Compiling a swoon-worthy love interest

A small note first before I kick off into my post. I've been absent from posting with YAtopia for a while. On one hand, I am sorry to my fellow YAtopians and readers, but on the other hand, I needed to take time out for some self care. I'm not in a position to talk about what's happened in my life over the past six months or so, but there's been some major changes and adjustments, and my head hasn't been in writing or blog posts. But I'm back, and hopefully the words will keep flowing.

So, swoon-worthy love interests and how do you put them together. You take a a dash of humour, a hot-looking guy with caring tendencies.

When I was writing Ryder, I did a search online and ended up with finding a picture of a guy called Daniel Conn, a tattooed rugby league player from Australia. He formed the basis of Ryder's looks for my character profiles, and I went with it from there. And you can see what I went with for promo material below for his character.

Then his personality. Well, shamelessly I did draw a lot from my husband. We have this playful teasing banter (and as I write this he just made a 'what?' joke - a standard for when we want someone to make less noise), and I went with that for the dynamics between Mishca and Ryder. And one of the grammar jokes I stole from my sister, who is an English teacher.

Started with those basics, I let Ryder's character take himself where he needed to. And honestly, I didn't expect how much 'Team Ryder' readers would be. I don't think anyone is Team Colin (poor Colin - he's the reason the story exists).

You can find out more about Ryder in DIVIDED...

And in SHATTERED...

Sharon M. Johnston (right) at the launch of SHATTERED

Sharon M. Johnston is an author from sunny Queensland, Australia. She writes YA and NA SciFi and Fantasy, and other genres mashed up together. Yo can find her on Twitter.