I have to admit I like nice men, both in my real life and in the stories I write. Although my favorite fictional hero of all time is Mr. Rochester of Jane Eyre, I find I can’t write difficult men. And Mr. Rochester did terrible things to Jane. He let her think he was going to marry another woman and then he almost tricked her into an illegal marriage, knowing full well she was a woman of very strong moral convictions. Still, I fell in love with him the same way Jane did. In my own writing, every time my hero starts to do something mean to my heroine, I feel I have to fix him. I don’t like him if he’s not good to her. I’ve written a few men who think themselves scoundrels, but the minute they meet their heroine, they fall in love—whether they admit I to themselves or not. With love comes the desire to protect her—even though she can protect herself, thank you very much. He can’t bring himself to do anything that would hurt her. So, my hero may have good reasons to avoid emotional attachment. He may have been bitterly disappointed in love…