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Castle, Or Why Writers Make Good Heroes To Writers

Firstly – Damn you, International Date Line. I’m late. I should have blogged at 9am. Instead, I got my hours messed up and am blogging now. I’m late. I’m very very late and I’m very very sorry.

Secondly, this blog is a drool-fest. Just thought I should warn you, I am in serious lust with Nathan Fillion. Continue at your own risk…

Okay, I’ve been a Nathan Fillion groupie since I first saw him playing the Big Bad on the final season of Buffy (at the time I was seriously in lust with Spike…still am, come to think of it. Hmmm…) Anyways, this incredibly sexy character pops up on the screen and whammo, I was gone! Then, I found him in Firefly – probably the most under-rated, miss-treated show in existence. I think I lost the ability to form rational thought whenever Captain Tightpants was on the telly. Later, I drooled over him in the (very very) short-lived show, Drive, followed by the most wonderfully disturbing movie, Slither, followed by Desperate Housewives…ok, I’ll stop now. Suffice to say, I love Nathan Fillion. (Captain Hammer, anyone? I’m wearing a Captain Hammer t-shirt as I type this.)

Now, his latest effort has me intrigued. Castle. Anyone watch it? I’m hooked. I can’t say it’s the best written show on the tube at the moment (my vote for that show would be House, or maybe Fringe, or Dexter, or Californication…hey, another writer as a hero! But I digress, sorry). I can’t even say Castle is the best acted show on the telly at the moment. It’s stories are a little cheesy, it’s characters a little cliched, its dialogue – at times – a little corny, but damn, I love that show. And while it is in part due to my stalker-type lust for Fillion, a lot of it has to do with the character Rick Castle’s occupation. He’s a writer.

So why do I find a writer such a sexy hero? Does it have something to do with the fact you know he’s good with his fingers? That his imagination really knows no bounds? Or is it the allure of the profession itself and our own immersion in the world of written make-believe? I notice every time I watch this show (after wiping the drool from my bottom lip, that is) I put myself in Castle’s shows. How would I, as a writer, react to the same situation he is in? Would I see the same things he sees? Would I deduce the same conclusions he deduces? Or am I just fooling myself (of course, being a paranormal romance writer and not a crime fiction writer, I guess if I looked at a scene involving a messed up bed, ropes and a spilled bottle of champagne, I’d see a very successful seduction scene, whereas a crime fiction writer would see a nefarious moment of bad behaviour). But the question still stands, do I find Castle sexy because of his witty sarcastic approach to life, or because – on a level too deep in my psyche, I’d like to think I’m like him (just more prone to wearing dresses grin)

Do writers make good heroes for we romance authors? Or, like a firefighter watching Backdraft, are their on-paper antics too unbelievable?

Or is my lust for Fillion completely clouding my (normally) sound judgement? Anyone? Anyone?