Book Tour & Guest Post for Rob Tobin/God Wars:Living With Angels

Hello and welcome to all my visitors today!  I'm excited and honored to bring to you, courtesy of Bewitching Book Tours, a new-to-me author with an exciting new book that's intensely emotional and action-packed.  If you'd like to know more of my thoughts on the book, you can read my review here.  And now, without further ado.....

Hi. My name's Rob Tobin. I'm a novelist, screenwriter, non-fiction book author, and former motion picture executive, I live and write full-time in Huntington Beach, California (and yes, I know how lucky I am). 

First thing I want to do today is thank you for letting me write this guest blog today. I'm honored -- and intimidated. You see, and this is a well-kept secret, I'm a guy. Gasp. Yup, a guy writing a guest blog for this obviously female-oriented site.  But I have an excuse -- my latest urban fantasy eNovel, "God Wars: Living with Angels," just published by Echelon Press and available from Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com, Omnilit.com and Smashwords.com, has a female lead and there is a hot romance in the story, not to mention a couple of very hot sex scenes. Not only that, but I recently wrote a lesbian love story feature screenplay that I'm getting a lot of interest on. Furthermore, my latest novel, "Jo-Bri and the Two Worlds," has a female lead and I go even farther by having that story told from a first person point of view.  So, long story short, I'm hoping you cut this guy some slack because I've actually bent over backward to get in touch with my feminine side. Okay, I'm still a hairy, testosterone-soaked, sports-loving, manly man, but at least I'm trying.

I must admit that writing a female protagonist was an interesting challenge. The temptation was to go for the stereotype with Diana (the hero of "God Wars: Living with Angels") -- all girly, frilly, pink and pretty, or conversely blazingly hot and sultry. I knew, however, that to do so would create an cardboard character that no-one would like or believe. I did not want to define my hero by her gender or sexuality or attractiveness, or by the unreasonable expectations and limitations placed on women by society, but rather by Diana's humanity. In fact the last line of the novel refers to her humanity.  

Now I understand that a lot of romantic fantasy novels have rather stereotypical female heroes somewhat in the same way that traditional romance novels (like the old Harlequin romances) did and that there is obviously a market for that kind of stereotypical character. But perhaps because I am a man writing a female character, I wanted to go beyond stereotypes. 

On the other hand, I wanted to make sure I didn't just make Diana a man in a dress. I also didn't want to pander to women by making Diana perfect either as a woman or a human being. So hopefully you can see how complex it is for a male author to write a female hero. Added to that complexity, as if I didn't have enough challenges, Diana becomes a paraplegic fairly early in the book. Then she becomes a witch. Then she has to fight a demon, falls in love with an angel, battles three-foot-tall aliens and... well, you'll have to read the book to find out what else I packed in there.  I actually have to chuckle at that, but you know it's part of how I avoided stereotypes and thus created a unique, interesting character.  Again, nothing against the stereotypical romance novel heroine, but as a guy I just felt I had to do more than that, perhaps the way that women oftentimes, unfortunately, had to be better than men in order to get the same job or same (or even less) pay. Call it reverse sexism, lol.

Time will tell if my efforts to go beyond just another female lead worked, and I won't know until you readers tell me. I hope it's a positive reaction and that you support Diana and celebrate her as being more than just a girly-girl or sexpot.  Oh yes -- there are a couple of scathingly hot sex scenes  in the book because, after all, even though Diana is more human than woman, sexuality is definitely a part of being human, not to mention fun to read!

Thanks. I look forward to coming back here for another guest blog, hopefully for my latest novel, "Jo-Bri and the Two Worlds" which also has a female protagonist. Feel free to contact me at scripts@earthlink.net or go to my website at: robtobinwriting.com.

Thanks so much for visiting with us today, Rob, and I'm definitely looking forward to your future books!  You're welcome back here anytime!

And now for the giveaway.......

-This contest is INTERNATIONAL (so everyone can join in the fun) and is for a digital copy of God Wars:Living With Angels.

-To Enter, you just have to become a follower of my blog, if you're not already, and leave a comment with your email address included (so I can contact the winner easily).

-Contest will run until 11:59 pm, Friday March 25th!  I will then use Random.org to choose a winner who will have 48 hours to respond to my congratulatory e-mail.

So let's make Rob feel welcome and get those comments rolling!