To which Karina Bliss said, “HAHAHAHHAH. Wait, really?”
Well, she actually said, “Zander….really, guys, you think he’s redeemable?”
To which we, and especially Elyssa, replied, “YES.”
And after some additional conversation, Karina said, “I like to write another and honestly you’re making me think about Zander…probably not for Super [Romance]. He won’t rein in his swearing.” (You can read the transcript after Karina arrived at about 9:57pm, if you’d like to see the conversation.)
Apparently the idea stuck with her for awhile, and now, she’s self-published Rise, Zander’s story. I wanted to get all nosy about it, and she agreed to do a Q&A with me about the book.
First let’s introduce the book, right? Right.
Acclaimed literary biographer Elizabeth Winston writes about long-dead heroes. So bad-boy rock icon Zander Freedman couldn’t possibly tempt her to write his memoir. Except the man is a mass of fascinating contradictions–manipulative, honest, gifted, charismatic and morally ambiguous. In short, everything she seeks in a biography subject. When in her life will she get another chance to work with a living legend? But saying yes to one temptation soon leads to another. Suddenly she’s having heated fantasies about her subject, fantasies this blue-eyed devil is only too willing to stoke. She thought self-control was in her DNA; after all, she grew up a minister’s daughter.
She thought wrong.
Rock star Zander Freedman has been an outlier–many would say an outcast–for most of his life. But there’s no disaster he can’t overcome, from the breakup of his band to the inevitable damage to his reputation. His Resurrection Tour is shaping up to be his greatest triumph–if his golden voice holds out. Contracting a respected biographer is simply about creating more buzz. Elizabeth’s integrity is the key to consolidating his legacy as one of rock’s greats. All the damn woman has to do is write down what he tells her. Not force him to think. Or encourage the good guy struggling to get out. And certainly not make him fall in love for the first time in his life. Turns out he is scared of something: being known.
And here’s Karina!
Sarah: Zee (Zander) is one of the most self-absorbed, selfish and egotistical heroes I’ve ever met. Was that difficult to write? Did you dislike him when you wrote him in What the Librarian Did?
Karina: Thank you!  Someone on Amazon called him a “self aware megalomaniac,” which sums up Zander’s character perfectly (but she loved him anyway). I didn’t like him when I wrote What The Librarian Did and I certainly didn’t respect him. Only reader interest made me take another look at him, and even then I had to let Zander wander into a couple of books before I decided we could work together.
I’ve always loved this Henry Wadsworth quote: “If we could read the secret history of our enemies, we should find in each man’s life sorrow and suffering enough to disarm all hostility.”
So I began plotting using that as my touchstone, and mixed in a little Mark Twain: “Go to heaven for the climate, hell for the company.”
Whatever Zander’s (many, many) failings, he was always entertaining when he strode into a scene – outrageous and funny.
It was important to have him already changing when the book began – no longer anesthetized by booze and drugs, Sleeping Beauty was waking up to his behavior.
Zander was never going to be a quick fix, and he’s not fixed when the book ends. But, with Elizabeth’s support, he’s on the right path now.
Sarah: One of the things I found both shocking and believable was that Zander’s changes, his elimination of drugs, alcohol, chocolate, bad foods, everything and every possible vice, was to save his voice, thereby preserving his career and the one thing he loves and feels he’s good at. And yet, he’s still being selfish. You’re right – he’s not a quick fix.
What about Elizabeth: what were the challenges in coming up with a heroine who could stand up to Zander and all his overpowering charisma?Â
Karina: Zander would never change of his own volition; he was too deep in denial and his defenses were too good. A sledgehammer was the only way to get through to the guy! Finding Elizabeth (like finding Nemo!) was a real challenge because in Zander I already had a fully formed character who easily commanded centrestage.
I knew she had to be his opposite but I tried to subvert every trope and leaven it with truth. For example, she’s a good girl with a propensity for secret affairs (though she rationalizes them). And ministers kids do get exposed to a lot of different, often troubled, people, through their parents’ ministry. They learn how to handle themselves.
The key to Elizabeth’s character arrived for me when she said this: “Don’t knock the well-behaved. We’re the backbone of society, mostly doing the right thing because somebody has to. We don’t create drama because we’ve done the hard yards cleaning up after those who do. Maybe we’re not the color, but we’ re the weft and the weave, the cloth that holds families and communities together. Being normal isn’t humanity’s glory job, but it is important.” From that moment, I ‘got’ her. In terms of standing up to Zander, I made her as strong in her sense of self as he was. And he got that, very quickly. They became good friends before they became lovers.
Sarah: This book has a lot of twists on familiar romance tropes and themes. There’s a little bit of Cinderella story with Elizabeth on tour with them and her introduction to Zander’s wealthy life, and there’s a little – or a lot – of reforming the bad boy, too. Sort of on an epic scale! What other themes do you see in this story (if you see any – some writers, I know, try not to look too closely, which is totally understandable!)? What are some of your favorites to read?Â
Karina: I absolutely love adding layers and resonance and referencing the romance canon, and I know that sounds arty and pretentious, but it’s all about sharing sly in-jokes with your tribe. I was a romance reader for thirty years before I aspired to be an author. As a reader, I have assumptions about how certain storylines or archetypes will play out. As a writer, I want to twist that assumption or beloved trope – the preachers daughter who has a wild side; the bad boy who falls in love first; an ex who is sweet and kind; a buddy love subplot between the women in the story.
Kids who are tough-talking dictators (FYI, my heroine will never give birth to twins and be either radiant or up for all night rumpy-pumpy two weeks later). The reader in me informs the writer, and then the writer gives it her best shot.
Fish out of water, bad boy reformed, friends to lovers, I love them all. And yes, they’re all in this book – hopefully in an organic way.
Sarah: Last question – are you reading any books you recommend right now?
Beyond fantastic is Lorraine Heath’s western Always to Remember about a Civil War conscientious objector. It’s not a new book, it was published in 1996 and is out of print – but it’s now available digitally. I bought it because Wendy the Super Librarian raved about it and I’m very susceptible to raves. Wendy wrote that “authors would start sacrificing virgins if the the outcome created a story like this one, it’s that good.” And she’s so right. I’ve got a virgin tied to a stake in the garden as we speak.
I’m also reading Joanna Bourne’s brilliantly written Rogue Spy and Meljean Brooks’ The Kraken King…her Iron Seas series always blows me away.
And I’m chuckling away at The Trouble with Dying a contemporary by Maggie Le Page, which has lovely black humor:
“When Faith Caron wakes up on a hospital ceiling looking down at her body in a coma, it’s a bad start to the week. She has no idea who she is or how she go there or why and the biggest mystery of all is why she married the schmuck who wants her ventilator switched off.”
Thank you to Karina for taking the time to do the interview, and for offering a print and digital copy to give away here. Yay!
Per Karina, who lives in New Zealand, “No geographical exclusions for the print book!” Thank you, ma’am!
So if you’d like to win a copy of Rise, please leave a comment below and tell us what character you wish would get his or her own story – even if it’s a villain. Especially if it’s a villain! I’ll draw two names at random on Sunday 22 February and announce the winner that day. Good luck!
The Winners!
Thank you to everyone who entered the giveaway! The winners are: tealadytoo and Violet Bick. Congratulations!
I always wanted Ivanhoe to end differently. Ivanhoe left the love of his life, Rebecca, because she was Jewish and married the girl he was friends with from childhood and always expected to marry. Rebecca never married because she loved Ivanhoe. Ah, but the villain of the story! I LOVED him and I was 12! He had no morals, he was a warrior priest sworn to celibacy (but wasn’t) and he was a little rapey/stalky towards Rebecca, but his declaration of love blew me away at the time. At the moment of his declaration, he had kidnapped Rebecca and was holding her hostage to lure Ivanhoe to his doom, oh and I think she was accused of witchcraft, mostly at his prompting so he pressure her into an illicit relationship (see, creepy), but in the terms of the story, he was willing to do for her what Ivanhoe would not do. He was willing to leave behind everything he had ever believed in or worked for; everything he had ever sworn to in order to leave with her and start a new life together. She threatened to jump out the window. I wanted to shake her and make her run away with him. Looking at it now, I can see all the problems from all three of them. Part of the reason that Rebecca refused was that she was also staying true to her Jewish beliefs, I don’t think that Ivanhoe ever even asked her to run away with him, so she might have told him no too if it had come to that. But it just seemed to me that Sir Brian du Bois-Giilbert deserved his happy ending.
HUGE fan of the villian to hero story. Juliana Gray did a great job with this recently in How To School Your Scoundrel. Can’t think of any shady characters I’d like to see reformed at the moment. Brain is ready for bed. Maybe it’ll come to me in a dream.
Since Karina Bliss is copying my reading list (finished Rogue Spy, starting part V of Kraken King) I’ll be adding The Trouble with Dying. Obviously she has excellent taste.
Luthe, from Robin McKinley’s Damar books. You just know he’s got a hell of a story.
Doubtless I’ll think of some villains from romances after I post …. In the meanwhile, it would be fun to see Draco Malfoy (from the Harry Potter books) get his own story.
I’m late to the Karina Bliss party but am about to head to Amazon to rectify that now – bad boy rockers and librarians – oh yeah.
Hmmm – characters who need a story – I’m assuming this is aside from all the ones in my head starring various book boyfriends. (That can’t be just me doing that.)
Derek from the Kate Daniels series. He has a solid back story, has had an eventful time as a secondary character and I think would stand as a leading man. (Although I don’t think the authors have any plans along this line for him.)
Off to Amazon. 🙂
I can’t think of any villains at the moment, but I always wonder about the mistresses/courtesans that get dumped when the hero decides he “can’t stop thinking about [the heroine’s] hair”. I don’t like when the authors make those girls seem like malicious bitches. And when the mistress/courtesan accepts her “parting gift” graciously I always hope that they get their HEAs, too.
Nicola Cornick’s book “One Wicked Sin” is a bit like this, except the heroine is divorced, not precisely an ex-mistress.
O! And Hoyt’s “To Beguile a Beast”, of course! All the catnips with that one!
Getting the story of that one character – the guy you’ve crushed on for years – is risky; so often it’s a letdown.
One of my choices would be Dean Priest from L.M. Montgomery’s Emily books. I know a lot of people think he’s a creepy, even pedo-ish, stalker, but he’s the most intriguing character in any of her books.
The other is Danny French from Kathleen Gilles Seidel’s Til the Stars Fall. He’s a selfish, conceited, monstrously arrogant former rock star and he could give Bono a run for his money in being the most annoyingly self-important do-gooder in the universe, but his love for his sister, who rescues him from himself at the end, is a constant of the story.
I can’t think of any villains I’d like to see redeemed, but OMG Karina wrote Zander’s book?!? I’m feeling very grabby handed right now after reading the Q&A. At first blush I was skeptical, Zander? Impossible. But now…I must read this now.
I can’t think of any right now, but I would love to read this book.
What a great post. I will be adding these Karina Bliss titles to my TBR list. For character to get his own story, that would be Valentine Napier (Duke of Montgomery) from Elizabeth Hoyt’s Maiden Lane series. He definitely has villainous tendencies.
I’ve always been fascinated by Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights. I don’t really consider him a romance hero, more of a romantic figure. Actually, I think he’s kind of an asshole. So redeeming him would be fun (although you’d have to rewrite the entire story).
He isn’t a romance villain but I was just raving last night about how much I would love to read a story about Galactus from his point of view, preferably an origin story. Galactus is this big Marvel Universe cosmic being who is always running around trying to consume planets and also battling heroes (usually the Fantastic Four but currently Squirrel Girl). I want to know what’s going in his head and if it’s possible to redeem someone who consumes planets. Talk about a challenge.
Wow, I always assumed that Bliss had Zander’s story lined up all along. So cool to read that she didn’t, but instead wrote it based on fan feedback. I have no ideas on villian –> hero, and don’t add me to the giveaway since I already bought Rise and am enjoying it (my first purchase ever since I joined Scribd through the sbtb promotional post – thank you for that!).
I would like one of Theresa Romain’s villains from her “Season for…” series to be a hero. Mostly because I think it can’t be done, she writes believable but incredibly & creepily entitled, maleficent bad dudes.
@DonnaMarie…I had the same thought…since Ms. Bliss’s reading list looks a lot like mine.
Karina, if I were a squealing fan girl type, I’d be squealing at your feet. I have and love all your books. I found you with What the Librarian Did then got the rest of your backlist and bought all your newer books as they came out.
Reading Rise was an interesting experience. I did NOT like Zander. At All, though I loved Elizabeth. For the longest time this was going to be a reluctant 3 star cause I love your writing but o did not like Zander. But starting maybe 3/4 of the way through, as Zander s.l.o.w.l.y. Became less self centered and s.l.o.w.l.y. Became more likeable, my grade started going up and up until I finished the book thinking, by Jove, she’s done it!! She’s made me care for Zander. This is bloody brilliant and the book, for me, became a well deserved and well earned 4.5 out of 5.
And FYI, Wendy, our Librarian sent me a rec for Rise through Goodreads, but I’d already got myself a copy of it. 🙂
And, since I have Rise already, and all other Karina Bliss books as well, no need to enter me.
I just finished reading Touch and Go by Mira Lyn Kelly, which was a great friends to lovers story. There is a character in the story, Tony, brother to the hero Sam, who is a real douchebag – cringeworthy even. He’s not a villain per se, but he could definitely use a comeuppance! I’d love to see him redeemed 🙂
It’s not a specific character but there are a couple of scene snippets in The Hero and The Crown when Aerin is being dragged back though time that I’ve always wished Robin McKinley would write full books or at least short stories for.
St. John Rivers from “Jane Eyre” needs a story in which he learns that breaking the heart of the rich girl he loves because she’s not suitable for the missionary life is not the way to get to heaven . . . .
Not a villain, but a wonderful character, I’d love to know more about Henry Standing Bear from the Longmire mysteries. Especially the part where he can’t/is afraid to commit to one lucky lady. What happened?!?
Most of the time, if I like a character that needs his/her own story, I’ll just make one up. But Henry is a mystery unto himself.
@Shelly – I’m so glad you’re liking the Scribd subscription!
And yeah, I love that Karina’s reaction to our asking for Zander as a hero was, “HA. No. Wait. You’re not kidding. Oh.” He was a tough redemption, especially because he has so much charisma, and can so easily get his own way by charming people.
Kristie J, I blush. Thank you.
The villain I want to see redeemed is the Captain (book lost in bookshelf, sorry) in Tom and Sharon Curtis’s The Wildflower. He grabbed my attention every time he wandered on the page. Cat too, needs a story, though I don’t think of him as a villain to the same degree.
So, awake now and feeling silly because, Taka, Ariq’s self-involved/traumatized little brother in The Kraken King. He is miserably depressed, semi-suicidal and a total douchecanoe. He says terrible mean things about Zenobia even though it’s clear his brother has the hot pants for her. Sure he’s all PTSD/tortured by love and actual torture devises, but seriously. So, yeah, there’s a jerk it might entertaining to see redeemed.
@ Rebe & Leftcoaster, great minds read alike! 🙂
@Karina Bliss
Oh, yeah—Rand Morgan. He’s not The Bad Guy in the book, but he’s definitely a Very Bad Man. I have a lot of admiration for Sharon and Tom Curtis for their ability to keep him from taking over the whole book, which he could totally have done if he hadn’t been so busy matchmaking for his little bro.
Will have to add this to my TBR list.
I once asked Sarah Mayberry to redeem a secondary character for me, she still hasn’t done it. *sniff*
Yes! Rand Morgan, thanks for stopping me tearing my bookshelf apart.
That’s a tough one….shoot….I just read a book & saw a douchey character in there that I thought, “Nope, he’ll never get his own story – no redeeming this douche!” but I see that he becomes the hero of a title in June, so anything can happen, I suppose!
I have sometimes wondered how Mansfield Park would have worked out if Henry Crawford had gone back to Everingham after seeing Fanny in Portsmouth instead of going to London and fooling around with Maria. The narrative states that if Edmund had married Mary Crawford (as he probably would have if Maria hadn’t run away with Henry, thus making things impossibly awkward with the Crawfords), Fanny would probably have eventually caved and married Henry. But would he have been able to earn her love? Would he have valued her enough after actually capturing her (so to speak) to make that a good thing for her?
And like many other fans of Lois McMaster Bujold, I would like it very much if she extended the Chalion series with books for the Mother and the Father. I would very much like to know how Foix dy Gura is doing with his bear, for one thing.
I’ll repeat Rand Morgan. I enjoyed the Windflower but I found the ending between Cat and Rand really disappointing. What would be a better setting for a historical m/m romance than a pirate ship?
Oh, this villain to hero story sounds verrrry interesting… *grabby hands*
I’ve always wanted someone to write a romance retelling of the Hades and Persephone myth. Hades definitely needs to do some atoning for the kidnapping and pomegranate seed tricking but I feel like there’s some definite reforming potential of the broody misanthrope and Persephone as the Iron Queen/Earth Goddess would be an awesome heroine.
Also, I’m listening to my country mix and Tim McGraw’s Real Good Man came on a few songs ago, which is just perfect for this post!
oooh… I love the idea of a “bad” boy/villian reformed! Thanks for the fun interview and congrats to Karina on the new release! Definitely running over to check out her books now 🙂
Someone beat me to it, but St. John Rivers from Jane Eyre. I actually thought he was going to turn out to be the hero when I first read this book!
Someone above mentioned Luthe, and now it’s all I can think about. God, those Damar books are so good. I wish there were more of them (please hear my call, Robin McKinley!)
From the moment I read ‘What the librarian did’ I have been waiting for Karina Bliss to introduce me to Zander! There is something about the rock star that can’t be tamed that is very intriguing… I certainly was not disappointed when a recently
‘met’ him! Well done, Karina. Another great book!
Great post, thanks for sharing. I remember really enjoying the character of Louis Ronsard from “All the Queen’s Men” by Linda Howard. He was bad but very well written.
As for villains who got their own story, I think of Villiers in Eloisa James Desperate Duchesses series. He had a wonderful arc!
@AmyMac I hope you see this… For a great twist on the Persephone & Hades story, try “The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker” by Leanna Renee Hieber and it’s sequels if you like it.
I’m immersed in a re-read of the Outlander series because of the TV show on STARZ. As such, no “villian” comes immediately to mind for their own sequel. Certainly, not Black Jack! Heh. I guess the closest, in terms of my interest, is either Dougal or Geillis. Both are antagonistic to the main characters at times, but also are somewhat sympathetic too — or should we say attractive.
In any event, I read Karina Bliss’ What the Librarian Did and enjoyed it. I have a soft spot for romances featuring rockers — either male or female — because that’s the genre of music I grew up loving and still love. So many romance novels feature country singers/music, which is not my cup of tea at all. I guess it’s because it’s supposedly all wrapped up in small town America. Well, I’m a city girl, so when a rocker romance is published, I’m usually there!
He’s not a villain, but the movie star sidekick in Julie James’ first book.
Heyer has a couple of villains whose redemption stories would tickle my fancy. There is The Black Moth’s Duke of Andover, Tracy Belmanoir, who might or might not be the model for Justin Alastair, Duke of Avon and hero of These Old Shades. Apparently, Heyer denied the connection, but there are undoubted parallels between the stories. Still, I prefer the intriguing villain left alive and full of potential. There is also the character of Robert Lethbridge, left thoroughly defeated yet retaining a few shreds of dignity at the end of The Convenient Marriage.
Well, I would say Jason Malory (Johanna Lindsey’s series), but he already got his own story. I just thought it was never the right one. I never bought the “earl and housekeeper” trope. I would have liked a story where he fell in love with his (long-suffering) wife. (As clichĂ© as that story is.)