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Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Tuesday Twos

Just a spin on the number two, twins, doubles, partners, twosomes... I'm refraining from the teasers for now, but that doesn't mean forever. I admit it will be hard to restrain myself from posting them.

So for now, how about dynamic duos? Those partners who fight crime side by side. Personally, I think they're fun, especially when you have chemistry. When that chemistry is between a man and a woman, you get tension, and loads of it.

I see a lot of television shows that work off this dynamic in the character pairings. Just last night we saw the premier of the new show Castle that features mystery author Rick Castle paired with police detective Kate Beckett. The sparks flew and it was loads of fun. Who wouldn't want to detect crime alongside Nathan Fillion, the actor playing Rick Castle? Yummy! Their chemistry, IMO, is a huge appeal.

Other tv show character pairings that often turn into a war between the sexes, with the sexual tension nearly palpable, is Bones (Tempe and Sealy), The Mentalist (Patrick and Teresa), Fringe (Peter and Olivia), and many others. These are sizzling relationships at times, and the arcs of these characters and their stories appeal to a mass audience. So why is it we don't see books with character partnerships written this way?

Oh, we see romances with partnerships that turn steamy before the book ends, but what about a series that slowly grows the relationship and plays off the couples' mounting personal conflicts. I've never read one that hasn't resulted in the couple ending up in bed together before the last page. I like to savor the conflict, similar to how these popular tv shows allow us to do.

This is why Mystic Taxi is about two main protagonists, Henry Paine and Wanda Snow, who are at logger heads before joining forces to fight the villain and foil his plan to take over New York City. There's chemistry, there's attraction, but there are no romantic proclamations in this first book. I love where the two of these characters end up by the story's conclusion. It's natural, it's exciting, it's satisfying, and there's a sigh of contentment at the end. But their story isn't over yet. It's just beginning.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's funny you should mention this. I am working on a series where the attraction is going to be built across a series. I wanted to show a romance where the attraction comes as the couple is drawn to eachothers personality. In fact, in the first book they don't even find eachother that attractive....but they grown on eachother.

By the end of the first book, they realize they genuinely like eachother... that's it. Book two starts with liking and by the end they are noticing that they are members of the opposite sex...


Theresa

Karen Duvall said...

Hey, Theresa, your story sounds great! Keep me posted as to when it gets published because I'd love to read it.