What Does Retirement Mean to You?

 by Patricia Bradley

Retirement. It's a ten-letter word that means different things to different people. To me, it meant I had more time to write. Since 2013, I've written more than a million words.

I’ve had more friends than I can count on one hand ask me when I was going to slow down and enjoy my retirement. After all, who wants to spend their golden years sitting at a computer, pounding out stories?

Me! Waving my hand like a kid wanting the teacher to call on her. I try to explain that I’m living my dream and why would I give that up? I mean, writing stories is something I can do as long as the stories keep coming.

Another thing I like to do is teach classes on writing. Just this month I’ll be teaching a four-hour class at the virtual MidSouth Christian Writers Conference on brainstorming your character’s journey.

And this is where I need your help. I want to create a character journey for a hero and a heroine for romantic suspense, and then I thought I'd do a hero and a villain. 

What I need is a hero and heroine that almost everyone will recognize. I want the attendee to be able to 'see' the character and how lies they believe affect them. I want to look at what's wounded them in life and caused their flaws...what lies they believe about themselves, what they fear the most. Same thing for the hero and villain.

If you'll suggest characters that will fit the criteria, I'll enter you in a drawing for a $10 gift card. And if you'd rather, tell me when you plan to retire or if you already are? And when you do retire, what will you do? Or if retired, what are you doing? (But I'd really rather know the characters you would suggest.) lol