Author Interview: Rebecca Savage

Please welcome romance author, Rebecca Savage, to my blog. She's prepared a great post for us you'll be sure to want to read. Make sure to ask her a lot of questions and leave comments. You'll make us both very happy.

Oh! And DON'T miss her awesome contest. Read more to get the scoop.

Sympathy or Apathy for our Characters: Heroes and Heroines that Deserve our Respect!


Sounds odd, I know, but the characters we write into our fictional novels could be real people…well, so maybe they’re bigger than life sometimes, especially if our world building takes us to futuristic or fantasy elements, but the contemporary romance that you read could consist of real people’s lifestyles, and even those in ‘other worlds’ have real feelings.

Take divorce or death for example. It’s difficult to empathize with someone – empathy being the fact that we can only truly know how someone else feels if we’ve actually dealt with the specific issue ourselves, but we can at least sympathize…we should all be capable of being nice and caring about others and their feelings and the things they have to deal with on a daily basis.

We all have to live this life. Why can’t we all just get along…and most of all, if you’ve seen the movie Roadhouse…just be nice? People can be so cruel, but if we could only try to sympathize, and maybe, if possible, empathize, then we’d be better people ourselves and make others happier.

I’ve written several types of characters, and I’m a teacher, which means I’m not a psychiatrist, but I feel like I need one sometimes And I see how all types of people deal with all types of problems. It’s odd when you see kids who are in perfect health, but they’re total jerks, and then there are those who compete in Special Olympics, and they’re so happy-go-lucky and carefree, but they have all these physical and mental disabilities that they don’t let keep them from being nice and thrilled with the smallest accomplishment.

Most of the time our characters are healthy and beautiful. We really don’t want to read the bad stuff because we have to deal with enough negativity during our real lives, so escapism shouldn’t be sad, but it’s nice to think of those who have problems and help out in some small way when we can…even if it’s just a smile when you come into contact with strangers.

I try never to be mean. It doesn’t always work, but I try nice first…always.

Sometimes when people are mean though, it’s not because they dislike another person. They might not even know that other person. Sometimes they’re just dealing with pure hell in their lives, but it’s hard to allow them to use that as an excuse to mean to others. Just smile, and go on, and say a prayer…or at least try to believe they’re being cruel just because they have issues, not because they just like to be mean.

That doesn’t mean you should let people walk on you. Absolutely not. But try nice first.

I’ve written a librarian with a wild side who trusts no one because her sister is a CIA operative and she knows better.

I’ve written a CIA operative who trusts no one because he’s seen too much to think people have any sort of good side.

I written a DEA sniper who thinks it’s too late for her to be nice to anyone because she’s too jaded.

I’ve written a rich guy who thinks being nice would just win him a good digger.

I’ve written an FBI agent who used to be nice until her parents got killed by someone who’d been nice to her all her life then turned bad guy.

I’ve written a reporter who has seen good, bad and ugly…mostly ugly…so he thinks those who are nice are only nice to get something out of him, and he’s probably right in his world.

I’ve written a ‘nice’ girl next door who got framed by her not-so-nice fiancé and sent to prison. Now she’s hooked up with a nice lawyer…and of course she believes there is no such thing as a nice lawyer.

I’ve written a nice guy fireman who’d risk his life for anyone but never his heart, and a nice lady who was abused by a really not nice ex-husband who was really phony in the begging, until he had her hooked.

I’ve written a nice, smart college graduate who gets shoved into a man-hole by someone who was treated not very nicely by lots of people and turned insane.

I’ve written a horrible mass murderer who wouldn’t know nice if it hit him…and it does, right in the face at the end of the book: a nice guy who rescues a nice woman from danger.

So be nice.

You never know what people are dealing with in their real life tragedies.

And you could be next.

rebeccasavage.com

CONTEST: Go to my website and leave a comment through the email form and one here as well, and you’ll be entered for any free pdf of your choice if you win the contest



BLURB:

• A hard core CIA covert ops expert like Nash Kincaid takes everything seriously, especially his mission to retrieve classified information from his contact, take it to the right people, and stop the deaths of thousands of children at the hands of home-grown terrorists.

A librarian with a wild side could throw a ringer into his plans, but Ayden Devlin takes most things seriously, too, even when she decides to live out the lives of the characters in the books she reads by helping her sister Leigh, a spy for the CIA. She lets Leigh insert classified information into her mouth where there’s a missing tooth, so she can safely transport the info to Nash.

Nash and Ayden meet in a biker bar, and a hit man tries to kill Ayden. Nash throws his body in the path of a bullet to save her. A bullet grazes Ayden’s head and knocks her out cold. When she comes to, she and her rescuer have to establish trust. They don’t know each other, and the mission has gone awry. It takes time to convince each other of their respective honesty and identity.

It takes no time at all for them to realize they’re hot for each other, and not much more time to realize it’s more than heat. Love blooms, stoked by building passion, the flames rising higher with each new dangerous encounter.

Will they survive to share their love and lives?



EXCERPT:

Who the hell sends a librarian to do the job of an undercover CIA agent?

Covert Operation Expert Nash Kincaid - at least that's what his latest passport said - sat in a seedy biker bar, sipping on his tap beer, waiting impatiently for a librarian - of all people - to show up and make a Top Secret information drop.

He scowled and scoffed silently into his foamy brew at the very balls of his friend and fellow comrade in arms, the man who'd set up this preposterous rendezvous. How the hell had Ace ever gotten it in his head that some stuffy old bookworm would be suitable for a transfer of classified information? So what if this Ayden person happened to be Ace's partner Leigh's sister? That didn't mean she could pull off something like this.

And who the hell is the amazing-looking chick that just walked in the door?

Nash's eyes widened, and his blood simmered beneath the surface. He let his eyes wander down, and then roam back up, the woman's sexy form. Her slim but amply curved silhouette stood out against the shadows of the barroom. Bright neon lights poured over her sexy outline, illuminating her body in vibrant red and yellow hues, cascading over and around her like waterfalls of color for her to bask in. She wore a skin-tight muscle shirt and a short leather skirt. The shiny, sequined material clung to curvy hips, stopped inches above shapely knees, and topped off endless, toned legs. Her fiery hair hung loose, reaching her narrow waistline, flowing like a billowing sea of red. Nash wanted to grip her waist with one hand, run his other through all that mass of organized tangles, hold on tight, and plow into her beckoning body like a madman.

Okay, so maybe her body didn't beckon him, but he sure as hell wanted it to.