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I've been SEALed


by Mary Margret Daughtridge


When I'm asked how I came to write SEALed With a Promise, I have to admit the first person who got “SEALed” with a promise was me.

Like a true bad-boy hero, Caleb aka “Do-Lord” Dulaude did not behave well in our first encounters. He was only supposed to be Jax’s perceptive sidekick. Instead, he took SEALed With a Kiss hostage, and wouldn’t give it back!— until I wrote down the story of what he was before he was a SEAL. A trailer-trash kid who faked his IQ down, hid out in libraries between bootleg deliveries, and had only one moral yardstick—whatever took care of his mother.

It took two weeks but when I was done, he still wouldn’t let me finish Jax’s story—not until I promised this SEAL his own HEA.

Promising wasn’t hard. Do-Lord had touched my heart. Delivering on the promise was.

I understood why he longed for a relationship like Jax had found, but a sweet-to-the-bone heroine like Pickett would be a disaster. I had in mind someone bright, sassy, savvy, and super-confident—-anyone else he’d run circles around, and be bored with in less than a week.

I was designing the perfect woman when in butted Emelina Caddington, PhD. She demanded his covert operations help with her cockamamie scheme for a wedding cake heist.

Emmie had the “bright” qualification, in fact she was a brilliant, out-of-the-box thinker—hence the cake caper. The rest? Not so much.

She tended to freeze up around what she called jocks, and really, Miami Dolphins, Navy SEALs—-what was the difference? She recognized the type.

She was clueless about hair, clothes and makeup, and despite all her brain power, a little naïve about man-woman relationships.

I didn’t see this ending well—and then it got worse. Do-Lord discovered Emmie was a family friend of Senator Teague Calhoun. "What’s wrong with that?" you ask. Let me show you the first sentence of SEALed With A Promise.
Chief Petty Officer Caleb “Do-Lord” Dulaude always said if he ever saw Teague Calhoun again, he’d kill him.


So what's your challenge with bad-boy heroes?

Comments

  1. MM, it might be easier to talk about what ISN'T my challenge with my bad boys. I have a hard enough time when one tries to hijack the plot but when he recruits the heroine and they act in cahoots, I'm doomed.

    My current BB just sits there grinning, all cute and Cajun, taunting me with beignets and cafe au lait, and whispering sweet nothings in my ear as he tries to lure me off the path I've plotted.

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  2. Silver, I hear ya! I thought I'd never pin him down for long enough to give him the happy ending he wanted.

    But you know part of the problem? I had to explain to him what a happy ending WAS.

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  3. Dude! Don't you just hate when that happens? But then, when they "get it" (as in the light bulb turns on AND they get the HEA), life is good! Pardon me while I go beat Gabe about the head and shoulders with an HEA.

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  4. Hey MM--

    Bad Boys are among my favorite characters! Whether they are good guys in disguise or bad guys who I really shouldn't have a thing for :) Great post!

    Danielle

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  5. Oh, now you've got me really intrigued.

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  6. Silver, don't hurt him. Flay him gently--no I take that back!

    Did y'all see that? How quick her BB got to me? Sheesh!

    Silver, you go whop him upside that thick skull with some overwhelming JOY. That'll fix him.

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  7. Danielle, you know you should always give BB's the girlfriend test, don't you?
    If he passes, well, a Bad Boy gone good, is one of the best kinds. :-)

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  8. I LOVE the way you talk about your characters taking over and exerting themselves! I experienced this phenomenon with several characters from my Saga, one in particular. But I never quite saw it in the light of them actually becoming 'real' in a sense, having a will of their own that spoke insistently. Of course, someone who does not write probably thinks we are nuts! LOL!

    And, do not fear ladies, we know these characters aren't REALLY sitting here talking to us - *shhh George, I'm writing here!*

    Umm, where was I? Oh yeah, great characters! Gotta love 'em!

    Can't wait for the next Sealed installment, MM. Today I'm heading to B&N where my book has been spotted *insert high pitched squeal* and will be looking for yours as well. Wish me luck!!

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  9. I can't wait to read this ---- I'm getting itchy finger now.

    E.H>

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