I want to fall in love ...

No, this isn’t an announcement that I’m about to divorce my husband or looking to replace him in any way, I promise. But I do need to find a crush because if I don’t, I can’t write my next book.

Like many other authors, I base my heroes on a real person’s looks, although obviously I make up their personality to suit my story. And just as in real life, it’s seeing them for the first time that gives me the biggest spark. Like falling in love but in an imaginary way. If I’m lucky, just the sight of this potential hero triggers a scene in my mind, which becomes the basis for the rest of the story. If not, I can at least use this instant crush feeling when writing about the hero and heroine meeting for the first time. And falling in love ...

Sure, I have an archive of photos I can flick through and I also have a pin board next to my computer with lots of pictures of possible heroes, but sometimes that just doesn’t work. Right now, I need to find someone new, a man I’ve never seen before, but who will set my mind off on an imaginary journey where he’s the hero and I’m the heroine. Someone who sets my pulse racing and makes me tingle all over when he looks at me (even if I’m only pretending he’s looking at me of course).

Actually, that’s not quite true – sometimes it works if I see an actor in a new role at the cinema, one where he’s different from normal in some way. Take Johnny Depp for instance – I loved him in the film Chocolat and could happily have based a hero on his character in that, but he didn’t do it for me in any of his other films. Then along comes Captain Jack Sparrow and “wow!”, there’s the spark again.

Some actors are definitely chameleons, while others play much the same role in every film (like Hugh Grant). That means of course that the Hugh type is only good for one starring role in my novels, whereas others can inspire me over and over again. Right now though, that’s not working either – I need someone brand new.

So does anyone have any recommendations? Any films I absolutely must see over the Christmas holidays? Please let me know because until I find him – THE ONE – my next book just isn’t going to get written.

Please come back on Sunday to hear from Liz!

More Weird Crushes

I’ve been pre-occupied to quite an alarming extent recently with cartoon characters (or animated ones as they tend to be these days), largely because of the delectable Flynn Rider in Disney’s latest film Tangled. I’ve heard other people say they too developed a crush on him while their children preferred the horse or the chameleon (each to his own, right?), but he certainly added something to the movie-going experience for me!

This isn’t the first time it’s happened though – I had a similar feeling when I watched Howl’s Moving Castle. It's a typical Japanese cartoon film in so called manga style, and the hero in no way looks real, but he’s gorgeous and very well drawn. You can’t help but fall for him and wish he’d come and whisk you away with his magic. At the time, I thought perhaps I was weird, so put the whole thing out of my mind until it happened again when I read an actual manga comic.

A couple of years ago I picked up a YA book called “Wicked Lovely” by American author Melissa Marr and I liked it so much I couldn’t wait for the next instalment (it’s a series of five books and I’m very impatient). Since obviously there was a gap in between publication dates, I was thrilled to see that she’d produced a companion story, a little extra side-story as it were, in manga form, and I promptly bought that. It had yet another hero to fall in love with - Jayce. I was starting to wonder why this was happening to me!

Then I remembered that back in my teens, when living in Sweden, I used to read a seriously soppy romance comic series called “Starlet”, which featured heroines who were not in the popular crowd, but who eventually got the boy of their dreams. I wanted to be that girl and invariably fell in love with the heroes too, even though they were nowhere near as well drawn as today’s manga boys or animated heroes. So perhaps my subconscious is harking back to that time?

There seems to be a trend for romantic books to be “translated” into manga form. Apparently Harlequin Mills & Boon have been transforming their books in this way for years in Japan and they’re very popular (although the covers seem rather startling when compared to the ones we’re used to!). This was to attract younger readers, who were increasingly unwilling to read full-length novels. Certainly, both my daughters would much rather read a Manga novel any day than a real one, something I find difficult to understand, being a life-long fan of books.

I was also astonished to read somewhere recently that Diana Gabaldon is writing a special instalment of her “Outlander” series specifically to be turned into a manga comic. How can they possibly do it justice by translating it into drawings? A part of me thinks ‘no way, that can’t work’, but another part is now very curious to see how the artist will interpret Jamie Fraser, one of my all-time heroes. Oh dear, I think I’m going to have to buy it and I can feel another crush coming on ...

Anyone else hooked on cartoon guys?

Please stop by again on Sunday to hear from Liz

Crushes

Last time I was talking about first kisses so I thought I would go back, back before the kisses and go to the prelude to a kiss…

The Crush

Ahhh crushes… I'd love to say how I miss them but whether you are seven or ninety-five we all have crushes.

Crushes get you up in the morning and put a spring in your step. They make you smile and gasp and turn bright red and stutter.

They are the bubble in your blood, the fizz in your fibre. Writing the crush Alexa has on Quin, I didn't need to go too far back to remember what it felt like.

Who hasn't had a crush recently? A crush on that movie star, or that singer. Maybe the person who serves you coffee on the way to work. The cute girl on the bus. Or even the guy you sit next to at work.

We've all been there and very recently I'm sure:

"Quin.

I couldn’t help it I sighed out loud. Sam looked at me strangely. But instead of his solid ruddy face, I saw Quin. All heavy brows and kissable mouth. I could see him as if I had seen him yesterday and not two weeks ago.

How was it possible I remembered someone I had met only once so well? But it seemed that as soon as I thought of him, and I thought about him a lot, I saw him. Not the fuzzy ‘I think I remember your features but I’m not sure’ remember but as if there was a computer in my brain that brought up his photo on demand."

When I wrote this I was channelling every crush I've ever had, and a few that I borrowed from other people. Crushes on that actor I made a prat of myself in front of (read here). That son of a family friend who never knew why I babbled when he was around. The bloke at that conference who must have wondered why I blushed and ran away as soon as he sat down next to me in the bar. And who can forget that work colleague whose voice messages I'd save to listen to… he had a very sexy voice!

So who have you been crushing on?

Come back on Sunday when Susanna will be posting