Studs With Substance - Mike Rowe

I love Katie MacAlister's Dishy Guy Monday. Each week, a beautiful man lands on my Livejournal friends list complete with muscles, stubble, and manly poses. Most Mondays, I really need the eye candy! But as a reader, it's not the description of the hero's rippling abs and dark flowing hair that does it for me. It's the way the guy makes the heroine feel. It's the combination of things that comprises his personality. The abs? Just a bonus.

This year, I'd like to explore the hero in his entirety. His sense of humor. His kindness. His ambition. His flaws. And, yes. Even his abs. I hope that profiling some of my favorite guys from books, film, and even real life will help me better understand what makes a good fictional hero.

My first pick was easy. Probably because the hubby and I watched way too much Discovery Channel this weekend.

Mike Rowe is the creator, producer, and host of Discovery Channel's hit show, Dirty Jobs. Fans watch him try out a variety of vocations - anything from wine making to turkey insemination - to illustrate what people do to "make civilized life possible for the rest of us." In the hands of any other host, Dirty Jobs might just be another semi interesting reality show. Mike Rowe is what makes it funny and damn near irresistible.

His craggy features and easy smile are engaging. But it's really the sheer force of his personality that makes him swoon-worthy. No matter what gunk the man's covered with, no matter what crazy thing he's asked to do in the line of duty, he almost always displays determination, modesty, logic, self deprecating humor, and a snappy intellect. He doesn't talk down to his audience, but he balances his high vocab narration with a steady stream of jokes delivered in a smooth baritone that he'd once used in the Baltimore Opera.

In a recent Dirty Jobs blog post, a viewer asked him what he thought about " being the next big sex symbol - covered in muck and poo?" After a short discussion of the criteria required by a poo-covered man to be considered such, he ended with, "Having said this, I reject all claims of sex symbolness."

Mike, that is exactly what makes you sexy.

Mike's photo © Discovery Channel, 2008

Are two heroes better than one?

No, this isn’t an entry about favorite erotica themes :). The title refers to a dilemma that more and more heroines of popular mainstream romance face: they must choose between two equally fascinating men in order to achieve their happily-ever-after. Ah, we should all have such problems.

This trend appears particularly popular in continuing series.

Before Anita Blake decided to just sleep with everyone, Laurell K. Hamilton had us arguing the merits of master vampire Jean-Claude versus alpha werewolf Richard.

For thirteen books (and counting) Stephanie Plum has been waffling between Joe and Ranger. Loyal readers everywhere debate who is the better man for our Steph. Of course, some readers are ready to tie Stephanie (or Janet Evanovich) to a chair until she decides between the two. Other readers have simply given up on waiting for the romance pay-off.

And there lies the balance that must be kept in such books: to keep the reader engaged in the choice the heroine has to make without frustrating her to the point that she takes great joy in pitching the book against a wall.

Some authors walk that line by limiting the amount of time that their characters (and readers) struggle with the choice.

Patricia Briggs decided three books of angst was enough, and let her heroine, Mercy Thompson, choose between two equally strong alpha werewolves, Adam and Samuel, at the end of the third book of her series.

Colleen Gleason’s regency vampire slayer, Victoria Gardella, is currently caught between the brooding Max and bad boy Sebastian. Colleen has promised an end to the madness when Victoria makes her choice in book five.

Do you think two heroes are better than one? What are some of your favorite books that have multiple heroes? And, if you’re a Stephanie Plum fan - Joe or Ranger? (I’ve always been a Ranger girl – I think Steph needs someone with an unlimited supply of cars!)

March Madness and Magic

Red Lioness Magic – with the release of my first e-novel, a perfect description for the month of March for me. And we have a winner, a new Dorchester author. American Title IV has been decided, the readers' choice to be announced in Romantic Times magazine. Congratulations to both finalists. Opportunity is blowing your way, fast and ferocious as a March wind.
Okay, okay, I confess. Heaving an enormous sigh, I cross my arms over my heaving bosom (insert your favorite bodice ripper heroine here)...okay, this picture, the God of War from Xena, Warrior Princess – and this blog is a gift to myself, not a picture of a hero from one of my novels.
I’m an Aries, and soon good ole’ Sol will leave the dreaming-creative sign of Pisces, to shine it’s radiance in the pioneering-innovative sign of Aries, ruled by Mars energy. Think of the Spring Equinox as the portal. Yep, the sun will explode on top of my natal sun, or where the sun was at the time of my birth. So, why wouldn’t I, being a red-blooded, ‘Mars Red’ woman, be hankerin’ over that smoldering hunk o’ fiery lust and love, the God of War – the Greek Ares or the Roman Mars. Or, better yet, the actor, Kevin Tod Smith, tragically no longer with us (March 16, 1963–February 15, 2002).
Hmmm...March 16...the month of March being named after the Roman god, Mars...a bit of cosmic coincidence? I dare think not. More like the Fates wove those gold and silver threads in a destiny realized, a depiction of the god Ares for modern times. A gift for the modern TV audience. For those of us starving, soul-desperate for more than the god technology has become in our world. Yes, a gift from the grand cosmos.
But...confession time again, most bad boys don’t do it for me, but then, neither do most ‘good guys’. Just a few bad boys light my passionate fires, spin me to wildfire, then blaze me up to wanton breathlessness. And that’s quite enough to get a gal into real serious up-in-smoke trouble (all confessions deleted here).
Trouble, yep. Thank the goddesses and gods, this is only a picture. March madness is upon me. No, not basketball. Unless, I was star-blinked onto Mt. Olympus, and found myself suddenly engaged in court-dribbling, battle-of-the-sexes combat with that very bad boy in black leather pictured above.
Talk about and swoon over power, power as an aphrodisiac. The power of a god is pure sexual ambrosia.
Yet, like Xena, my fantasy attraction was also a love-hate breathlessness. There was just something about Ares, the god of war, that held me utterly desire-entranced at times, something ‘that did it’. Dark and dangerous, the ability to scorch a woman to such desire, the top of Mr. Olympus would be as nothing in comparison. And...the desire to love a man-god who obviously needed real love, the bad boy redeemed – in fierce conflict with my hatred, a savage hate for the god’s careless arrogant brutality against mere mortals, against humanity.
So, in the end, like Xena, I would be saying ‘no’, more than ‘yes’ to this gorgeous god of war – the love of humanity triumphant in my heart as it was for Xena, Warrior Princess.
So, would you succumb to the god of war? As Xena was tempted, as I was tempted...?
Draxen Z of the Venture, my hero in Red Lioness Tamed, is not the dark god of war, unless he fights to save his woman, or his family. Yep, he possesses that irresistible, take-charge charm and he’s enough of a ‘bad boy’ to captivate the heroine, despite herself and her fate-ridiculous predicament.
Available from Liquid Silver Books.


In contrast to the dark brutal rule of Ares over the mortal realm, Baron Zaggry Dhio Vettura, my hero in All Shades of Blue Paradise, is golden cougar in his fierce-ruling nature, as he battles the court intrigues designed to gain ultimate power in the Realm, and ruin him by destroying his heart.
Available March 10 from Siren Publishing.

Heroes, sometimes you can’t live with them, or without them? Hey! When is Heroes returning? To TV fantasy land?