Monday 2 November 2009

Character Spotlight ~ Robin Lee Hatcher's Cleo Arlington and Sherwood Statham


Today the spotlight shines on.....................Cleo Arlington & Sherwood Statham

Robin Lee Hatcher's latest series, The Sisters Of Bethlehem Springs, brings to life women in the early 1900's who took on roles women of the day just weren't meant to have! Robin is a gifted writer and knows exactly what her readers enjoy so do check out her numerous books when you can.

For now, have fun reading about Cleo :)

Over to you, Robin:~

Brief physical description

Cleo Arlington is tall and thin with fair skin and a smattering of freckles. She has strawberry blond hair, worn short and curly. Her eyes are blue. She is very much an American cowgirl.
Sherwood Reginald Wakeley Statham is of average height with sandy brown hair and green eyes. He is very much an English lord.


Strengths and weaknesses

Cleo has a strong faith in God and a confident sense of self, but she has little patience for those who put on airs or think themselves better than others. And she doesn't suffer fools.

Sherwood's inner wounds, acquired at the hand of an uncaring father, are more troublesome than the visible ones obtained on the battlefields of France. He has been a ladies man and a gambler, but he isn't the sort who shirks his duties.

Quirk

Cleo has a penchant for western slang (i.e. Sherwood is as worthless as a milk bucket under a steer).

Inspiration for the character

Many years ago, I wrote a minor character who was somewhat similar to Cleo. So when I got the idea for the new series (it came from the question, "Who says a woman can't do a man's job?"), in walked Cleo. It took me until I'd finished writing A Vote of Confidence (the first book in the series) before I discovered Sherwood. I kept thinking that the hero of Cleo's story would be a cowboy. Who else would be perfect for her? I was dead wrong!

Background to the story

Cleo Arlington dresses like a cowboy, is fearless and fun-loving, and can ride, rope, and wrangle a horse as well as any man. In 1916, however, those talents aren’t what most young women aspire to. But Cleo isn’t most women. Twenty-nine years old and single, Cleo loves life on her father’s Idaho ranch. Still, she hopes someday to marry and have children.

Enter Sherwood Statham, an English aristocrat whose father has sentenced him to a year of work in America to “straighten him out.” Sherwood, who expected a desk job at a posh spa, isn’t happy to be stuck on an Idaho ranch. And he has no idea how to handle Cleo, who’s been challenged with transforming this uptight playboy into a down-home cowboy.

Just about everything either of them says or does leaves the other, well, fit to be tied. And though Cleo believes God’s plan for her includes a husband, it couldn’t possibly be Sherwood Statham. Could it?

Robin ~ entertaining as always! Thanks for sharing Cleo and Woody with us :)



On Thursday, the spotlight shines on Grace Winslow from Kay Marshall Strom's The Call of Zulina.



Relz Reviewz Extras

Character spotlight on Guinevere Arlington & Morgan McKinley

Interview with Robin

Visit Robin's
website and blog

Buy Robin's books at
Amazon or Koorong

2 comments:

Robin Lee Hatcher said...

Thanks for spotlighting my characters, Relz. I hope others will enjoy them too.

Jenny said...

I loved Cleo in the first book, and enjoyed getting to know her a little more in your spotlight. I have the book on loan from the library and plan to get to it soon.

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