Stripping Down the Older Hero. He’s Older, but not old.

I left The Naked hero, about sixteen months ago, to pursue other things. Misa Ramirez took ‘The Naked Hero’ over and turned the blog into a wonderful informative must visit place, with a wide range of authors. Recently, Misa invited me back and I couldn’t resist. I’m back to blog the last Saturday of every month and so happy be back at my original home. I hope we can connect and learn something from each other.

The Older Hero:

Can the older hero be sexy? Absolutely. And there is a group that would find the older hero someone they can relate too, and find sexy, and that’s the baby boomers. Anyone born from 1945-55, falls into the baby boomer group. They are the largest group of retirees in the history of the world, and they have largest amount of spendable income, due to long term job employment, investment and retirement. So why not target them as possible readers? With retirement looming if not landing in the lap of baby boomers, they are a group yet untapped for romance readership. One of the major problems, they often are not techno savvy. You won’t find them on twitter, or facebook as much as their children or grandchildren. Reading from a ‘Kindle or Nook’ is less likely. So how do we tap this valuable group of people? With an older attractive hero and heroine, who can kick butt, even with aches and pain. As Authors we need to draw them in.

Even with some physical slowdowns, don’t discount the attraction to this type of story, since this group is one of the healthiest middle agers in the history of the world. They can relate to a physically fit older hero or heroine. That’s what they want to see, someone who is older, but not old.

I fall into this group, and often can’t relate to young heroines and heroes. The younger generation heroes in particular I find annoying. So why not write an older hero, one who fits into my age group. I did just that with my upcoming release, She Cried Wolf, with my hero, Rio DeJesus. He is in his late forties, a widower who lost his wife to cancer. He retired from the FBI, to raise his two daughters. That’s when he joins his father’s construction company, and becomes a highly sought after contractor, who is an expert in San Francisco’s famous Victorians. Rio is handsome, with threads of gray in his dark hair. He’s unsure of his sexual experience even at this age. He teases with the heroine about bad knees and back when it comes to possibly rescuing her. But at the end of the day, he’ll do his best and has the chivalry of a true knight, even if his youngest daughter did have to teach him how to text.

My hero and heroine are just under the age of baby boomers, in their mid-forties. What I love about the age is life experience and maturity. They dance right on the edge of wisdom, with the ability to peek over the ledge of open mindedness and insight. My heroine, Irene Carlotti is damaged goods. She’d be the first to admit it. But she’s decided it’s never to late learn to be brave, pull up her big girl panties and grow a lot of back bone. In the end she saves herself and Rio’s daughter. What both Rio and Irene do is teach us, you’re never TOO old to grow and learn.

She cried Wolf will be released in March, with my older hero and heroine. You can also find me at www.twoindieladies.wordpress.com and www.leelopez.com.

I can think of dozen older sexy heroes. Starting with Gordon Ramsey of Kitchen Nightmares, and Hell’s Kitchen, Sean Connery, the Rock, Bruce Willis, and Kurt Russell. Of course, we can’t forget the wonderful, fun and beautiful Betty White.

So who’s your favorite mature hero?

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