THIS WEEK'S BOOK WINNER

Thanks to all who stopped by this week and special thanks to our guest author Larissa Reinhart who offered an advance reading copy of Portrait of a Dead Guy to one of our readers. The winner is Acemommy. Please email your mailing addresses to me at anastasiapollack@gmail.com so I can pass it along to Larissa.

BOOK CLUB FRIDAY - GUEST AUTHOR LARISSA REINHART

Our Book Club Friday guest today is award-winning author Larissa Reinhart. Larissa considers herself lucky to have taught English in Japan, escaped a ferocious monkey in Thailand, studied archaeology in Egypt, and survived teaching high school history in the US. She loves small town characters with big attitudes, particularly sassy women with a penchant for trouble. When she’s not writing about southern fried chicken, she writes about Asian fried chicken at her blog about life as an ex-expat. Learn more about Larissa at her website. 

Larissa is offering an advance reading copy of Portrait of a Dead Guy to one of our readers who posts a comment to the blog. Don't forget to check back on Sunday to learn if you're the winner. -- AP

Do Good Girls Love Bad Boys? Uh, Yeah

The other night, while watching an episode of Girls, my husband turned to me with a look of such concern and disgust, I immediately clicked out of Pinterest and focused on my distraught betrothed.

“Why,” he sputtered, “do nice girls think they like bad guys?”

I refrained from delivering some smart-mouth remark, but instead of returning to pinning other people’s pictures, I gave his question a moment’s thought. The Good Girl-Bad Boy axiom is older than the reclaimed hills we live on. Drooling over bad boys isn’t just a rebellious need to overthrow our Electra complexes. It’s more to do with the Alpha male so inherent in bad boys. Which is why, as writers and readers, we love our fictional bad boys. They’re swimming with Alpha pheromones, and we can dip our toes in their testosterone without actually getting wet. Theoretically.

I decided to distill some classic bad boys into three camps. The Troublemaker. The Brooder. And the Unknown Quantity.

We all knew a troublemaker in school, didn’t we? Some of us even tried dating them in high school. These were the guys that made mischief, but could sweet talk their way out of it or were clever enough to never get caught. Think Rhett Butler from Gone With the Wind. A smooth talking Charlestonian, Rhett had no problem selling guns and butter to the north. He got by on his good looks and charisma and could even charm the pants (or giant hoop skirt) off a wily schemer like Scarlett O’Hara.

In my mystery Portrait of a Dead Guy, my artist heroine, Cherry Tucker, finds trouble with three bad boys. She has recently annulled a Vegas wedding with Todd, who appears to be a nice guy, albeit not the sharpest hammer in the sack. However, Cherry suspects Todd may be using a dumb blonde act to lower her prickly defenses. He has a gift of inserting himself in Cherry’s life before she realizes what’s happening. Todd is my troublemaker. An amateur poker player and faux-leather pants wearing drummer, he’s got a few aces up his sleeve that tips him into troublemaker territory.

I picture Rochester from Jane Eyre as the classic brooder. Brooders like to play hot and cold with a gal’s heart. Not because they can’t fall in love, but because they have mysterious pasts they must never reveal. Like a crazy Jamaican wife locked in the attic. Don’t we just love the strong and silent brooder? They keep us wondering what they’re thinking and feeling, setting our little over-analyzing hearts on fire.

In Portrait of a Dead Guy, Cherry’s old college flame, Luke Harper, has secrets he keeps buried beneath a dry sense of humor. Brooder may as well be tattooed to his forehead beneath his unruly dark curls. Testosterone wriggles out his pores. His tight jeans could cause flash fires. He’s a man of little words, smoky eyes, and deep dimples. His motives are suspicious and his lips are dangerous...

And then there’s the Unknown Quantity. Is he actually dangerous or just loves to walk on the wild side? Ranger from the Stephanie Plum One For the Money series comes to my mind. The man is dangerous and sexy as the dickens. He’s not one to settle down, but seems to like having Stephanie around, whether in his bed or fighting bad guys. Like the brooder, we’re never certain of his feelings and like the troublemaker, he enjoys getting her into sticky situations. However, the brooder and the troublemaker eventually will reveal their intentions (or lack thereof), whereas the unknown quantity... well, maybe he’ll never be Mr. Mom, but he sure is a lot of fun.

The number three bad boy in Cherry’s life is the mysterious Mr. Max, hailing from an unidentified ex-Eastern Bloc country. He struggles with English, but happily finds our streets paved with gold. Besides running a den of illegal gambling, Mr. Max knows French, art, and Civil War history. He’s a man of exceptional taste with a ruthlessness simmering beneath his robust frame. Is he toying with Cherry to throw her off the trail of his illicit pursuits or is he entertaining other feelings for the scrappy artist?

Who are your favorite fictional bad boys? Do they fall into one of the three categories of The Troublemaker, The Brooder, or The Unknown Quantity? Or do you have a category of your own?

Thanks for joining us today, Larissa! Readers, weigh in on bad boys or anything else for a chance to win an advance reading copy of Portrait of a Dead Guy. -- AP

BOOK CLUB FRIDAY -- GUEST AUTHOR M.E. KEMP

Today’s Book Club Friday guest author is M.E. Kemp who writes an historical mystery series with two nosy Puritans as detectives.  Her latest book, DEATH OF A DANCING MASTER, will come out on November 20th from L&L Dreamspell, who have also published some of her short stories.  M.E.’s New England roots are strong, going back to 1636 Salem. In 1713 her ancestors settled her home town of Oxford, MA, where she grew up.  She lives in Saratoga Springs, NY with husband Jack and two kitties, Boris and Natasha, who live up to their names.  You can read more about M.E. at her website.

M.E. is offering a copy of DEATH OF A DANCING MASTER to one lucky reader who posts a comment to the blog this week. The book will be shipped in a few weeks, once she receives her author copies. -- AP

WHY DO WE LOVE THE BAD BOYS?

From Heathcliff and Mister Rochester to Fonzie and Dexter, we love the bad boys!  We even root for stuck-up Mister Darcy over the congenial bird-witted Mister Bingley.  Why is that, I wonder?  Mister Darcy is at least  handsome, but poor Mister Rochester of Jane Eyre fame is described as dark and unprepossessing and Heathcliff of Wuthering Heights is a real brute.  He's described as dark and ugly as a gypsy.  (Note: this is a 19th c. concept -- I think the Romany are quite handsome as a people.)  Even in Georgette Heyer's Regency novels her best heroes are the dark rakes, like Lord Demeril in Heyer's Vanessa.  He's your typical bad boy -- a tall, dark, haggard-looking womanizer and gambler.  Yet our fair heroine loves him.  And is there a female who grew  up watching the television series Happy Days who didn't have a crush on Fonzie in his black leather jacket?  Even Richie had a crush on the Fonze.  Too bad the writers never pursued that line....

A mid-twentieth century critic wrote a best selling book, Love and Death in the American Novel, based on the premise that the dark, seductive woman was always the most interesting character as opposed to the blond twits who fainted at the first moment of crisis.  Fiedler used Cora vs. Alice from Last of the Mohicans to illustrate his theory.  (He also wrote that the greatest love scene in American Literature takes place in a boarding house between two sailors in Moby Dick. Queequeg is certainly dark, being a native of the Fiji Islands, although he's not a Bad Boy.  He's kind and caring and saves the life of Ishmael.)  So maybe Fiedler's theory holds true for men as well.

In a more contemporary tone, just think of bad boy Tom Ripley.  (Matt Damon in the movie, based on the novel by Patricia Highsmith.)  Ripley is a charming rascal even if he is a murderer.  Then there's television's Tony Soprano.  Tony's a Bad Boy for sure, but who doesn't sympathize with him for his spoiled-brat kids, his nagging wife and his crazy buddy Pauly Walnuts, who even his fellow crew members call a psycho?  That doesn't even include his murderous mother.  Is it any wonder the guy is seeing a psychiatrist?

Maybe it's the element of danger these bad boys bring with them.  Maybe it's the desire to save them -- the love of a good woman and all that.  Maybe the bad boys are just the more interesting characters and it's writers over the years who's fault it is that we are drawn to them.  Even the great poet Milton in his epic Paradise Lost just couldn't help making Satan the strongest character as the Fallen Angel.  What does poor Gabriel have to offer besides his horn?  "The Devil made me do it."

Whatever the reason, we love the Bad Boys.  Let's just keep them at a safe distance -- in books, on television or in the movies.  Bad Boys in real life are not so charming.   

Thanks so much, M.E.! Bad boys certainly are intriguing. What do you think, readers? Do you go for the bad boy or the nice guy? Post a comment to enter the drawing to win a copy of M.E.’s DEATH OF A DANCING MASTER. And don’t forget to stop back tomorrow to see if you’re the lucky winner. -- AP