A good knight is hard to find!
Heroes, they’re the stuff that dreams
are made of. In the 1980’s all they had to do was be handsome and
chase the virginal heroine around in order to wind up with a happily
ever after. Ultimately readers wanted a man that displayed great
courage and even perhaps made a personal sacrifice for the greater
good in the face of danger, adversity, or a position of weakness.
Isn’t that what heroism is all about?
Thirty years later, the heroism factor
hasn’t changed but the hero certainly has. Romance readers want a
man of today with true emotions and vulnerabilities. For most readers
they don’t care if he looks like Paul
Giamatti or Gerard Butler.
Handsome doesn’t always translate into muscular or even gorgeous.
Maybe it’s his smoldering eyes (sex still sells) or his
heart-stopping smirk when his heroine’s intelligence shines (he’ll
let the reader know but he won’t tell her until page 300). It can
be almost anything. Most of all readers want insight into a sensitive
man who needs to work out his own emotions in order to get his prize.
It’s how he faces and eventually resolves his internal conflict
that keeps them reading.
Heroes can be swash-buckling, debonair,
unassuming, and even unlikely. They don’t necessarily have to be
handsome with perfectly developed bodies, although for me that is
still a plus *cheesy smile*. Readers want to cheer on the hero who
struggles through his emotional quest, emerges enlightened, and wins
the girl.
For my story, I went back to the 17th
century and wrote about a knight, Lord
Arik, an alpha male who saves damsels in distress. What would
happen when he met Rebeka,
a heroine who is competent, intelligent, and capable of fending for
herself – a woman from the 21st century? It was great
fun writing how he reacted and interacted with her. He’s a hero
after my own heart.
What’s your ideal hero?
Knight of Runes
It’s the 21st century and time travel
is still a Wellsian fantasy but not for Rebeka Tyler.
Rebeka is a renowned renaissance
scholar at the prestigious Kensington University in upstate New York.
She’s awarded an inheritance that includes an English manor but
more importantly it includes an unknown private library with
documents dating back hundreds of years, a researchers dream. She
goes off to England to claim her inheritance.
While on an impromptu tour of Avebury,
she takes a misstep at the standing stones, and finds herself in the
right place but tossed back into the 17th century. When Lord Arik, a
druid knight, finds Rebeka wandering his lands without protection, he
swears to keep her safe. But Rebeka can take care of herself. When
Arik sees her clash with a group of attackers using a strange
fighting style he is intrigued.
Rebeka is desperate to return to her
time. She poses as a scholar sent by the king to help find out what’s
killing Arik’s land to get access to the library. But as she
decodes the ancient runes that are the key to solving his mystery and
sending her home, she finds herself drawn to the charismatic and
powerful Arik.
As Arik and Rebeka fall in love,
someone in Arik’s household schemes to keep them apart and a dark
druid with a grudge prepares his revenge. To defeat him, Arik and
Rebeka must combine their skills. Soon Rebeka will have to decide
whether to return to the future or trust Arik with the secret of her
time travel and her heart.
Ruth A Casie is a seasoned professional
with over twenty-five years of writing experience but not necessarily
writing romances. No, she’s been writing communication and
marketing documents for a large corporation. Over the past years,
encouraged by her friends and family, she gave way to her inner muse,
let her creative juices flow, and began writing a series of
historical time travel romance novels.
When not writing you can find her home
in Teaneck, New Jersey, reading, cooking, doing Sudoku and counted
cross stitch. Together with her husband Paul, they enjoy ballroom
dancing and, with New York City close by, going to the theater. Ruth
and Paul have three grown children and two grandchildren. They all
thrive on spending time together. It’s certainly a lively dinner
table and they wouldn’t change it for the world.
Ruth is a Trustee and on the Executive
Board of Shelter Our Sister (SOS) in New Jersey. SOS is Bergen
County’s only shelter for victims of domestic violence. She
frequently speaks at various functions around Bergen County on behalf
of the Shelter.
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