Romance Unlaced: When secondary characters demand their own stories

They can't be planned. It happens unexpectedly. An author is writing a story, and one of the secondary characters walks onstage for the first time and commands more than his or her share of attention. Readers are fascinated by that character. They become the character's champions. They start writing to the author. "When will you write X's story?" If it is a series, each appearance by this secondary character only increases anticipation for his or her book.

It is a wonderful accident, and if writers could predict the why and how of it, we would all have such characters in all of our books and series. Only we can't predict or plan it.

My first experience with this as a reader was years ago when Jo Beverley introduced her character Rothgar. The Internet went wild about him. You could all but hear chants around the country for Rothgar! Rothgar! According to Jo, "I guessed what would happen. The Marquess of Rothgar is a secondary character in My Lady Notorious. The hero is his youngest half-brother Cyn, who clearly saw him as a power figure, but mostly with annoyance. When Rothgar walked on the page, however, I knew. I seriously considered not having him appear in the book for fear of weakening the main storyline, but it wouldn't have worked. I wasn't surprised by the letters from readers saying, in effect, 'I loved My Lady Notorious, but I'm waiting for Rothgar.' I'd already decided, however, that his book would come last." (Devilish came out in 2000.)

Since he was the eldest of the siblings, and the titled character, it made sense to make his book the last. However, that only meant the frenzy built with each book.

Often it is a character who is a dominant figure who garners this kind of reader interest. That is what happened with Sabrina Jeffries in her The Duke's Men series. "Dominic Menton, whose book is If the Viscount Falls, was a strong personality in the series, always in control, and the other characters looked to him for advice. He was also the oldest sibling/half-sibling of the group of three siblings who'd banded together against their evil oldest brother, so he always came across as the leader. I had to make sure he didn't have too many scenes."

Sabrina mentioned again what Jo said: When such a character turns up in a series, that character has a tendency to want to take over. The author has to keep the character under control, or the book becomes unbalanced in its focus.

Dominance is not the only characteristic that can fixate readers' attention. Mystery can as well. According to Mary Jo Putney, "James, Lord Kirkland, appeared in the first five of my Lost Lords Series, usually as an enigmatic, rather haunted spymaster and 'fixer' for his friends. He got his reward in 2014's Not Quite a Wife, Lost Lords No. 6."

When such a character finally gets his or her story, readers are waiting. In Mary Jo's case, Lost Lords No. 6 was one of Library Journal's top 10 romances of the year and a New York Times and Paste BN bestseller.

Karen Hawkins had such a character enter one of her series in an unusual way. "I've received more reader mail asking for Michael Hurst's story, found in The Taming of a Scottish Princess, the final book in the Hurst Amulet Series, than for any other series finale book I've ever written. Throughout the series, readers followed dark, handsome, devilishly sure of himself explorer Michael Hurst and his travels through exotic lands via letters he wrote to his brothers and sister. In addition to these letters, which allowed the reader tantalizing glimpses of the hero of the final book, the Hurst family was working with him, trying to locate a missing family heirloom, a mystery that began in the first book of the series and is then solved in Michael's book."

I know from personal experience that bad boys can become readers' highly anticipated characters, too. In my Rarest Blooms series, the Duke of Castleford, whom I had originally not even planned as a main character, had readers filling my e-mail box for two years until his story, Dangerous in Diamonds, came out.

Some authors report readers championing underdogs, or decent characters who seem to have had a hard time of it. That is what happened with Sarah MacLean. "When I introduced Georgiana Pearson in my Love By Numbers series as first a ruined sister of a duke in Ten Ways to Be Adored When Landing a Lord, and then an unwed mother in Eleven Scandals to Start to Win a Duke's Heart, I began to hear from readers that poor Georgiana couldn't possibly be left to live out her days in ruin in Yorkshire."

As it turned out, Georgiana ended up hitting two home runs with readers. "Then I launched the Rules of Scoundrels series, with my four casino-owner heroes, the last and most mysterious of which was Chase," Sarah explained. "And readers clamored for his story. Little did they know that when Never Judge a Lady By Her Cover, the last of the series, was published, they would get both the stories for which they'd been asking — Georgiana was, in fact, Chase, no longer ruined in exile, but hiding in plain sight, as one of the most powerful men in London. My very own Wizard of Oz."

Grace Burrowes faced reader demand and anticipation with Daniel Banks in her Lonely Lords series. "He showed up in David: Lord of Honor as the heroine's brother. She was a fallen woman trying to keep her circumstances from her vicar brother's notice. Reverend Banks connected the dots, though, and came storming into the book ready to Deal With the Hero. Daniel's happily ever after comes out in November (Daniel's True Desire) as the second book in the True Gentlemen series."

It turns out nice guys sometimes finish first. "I knew Daniel was an appealing character, a truly good guy whom life had dealt low cards," Grace said. "I had no idea he'd get more mail than any other secondary character in any of the 12 other titles that make up the series."

I know that I was nervous when the time came to write Castleford's story. I asked the other writers if they found it scary to tackle the story of a character for whom there was so much anticipation. "With a character as anticipated as Kirkland, there are bound to be readers who envisioned different outcomes, so not everyone loved it," Mary Jo said. However, since the book did very well, "I'm guessing that more people found Kirkland's romance satisfying. Personally, I have no doubt that Kirkland and his Laurel are perfectly suited and happy together."

Jo admits that writing Rothgar's story was quite scary. "Yes, but I could hardly not write it. I loved writing it, because I got more deeply into his secrets, but I knew I would disappoint some. There were readers who wanted him to be healed by a sweet young lady. Firstly, he didn't need to be healed; he's a strong, well-rounded man. Secondly, he needed a life mate who could be his equal, so a countess in her own right who owns a large chunk of the north of England was just right."

Sabrina agrees writing those books is challenging. "Absolutely. And I still don't know if I pulled it off. Some readers say yes, some say no, although I think the majority liked his book. The problem with a hero who's a good guy from the beginning is finding his fatal flaw, because he has to have one in order to grow. In his case, it was a dose of going too far in trying to do what was best for his family that could make the reader want to shake some sense into him. He had trouble allowing himself to be vulnerable."

Karen was well aware of how important the final book in her series would be. "Because of the high amount of reader expectation, I worked especially hard to make sure Michael Hurst's story was worth the wait. I love a good mystery, and it was both challenging and rewarding to hide hints and red herrings throughout the series."

I asked readers on my Facebook page for examples of these compelling characters. Many of the books mentioned here were included. One reader posted: "I absolutely love Rothgar and still remember fondly about Waiting for Rothgar campaign." Also mentioned by readers was Wulfric Bedwyn in Slightly Dangerous by Mary Balogh. (One reader said, "At the time, I could hardly wait for his story. He was so ducal. So impossibly stone-faced.")

Also included were Joanna Bourne's character Adrian Hawkhurst; Stephanie Laurens' Royce and Dalziel, both from The Bastion Club; Calder Hart, from the Deadly series (aka Francesca Cahill Series) by Brenda Joyce; and Vander, who shows up in Eloisa James' Three Weeks With Lady X and then has a starring role in Four Nights With the Duke.

Reader Sue Gorman mentioned: "The character of Blue first appeared in Shana Galen's Lord and Lady Spy. Blue appeared in several of the books in this series. He finally got his own story — a novella which gave the reader insight into his character but didn't provide a HEA. Blue would appear exactly when the hero or heroine needed him and then vanish. He has very, very blue eyes which stand out. Also, he had fabulous dialogue and the ladies loved him."

All readers have their favorite characters. When many readers fixate on the same secondary character and anticipation for that character's story builds, it is a phenomenon special to romance novels, and exciting for everyone invested in that character — readers and the author alike.

Paste BN and New York Times bestseller Madeline Hunter is the two-time RITA-winning author of 25 historical romances. Her next release, Tall, Dark and Wicked , will be published in October. You can find her at www.MadelineHunter.com. To contact Madeline about content for or in this column, please e-mail her at RomanceUnlaced @ gmail.com (close up the spaces). Due to the volume of mail, e-mails from authors may not be answered personally, but all will be read.