Sunday, March 14, 2010

Crazy Painted Man Proposes

I searched on our blog title and re-discovered Prerogative of Harlots, a blog musing about one of my 2009 posts (the one on archaeologists vs paleontologists in romance novels). It's safe to view at work, by the way - Harlots is a blog about museum life, not a Julia Roberts character. I regard being the catalyst for a line like "His heart racing, he tore the fossil from the dirt with his bare hands," as an honor akin to winning the annual Bulwer-Lytton contest. I'm excited that I sparked a near-dissertation on all the possible ways paleontology is not the stuff of romantic leads.


Although not as excited as I would be if I were the skip of the Canadian women's curling team and received this proposal. I sincerely hope none of my Canadian readers can identify him. I saw lots of proposal signs at the Olympics - Canadians must have been feeling the love - but this was the best. Depending, of course, on your definition of good.

And don't forget to watch some of the far-too-scant TV coverage of the 2010 Paralympics! If you have on-demand, the Opening Ceremony was an amazing showcase of talent. My children asked questions about why the heavy-metal singer didn't have an arm and a leg, why several athletes didn't have legs, why some athletes used wheelchairs and others used crutches. It was a rocking, exciting, moving show - far, far better at explaining the differences and similarities between people than the telethons of our childhood.

I'm sure the Paralympians will get their share of crazy painted man proposals this week too. NBC will be showing excerpts at random times, so be on the look-out.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

The paralympics are awesome and I would suspect they would do well with a general audience. The more people are exposed to individuals with disabilities, the more they will be accepted as the "norm".

Lindsey Petersen

Anna Richland said...

Thanks for your comment Lindsey - We're that "general audience" and think the Paralympics are as exciting on TV as the first set of Olympics were. We meet people with different mobility on the bus when they need to use the lift, but we can't interact there, and it's not the same as watching different bodies DO awesome feats like skiing, which my kids do too (far less successfully).

The Paralympics are also inspiring to me because my heroine loses a leg half way through my novel and still manages to ride a snowmobile in a chase scene.

Kate Diamond said...

Ooh. Have you read Susan Mallery's Lone Star sister series?

I'm thinking about the 2nd book. Mitch, the super-hot hero, lost part of his leg. He's a very interesting character.

(And if you've read this, you're probably already thinking of the fabulous sex scene. Which one? If you've read it, you KNOW which one I'm talking about!)

Anna Richland said...

No, I haven't read Susan's book. Thanks for the lead, Kate. I have a list of books from a great Smart Bitches thread on characters with real disabilities (as opposed to the regency trope "a limp too severe to dance"). I've had a hard time finding the ones mentioned on SB, but the Lone Star Sisters should be easier to track down.