Since I talked about Griff last week, I thought I'd talk about his heroine this week. Catriona Jasarevic. Mineralogist with the dream of being curator of a gem and mineral exhibit at a museum.
When I wrote chapter one of Griff's book and stuck it at the back of Wicked Intention, I knew nothing about Cat except a few facts. What I mentioned in the paragraph above and that she worked at the Paladin League, but didn't know Zo or Finn or Archer. I didn't even have an idea what her personality was like.
But I always hunt pictures of my characters even if it takes forever and the model that fit Cat had this expression on her face which made it clear she was no one's pushover.
And when the initial placeholder book blurb got written--the one which was a paragraph long and only from Cat's POV--I had her.
If you've read the first two books in the series, you know Griff is referenced as abrasive and obnoxious. He's a real handful and I knew it, so I was a little worried about how his heroine would deal with him.
And then I wrote the first scene in Cat's Point of View (POV).
Cat is no one's pushover. She's the youngest of five children and the only girl. She always tried to hold her own with her older brothers and she's used to going toe-to-toe with strong-willed men. It's part of the reason how she became a strong-willed woman. She's smart, but in over her head in Puerto Jardin and she needs help. She knows she needs help, but that doesn't mean she wants to stand by helplessly and let Griff handle everything without her.
These two... OMG! I loved writing them together. She has Griff's brain spinning, which leaves him flatfooted at times. It's not one-sided either. Cat is immediately attracted to Griff, too, even as he infuriates her. They frustrate each other, aggravate each other, and they talk to each other. They learn to trust each other.
I hope when you read them, you enjoy Griff and Cat as much as I did as I wrote them.
