The Job's the Thing

As rewarding as writing can be, it's a profession riddled with difficulties. The waiting, the rejections, the deadlines. Will the reviews be kind, will I figure out just the right opening to entice a reader to buy the book? So it's never what I'd call "easy," but today I'm stumped by a very specific challenge.

What the heck does the hero do for a living???

See, I've sold nearly 20 books now, plus I just turned in a miniseries proposal for four more (so between the heroes and heroines, have about 8 careers that I must research and integrate into the plot). I've written about advertising executives, doctors, chefs, journalists, piano teachers, dog-walkers, carpenters, artists, stay-at-home moms, pharmaceutical reps, draftsmen (and draftswomen), and accountants! I need to find just the right job for my hero's location and lifestyle, making it realistic (my editor doesn't want a Hollywood movie star or billionaire internet entrepeneur) and not offputting to readers. (Without casting aspersions on anyone who does this extremely necessary job, you don't read a lot of romance novels about, say, garbage men.) Plus, Harlequin American isn't a line with a lot of paranormal elements, so vampire slayer and necromancer are automatically out.

I like to keep things varied so that my characters are unique and not too much alike, but after a couple of dozen books, it gets challenging. (By 2012, my hero and heroine might be an astronaut and a balloon-animal artist.) Maybe I'll make the hero a writer. And he can be researching the heroine's career, so is forced to spend lots of time with her for research! Wacky hijinks ensue.

What do you guys do for a living? What's the most memorable occupation you've read about a character holding?