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Q&A Have You Ever Had a Crush on A Historical Fiction Character?

By Anne Beggs
July 19, 2024

Who has had a crush on a historical fiction character? Come on, don’t be shy. Even if it was Johnny Tremain back in school, or for today’s younger set, Emma in On a Wing and a Dare. Claire or Jaime Fraser (I see your hands going up)?

Four Paper Lantern Writers did NOT disappoint with their answers and photos.

Alina Rubin had a ready answer, who is with her?

Three years ago, I was watching a British tv series called Hornblower.  I had a serious crush on Archie Kennedy (played by Jamie Bamber). When Archie tragically died, I was devastated. Later that night, I started making up a different story, where he would survive. There would be a woman on the ship, who would be the doctor, and she would save him. Then they could have other adventures, such as her rescuing him from a French prison. For weeks, I would wake up and imagine their adventures. Then one morning, I woke with the strangest feeling. Something in the universe told me that I must write a book. The amazing woman doctor became A Girl with a Knife, Ella Parker. The book I’m working on now, Imprisoned, brings Ella and her love interest, Jamie Flowers, together. You can get a preview of their meeting in the prequel novella Hearts by the Sea.

Mari Christie has a surprise for us.

Perhaps it’s cliché, but my favorite book boyfriend (BBF) comes from a historical romance: the Roxton Series by Lucinda Brant, beginning with Noble Satyr. The Duke of Roxton is, as many fictional dukes (and heroes) are, a bad boy, and I’ve always had a soft spot for those. He is arrogant, a womanizer (until he meets his love match, obvs), and condescending (to everyone but the one he falls in love with), but also witty, thoughtful, kind, protective—and wealthy and all-powerful in both England and France. Plus, he has a French accent, and who can resist that?

Honestly, all that said, at this stage of my life, M’sieur le Duc d’Roxton is never someone I would date—call me older and wiser if you wish—but my 20 (maybe even 30)-year-old self would have done anything to attract his attention.

Ana Brazil has an intriguing one. Do I see more hands going up?

Dorothy L. Sayers’ Lord Peter Wimsey.

Say what? You need more information than that?

Okay, here goes: Lord Peter is steadfast to his family, friends, and country; well-read and Oxford-educated; a brilliant pianist and spiffy dresser (a la London 1920’s and 30’s); clever with a phrase; and a dedicated solver of murders and other mysteries. And when Peter falls in love with Harriet Vane, you know he’s mating for life.

Pure catnip!

And how about this one from Kathryn Pritchett:

At 13, I fell hard for a literary bad boy – Heathcliff from Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights. Though I wasn’t wandering the moors of 19th century England, I did live in a “wuthering” kind of place. The wind often blew in a hopeless, mournful way across the sage-covered pastures outside our Idaho farmhouse where I dreamed of a passionate first love much like that other Catherine.

I first encountered Heathcliff in a Reader’s Digest version of the novel swiped from my mother’s bookshelf. But my love for him was cemented in a dark movie theater the next town over, where I saw Timothy Dalton smolder his way through the role. For days after seeing that performance I was tortured by what could never be. After all, Heathcliff was merely a fictional character—a ghost no less! But oh, his dark, brooding ways continued to haunt me as I compared him to the clueless, pasty-faced prospects—most of them still a head or more shorter than me–in my small-town junior high.

Written by Anne Beggs

Anne M. Beggs writes adventure romance and family saga set in Medieval Ireland. She is a member of Paper Lantern Writers and Historical Novel Society. For more about her books, mounted archery, and horses, please contact her on Facebook or Instagram @annitbella72

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2 Comments

  1. Ana Brazil

    Might be my favorite Q&A ever!

    Reply

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