(sorry, Dear Reader: WordPress was down for a bit, hence the delay in posting):

I don’t write alpha males. I don’t like them. Pushy, overbearing jerks, most of them. Well, I should say, I do write alphas, they just aren’t my heroes. Lord Tharp is an alpha male, and what did he do? He was such a jerk to his wife she leaves him, crossing into another dimension (which gives a whole new meaning to divorce), and then he starts a war.

General Marthen was another alpha male, and he was a little off in the head, if you know what I mean. Even in my non-Gordath work, they just don’t come up too often. There’s Carroth in The Warlord and the Princess, which can be found on this blog, but otherwise, blech. Plus, he was sort of the hero but mostly I poked fun at him.

Alphas seem to rule the romance genre though, and I just don’t get it. Most men aren’t like that, and who would want one if he were? Pushy, overbearing guys are a pain to be around. You always have to listen to them and they always want you to be at their beck and call, and maybe music soothes the savage beast, or breast, or however the saying goes, but I guess I’m just tone deaf in more ways than one.

I like the men in Gordath Wood and Red Gold Bridge. They are strong, stalwart, honest, and conscientious. They stand fast. Crae gets a lordship and what does he do? He hands it over to his wife, who should have had it in the first place. Joe never gives up on Lynn. Never. He tries to find her, even going to jail for her disappearance, but he never gives up hope. And Colar – Colar is still young, and he’s tough, and he’s being pulled in a couple of directions, but through it all he’s just trying to find his footing and do the right thing. He’s becoming a man.

In closing, we turn to Say Anything for the last word in alpha males.

“Don’t be a guy. The world is full of guys. Be a man.”

Alphas. Who needs ‘em?