First of all Nicola Cornick is doing a week long stint at e-harlequin talking about pirates, outlaws and pirates and why women are fascinated with them. Is it because women want to redeem? What is irresistible about a bad boy? Why is Johnny Depp so much more appealing than Orlando Bloom? Why is Sir Guy of Gisbourne more interesting than Robin Hood? Why is Mabel welcome to Frederic in the Pirates of Penzance, when I would fight for the Pirate King? (The elder two's high school is doing Pirates and my middle has been going around tarantraing and singing bits). Anyway, Nicola gives her take on why bad boys are popular in romance. I am being very good and not taking part as I am doing my revisions.
However, if you look at enneagrams, you will see that the Bad Boy is actually a special type of the number 6 -- the Loyalist. He is the rebel. He is the person who breaks all the rules. In order to break the rules, he has to know the rules, and he is the sort of person (in theory) who does want to keep rules but only on his terms. The interesting question is why? The general answer is that they have felt let down by their parents and the rules they used to keep. But these are the people who rebel. They are not trying to be successful rebels, they just breaking the rules. Number 6 also generally have a code of honour. People sometimes dismiss number 6 loyalists as being very beta and boy next door, but if you look at them in the context of the Bad Boy, you can see that they are a truly interesting type, a man that needs to be tamed. For example, I think an excellent case could be made that Vidal (The Devil's Cub) is a number 6. He is a man who lives by rules. He never breaks his rules -- just polite society's. He is ruthless. And ultimately he is wonderful and tamed by Mary.
My fingers are crossed that Cranford, the new BBC series based on three books by Elizbeth Gaskell, is as wonderful as it looks. They had a preview of it on the BBC the other day. Early railways. Scandalous whispering. Changes in society. Romance. Costume drama at its best.
Philip Glenister is in it but he looks to be far more stiff upper lip than normal. And I have seen pictures of a Simon Woods. In other words, I am not sure who the hero will be. Dame Judi Dench is in it, heading an all star cast. Some of the filming was done in Wiltshire and you can see photos of it here. It looks like it is going to be excellent. It will be shown on Masterpiece Theatre in the US, I think as it was filmed in conjunction with WBGH Boston. Anyway, I can't wait.
Right back to my wip -- the Tyne Valley and my bad boy hero. It is coming on, honestly.
