Lisa Wells | Heroes Named Jack

Sometimes I worry about my characters. Actually, I spend a lot of time worrying about my characters. How can I not? I torture them for at least three-fourths of the pages in a book before giving them their happy ever after. In my Off The Wall Proposals series with Entangled, all of the books have the heroines name in the title, so I worry that my heroes feel slighted. I asked Jack, the hero in THE ATTRACTION OF ADELINE, if he feels slighted, and here is his answer:

Me: “Jack, I’m sure you’ve noticed that Adeline’s name is mentioned in the
title, but yours isn’t. How does that make you feel?

Jack: “Are you kidding? With a unique name like Adeline, she needs the extra
lime-light to be remembered. But my name is famous. JACK. I have like the best
name ever for a hero.”

Me: “Really? How do you figure?”

Jack: “Have you not done your research? Jack is a famous name to give heroes.
For instance: Captain Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean. Jack Ryan in
Clear and Present Danger. Jack Shephard in Lost. Jack Skellington in The
Nightmare Before Christmas. Jack Dawson in Titanic. Jack Stanfield in Firewall.
Jack Torrance in The Shining. And that’s just a few.”

Me: “Wow. I had no idea. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised you’ve done the
research into your name. That’s something your character would do.”

Jack: “I did more than research famous Jacks, I researched the actors who played
famous Jacks. Did you know that: Jack Nicholson, Steven Seagal, Harrison Ford,
Leonardo DiCaprio, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Michael Douglas, Keanu Reeves, Matthew
Fox, Keifer Sutherland, and Johnny Depp have all played the part of a famous
Jack in movies and television shows?”

Me: “Nope. Didn’t know that. Why did you research the actors who played Jacks?”

Jack: “You know, in case THE ATTRACTION OF ADELINE becomes a Hallmark Channel movie, I wanted to be on top of all of my options on who should play me?”

Me: “Oooh, I would love for your and Adeline’s story to be a Hallmark Movie.
That’s one of my favorite channels. Which actor did you decide on?”

Jack: “I wasn’t sure, so I asked Adeline. She thought we should go with someone
fresh to play me. Someone hunky and cute and smart and funny.”

Me: “You left out nerdy.”

Jack: “Nerdy! Who are you calling nerdy?”

Me: “You are just a little bit nerdy, but in a very sexy way that women love.”

Jack: “Well, when you put it that way. Okay. Adeline’s supposed to be making me
a list. You know her and her lists.”

Me: “Oh, I know. She’ll laminate it and everything. Maybe while we wait for her
list, some of the readers could reply and give us an idea of who they think
should play you in a future movie.”

Jack: “That’s a great idea. I can’t wait to see who they come up with.”