Who Do You Identify With?

I recently had a person in the know tell me.... change the heroine's career because readers don't identify with this career.

It made me think about 'me' as a reader and who I identify with. Now, I'm not going to talk about LIS books, per se, because I read them all and I don't read them as a reader. I read them to see what my peers are doing, and yes I analyze them as to what I think the writer did well and what didn't work for me. If I get lost in an LIS (which I often do) it's like a gift. So, I'm thinking about the last few books I purchased and really enjoyed. Susannah's Garden by Debbie MacComber: Heroine is a fifth grade teacher (I'm a teacher) who is on summer vacation. By the end of the book she's decided to buy a flower shop (not on my list of things to do. I kill flowers).

Odd Thomas by Dean Koontz: Thomas is a fry cook (I cooked in an Italian restaurant all through high school)

The Bone Yard by Michelle Gagnon: An FBI agent (secretly, if I were braver MUCH braver I'd want to be a FBI agent)

The Ex-Wive's Survival Guide by Debby Holt: Stay at home mom. (No, don't read anything in this. I have a four year old. I'm not raising him alone. I told my husband on our wedding day that if it wasn't working, he had to give it 50 years, and then I'd listen to his complaints.)

The Maverick Preacher by Victoria Bylin: Innkeeper. (I'm pretty sure that I am just yuppy enough to have the bed and breakfast dream. Too bad I hate laundry. I think there's a lot of laundry in this dream).

There are two books, from just weeks ago, that I did not finish. Ironically, and I just noticed, both of them featured poor girls who were existing in the life of wealth and privilige either because they married into it (big mistake) or they were undercover.

Now I know... I'm not going to write about the Paris Hilton lifestyle.
And, many of my heroines are teachers or work in restaurants. Or, they work in environments that become a community (Yes, my favorite TV shows are community TV shows. I love, love, loved the Gilmore Girls. And, I was a big fan of Wings.)

How about you? What H/H's do you read? What jobs do you identify with?

April the Month of Sacrifice

by Barbara Phinney,

This year, Easter falls in the month of April, and as with the rebirth of the land up here above the equator shows us, we're ready for a rebirth in our own lives.
Which means sacrifice.
In fact, as in our books, where the hero and heroine sacrifice something for the love of the other, I have found myself doing the same thing.
My daughter is whipping me into shape. (I told her that ROUND is a shape!)
My husband and I are off to Florida in two weeks and my daughter is determined that I look my best. She's got me on a diet she read about in her Self magazine. While she says she can feel the pounds dropping off her (she's 19, for goodness' sake. Cutting out one fancy cappiccino will do that), I'm looking at the itty bitty portion of food she's made for me and thinking that pounds aren't falling off me, it's tears of sadness!
But this is the month of sacrifices. I must make some, and even in my writing, I need to make some. I have a deadline coming up and I need to set aside the things I like to do in order to focus on my manuscript.
I need to show my readers that my characters are worth rooting for, that they have learned valuable lessons in the course of the story, and that the bad guys don't get ahead.
We sacrifice all the time. But we must also remember the ultimate sacrifice God made for us, by sending His only Son to take the blame for all our sins.
We can't match that, but we can sacrifice things in our daily lives. Things we don't really need and that aren't good for us, but what we want just the same.
Things like all that food I was eating. And the time I was wasting instead of working on my manuscript.
Time to rethink our lives and what we're doing that isn't healthy for us.
Time to thank God for all He's given us.