Friday, September 20, 2013

GOOD GUYS OR BAD BOYS?




My guest is the multifaceted  Leanne Ellis who writes the Plain Fear series—complex paranormal stories set with the Amish community that touch your heart and lift your spirit. Her topic today is good guys and bad guys.


Mention Russell Crowe to a room full of women, and you’re likely to get many different reactions, from a shrug of indifference to heart palpitations. He has played both the hero and villain in movies but he definitely has that bad boy quality. What about Benedict Cumberbatch? He is quite the villain in Into Darkness. But he still makes hearts go pitter pat. The same is true of any main character in your favorite book. Mention a character like Atticus Finch, and you’re likely to get sighs from a female readership, mostly because Gregory Peck portrayed him so well in the movie version of To Kill A Mockingbird, but also because Atticus makes hard choices and is a strong voice of reason during turbulent times. What about Rhett in Gone with the Wind

Good guys and bad boys are throughout literature, and I find them both equally compelling and desirable, depending on the tale to be told.

In my Plain Fear series, I was able to utilize both good guys (some being Amish) and bad boys (some also being Amish), and it was a lot of fun allowing these characters to reveal their true identity no matter what kind of clothes they wore or car or buggy they drove. In the first book, Forsaken, Levi Fisher is more like Atticus Finch, and he must make some tough decisions, choosing if he will fight for the woman he loves. Forbidden, the second book in the series, has Roc Girouard, a Cajun ex-cop, who is definitely a bad boy. His match is a not-so-goodie-goodie Amish woman, who brings out the good in him. In the final book of the series, Forgiven, Samuel Fisher, is an Amish man sitting on the fence, trying to right the wrongs he’s committed and trying to figure out where he belongs in this world—inside the picket fence of the Amish world or battling the evils that threaten his family.

  • So do you like to read about good guys or bad boys or both?

Sourcebooks is giving away a set of all three books in the Plain Fear series, US/Canada only please.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    



FORGIVEN

Leanna Ellis


What Must We Sacrifice to be Forgiven?

Samuel Fisher has committed a sin of biblical proportions—he killed his own brother, Jacob. Haunted by guilt and talked by a vampire out for his soul, Samuel starts down the same dark path of destruction that led to his brother's death.


A captivating coming-of-age story unlike any other, Plain Fear: Forgiven pits redemption against temptation, love against fear, and simple faith against the intricacies of sin and salvation. In the gripping final battle between hunters and vampires, Samuel must choose where his loyalties lie. The lives of those he loves—as well as his own ultimate forgiveness—hangs in the balance.




                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     



Deep in the heart not only describes where Leanna Ellis lives in Texas but also the way she writes. Her books, whether romance, inspirational, women’s fiction, or paranormal, are infused with heartfelt emotion. Having written twenty published novels, Ellis has won many awards including the National Readers Choice Award and the Maggie Award.

When not chasing vampires through the darkened recesses of her mind or roping and riding along with her characters through sun-drenched plains, she stays busy driving her children to their multitude of activities, figuring out what to make for dinner (or where to order takeout), chasing her menagerie of crazy pets around the house, and researching the next idea. 

You can find Leanna: website, Facebook, Goodreads, and Twitter.