Guest post and giveaway from author Anne Marsh

I recently did a Time Magazine interview, which was loads of fun—except the interviewer mentioned, in print, to millions of readers that I’d switched from writing paranormals to writing contemporaries. Umm. No. I’m writing both. Because I’m greedy that way. Still, the interview got me to thinking… why do I enjoy writing paranormal so much? What makes writing about fallen angel bad boys so exciting?


1. Angel bad boys get the best names. Adrian Blackhawk. Raphael. Lysander. Raziel. Strong, biblical, take-no-guff names for men who are blunt, cut-the-crap kind of men. The names along scream hero.

2. Fallen angels also get the best cribs. I don’t need to read stories set in a four bedroom ranch in the suburbs (I can just get up off my couch if I want to see that). I love the otherworldly, paranormal landscapes. I’ll take the shrouded gates of Raziel’s home, the otherworldly English country home of Ward’s angels. I gave mine a Russian palace, a slamming Moscow dance club, and a post-apocalyptic wasteland.

3. Arsenal of death? Check. Fallen angels also get some of the coolest weapons out there in the paranormal world. Sure, contemporary romance heroes sometimes look like they cleaned out a military base and the shape shifters come armed with all manner of claws, but the fallen angels get the really cool weapons. Divine swords. Wings. Spells and magic and runes. These guys can really pack a punch.

4. On a related note, power. Fallen angels aren’t your average beta hero. These guys are as alpha as they come. Whether its Jim Heron and the motorcycle-riding angels in J.R. Ward’s Covet and Crave or Nalini Singh’s Archangels, these males know how to fight. My boys prowl through M City, hunting down fallen angels gone bad and fighting archangels gone bad.

5. All that power gets put to good use, too. There’s nothing like an epic battle between good and evil to really heat up the pages of your book. Ward’s angels are pitted against the ultimate demon from hell, with the world at stake. Raziel and his Fallen are facing divine wrath and my own Fallen are on the front lines of a heavenly battlefield.

6. Dark, dark, dark. Maybe there’s a light paranormal out there with a fallen angel hero (and, if you know of a good one, let the rest of us know!), but all the books I’ve read have had a dark side. Sometimes, a very, very dark side. I love apocalyptic settings, where all the extras and the civilized trappings get stripped away and all that’s left is the very core of the hero and heroine. Even the threat of apocalypse now (Eden Campbell and Angel Slayer, anyone?) is enough to keep me turning pages.

7. Domination and doms. Fallen angels are dominant alphas, more comfortable with kicking ass than discussing feelings. Their heroines tend to be feisty, spunky women who know how to stand up for themselves and what they want. Eden Campbell isn’t going quietly into that good night—and neither is Nicole St. James.

8. The fall. What makes a good, honest-to-the-bone male take that step off the edge? What would tempt him or drive him? For Gena Showalter’s Lysander and Cynthia Eden’s Keenan, it just might be desire. Raziel doesn’t know why he’s taken the plunge, but he’s very sure it has everything to do with the woman in his arms.

9. Redemption. He may have fallen, but he’ll always pay the price for his sins. He does what he believes is right and, if that action comes at a cost, he’ll pay. I read because I want to know how and when and why the fallen angel can earn his way back into heavenly good graces. What does it take to reform the bad boy? For my Fallen, it’s the love of the right woman.

10. Sensual… I don’t know why Heaven’s bad boys are so sensual (maybe that’s what makes them bad boys to begin with?), but they are. The fallen aren’t choir boys—they’re earthy, sensual, hedonistic males who are as capable tearing it up in the bedroom as they are on the battlefield.


What do you think makes fallen angel such sexy heroes? Here’s a little excerpt that gives you a hint of why I really enjoy my angel bad boys so much…

“I want all of you,” he said, and that hoarse note was back in his voice, squeezing her heart and turning her insides molten.

She pulled his dark head down to hers, closing her eyes because all this was almost—but not quite—too much. She hadn’t been asking for love, but that was what she’d found when she’d found Zer.

“You’ve got it. You’ve got me. I love you,” she whispered, sensing rather than seeing his slow smile as the wicked shadows wrapped around them and he filled her world.

He leaned into her. “Falling or flying,” he promised, taking her mouth—and her heart—in a hard, hot kiss. “We do it together.”


  

For more information about Anne and her books, check out her website or visit her on Facebook and Twitter. Anne is giving away a copy of Bond With Me and His Dark Bond to one lucky winner. 

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