He’ll do anything to move the mission forward, no matter the cost…
Navy SEAL Caleb Delaude is deadly charming. When he discovers that professor Emmie Caddington’s personal connections can help him get the dirty work done, he sets out to win her over. But her quick intelligence and quirky personality sure do start to get under his skin…She may just be the key to his salvation…
Emmie’s smart and independent and isn’t looking for a brawny guy to take over her life. But this rugged Navy SEAL, who seems so determined to get close to her, hides a fi erce intelligence and deep sensitivity.When plans go wrong and a child’s life is on the line, Emmie learns what it means to be a SEAL in action, and Caleb discovers that even a hero can get hurt sometimes…
To See Ourselves
By Mary Margret Daughtridge
“O wad some power the giftie gie us/
To see oursels as ithers see us.”
Bobbie Burns
People often ask me about how I research my SEALs. I work hard not to make them stock action figures, but real people whose character is molded by being SEALs. I depend heavily on autobiographies and interviews because I want to know how they see themselves, as well as how others see them.
However, I don’t plot. I write by the seat of my pants and don’t always know what research will be required until the need for it appears. To research SEALed With A Promise, I watched a lot of TV makeover shows.
I liked them anyway, but I started watching makeover shows in earnest when Emelina Caddington, PhD showed up as the heroine for SEALed With A Promise.
She was the maid of honor at her best friend’s wedding, the same wedding a Navy SEAL named Caleb “Do-Lord” Dulaude was the best man for. It was the perfect romance setup—they’d be thrown together for three days.
But let me tell you, this girl was not romance-ready.
Oh she had potential. Those who loved her could see it. She was very, very bright, unconventional, and blessed with a truly original sense of humor. She was also kind, honorable, and loyal. Physically, she had pretty eyes, perfect skin, and the kind of slender shapeliness that makes almost any style wearable. Unfortunately she dressed in clothes that would be age-appropriate*—but still boring—on a woman twenty years her senior. Worst of all, except among people she knew well, she was stiff and awkward.
That’s not the way the heroine of a romance is supposed to be! She’s supposed to be beautiful and confident and gutsy. Ready to kick ass and take names.
If Emmie was going to take on the role of heroine in a romance of her own, she needed a makeover. Big time. So there I was, watching TV and taking notes to learn exactly how blind spots are overcome and a makeover is done.
Here’s what I learned. Fashion failures pick their clothes with some criteria—other than how they look—in mind.
See, that’s Emmie. She doesn’t get ‘style’ and she knows it, so her watchword is efficiency. She orders from classic sportswear catalogues and buys beige. The clothes are never out of style (never in style either.) Fit isn’t a problem—the clothes are designed to fit loosely—and everything matches. Voila! What could be easier? And while she’s not going to rock anybody’s world, she doesn’t get negative feedback on the college campus where she’s a junior faculty member. Some people feel a professor should look a little dowdy.
Some of the style-challenged appearing on TV are trying to disguise what they perceive as a figure-flaw. That’s Emmie too. She’s worn a bust minimizer since she was thirteen. She never wears anything that shows the shape of her breasts.
The show’s guests are also working from ideas about who they are that haven’t been updated. The forty-year-old in a midriff-baring sweater. Or the rising lawyer who still dresses like a college kid.
That’s Emmie too. She gave up on style when she was a twelve-year-old, suddenly separated from her missionary parents, and sent “home” to a place she’d never been before, to live with an elderly grandmother and go to public school—something else she never did before. Everything about the kids she was thrown in with was foreign to her. Their slang, the unwritten rules governing acceptance, their dress code. At an age when fitting in is the whole point of existence, she was clueless as to how to go about it. To make it worse she was several years ahead of her schoolmates scholastically. She was a misfit even among the deliberate nonconformists.
In romance novels where the heroine is a plain Jane, lots of times the heroine gets her makeover through the largesse or the gentle encouragement of the hero. But I wasn’t many pages into the story before I realized I had a hard case on my hands. Emmie had the biggest barrier to changing that there is: she thought accepting help made her weak.
I really loved Emmie by then. I could see that no small part of her problem was that she wasn’t shallow. The virtues she prized were much more enduring than fashion. She had a true heart and a quirky sense of humor. But she was going to lose out unless something explosive shook up her wrong ideas about herself.
It was clear Emmie was going to require the next TV makeover step: Shock Therapy. The guest is forced to see themselves as others see them.
What better people to deliver an explosion than a couple of SEALs?
On TV the happy ending comes once the guest has some new clothes, hairdo, and makeup. There’s the *Big Reveal, everybody cries and says they look great. But I always want more. I want to know if the makeover made any real difference. So in my book there’s lots more that happens before we learn if the Promise implied by the makeover is SEALed.
*Research in action: I learned words like age-appropriate and reveal (the noun) from TV. 🙂
What do you think? Do clothes make the woman? How important is it to see yourself as others see you?
You can learn more about SEALed With a Promise, and me, at http://marymargretdaughtridge.com and I blog frequently with other Casablanca authors at http://casablancaauthors.blogspot.com/
— Mary Margret
*****Leave a comment for the chance to win a copy of SEALed WITH A PROMISE. Good Luck! 🙂
Honorary Mention of Book Sluts 'R' Us Blogger Awards by 
RR@H Novel Thoughts & Book Talk 
Just wanted to say thanks for letting me visit with you and your readers today.
I love to interact with readers so let me know what you’re thinking, and feel free to ask questions or initiate a discussion.
I’ll respond when I check back throughout the day.
OHhh I love this book and this author!!!!!! I’ve been looking everywhere for this book1!!!!!!!!!!
What a great post.
hugs,
WendyK
“I’ve been looking everywhere for this book1!!!!!!!!!!”
Oh Wendy, say it’s not so! I, and my readers, went through this with SEALed With A Kiss. It was my debut book and it sold so much better than anyone expected it to. Bookstores only ordered one or two copies and they were gone instantly—with the result that readers kept saying they couldn’t find the book anywhere.
I trained my friends and family to go into their local Barnes and Noble and Borders, look for it, and if it wasn’t on the shelf, find an associate and tell them they needed to reorder.
I guess I need to train them again.
All I can say is don’t assume it will be on the shelf. Call Barnes and Noble before you go there. Tell them you’re coming to get SEALed With A Promise and want to know if they have it in stock. If they say it’s not, tell them to get it, and point out that they are missing sales!
Or, you can always order from Amazon.
And thanks for the enthusiasm. You’re the kind of reader every writer would love to have. Hugs.
In some cases the clothes does make the woman, i think I have been watching to much “How do I look” and there are some wacky clothes out there. Underneath those my be a warm person with a heart of gold, but we do tend to live in a world of first impression and if you’re wearing yellow spandex and a barbie shirt then maybe you wont get that second chance.
But on the other hand, everyone should wear what makes them feel happy
The book sounds good 😀 oh and nothing wrong with a navy seal 😉
It’s true, clothes can’t tell you whether someone has a kind heart, or whether they can be trusted to keep a confidence, but they do say a lot about who a person believes THEY are, and what they think is important.
As a writer it was fun showing how the changes Emmie made on the inside allowed her to change the outside—and vice versa.
LOL about the SEAL! They don’t have image issues!
I love those shows too! Stacy and Clinton from “What Not to Wear” are in my thoughts a lot. I have walked through the mall many a time and told a friend, “Oh what Stacy and Clinton could do to them!”
Age-appropriate is a FANTASTIC word…wish more people knew it! 😀
I’m super excited for this book! It looks great and is something a bit different than the other things out there!
I have to admit I’m no poster child for the well-dressed. Stacy and Clinton would have a field day with my closet! I can see them now trashing clothes right and left.
But they would be proud that I have one “author” outfit I can put on for signings and the like that is both age-appropriate 🙂 and suitably “with it.”
I think SEALed With A Promise is a little different. BOTH hero and heroine have wounds that they must heal (I think of them as wounds. Some people will see them as flaws) as well as admirable traits.
And unlike most SEAL romances, it isn’t romantic suspence. It’s straight relationship centered romance.
Be sure to let me know what you think of it.
Yeah!!!!! I just found a copy at BN, in another town. They are going to hold it for me and she said they had to order more.
Yeah!!!!!!
now to figure out how to train them to order more to start with
hugs,
WendyK
Good, Wendy. I’m glad you found it.
(And I appreciate you tackling BN’s ordering practices!)
Wendy — I didn’t find it here at BAM but ended up ordering it from Amazon yesterday. Already got the email saying it’s shipped so it should be here either tomorrow or Saturday.
I love stories where the hero and/or heroine has to heal from some wound – this sounds like a fantastic book!! I have read great reviews about it and look forward to reading it.
Kara,
I hope you’ll like it, and you might like the one I have in the works now, Her Fate Was SEALed. The hero, Davy Graziano has a real physical wound, not an emotional one.
It will be out next year.
Mary Margaret,
Your book sounds like a fabulous romance to me! I’ve always agreed with ‘fashion is in the eye of the beholder’. I enjoy heroines who are different from the norm and I love heroes who love, accept and appreciate them for who they are! Sounds like you have a winner to me!
Amelia
One of the best things about blogging on the net is that I get to introduce myself and my “style”–for want of a better word–to readers.
Everybody has their favorite kinds of romance and it isn’t one-size-fits-all. This way readers have a much better idea of what they’re getting from me.
Since you like heroines who are different and heroes who appreciate them, I think you’ll like SEALed With A Promise.
I’m weighing in to report that B&N apparently IS trainable–at least the one where I live. 🙂
A friend just told me they have SEALed With A Kiss in a CENTER AISLE display!!! Woo-hoo!
I’m off in a few minutes to have my picture taken with it. Maybe I’ll have it to post here. (And you can judge for yourselves if I’m a makeover candidate!)
Yeah, how is that?? LOL, I’d probably be hanging out stalking readers……psst…did you know that’s ME???
LOL, meant how COOL is that!!
Oops, Melissa. Missed you! But I did get my picture taken.
It was a thrill! 🙂
I am so un-blase.
Congrats on SEALed With a Promise, Mary Margret! I heard awesome things about SWAK, and am looking forward to both books now! Do you have more planned for this series?
As for clothes, while I tend to downplay their impact, I do have outfits I save for those “need something in my corner” days 🙂 I guess it’s like a costume in a way, and can help me feel more confident when I need it most. On the other hand, I do try to remember and to teach my kids, it doesn’t matter what you look like on the outside…
Thanks Fedora. I do have more planned. Her Fate Was SEALed is in the works now. You meet its hero, Davy Graziano, in SEALed With A Promise.
I was just on the phone with my editor, discussing the earliest publicity for it.
Davy needs money. JJ needs a husband. Neither is looking for love. It’s a marriage made at the bargaining table. Sometimes you get less than you bargained for. Sometimes, you get a whole lot more.
I agree about the clothes. What’s inside a person is what matters. Still. Sometimes, there’s no substitute for knowing you look good.
Mary Margaret………..I hate to say it, but I do think that clothes and hair make a woman get noticed, anyway. I LOVE watching What Not to Wear, and am always amazed that the women seem to walk taller, and look so much more confident from a cosmetic makeover. And I’m sure it’s that confidence that makes men stand up and take notice. Popping over to Amazon to put this on my wish list right now…sounds great, and I love Seals!! Put Sealed
with a Kiss in there, too……..this sounds like my kind of read.
Thanks!!
Thank you Melissa.
I know what you mean about the women walking better on What Not To Wear. I’ve concluded, though they don’t say so, they also have someone teach the women how to walk and pose.
Anyway, I added that to Emmie’s makeover, because posture makes a huge difference.
Melissa,
You win the signed copy of SEALed With A Promise. Please contact me at
marymargret@marymargretdaughtridge.com so I can send it to you.
Congratulations,
MM
YEAH!!! Thanks, Mary Margret!!
Can’t wait to read it!!!
I have to say that your book sounds wonderful! This is my first intro to your work and it sounds like it will be a terrific read… 😀
Thanks for all the wonderful comments. I’ll be back to answer them later.
SEALS! I want! And I hope that clothes don’t make the woman, since I’m sitting here in a pair of my husband’s cartoon boxers and a t-shirt *g* I think the shirt may be his, too LOL. I have my own clothes, I swear!
LOL.
You ought to see me in my writing uniform. I have six pairs of sweats. I pull them on over my nightshirt.
Sometimes I comb my hair. Sometimes I don’t. 🙂
Looks good. I too love the wounded h/h who is healed by love.
To me, the fact that love heals, is the deep message of romance.
I’m fashion illiterate. I have absolutely no fashion sense at all. I dress more for my comfort than outter looks. Jeans, pajamma pants, etc and T-shirts. I do have some nice skirts that my mother gave me. I even have a top or two that’s considered nice.
Hair and make-up? I don’t even bother because I’ll only end up looking the fool.
I seen this book promoed on Night Owl didn’t I? Looked interesting.
Yep. Night Owl. I have been around the block, lately 🙂 but it’s worth it to meet so many people.
I’ve already confessed I’m no fashionista, but I’ll have to say, that though I might not comb it everyday, I do have a monthly haircut appointment that is sacred.
If my hair doesn’t look good, nothing else I do seems to matter.
Your book intrigues me – could be because I know a former SEAL, could be the story.. Could be Both. Although I’m thinking it’s the story. Looking forward to the read.
I didn’t know any SEALs until I started my research. Since then several have come into my life and I treasure their friendships.
I hope you’ll enjoy the books.
Hi Mary Margret,
Clothes are an important part of person’s image and some people take it more seriously than others. There’s also nothing wrong if a person feels comfortable in less than fashionable clothes.
You’re right. There’s nothing wrong with preferring comfort to fashion.
Good to know becuase I just realized I don’t own a dress, and unless you count the skirt to a suit, I don’t own a skirt.
oh, nice cover; I want this book so please enter me. Clothes help a lot for impressions but what is inside is what counts for me.
I like the cover too. 🙂
Your book sounds great!
This sounds great and I would love to be entered. I do think that clothes can help to make a good impression, but in the end the most important thing is the person you are on the inside.
Sealed With A Promise sounds great!
I LOVED SEALed with a Kiss and cannot wait to read Promise. Yay!!
I loved this excerpt! I have never read any of Mary Margret’s books but this one sound like if would be an awesome read.
Love SEALs and too how the titles go with the word ‘seal’!
You know, I really hate clothes and dressing up! I love to feel comfy. I always struggled with what I had worn to work and social events. Worse was not being able to walk in heels! So for me, Its not important but I can see that it may be important for some for certain events. But I don’t think it totally makes the person who they are because sometimes they have to do it for a special reason even if they are not comfortable in it. I know that too it may be important for those younger and those too looking for a relationship because others do rate the look of clothing into their personality but I probably got too comfortable being with my own hero 25+ years now! Smile. Loved the question and excited about your book!
Oooo I really like the sound of this book – and what a cute/clever title! I like that you’ve worked it into a series.
I have a soft spot for Plain Jane heroines – I guess because I don’t think of myself as being very girly. (One of my friends lectures me about me not doing my hair whenever she thinks about it. But honestly – it’s just not worth it to me. My hair has a mind of it’s own and I’m not about to spend 1-2 hours a day on it.)
Anyway, haha, I was also recently told I would have to give up wearing hoodies because I/people my age are now “too old” for them. So… in a way, I’d like to say clothes *don’t* make the woman. Every once in a while, I can/will dress up. But I don’t know that I’ll ever love/want to wear business suits or formal gowns. :X I don’t look *sloppy* mind you- just, I prefer comfort over potentially being pictured in some fashion magazine. (Haha, and if that *ever* happened I think all my friends would just die.)
This story sounds fantastic. I do enjoy watching What Not to Wear. It’s a great show that gives some really good tips on how to dress to make yourself look better, which can make you feel better. I think it clothing is important because it really can affect attitude and how you see yourself.
I drew names. Melissa wins the signed copy of SEALed With A Promise!
Thanks to everyone for participating and making this discussion so much fun.
I appreciate all the compliments and encouraging words about SEALed With A Promise. And if you don’t find it at Barnes and Noble or Borders, please participate in our training program for them. 🙂
(It isn’t in any of the discount stores like Walmart or Target, but it may be at Booksamillion.)
You were all great! I love to hear from readers, so be sure to tell me what you think after you’ve read SEALed With A Promise. marymargret@marymargretdaughtridge.com
I think clothes can make or break a person – man or woman. It gives one a sense of what the person is telling the world about themselves. If the person is laid back, then the style can be real mishmosh or it could be very classic – like a pair of jeans and a black shirt, add a pearl necklace and wha laa -classic, not mishmosh! Agree?
And as Karin said above, it CAN affect your attitude and how you see yourself!