ROMANCING THE LIBRARIAN
Cindy, thanks so much for inviting me to visit Muse Interrupted.
Recently I attended a great workshop presented by Susan Wiggs, one of my favorite authors. She illustrated her presentation with examples from her current release, Lakeshore Christmas (which I highly recommend). I’d just finished the book and had noticed a similarity between her heroine, Maureen the librarian, and the heroine of my December release, SEX DRIVE, Theresa the sociology professor.
I knew exactly where my character had come from and I’d wondered about Susan’s, so I was very interested when she said that her Maureen was a librarian archetype. Yes! That’s exactly how I see Theresa.
What’s an archetype? There are certain characters who immediately resonate with readers (or viewers) because we recognize and understand them. They’re often “larger than life,” yet we feel that we know them. These characters, in numerous incarnations and variations, appear over and over again in myths, fairy tales, books, and movies, and we never get tired of them. They’re not stereotypes – e.g., each librarian character is unique – but they share some common features. For example, the following are all 
librarians: Katharine Hepburn in The African Queen, Kathleen Turner in Romancing the Stone, and of course Marian the librarian in The Music Man. Get the picture? (And can’t you just imagine a dashing hero ripping off her glasses, pulling the pins out of her hair, and releasing all the passion that’s hidden inside that buttoned-up exterior?)
Do you know the movie, The Big Easy? It’s one of my favorites. Ellen Barkin plays Anne Osbourne, a repressed rule-bound lawyer who has a hidden sensual side just waiting for the right man to bring it out. The man is Dennis Quaid, playing Remy McSwain, a sexy, charming cop who isn’t much for respecting any rules. She’s a librarian and he’s a charmer archetype.
That’s the same heroine/hero mix I used in SEX DRIVE.
Prof. Theresa Fallon was a child genius who aced her schoolwork and flunked Boys 101. When, on the flight from Sydney to Vancouver, BC, she’s seated beside Damien Black, one of Australia’s ten sexiest bachelors, she’s about to get a crash course in flirting, fooling around, and maybe even love. As typically happens when you put a librarian and a charmer together, she learns how to lighten up and have fun, and discovers her own sensuality and sexuality, and he learns that while games are fun, life’s even more rewarding when you find something – or someone – to get serious about.
There are many different kinds of archetype schemes: e.g., zodiac signs, Jungian archetypes, enneagrams, Myers-Briggs personality types. The one that really clicks for me is the one developed by Tami D. Cowden, Caro LaFever, and Sue Viders, in The Complete Writer’s Guide to Heroes & Heroines: Sixteen Master Archetypes. This is a fascinating book to read, with examples from classic movies, TV shows, and books. (And of course you have to do your homework by rereading the books and renting the DVDs. Such a tough life, doing all that research.)
If you’d like to see an example of archetypes in action, I hope you’ll check out SEX DRIVE. It’s the first in my four-book Wild Ride to Love series (planes, trains, automobiles and a cruise ship) starring the four Fallon sisters.
Now, how about you? Who are some of the heroines and heroes who stand out in your mind, and what makes them so memorable? If you had to describe them in a word or phrase, what would it be? Let’s come up with more titles of books and movies so we’ll have lots of enjoyable homework to do over our winter holidays!
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To read Susan’s bio and the back cover blurb for SEX DRIVE, please visit yesterday’s post. To learn more about Susan and her books, check out her website.
I love the librarian type of heroine. She reminds me of the accountant that I am. But I also love the big strong hero who feels he must protect his soulmate. Even if she doesn’t need the help. It is the reason I read Lora Leigh’s Breed series and most of the werewolf romances out now. I also enjoy Kimberly Zant, Katie Allen, Annmarie McKenna, and others.
As something different and that make me laugh are the heroes and heroines of Shelly Laurenston and G A Aiken. They are just over the top kick butt characters.
Now that you mention it, my favorite books are the librarian/charmer stories. Wow, I never even realized that before. Thanks.
Sex Drive sounds amazing, epecially Damien. Good luck with your series.
Susan, The Big Easy is one of my favourite movies!
The characters are so perfectly written (and portrayed) and, as you point out, not the least bit stereotypical. Just fun and yet heartbreakingly real.
Sex Drive sounds like a lot of fun. I know Linda Howard used the librarian archetype in at least a couple of her books, though I can’t remember the titles. Heroines that stand out for me lately are kickass warriors and goddesses. Diana the Huntress heroines. Like Karin Tabke’s heroines in all her books.
Hi everyone and welcome to Susan!
Susan, I think the librarian/charmer pairing is so popular because they’re so much fun to watch get together. I also like when the heroine’s sort of wacky and the hero is strait-laced (I can’t remember the names of those archetypes…oh, one might be the free spirit…maybe free spirit and chief?). I think it’s the opposite attracts thing.
Susan Elizabeth Phillips’s books have lots of great character pairings. I don’t think you can go wrong with many of her books, but Dream a Little Dream is a favourite of mine.
Hi Chris. Yup, an accountant is another profession the “librarian” often chooses. And yes, isn’t it fun when one of those big strong protective heroes gets the woman who’s all about “I can do it for myself, thanks very much”?
Linda, you’re like me in your taste. Of course the classic librarian/charmer is in “The Music Man.” There was another one with Katharine Hepburn and Burt Lancaster – “The Rainmaker.” Hepburn was wonderful at portraying those repressed librarians with the secret, sensual side.
Rachel, I agree with you about the writing on “The Big Easy.” Every once in a while I see something, movie or TV, and think, “Man, I wish I’d written that!”
Thanks, Edie. Yes, warriors and goddesses are about as archetypal as you can get!
Cindy, thanks so much for having me. Yes, those wacky heroines are the free spirits – like Goldie Hawn and Darma. The third sister in my Wild Ride to Love series is one of those, and I’m really looking forward to writing about her. The guy I’m pairing her with isn’t exactly straitlaced but he’s an environmentalist who believes in committing yourself to a cause – i.e., he’s the opposite of flighty, and he doesn’t have a lot of fun! They’ve got a lot to learn from each other.
Yes, you’re so right about Susan Elizabeth Phillips. I love her characters, and the way she pairs them.
Great post, Susan! Books with wonderfully crafted heroines are always keepers for me. Although not the librarian archetype, I loved Lily in Deborah Smith’s Blue Willow. The emotion in her story was powerful and raw.
Can’t wait to read Sex Drive! 🙂
Hi Mary. Thanks for dropping by. Hmm, I haven’t read that Deborah Smith book, but I do enjoy her writing. I’ll have to look for it.
Susan, Blue Willow is one of Deborah Smith’s older books. I loved it. But then I love all of Deb Smith.
Thanks for the info, Cindy.
Love the cover and the story. Wishing you many sales and thanks for spending time with us.
Thanks so much, fallon. And I wish you many great books to read.
I’m fairly new to the romance field myself. Most of the female protagonists I’m familiar with tend to come from the pulp, noir and science fiction fields. Modesty Blaise would be my favorite, followed by other women in that same mold–women who are likely to save the hero as vice versa.
Hi Gail. Well, you see, as far as I’m concerned, a woman can rescue a man in all sorts of ways, not just saving his neck when he’s in danger. One of my favorite examples of that is “Pretty Woman.” Yeah, Edward (Richard Gere) rescues Vivian (Julia Roberts) from the sleazy life of being a hooker, but she rescues him from a sleazy life too. I think it’s a lovely romance because both of them grow so much as a result of meeting each other.
I’ve always been rather bookish, so I don’t have a problem with the librarian type. I loved The Big Easy too, and Romancing The Stone. You have a great cover on your book. Hot ! Hot!
Hi Linda. Oh yes, Romancing the Stone was another great librarian one! Thanks for the compliment on the cover – not that I actually had anything to do with it .
I love the Tami Cowden Archtype book. I think I’ve read it half a dozen times. Her examples are so on the money. Another fave is Dangerous Men & Adventurous Women.
Our chapter just had a speaker talking about the heroine’s journey at our last meeting. I don’t watch a lot of movies for some odd reason. I have my favorites the Lord of the Rings trilogy and from there I became a big Viggo Mortensen fan and began collecting and watching his movies. I love the Star Wars and Star Trek movies but the ones mentioned above I can honestly say I’ve only seen Romancing the Stone out of them. None of the others resonated with me for some reason.
Wow, it sounds fascinating. I am writing a WIP based on a sexy but shy woman paired with a bad boy – and the idea of a librairian who’s really steamy underneath sounds like a sure winner.
Pat, I always get some fresh insight when I read the arechetypes book. I read the Dangerous Men and Adventurous Women book years ago, when I first started writing romance. Maybe I should take another look at it.
Kathy, we all have different taste, which is a great thing for the people who write books and make movies. Some of us like humor, some like epics, some like cozy stories, and so on and so on. I wonder what it is that makes differen things resonate with different people? For me, it’s usually the more personal stories that tug at my heartstrings (yeah, I’m a Hallmark movie type of person – LOL).
Kathryn, in terms of the Tami Cowden etc. archetypes book, it sounds as if you have a classic librarian plus bad boy. A wonderful match! Good luck with the book.
Thank you to Susan for a great blogging day!
The lucky winner of SEX DRIVE is ::::drum roll::: Kathryn! Congratulations, Kathryn! Please look for an email from me in your in-box.
I’m having another guest blogger next Tuesday, December 8th, my last guest for 2009, Bonnie Edwards, another Kensington Aphrodisia author. Make sure to drop by.
My list of 2010 guest bloggers is now full. Look for the schedule in my sidebar.
Thanks for having me, Cindy, and thanks to everyone who dropped by to chat. Congratulations, Kathryn! I hope you enjoy the book.
I’m sure you’ll all enjoy visiting with Bonnie next week. She’s great!