My ultimate weakness. (Don't open if you don't want to see sexy men.)

Okay. I have a little confession to make. We've known each other a little while now, I feel I can share this information with you. If you've read more than one of my books, you know that there is one thing my heroes all have in common, regardless of any other characteristic.

All my heroes employ, expertly, the smirk.

You might wonder why I would use this over and over and over and over again in my writing. Is it just a convenient go-to phrase I overuse? Is it a lazy way to write, dusting off the same ol' storytelling devices again and again?

The easiest explanation? It's my own personal kryptonite. If a guy uses a smirk on me, I'm a puddle. Simply put, he couldn't be a man of my fantasies without it.

I'm not really a superficial person. I've had crushes on all types of men, all races, all shapes and sizes, all ages. But there are a few key things they all share between them.

They're usually smart, funny, have an innate "grr" factor communicated with intense eyes and a smirk they keep cocked and loaded to fire.

The reason the smirk is my undoing is that it is a smile with an invitation. If you've ever been on the receiving end of a smirk, it's a non-verbal way for a guy to communicate that he's up to no good... and he wants you to be a part of it.

Some men have got this look down to a science. These men often end up on my own personal laminated list. (Or at least the dry erase board.) And they stay there for decades.

The first such man to do this was Bruce Willis, when he portrayed David Addison on Moonlighting. Honestly I thought Maddie was an idiot. I would have jumped him on the pilot episode.



My newest book, THE LEFTOVER CLUB, features a hero that the heroine has built up in her mind as the ultimate. This is the guy we all knew and wanted at some point, who was so amazing, who crossed off every sexy trait on our own personal lists, that make them the epitome of walking, talking temptation.

Since this story takes us back to the radical 80s, I was able to travel down memory lane and study my various unrequited loves and idols. Bruce hit the radar again and again, and his smirk is one of the main reasons why.

Needless to say, my hero, Dylan Fenn, is an expert smirker.

And you can thank (or blame) the following for drilling that weak-kneed reaction into my life with each and every time they all did something like this...



Why do I write all my hot men with smirks?

Why, indeed.