Guest blogger - Kate Johnson

My guest blogger today is Kate Johnson, who also writes award-winning erotic romance as Cat Marsters. Huzzah! I'd give a fuller introduction, but I have a head cold and I've eaten too many chocolate cornflake cakes. Sorry! I'll just say that Kate is funny, stylish, talented, and has some amazing shoes.

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So, I read an article recently (and damned if I can remember where) that said the reasons vampires and werewolves are so popular as romantic heroes is because they’re reminiscent of other types of popular characters. Your vampire, with his great dress sense, loads of cash, innate sense of superiority and unfathomable depths of power, is rather like the aristocrats of historical fiction. He’s the lord of the manor. He always looks good, always knows what to say, and has a cutting manner of saying it. Plus he can just about pull off a frock coat and frilly cuffs.

Whereas the werewolf is an earthier creature. He’s not so impeccably dressed, because changing your shape can be hell on seams, and he’s kinda hairy, muddy, less sophisticated than the vampire. He tends to live in the middle of nowhere, but he’s not a total loner. He takes care of his pack and the people important to him. He’s very strong, dependable, and has a brutal sexiness about him. He’s the cowboy of paranormal romance.

And I got to thinking. What other types of romantic hero are there? What other types of paranormal beasties might they relate to? And why are some more successful than others?

Let’s see. There’s the Oh-my-God-you’re-so-handsome-I’m-swooning-like-a-teenager type. The kind who makes you go hot and dizzy, the kind who makes certain parts of your anatomy go all fizzy just by walking into the room. Then he smiles, and you think you might pass out. He’s gorgeous, and he knows it. He’s got so much charm it oozes like honey—and you’re the bee. He has to beat women off with a stick. He has a dozen choices every night, but he always moves on, never settles, and leaves a trail of broken, weeping women behind him, just shadows of their former selves. He’s an incubus. His entire existence revolves around sex, and no one can resist him. He’s the paranormal version of Rupert Campbell-Black. He’s a difficult type of hero, because of course the incubus will suck you dry and leave you an empty husk while he moves on. A charming man will do that too. It’s going to take a pretty special heroine to tame him. But isn’t that the draw?

There’s the solid-gold Alpha Male. The kind who features large in category romances, usually ones with ‘tycoon’ in the title. He’s in charge of everything. He has minions who scuttle about doing his bidding. He has several beautiful houses in gorgeous and important parts of the world, and a private jet to carry him in luxurious style between them. He has yachts and supercars coming out of his ears. He always wears designer, or possibly bespoke. He doesn’t understand the concept of things not going his way. He thinks he’s God. Well, in the paranormal world, he is. He clicks his fingers and lightning strikes his enemies. The fun with this kind of hero is finding him the woman who doesn’t worship at the altar of his perfection.

There are the Beautiful People. The rockstar types. The hero who’s a prince, or a movie star, or someone else impossibly unattainable. He might be a really nice guy, but he exists on another plane entirely. He’s the kind of guy you have a crush on, but it’s a nice, safe crush, because the only time you’ll ever come face to face is when you’re staring at the TV screen. He wouldn’t even be able to see an ordinary mortal. He’s an elf, or a fae. Remember Legolas? Not quite the boy next door, was he? Cool, aloof, powerful, superior. Don’t you want to make those pointy ears quiver?

A popular choice for a hero is the wounded man. You know the kind: he’s often a widower, or has suffered some other personal tragedy that makes him emotionally fragile. He’s damaged. He’s remote. He doesn’t want to connect with anyone and he lives in the past. He’s a ghost. You want to help him, to find the way to cure his sadness and bring him back to life, but you’re never really sure if you can. How can it all work out? Isn’t this dude actually dead?

The law-enforcement hero remains perennially popular. He’s a Grade A good guy. He’s absolutely lethal—but only towards bad guys. He has an impeccable moral compass and he looks really good when he gets hot and sweaty. He’s your basic demon-killer. Or vampire-hunter. In a world where the paranormal beasties are the bad guys, the guy who keeps the world free of vermin is the one you want on your side.

And finally, one of my favourite hero types: the bad boy. And by bad I don’t mean “wears leather and rides a motorbike.” I’ve read rather too many ‘bad boys’ who just came off as a little bit…well, as if they shouldn’t have been in a hetero romance, if you know what I mean (and I think you do). This kind of bad boy is the kind you cross a continent to avoid. He’s the assassin, the mercenary, the thief. He causes pain and havoc and he likes it. He’s the very devil. Literally. He has horns and a pointy tail, or at least he ought to. He’s a demon, a warlock, a practitioner of the dark arts. You don’t tend to get many of this hero around, because redeeming him is an absolute bitch. Can his heroine ever forgive the things he’s done? Can the reader? But if you can pull it off, this is one of my very favourite types of hero. He might be a monster—but he can be your monster, and he’ll love you forever.

Kate lives in Essex and belongs to a cat named Spike. A mis-spent youth watching Buffy and reading Terry Pratchett made it sort of inevitable that she'd end up writing about sexy vampires and inventing whole universes. She's been writing since her teens and is damn glad it’s finally taking off since this means she won’t have to go back to working airport check-in any more. Her hobbies include reading lots of books (researching her literary competition), watching films and TV (researching through a broad spectrum of media), drooling over (admiring) the work of fine actors such as David Tennant, Richard Armitage and Hugh Jackman, and being used as a bed/scratch-post/chew-toy/human slave by Spike and his chief acolytes, Jack and Daisy. There's also a Demon Puppy but she's nothing to do with Kate. Honest. She is single but aspirational (Prince William likes Kates, right?) and asks all potential dates to send in pictures of themselves and their Aston Martins.

www.katejohnson.co.uk

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Remember, if you want to be in with a chance of winning a Bag of Swag, including samples of Kate/Cat's latest releases, just leave a comment on this post! I'm off to nurse my cold and eat more chocolate cornflake cakes.