Why I’m Not in My Own Novels

There’s nothing I love more than creating feisty new heroines (unless it’s torturing heroes, but that’s a post for anotherday).  I know you’re all thinking that I must base my heroines on my own sexy, adventures, but I have to report that is sadly not the case. (I know disillusionment can be painful. Go ahead and cry.) Why, you may ask, will we never see you as the heroine in a romance novel?

I’ve narrowed my deficiencies down to three key points:

• My eye color: I wasn’t one of the six people in the entire world born with violet eyes or even turquoise. My eyes are just blue. They aren’t the color of the sky at dawn. They aren’t the color of the angry sea. They aren’t the color of bluebells or midnight. They aren’t even quite steel blue. Nope, just blue. And let me tell you, this is a big problem. There’s nothing for the heroes to wax on about during masquerades. And nothing to make up for any otherwise ordinary features. And don’t even get me started on my eyelashes (which for the record, don’t brush my cheek when I blink).
• My parents: Um, yeah. They’re both still alive. And nice. And happily married. (So inconsiderate, isn’t it?) So hence, I have never been raised by an eccentric uncle in Egypt or left neglected in a mansion. I don’t have a single hunky, brooding guardian. The poor hero wouldn’t have to help me retrieve my stolen inheritance or protect me from my overbearing father’s unrealistic expectations.
• Lack of snappy comebacks: Let’s face it. This is a must for any heroine. She has to be able to wow the hero with her wit. While I can be witty on paper, when it comes to conversing with hot guys in real life, I can’t think of anything to say until ten minutes after the conversation. And the hotter the guy is, the worse my affliction…

But despite the fact that I’ll never star in a romance novel, I have great fun living though my heroines. For instance in my new e-novella, A Most Naked Solution, my heroine Sophia gets reunited with her first love seven years later and finally has a chance to find out if he ever received the love letter she sent him in the army. She also gets to pick an entire library full of books (seriously, wouldn’t that be awesome?). She dodges bullets and an irate garden snake. And she kisses the hero while barefoot in a carriage.

Ooh, actually I did dodge an angry snake once.  If only I’d been able to think of a witty quip at the same time…

So readers, do you think what you have what it takes to be romance heroine? What characteristic of yours do you think makes you perfect? Or what would rule you out?

One lucky commenter will receive a digital copy of A Most Naked Solution.

Blurb:

Sometimes the best solution is found in bed . . .

Lady Sophia Harding: beautiful, blond, and . . .capable of murder? That’s what Lord Camden Grey intends to find out. It is Camden’s duty to uphold the laws of the land. His neighbor’s pale beauty and winsome grace don’t make her the most likely suspect, but is the innocent and altogether beguiling look in her eyes the truth, or is she secretly a scheming seductress?

Lord Camden Grey is entirely too distracting and too smart. Sophia knows that to keep her family’s secrets, she must avoid any entanglements with the powerful and brutally handsome man. But the pull of their mutual desire is all-consuming. Can Sophia trust Camden with the truth when she knows it might kill the love that has grown between them?

About Anna: Anna Randol writes sultry, adventurous Regency romances for Avon. Her first novel, A Secret In Her Kiss, earned a starred review and Top Pick in Romance from Publisher’s Weekly, who called it a “…masterful debut…[that] spins a tale replete with mystery, espionage, and memorable romance.” When she’s not plotting fun, sexy storylines, Anna’s usually eating dark chocolate, having wild dance parties with her kids in the living room, or remodeling her house one ill-planned project at a time.