One Fine Hero

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This week we're looking at how we write a protagonist, and more specifically, a romantic hero. One of the favorites I've written is Jim McAllister. Known back in high school as Little Jimmy, Jim was a late-bloomer. As he says to Meg (our heroine) when they first meet again ten years after high school graduation, "No one calls me little anymore." Tee-hee.

Here's the description of Jim from the first time Meg sees him again, not yet knowing who he is. From the opening pages of RIDE THE RAINBOW HOME.

...that was when she saw him, the most beautiful man she had ever seen. He was climbing Valley Hill some forty yards away. His muscular upper body, bare and bronzed, was dappled by the spotty light as he worked his way up the bluff. He wore old, well-fitted jeans and climbing boots, and the light breeze riffled his leonine man of thick blond hair. He seemed essential and ageless, at one with the bluff, the desert, and the perfect sky.

And that, my friends, is just the beginning. (Jim was fun to write. Can you tell?)

In AT THE RAINBOW'S END, Jim's younger brother, Kurt, meets Alexa when he rescues her from the aftermath of an auto accident. Here is her observation about her Good Samaritan.

Even a woman with blinders on - and Alexa had been wearing blinders since she had first stated her ambition to be a screenwriter -- couldn't help but notice that her cowboy Samaritan was a hunk. She estimated his height at about six-two, tall enough to make her feel tiny. Add that to shoulder-length golden hair, a splendid tan, and a physique to die for, and it made for one fine-looking man.

Even with a dog's face, he'd have turned heads, but Kurt McAllister had a face made for movie close-ups. His forehead was broad, his hazel-green eyes well spaced, his nose long and straight. His brows were thick but tidy, his cheekbones high and strong, his jaw square. His was an altogether beautiful masculine face. Only the lips suggested a more delicate look.

If you're thinking Kurt must also have been fun to write, you are dead on target. :-)

Do you have some fun descriptions to share?