For as long as I can remember, I’ve found people, and men in particular, to be fascinating.  While the love of the written word has been in my blood for as long as I can remember, the very nature of human nature never ceases to amaze me.  And as a writer, I find my male characters both hero and secondary characters to hold me in thrall and I wonder to myself – Just what are they thinking?

  The men of our stories, our heroes, are on a journey of self-discovery.  In meeting and falling in love with our heroines, they must break one of the cardinal rules of manhood.  They must open up to themselves, and their ladies, that they falling in love and actually have the capacity to do so.

There are numerous resources out there to facilitate the research into exactly what men are thinking because we really want to paint an accurate picture when we are writing. So what are these resources?  One could go to the local library or order on line books that help spell out what men are thinking for the 21^st century woman.  Classic among these is ‘Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus’. 

Another gold mine is the internet.  I stumbled upon this resource on my way to check in on my writing group VaNo.  It’s a Yahoo group and, as such, Yahoo comes up and lists clips on interesting bits of information.  On that particular day, they featured an article on four reasons men marry.  And I thought to myself, they were able to come up with four?  Off the top of my head I could only come up with one.  He married because he met the love of his life and could not fathom life without her. Yes, that’s the romance writer in me speaking. So I clicked on it and found my way to ‘Men’s Health’, a men’s magazine, in its internet incarnation.

What an eye opener!  It’s geared towards men in their twenties and thirties and focuses on men’s health (duh), getting and staying fit and staying at the top of your game.  It is also full of helpful hints on how to get and keep your woman – in a very PC, his is the 21^st century kind of way.  It seems,  ladies, that what men are thinking is how to please us – in every way.  Who knew!  All this time they’ve been concerned about keeping our goals a priority and to keep the lines of communication open.

And then it hit me!  Men think just like we do and want the same things we do!  And this is exactly how the men in romance behave – once they’ve come to their senses and realized that they are in love and want the whole world to know it. Whether it’s at a ball with the heroine’s favorite urchins surrounding them or while filming a cooking show that everyone from their hometown has come to watch.