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Modern Hero and Heroine Careers

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Modern Hero and Heroine Careers

People often ask me how I come up with ideas, and if I have to do a lot of research for my novels. Normally, an idea springs from some small thing I hear someone say, a news story I read, or a person I talk to with a certain career. But often times, it just seems to appear from the strange recesses of my imagination.

However I come to the story premise, each time I must begin to plan and research the careers of each character I create. I can read about a particular career online and watch videos of people in the industry, but doing so doesn’t always answer all my questions or give me a full picture of how someone feels about their life in this position. So, I often search out people to interview, whether in person, via emails, or lengthy phone calls. And I thank the Lord for the souls willing to answer my array of sometimes strange  questions from my endless curiosity.

Here are a few of the characters and their careers I’ve researched more intensely.

Jess McCoy, College Football Coach in Leaving Oxford: For a few years I watched a lot of football for this one, plus coaches’ and players’ interviews before and after games for the University of Mississippi, my alma mater. I also interviewed a former college coach, and exchanged a few emails with their coach at the time and also someone in their compliance department to ask about recruiting violations.

Maggie Marovich, Meteorologist in Magnolia Storms: This was fascinating to me. I know it’s weird, but when I see hurricane or tornado footage, I’m glued to the screen, like a rubbernecker on a freeway. The sheer magnitude and force of creation’s winds and waves amaze (and scare) me. For this one, I did a lot of reading about Hurricane Katrina, though I’d lived through the hurricane-force winds three hours from the Mississippi coastline. I saw the trees and power lines down in my own neighborhood, and I had even gone of a volunteer rebuilding trip where the damage was indescribable. Still, I ended up getting permission to go down the Mississippi Weather Service offices to learn more about the radar and equipment they used. I sat behind their desks and looked at their screens and took in as much as my little mind could. Once I finished the story, I asked a local weather forecaster if she’d do a beta read for me, and she was sweet enough to accept!

Josh Bergeron, Ship Pilot in Magnolia Storms: I happened to have a friend who was a ship pilot who described in detail about his job and answers a myriad of questions. I have information about that fascinating career here on an earlier Inspy Romance post. https://www.inspyromance.com/new-release-giveaway-magnolia-storms-ship-pilot-heroes/

Rivers Sullivan, Art Therapist in The Art of Rivers: This was a fun bit of research, because though I love beautiful paintings, I can barely draw a stick figure. I interviewed multiple artists and therapists. I read about art and made a Pinterest board of amazing pictures I liked, then I bought some paints and canvases. I painted. I wanted to get a feel of the brush in my hands, smell the paint, use my imagination. I ended up giving them to a local charity, LOL, hoping they could reuse the canvases.

Paul Kelly, Corporate Pilot in Star Rising: I was in luck with this one, because I have a family member who has been corporate pilot for some very well off individuals. Although, the idea of flying a plane terrifies me, I even got to sit in the pilot seat! While it was on the ground that is.

My latest novel features a nurse as the heroine. My niece has been a helpful resource for me since she is an ICU nurse in Atlanta!

What careers would be interesting to you? Do you happen to have a connection I could interview, by the way, ha!?

Janet W Ferguson (66 Posts)

Janet W. Ferguson is a Christy Award finalist and the FHL Readers Choice Award winning author of realistic inspirational fiction. An avid reader, she loved books so much she found a job as a librarian so she could be around them all day. Then she turned that love of story into writing faith-filled novels with characters who feel like best friends. You’ll laugh and cry as the quirky heroes and heroines chase their happily ever after. ​Janet and her husband live in Mississippi where they say y’all a lot, and she forces him to visit the beach as often as possible. They have two grown children, one really smart dog, and a cat that allows them to share the space. Connect with her at http://www.janetfergusonauthor.com/


Comments

  1. I know a husband and wife who are both Park Rangers. They have lots of interesting stories.

  2. Hi Janet! Living in SW Michigan we have a lot of small farmers. My favorite is Alex Veggies. He has a great farm stand. He and his friend Nate, who owns a local restaurant, produce Derby Spices and Hot Sauces. Alex is a third generation farmer. His parents also help at the farm stand. Alex’s bicolor sweet corn is delish. Alex sells his produce to area restaurants and food trucks. Then the DeVrie family and their famous pumpkin patch. They also have the most beautiful zinnia’s. Then Stover’s Farms have the best cherries and apples. Nye’s Apple barn have strawberries, peaches, and apples. Plus Schuler Dairy, where one can milk a cow. Farming is more than large corporate farms that just grow feed corn and soy. During this pandemic I have supported Alex and his family. If he doesn’t grow it, he has friends that do. Learned a lot about growing conditions and understand how different soils make the food taste better. Also due to our warm moist air off Lake Michigan we are a superb wine producing region. We also have many vineyards – Tabor Hill is the most famous. Our area is one of 7 in the United States that grows grapes for Welchs. My college roommate’s family grow Concord grapes for Welch jam and juice. Welch grapes are all hand picked. Would love to see more stories about the struggles of the Midwest farmer. Also jobs needed to maintain our homes – roofers, concrete builders, plumbers, electricians, the power company, water and sewage plants, construction workers. Their jobs are not very glorious and often overlooked, but essential to our well being. Personally I stay away from reading popular themes – cowboys (have none in the Midwest), billionaires (around the shores of Lake Michigan have millionaires, but not fond of rich tourists that visit our area and pollute our waters), or Amish (northern Indiana has a huge Amish population which is very different from Pennsylvania Amish). Enjoy your Labor Day.

  3. I am always fascinated at the research authors go through to give us stories, thank you so much, and I get to learn a lot too!

  4. Wow! Well, living on the Space Coast of FL, we have NASA not too far away, along with Patrick Air Force Base, now part of the Space Force. A little further away, we have Disney, Sea World, and other parks, so I think it’d be fun to have someone working at one of them. I read a book by an author who did NOT research well, and I had to tell her that some of what she put in the book would NOT happen in real life, in a hurricane. She did re-write those parts, but I would have preferred if she’d done her research before writing!

  5. I am amazed at the research that goes into books to make them authentic. I would be interested in female firefighters and what they have to go through or veterinary careers.

  10. I always enjoy hearing what authors have done to research for books! I don’t have any strong preferences for jobs that hero’s and heroines have in books, but I don’t like reading multiple books in a row with similar jobs if the jobs feature a prominent part of the storyline.

  12. I’d love to hear about characters with really modern careers like sustainability experts or those who have converted their careers to be “green” like an architect, designer, builder. Given the current climate a mental health occupational therapist would be an interesting career or given the aging population maybe a dementia nurse. My friends and families careers have been mentioned already or you have covered them except for my cousin who is a pharmacist. Interesting careers you have investigated.

  16. Wow, that’s so cool! I bet thats so fun to go on all those adventures. I think it would be cool to see what goes into training to be a search and rescue person, especially when they use dogs to find people in disaster areas.

  18. I don’t really care about the vocations of the characters when I start reading. I appreciate when their job somehow influences the plot. I am drawn to more creative careers since I identify myself as a creative, too. I can’t remember reading about any heroes who are creative but still masculine. That would be interesting.

    As for research, I just found a writer’s resource all about how to create conflicts and what kind of education and coworkers each occupation requires. It’s called the Occupation Thesaurus by Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi. I reviewed it on my blog here: https://www.liladiller.com/blog/occupation-thesaurus-review.

  19. To me, it’s always so fun to learn about the research authors do in order to give their readers a more authentic experience :) Thank you!
    Seriously, I’m all about any and all careers as long as their believable in the book, though, of course, it’s always fun getting to learn about the not-so-well-known ones :)

  20. I forgot my hero in The Art of Rivers is artistic too, but he uses it in addiction therapy, but you are right, we don’t see as many creatives as heroes.
    Thank you so much for the resource!

  21. I love the medical field, so it always fascinates me when that career is featured in a book! My family has a lot of nurses in them, including two of my men cousins. My mom is a retired LPN with over 30 years of experience. Her favorite role was a private pediatric nurse to a family who she befriended. Some of my family members are RN nurses and I think one of my aunts is an ICU or emergency room RN (I can’t remember which). I also have cousin who is an RN but she teaches classes at the hospital she works at. I may even have a surgical nurse in there somewhere.

    I never inherited that gene though! I did go through CNA classes because I wanted to be like my mom & become an LPN. But it never panned out that way since fainting at the mere sight of blood is not conducive to a medical career, lol! God had other plans for me though & much more my speed :-)

    I love seeing modern careers in contemporary fiction. There are all sorts of them in the world, and not just the ones you so often see in a book. I love the unusual in my stories :-)

  23. My mom always wanted to be a nurse and hoped one of her daughters would. We had no interest in it ( the blood thing too), but one of her granddaughters is a nurse, another is a doctor.

  24. I like reading about all kinds of careers, especially when you delve into them so we learn more about the ins and outs, as opposed to just mentioning the job and that’s all. Thanks for doing your research! Have a great week!

  26. I enjoy a variety of careers. Thank you for research that makes the story more interesting.

  27. Love the different careers and the way you researched.

    I like different careers. I think a vet at a zoo or even zoo keeper (Aquarium, wildlife park etc) would be fun.
    I like the art therapy. Animal therapy would be great too. Also someone who works in Animal rescue. I have a friend (we don’t catch up much now) but she use to work for Animal welfare which had dogs and cats (and small animals) that were abandoned, rescued or surrenders sometimes due to owners dying or going into care etc). She helped cleaning cages, and exercising the dogs. She also worked with the vet although wasn’t trained but got training on the job. She also was a foster carer for cats and kittens.

    Another interesting job would be a virtual assistant

    I enjoyed reading how you researched the different jobs.

  30. Thank you so much for letting us know how you have done your research for some of your books, I bet it is pretty interesting. Both my daughter and my son in law are RN’s and that is how they met working at the same hospital. When I was growing up I wanted to be a nurse, but I never pursued it, I did get a job as a nurses’s aide at a Nursing Home. I think a very interesting job would be is being a Special Ed. teacher and also Race Car Drivers.

  32. I do have a friend who is a vet and has worked with animals to make antivenom for snake bite (mainly with sheep I think and they are not harmed in the making of it).

  40. I’m biased, but I’d like to see an engineer or a mathematician. In my experience as an engineer and a mathematician, I often found that people were put off by a sense of aloofness or, sometimes, impossibility. It wasn’t necessary, though. Engineering in all its various forms is a kind of craft. Yes, you have arcane vocabulary and topics that are not discussed in other areas of life. But the practice of engineering is very much like writing. You have to learn your craft, expand your vocabulary and learn to put together expressions that tell the story of a solution to a problem. It’s not that much different than being a doctor, either, who diagnoses an illness and treats it. It’s just that the reasons for fainting have more to do with calculus than blood. :)

  44. It’s fun getting an insight into how much authors go through to get us beautiful stories. I love medical stories bias because it’s my field but I also enjoy getting to know about other professions too.

  45. It’s amazing to me how much research and time goes into making the book authentic and accurate! Makes the story so much better! I love reading about the really unique careers that I didn’t even realize people had. One book had a geologist whose job was to scout out potential sites offshore for oil drilling. Who knew? Or park rangers, bush pilots, smokejumpers, etc. So many interesting careers out there!

  48. I love sports so enjoy stories about people in different areas of sports, like in Leaving Oxford. I also enjoy people who have similar jobs to ones I’ve had, because funny happenings are even funnier. And then learning about a new field is really interesting.

  51. Janet, I love love love The Art of Rivers! I know I said it before but it’s such a wonderful story!
    Careers…I don’t know: forensic accountant or marine engineer would be fun ;)

  53. Thank you for sharing and for doing such a nice job planning the characters.
    Although I appreciate authors’ trouble in getting it right about the job, I don’t really care what people do. I just care about the plot.

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