I try to create characters who are flawed but basically good human beings, whether heroes or villains. (Villains just have more or deeper flaws and don't make much effort to overcome them or make amends for their mistakes.)  I make religion a part of my characters' lives without being preachy.

As a cultural conservative, I have a lot of problems with some tenets of liberalism and I'm dismayed at the damage it has wrought on our society just in my lifetime.  Yes, I know that no philosophy originating in the human mind is perfect, and conservatism has it's flaws, too.  But some liberal ideas have an iron-fisted grip on the culture and they're just too destructive to ignore.

One of the most destructive is radical feminism, of which I am a staunch opponent.  I don't have a problem with women's rights.  I like voting and being paid what my work is worth.  These are the fruits of what Christiana Hoff Sommers calls "equity feminism."  The problems come from another brand entirely, "gender feminism."

Gender feminists are the ones who say that gender is a "social construct" with no basis in reality;  that there are no real differences between men and women. Or, as one wag put it, "Women are just men with less money."
 

"Read Cover to Cover, Never Bound by the Truth" said the little slogan in the top left corner of the cover.  My articles were all nonfiction and ran the gamut from travel to current events and chemtrails to Bigfoot in Dixie. 

I'm a ninth-generation Southerner. Born in Georgia, I grew up a preacher's kid in Alabama, attended Alabama Christian College (now Faulkner University) and married a Louisiana boy. 

I currently reside with my husband of 30+ years in L.A. (Lower Alabama -- aka, the Florida panhandle). 

Rex Stout -- author of the Nero Wolf detective series -- the voice of Archie Goodwin, my favorite first-person narrator. 

Frances Parkinson Keyes -- her sprawling Louisiana novels are a bit dated now and politically incorrect but her settings and characters are highly memorable.  (Clyde Batchelor of Steamboat Gothic is the quintessential romance hero!) 

Dixie Browning -- Back in the '80s, Dixie was the first to inspire me to try my hand at writing romance. 

Margaret Mitchell -- Need I say more? 

Thus, to get around what I believe is a natural feminine trait, we see in so much romance fiction strong, magnetic males who, for some reason, aren't really men, of the homo sapiens variety.  They're vampires, werewolves, extraterrestrials or extradimensionals and they can drive a human woman wild with lust and love -- with a single look.  Presumably, it's okay with gender feminists if their less rabid sisters admire these alpha, um, quasi-males -- as long as they're not part of the evil patriarchy.

Studly vampires and wolf-men may be fine for occasional escapism, but sometimes people want, and need, to read something of substance.  That's why I love to write -- and read -- about real men. Give me heroes who are the flesh and blood sons of Adam struggling to live up to the nobility of human nature and harness their less noble components. 

The best heroes are tough, sweet, loving men who take their responsibilities seriously -- men of principle, men of courage, men of passion who do not let their passions master them.  Good is soooo much sexier than evil!

Frankly, the reason I write is to honor such men; in fact, to glorify them ... particularly Southern men, who are so often unfairly maligned in popular culture.  That makes my stories a bit controversial, perhaps ... Southern Man, which is about a false sexual harassment accusation against an innocent man, is intentionally anti-feminism. 

It's a tough job but, hey, somebody's got to do it!