A recent news story got my attention, it starts off a little tawdry but then strays into almost Mills and Boon territory - A girl called Alina decided to auction off her virginity to pay for a university course. So far not remotely romantic but the story then takes a turn as her winning bidder, a wealthy Italian business man, whisks her off to a luxury hotel in Venice and Alina takes a shine to him. "I hope to see the man again" she says "And next time I won't make him pay!"
Unfortunately I can't foresee any circumstances that would make the selling sex thing an appropriate plot for M&B, not even raising money to pay for a relative's kidney, but if you want to read the full story you can find it here.
Jo commented on my Unlikely Heroes post that she wouldn't mind the job of choosing men to model for covers. I really didn't think that such a job existed so when I found out it did I knew I had to share - Powerhouse Casting Offices in Torronto were recently casting for authentic heroes for Harlequin covers. The request was for "real firefighters, police officers and paramedics who are good looking and between the ages of twenty five and forty eight". Apparently since 9/11 there has been a "a huge reader response for men in uniform - men in control, taking charge. You know, the safety factor."
The promising were asked to take off their shirts. Not sure who made up the judges panel but definitely nice work if you can get it!
9 comments:
Woah, where do we sign up for judging?? ;-)
As to the auctioning off virginity... My God, how very M&B of her. You could try it in a story - if the heroine was in control of the entire process (and if you provided enough motivation) it could be possible. Definitely a Modern type of plot thought eh?
It'll be a sacrifice but sometimes a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do, so I'll help judge too! Tricky, tricky controversial storyline. It would be interesting to know if M&B would consider it :)
I think it was the wealthy italian businessman that made me think of Modern. I suppose if he bid for her with no intention of making her go through with it, saving her from having to do it, that would be more romantic but still a stretch!
What I want to know is why didn't someone film the selection process for a documentary? It's a terribly important subject that should be covered IMO :-)
Alina - Wow wanting to do that to raise money. I wonder if he could tell she was ... you know ... a virgin? What is she was a really good actress?!
As for the casting director (or whatever the title is) I could sooo be that person. Maybe we should start a group, petition M&B before we are published, that we get to sit in on the interviews for the models for our covers?
I have some thoughts already ...
Ooh Lorraine definitely sounds like threads of an M&B story here and although I doubt you'd getting away with the selling virginity... it is ALL in the execution they say :)
Jo - thought the job might appeal :-)
Rachael - Yeah, I'm not sure that ANY execution would pull it off for category romance. Definitely more Pretty Woman than Mills and Boon!
Nah, you could pull it off I'm sure. All you do is the make the heroine totally in control of the process, give it a bit of a joke slant (hen party dare?), and then make the hero win the auction but be a gentleman and not go through with it. I think making a joke out of it, giving the heroine proper motivation for going through it, and making the hero sexy as hell takes the ick factor out.
I can see where you're going with that actually. Bridal Bet was sparked by a real news story that wasn't remotely MH in its real life form but started me thinking...
Missed your Unlikely Heroes post - love Justin and Colin (in a totally GBF way). To be honest, if they can make those two believable cover models (and they have) then I'm sure you can make a M&B plot out of Alina's story.
Where's the queue for the casting job?
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