haven’t been able to get into computer games – with all the writing, it hurts my hands, but I’ve always loved watching my hubby play.
Love geeky heroes….I think they are so relatable!!!
Agreed – in my opinion they’re more relatable than rock stars or billionaires.
Geeky heroes are awesome; I love them. Being a geek myself makes that not terribly surprising. I think that they are fun and manage to surprise people in the best ways sometimes.
Jen, I might like the geeky hero because I’m geeky too!
Absolutely adore geeky heroes. They are one of my favorite “types” of MC. Plus, I married one. ;-)
I married one, too :)
I do enjoy geeky heroes. Most of us are probably geeks with whatever it is that floats our boat – doesn’t have to be the ‘accepted’ things like games, cult TV etc – could be gardening, cooking etc.
My Dad is probably a geek – at 77 still has his Hornby 00 railway set up, with towns, mines, harbours etc and he has a toy fire engine collection. And lots of photographs – 150,000+ so I am programmed to like this sort of thing.
It is all part of life’s rich tapestry!!
Too true – it’s often that knowledge that comes with passion/obsession that makes us geeks, whatever the topic.
I loooove geeky heroes. They are sweet, clumsy, cute and confused most of the time. And cynical very often too. But they always come through for through for the love of their life. What’s not to love?
I do enjoy the awkwardness that many of them display.
I love geeky heroes. There’s a lot of adorableness and cute mannerism. I also like that even though they are considered the underdogs they’re not really.
The underdog aspect definitely makes them appealing!
I thought it was only me that had this problem!
“it makes me uncomfortable to have people sing at me (American Idol makes me cringe, even the ones who can sing well)”. I can’t even watch any of the “talent shows”
I do love board games and guess what nobody in my family ever wants to play them. So I love geek hero’s they make such great characters.
Hubby and I sometimes have trouble finding people to play with – so many good games require at least 3!
I love geeky heroes, but I especially love it when we have the secret geeks. The guys that come across as total alpha males but are actually geeks or at least willing to try the geek stuff since the other MC likes it :)
Amanda, the secret geeks are pretty awesome, I agree!
Geeks rule! Seriously though I can relate since I was a nerd who played D&D in high school LOL
I might be showing my age, but I played the first edition D&D with the starter green plastic dice… it definitely started me on my way :)
Love geeky heroes, possibly because I’m a bit geeky myself
So many geeks here today – I love it!
Being a bit of a geek myself, I do love a geek hero. Particularly when they charm a ‘non-geek’ :).
I am a huge fan of Catan myself. A group of us get together almost every Friday to play. We usually go with the original + fish. But, we also enjoy Settlers of America (super easy setup and breakdown), ‘Shakey Ships’ (I don’t even remember the real name, Starfarers? – it is the very first one with planets and ships you shake), and Stone Age. Once and awhile we play Seafarers, but the setup is a pain, so not too often. We break out the oil expansion on occasion as well. We were on the Romans one for a bit too. I’m not even sure that is the right name – it is the one where you have two piles of things – horses and people, I think, and gold chests or something.
I’m assuming you have tried Ticket to Ride. If not, that is a fun one too.
Oh, wow – you’ve tried a bunch of the Catan variants that I haven’t, although I do like adding on both seafarers and cities & knights. I have also tried Ticket to Ride – it is a fun one, too!
I do love geeky heroes, in fact I prefer the geek over the traditional heroes. It’s even good when quote unquote traditonal heroes unleash the geek inside as opposed to suppressing.
Mmm, I also prefer the geeky over traditional… most of the time ;)
I love geeks, and if in books they get to be the hero even better :) because why should the “traditional” hero get all the fun it is so good that we get to see that everybody can be a hero!
And o yeah Duran Duran my sister was a big fan of John Taylor and i went for Simon Le Bon :) Our room was filled with posters from walls to ceiling LOL Thank you for this post and the giveaway chance.
John Taylor was my fav!
I love them as long as they are not those insecure types…OK,that sounded little insensitive,but when I read a book that has geeky hero,I want for him to have self-esteem,to be able to stand for himself. More often than not,those types of heroes are totally clueless,insecure and are being jerked around by another MC. Those I don’t like…or at least don’t like to read about them.
I can see that, although there can be times that insecurity can be adorable… if it’s not overdone.
I like reading about geeky heroes,especially when I need some light-hearted read, ’cause they’re usually fun to read about.
Love them! Some of my favorite books feature geeky heroes. Like Dirty Laundry by Heidi Cullinan.
Good Monday morning, everyone! Thanks to all of you for stopping by to chat with KC as we countdown to GRL 2015. This contest has ended, and the winner’s been drawn.
Today’s lucky reader is wiccachic2000
Congratulations to you! I’ve just emailed KC with your contact info, so expect to hear from her soon. :)