In general, maybe, but not really the version I'm writing--Jack just doesn't fit the Guido complex mold at all. I don't think I could write a hero who didn't have an obviously spicy brain if a six-figure advance depended upon it.

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(Of course, maybe in my case the appeal is being able to have my cake and eat it too--get the super-brainy man and the ruggedly sexy blue collar guy in the same package. And that's something that really works best in historicals. A guy like Jack nowadays would have no trouble getting a good education and becoming almost anything he wanted, and there's nothing especially exciting about being an educated white collar professional from a relatively humble background. If I want to see that, I can just go look in a mirror.)

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I've met them in rl. But they didn't think of me "that way" either. I have sort of a cross of the power/ Guido when I think dirty things about Tony Soprano.

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IRL, I would probably shy away from the nobles for any number of reasons.

Yeah, like the clap.

In general, maybe, but not really the version I'm writing--Jack just doesn't fit the Guido complex mold at all.

No. He's the smart Mick on the make, in a 30s/40s movie, who the debutante falls head over heels for. An equally, albeit differently sexy equiv. to the Guido.

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Ooh, It Happened One Night Very hot. Even if now I like my heroes to be beat-up and self-destructive. Jam Clark's fingers in a roadster door and I'm still on board!

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Exactly. I don't know if it's statistic or urban legend, but supposedly, the sale of men's undershirts plummeted after that film was released, and Gable wasn't wearing one, when he took off his shirt.

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Yes, indeed. Sorry, Susan - I do think Jack is a variation on the most simplistic or extreme Guido thing. Especially considering that his nicely-born heiress was married to an upper-class twit, and she's recovering with someone who isn't afraid of his own sexuality.

edit: and the whole deal with the nice refined lady getting to be unladylike with a "just shut up and make my eyes roll back in my head eighteen times, ok?" buck who has a job that involves cutting metal with fire, or pounding hot rivets into building girders? Is that there's no emotional requirement, and it's uncomplicated. That's the Guido at its most extreme and also at its most basic.

Doesn't apply to Jack, obviously. But I do think there's a secret lingering suspicion amongst a lot of women that the Big Dumb Stallion type is going to be way the hell more vigorous in bed.

You know? As opposed to someone whose last three sets of ancestors were all related to each other before marriage, who has no visible chin, and who has the name "Smedley" in there somewhere.

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Good bio, Allyson. I agree with the comments Deb made about the two sentences. Send it in.

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Oh, no doubt, Deb. "Nobody had great sex with a Sheldon. It's the name...if you want somebody to fill your teeth or do your taxes, Sheldon's your guy. But nobody ever said "Ride me like a stallion, Sheldon." "When Harry Met Sally"

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Heh. Sheldon or Hubert or Clive. Just - no. Never happen.

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