About Older Heroes and Older Heroines
Charm, confidence, a sense of humor that comes with experience, that sexy aura. Haven’t people always said these things about older men? Yes, they have. And now they’re being said about older women.
Finally.
Come on: let’s show our age in a positive way.
Twenty years ago, I saw elegant, beautiful women with silver hair all over Germany: they looked wonderful. Now, here in France, more and more women are, proudly, letting their natural hair color and their age show. How nice. But what do 75% of all American women do? They use hair dye. And, according to Nielsen, they spent $1.3 billion to cover their gray hair last year.
Why? Let’s accept ourselves. No matter what all those commercials (and your children) tell you, silver hair is beautiful. Wrinkles are fine. Stop using hair dye: believe me, that stuff is dangerous (look up the National Cancer Institute reports), and hair dyes are constantly — and horribly — tested on innocent animals. Stop pumping in products like Botox, another health risk, and one that equally relies on terrible animal suffering.
Take a deep breath; make the decision to treat yourself well, and to respect your body regardless of age. Instead of being a consumer victim who uses dangerous products in the hope of being appealing, become a rebel! Refuse. Use your talent, the talent that comes after a certain age: the ability to walk into a room with grace, to draw people out, to charm, to amuse, to titillate.
Like fine wines that have been well treated, when we respect ourselves, we improve with age.
All the heroes and heroines in my books are over 40. Felicity, the heroine of Felicity’s Power, is in her 60s when she meets up with Marek Sumner forty years after their romance ended. And what fun that meeting was to write!
***
Felicity Powers beside him again?
She’d crossed continents to see him. Now, here she was, sitting beside him at this dinner table. For what must have been the hundredth time this evening, his eyes slid over toward her. He needed to see her; he had to confirm the reality of her presence.
She was different now. Very different. Or was she? Still slender, fragile-looking. The mass of hair, wild, rebellious still, and just as long, was caught—with very little success—into a high knot. Some things never change. The fiery red color had faded entirely, was replaced by a chaos of white and silver. But the same luminous, dark eyes sparkled in a face intense with excitement. Here were the soaring cheekbones, the arched nose, and thin mocking mouth. Both the sun and time had etched lines into the skin around her eyes, her mouth, her forehead.
Her very presence was stirring deep old emotions inside of him, emotions so intense, he was almost loathe to acknowledge them.
***
San
Francisco, 1971: hippies in the streets, music and revolution in the air. The
evening Marek Sumner opened his door to the wild-looking Felicity Powers, he
knew nothing would ever be the same. But even love and passion couldn’t keep
them together.
Forty-three years later, having lived in the world’s most dangerous places as
an aid worker, Felicity is back, still offering love, passion, and adventure.
Now a well-known author, Marek loves his calm life in an isolated farmhouse,
and he knows their relationship would never work: he and Felicity are just too
different. Besides, why risk having his heart broken a second time?
But Felicity is as fascinating and joyful as ever, and the wonderful sexy magic
is still there too. Can love be more delightful the second time around?
Felicity's Power
Trailer: https://youtu.be/T1EvqNOIY2M
Purchase links https://books2read.com/FelicitysPower
2 comments:
Felicity's Power sounds like an awesome story, J. Arlene.
There's an old movie called 'Dear Heart' that I saw on the Turner classic movie channel several years ago. Granted, the stars were likely in their late 40s or early 50s, but it was a beautiful love story that didn't involve the very young. I highly recommend it.
Thanks, Tina. I'll look it up. I always prefer writing about older heroes and heroines. I also prefer heroes and heroines without family ties but with interesting lives. I find, too often, when there are older heroines, the stories get bogged down with family complications. Obviously, I'm in the minority here because most people do love family settings.
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