The Venn Diagram of my aspirations as a writer: to write heroes like Julie Garwood, heroines like Sarah MacLean, and heartwrenching stories like Abby Jimenez
Three authors who inspire me to dig deeper, work harder, and venture into th unknown in my writing are Julie Garwood, Sarah MacLean, and Abby Jimenez.
The first medieval romance I read was by Julie Garwood, and I was immediately drawn to her stories, and especially the heroes who could crush an enemy in their bare hands and would move heaven and earth for the woman they love.
Sarah MacLean’s novels make me love the heroine as much as the hero because they are women who refused to accept the limitations put on them by society. They want more out of life and they reach for it with everything they have to prove not only to others but also to themselves their value and what they are capable of as a woman.
Everytime I read an Abbey Jimenez book, I find myself slowing down to savor the way she gets inside the head of the character and exposes all of their vulnerabilities, fears, aspirations, and hopes in a way that feels like she’s reaching right into the reader’s chest and squeezing their heart. She always leaves me feeling emotionally wrung out and emotionally satisfied at the same time.
All three of these writers have written books that I read, reread, study, analyze, and savor. When I think about the writer I aspire to be, it is blend of these three writers and how they make me feel as a reader. I want my heroes to be just as alpha-swoony as Julie Garwood’s, yet be puddy in the hands of the heroine. I want my heroines to refuse to settle for the mundane and use their restlessness to propel them to prove their worth to themselves and to the world they live in. And I want the reader to feel like their heart is being squeezed because they can identify with the characters and understand the deepest and darkest recesses of their minds as well as the euporhia of the happiest and brightest moments.
It’s a lot to aspire to as a writer, but it’s worth the effort.