As authors and/or readers of romance, we are passionate about the characters. We love our heroines, but the hero–well, we can get obsessed. They are strong, captivating, bad boys, decent men, with honor, revenge, loyalty or redemption top of mind. We want them silent and brave, sexy and broad-shouldered (a six pack can add to the love), but willing to do whatever they must do (once they’ve put aside that pesky character flaw) to be the man they were always meant to me (for that one special woman!). Yep. We love to write them and to read them. And we are fans.
But let’s talk about the extremes of fandom for a moment (since I understand extreme fandom better than most:)…
Back in the day, I fell for a show called Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and yes, around the Internet lately, I’ve been talking about my Whedon obsession. And yes, I know NOT a book, but a TV show that wrote characters as if they were in a book (IMHO). I traveled far and wide to have moments with my TV boyfriends. The photo here was taken at an event in London a few years ago. And yes, I was a happy girl that day:)! I was sandwiched between (and oh, how I wish:) David Boreanaz (Angel) and James Marsters (Spike).
My other TV boyfriend is truly my boyfriend although a few authors (Avery Flynn, Robin Covington, Tracy Brogan, and Michelle Monkou) have been tricked into thinking he belongs to them, or should be shared equally among his fans, or some rot. But Dean Winchester aka Jensen Ackles is MINE.
I have had many TV boyfriends, and have fallen for many a book boyfriend, but right now, I have fallen hard, and forever, for a man named Jamie.
Yes. I’m nearly two decades behind on reading the books – but OMG, I’m in it now and OUTLANDER is heaven. And Jamie is the pearly gates (prize at the end of the rainbow and everything else you can throw into the pot – he’s it!). And dang STARZ for producing the TV series starring a man who embodies Jamie in my mind, or at least who looks the part:)…
I am seriously thinking about heading across the pond to wherever they are filming OUTLANDER and vacationing (for a few dozen weeks). And do they have fan events like Outlander-Con? If they do, I also in!
So question of the day, name your latest book boyfriend or TV show boyfriend, and have you ever gone as far as London to meet them in person (me and the Buffy boys for example:), or fought with friends over pillowcases with their images on them (Tracy, Michelle, Robin, Avery, you know who you are!). How badly have you fan-girled an author? – The adjustment from normal to fangirl is a thin line…and slipping over the edge could be, you know, embarrassing! (Remember the root of the word fan – is fanatic:)…Full disclosure, please!
You want fangirling? Check out my introduction to Diana Gabaldon’s talk here at the library last week. So excited my voice was shaking. You can’t tell, but I was totally bouncing at the podium from excitement. Jamie forever!
http://libwww.freelibrary.org/authorevents/podcast.cfm?podcastID=1250
Xio told me how fabulous this event was…and I am so jealous! You do know how to fan girl though:)…We must plan on getting together to watch an episode or two of the STARZ event. I think good times will be had by all!
Wah! I don’t do the book/tv boyfriend. I have no imagination. *sulks*. Well, there is Ryan Gosling, photoshopped or not. Oh, and Bradley Cooper. But those are oh, hey, if he’s there I’ll gawk for a while…
See there you go fan-girling without fan-girling. You’ve also picked some superstars, too.:)…Well done!
I AM SO JEALOUS OF THAT PIC OF YOU AND THE BUFFY BOYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Current book boyfriend is actually my own. Ha-ha! Is that allowed? I’m so into the hero in my WIP, Cam.
I was also IN LOVE with Robb Stark on Game of Thrones, but, well, um, that didn’t end very well. Le sigh….
I KNOW!!!! The Buffy Boys were my first plunge into fan-girl madness. And it is fun, if managed:), and I like moderation (except I did go to about six different cons just to see Marsters…back in the day:)…
Way back in the day it was any Laura Kinsale book. And we can laugh at the Fabio covers, but in those days it worked to make me grab the book and read the back cover. And once I started reading, I was deeply in love. Now as for TV boyfriends, Ackles is so funny and pouty cute that he could work be my side guy. But he’s also be competing with my current phase of Korean/Japanese/Chinese slices of male heaven. And there are mega tons of those hotties on the TV and movie screens with sculpted cheekbones, sharp contoured jaw lines, washboard abs, lean (Bruce Lee type) torsos with piercing hooded gazes….oh my, let me snap out of that warm, fuzzy bubble.
Hey Michelle, I am looking forward to your next book featuring a hero inspired by a Bruce Lee type as you put it … I think an author’s passions outside of romance contribute nicely to helping us find new characters and new stories. So yeah, definitely looking forward to some stories with Asian male slices of heaven:)!
Oh, Winchester brothers FOR THE WIN! Love me my Supernatural boys. I just smile condescendingly at you when you talk about them because I know deep in my heart they’re mine. All mine.
We’re on the same path, Denny. I just started OUTLANDER, and I adore Jamie as well. My main man in books has to be Reyes Farrow of Darynda Jones’s Charley Davidson series though. She hooked me with FIRST GRAVE ON THE RIGHT, and I finished the sixth installment last month. Awesome. Reyes is developed in every way. Character and body and soul. Mmmmmmmm.
Thanks for a fun and interesting post!
I need to get back to reading the series. I loved the first book, but then something happened and too many books, too little time. But I love Darynda’s series! And Outlander — OMG — so good.
Kim Maccarron, get in line. Me, Robin Covington and Avery Flynn are having a deathmatch at RWA just to see who gets to be Mrs. Dean Winchester. We are jello wrestling for book boyfriend rights. 😀 Denny, you have excellent taste and I will travel with you any day!!
I’ll let you girls roll around in the jello while I sit back and laugh, knowing AGAIN that I have nothing to prove. I know Dean loves me. I’m secure in our relationship.
Hehehe…I want pictures of the RWA death match – you know he lives in Texas (both of the boys do:), could be he might be in town. Just sayin:).
Well, with a recommendation like that, I guess I’d better put Outlander on my TBR list. Great post Denny!
I’d love to hear your take on OUTLANDER, too. So don’t forget and share!
Stay away from Dean. He’s mine. 😉
He’s mine…:)…
Well, you and I met at the Buffy Writercon, so you know all about my fangirling, lol. How many cons did we attend together? 4? James (Spike) knows us both very well. He said to tell you hi, by the way. =) Outlander is going to be (I hope) another fantastic opportunity to fangirl. Dena and I are already planning the premiere viewing at my place in August. You should come up and join us!
I am planning on being there for OUTLANDER premiere – so keep the upstairs bedroom ready! And I swear it feels like more than four – my first was in the Pocono Mts, then San Diego, Houston, and two trips to London…oh, and the boat!!!! the Queen Mary (or was that San Diego, too?)…
Not San Diego, it was Sacramento, CA!
Oh, you’ve discovered Jamie! As much as Spike was my TV boyfriend for a long time, Jamie Fraser has been my single favorite romantic hero in print since I first read Outlander fifteen years ago. He is the epitome of everything I adore, and Gabaldon did such a masterful job with him in that first book, turning so many tropes on end that made him so damn human, that I’ve stuck to the series even when Jamie took a back seat, just to get more of him. Heughan looks like excellent casting, too. I haven’t been this excited about a show in a very long time.
I’m glad I’m reading it now. I wasn’t ready for it then. Too much of what I was reading was hard core horror, and thrillers. But fanfiction showed me the way to romance (okay, sometimes extreme romance:), but Jamie is a man of now for me (although he’s rooted in way back when and in another culture all together), but he’s my new heartthrob, and I’ll keep reading the books as long as there’s a scene with him in it:)!
Girl – you are delusional. Dean is mine – I have him in my office – literally. I’m sorry to break it to you.
Denny – a day late – nothing unusual there. I fell in love with Steve McQueen as Thomas Crowne, a rich man who steals art because he’s bored, and I’ve never regretted it. Sure Thomas Crowne exists only on film, I’d have to compete with Fate Dunaway for his attention, and Syeve McQueen is currently racing cars in heaven. These are mere details. Sigh