7 Things You Will Always Find or Will Never Find in My Stories:

I got this from Ally, via her blog, Tangled Up In Words.

7 Things You Will Always Find or Will Never Find in My Stories:

1. Happily-Ever-Afters Okay, I'll be blunt, straightaway. You won't find a typical "Happily Ever After" ending in most of my stories. I tend to leave things rather ambiguous or unresolved. Which isn't to say that my writing can't serve as escapism, for someone seeking that. I only mean that all the loose ends don't get tied up, and all the messes don't necessarily get swept up and tidied away. Just like in life.

2. Emotions. I write rather emotion-based stories, so I try to dig into what they're thinking, and why they're doing what they're doing. It's important to me, and so far, so good. Let me know if you disagree...

3. Few -if any- blondes. Like Ally, I rarely - if ever - have a female lead who is a blonde. I'm not one, and I noticed at a very young age that quite a few of the female "leads" in stories (fairytales, Disney stories, whatever) were blondes. This made me feel quite left out, so I tend to write characters a little closer to my little ol' brunette heart. It's just a matter of preference. However, in my collection of short stories I'm currently working on, I do have at least one blonde lead character. Like I said, "Rarely."

4. Normal women. You'll probably find a female character who is less-than-perfect, on almost all levels. By this I mean - she won't have the looks of a supermodel, she'll make stupid choices from time to time, and she might even be a little misguided or (gasp!) selfish. She's flawed, but not tragically so. Generally speaking, it's likely she'll find redemption somewhere along the line, as well. I hope to write "realistic" characters, above all - and we aren't all size 4s, are we? I didn't think so. I believe readers are intelligent enough to accept this. If I'm wrong, by all means, let me know.

5. Atypical male leads. The same goes for my male characters. In the long-term, I'm not turned on by bodybuilders or most male models, and I don't write characters who look like them, either. In one tale I have a male lead who is an all-around "average" guy, except that he's also a transvestite. In another, you find a tall, gawky gent who has no job and lives in a glorified "squat" on the outskirts of an English village. I love these guys, and I hope readers will, too.

6. Sex. There will likely be sex, at some point. It will probably be "imperfect", as well. Sure, we like to read about flawless performances and lots of, erm, "cookies", shall we say? But the reality is, of course, this sort of thing doesn't happen all that often - so when it does it's even more special. Besides, there's a lot of emotional gold to be mined in those errant moments, wouldn't you agree?

7. Heartlessly evil characters. I can't write "robots", or people who are capable of acting without concern for others. If they do something evil, such as intentionally hurting someone else, chances are they're going to feel like crap about it. I don't want to know them in my life, so I don't write them (at least, not often) in my stories. If I do, I can guarantee you this: it won't be the hero/heroine.

There are, of course, many, many more things I could list here. But, since I'm only allowed seven, I'll force myself to stop.

I know... You were just enjoying it so much, weren't you? ;) And of course, you wouldn't be happy with Profoundly Shallow if I didn't include the eyecandy... So, here ya go:

Ohhhh... Antonio!

Ciao for now!