This week’s guest blogger is HelenKay Dimon, whose new anthology, VIVA LAS BAD BOYS, will come out in the next couple of weeks. Her previous anthology, WHEN GOOD THINGS HAPPEN TO BAD BOYS, is now available, and I highly recommend it.

Notice any trends in Dimon’s books?

Ah, the bad boy. How authors love to create them, and readers love to read about them. Dimon will give us her thoughts on what makes a good bad boy in a minute. Here are mine:

• He’s a little bit arrogant;
• A little (maybe a lot) controlling;
• A little manipulative;
• A little insensitive, but can be trained;
• Cunning, when need be;
• Very persistent;
• Often very damaged and/or scarred by life (sometimes physically scarred);
• Mistrustful;
• Slow to love; and
• The hardest to fall when he finally does meet the right woman.

Did I miss anything?

By the way, I want to go on record and say that the qualities that make a good hero in a romance novel do not make good mate material in real life. In real life, a guy like this may well need years of therapy, but in a novel—ahhh, great fantasy.

Okay, so here’s a short list of some of my favorite bad boys of all time:

• Rhett Butler
• Liam O’Neill (Brenda Joyce’s THE GAME)
• Calder Hart (Brenda Joyce’s DEADLY series)
• Carlos Rivera (L.A. Banks’ VAMPIRE HUNTRESS series.

Oh, and the greatest bad boy of all time: GENERAL HOSPITAL’s Luke Spencer. Honorable mention: GENERAL HOSPITAL’s Sonny Corinthos. Yeah, yeah. I know they’re not heroes from romance novels, but who cares?

Here comes Dimon with her thoughts.

Check her out at my other blog:

http://blogitorium.com/annchristopher

Or at her website:

http://www.HelenKayDimon.com

Or at the Kensington Brava author’s site:

http://www.bravaauthors.com/books.html

What about it? What makes a good bad boy? Who are your favorite bad boys of all time?