Heroines are a dicey thing for me in many stories. I find a lot of heroines to actually grate on my nerves. They're either too sweet or too feisty, so I'm left feeling like whatever happens they had it coming. That sounds bad, but when a smarmy heroine has bad happen to her, I often think, "Well, if you hadn't let him run all over you, this might not have happened." And the constantly fighting with the hero type of heroine is even worse. That's not creating sexual tension for me. It's often just getting on my nerves to the point that I end up loving the hero, even if he's a bastard, because he has to put up with such a shrew.
When I began working on Blood Betrayed, I decided immediately that my heroine had to be strong, but there would be none of that pain in the ass heroine business.
Her name means "solemn" or "sun" and either work for her character.
She's the calm that Saint has always sought but won't allow himself to
have, and she possesses a warmth and light that no one else has around
him. Sometimes names are just good because of the way they sound, but Solenne's was always intended to be meaningful.
She's one of those characters that grew on me. I liked her from the beginning, but as I began to really flesh out her traits and back story, I found myself really feeling a kind of affinity with her. She's strong, a trait I admire in both males and females, and even with all that Saint forces her to deal with, along with what she has to do to help the Sons, she still stands strong in the toughest of times.
I think the key to Solenne is that she's a woman in love. That the man she loves hasn't forgiven her for almost 100 years is simply something she accepts and intends to overcome. I like that in her. That he's stubborn and brooding doesn't stop her; in fact, she loves him just the way he is. That I really like.
When I set out to find a picture of what she looks like, I stumbled upon the one I used for this post. It's perfect. She's sexy, strong, and has red hair (well, it's reddish in black and white). But beneath all that is a gentleness that is very much like what the character Solenne has inside her.
Heroines can be difficult for me to write because I feel like I'm always working to avoid the smarmy on one side and the pain in the ass on the other while trying to create someone unique. In Blood Betrayed, Solenne is neither extreme and very unique. I like that in her.
