Results are in!

Every year–I say every year but this is only the second year I’ve done this, it will be an annual thing, though–I ask the Champions subscribed to my newsletter to vote for the story they would like to see me offer for free on Valentine’s day–February 14. This year’s winning book is…Rumpelstiltskin with 25 votes and 33% of the votes. So mark your calendars folks, Rumpelstiltskin will be free on Amazon on February 14, 2016! Happy Valentine’s day!

Also, the polls are closed and the results are in for the 2016 Hero poll! The favorite hero types are: Prankster Deviants (Friedrich of C&C and Asher and Aron of Life Reader) have a runaway win with 169 votes, Earnest and Sweet (Stil of Rumpelstiltskin and Azmaveth of Princess Ahira) take second place with 146 votes, and the Strong and Silent type (Arion of Red Rope and Severin of B&B) take third with 135 votes. In fourth are the sarcastic and opinionated heroes (Merlin of King Arthurs and Steffen of Puss in Boots) with 126 votes, Villains with Heart (Farrin of Snow Q.) stole fifth with 122 votes, Arrogant but loving (Aysel of the MBRC) took six with 71 votes, the Heroic type (Rune of Wild Swans, Will Scarlet of Robyn Hood) snagged seventh with 51 votes, and loyal flirts (Devin of MBRC and Lancelot of King Arthurs) come in last with 33 votes. I do suspect Devin’s place in rock bottom might be partially due to pairing him with Lancelot, but I didn’t have another example. (Sorry, Devin!)

Looking at the results, I have to say they are fairly consistent with 2015’s poll. In 2015 the strong and silents won with 121 votes, and they were followed closely by the prankster/deviants, the earnest and sweet type, and then the sarcastic and opinionated. There was a bit of an upset with the first three this year, but the vote counts are so close I think it is safe to say the top three winners for 2016 and 2015 seem to be the types you guys prefer. Which brings us to the next poll!

I asked you, Champions, what hero you most wanted to see in future stories, and used your comments from my blog and Facebook to compile the archetypes I offered. Winning by a hair is the Over-Looked Good Guy with 108 votes. The Arrogant/Caustic Genius gave him a close race with 107 votes, and the Trickster Anti-hero wasn’t far off with 98 votes. The Tragic Anti-hero came in fourth with 87 votes, the older brother/mentor type took fifth with 77 votes, and the Awkward and Nerdy guys took sixth with 65 votes. Mysterious placed seventh with 58 votes, the Childhood Friend came in eighth with 57 votes, and the Alpha male grabbed ninth with 52 votes. Last were Male-Damsel-In-Distress with 48 votes, Unapologetic Villain with 42 votes, and nice Jocks with 14 votes.

Thank you to everyone who voted! I consider your preferences as I try to mold and sculpt new characters, so you can bet that you’ll be seeing some of the poll options in future stories. That’s a lot of information for today so I’ll cut it off here, but to give you a quick work update I’m getting ready to start my next Fairy Tale, and Editor #2 is still ripping apart working on Snow Queen 2. Thank you for reading, Champions. Have a fabulous week!

The Ideal Hero Poll 2016

Greetings, Champions! It has come: the Ideal Hero Poll for 2016! Let there be much rejoicing!

I’m sure some of you are wondering what the heck I’m talking about. Here’s the situation:  I try to write a variety of male protags because every reader is going to have a different preference. No matter what hero/prince I create, some of you will love him and some of you won’t be terribly impressed, it’s a sad reality. However! Your preferences are still important to me, so I use the hero poll as a sort of thermometer to see what hero archetypes are the most popular.

I created the Ideal Hero poll–using my characters as a reference because I know you’ve met these guys, or you wouldn’t be here–that gives you the opportunity to vote for your favorite characters/archetypes. I don’t have a limit on your number of selections, but I ask that you choose no more than three. Why only three? The more you vote the more skewed the results will be. I take your response seriously, so please follow the rules and only cast your three votes one time! The poll will close 1/24/2016, and I’ll announce the winning types on 1/25.

Take note, though, because this year I’m adding a second poll: Most-Wanted Hero. In this poll you can vote for your favorite male archetype that I have not yet written as a main character! It follows the same rules as the Ideal Hero poll–three selections and you can vote only once. I checked in with my Facebook and Blog Champions for ideas, but if you have a favorite archetype that didn’t make the cut, please shout it out in the comment section! These polls are supposed to provide discussion and feedback for me, so don’t be shy. Okay, hold onto your hats because here we go!<a href="https://polldaddy.com/p/9277139" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Take Our Poll</a>

Annnddd for the new poll! I tried to find examples, but for some of them I couldn’t swing it. Sorry!<a href="https://polldaddy.com/p/9277189" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Take Our Poll</a>

Thank you for participating in the 2016 Ideal Hero Poll AND the 2016 Most-Wanted Hero Poll. I can’t wait to see who wins. Good luck, and choose carefully!

SOS!

It’s that time of the year! Beginning next week I’ll hold my annual “Hero Poll” in which I post archetypes of main male characters with examples pulled from my books and ask you to vote for your favorites! In example, last year one of the voting options was for the “Strong-Silent Type” and the examples were Severin from Beauty and the Beast and Arion from Red Rope of Fate.

It’s meant to be fun so we can see who is the most popular protagonist, but it’s also really useful for me because it helps me get an idea of what you guys like and what you want more of. I’m still going to hold that poll–with additions from all the new books I’ve written since then–but this year I’m going to have a second poll, and I need your help!

The second poll will be a list of hero archetypes I haven’t yet used, and you’ll get a chance to vote for the ones you want to see the most. This is where I need you to chime in! In order for me to make that second poll, I need a list of voting options. So far I’ve come up with: the childhood friend, the older-brother type, and the anti-hero. What archetypes am I missing? I posed this question to my Facebook Champions last night, and so far they’ve added the alpha male archetype, and the tortured romantic. (Tortured romantic meaning he doesn’t feel he’s worthy of love, but he is sweet and gentle.)

Give a shout in the comment section with the archetypes you want/like, and I’ll try to include it! Thanks in advance, Champions! I can’t wait to see who you vote for next week.