Sarah: Recently, Freebird had a really interesting homework assignment. He had to list the things that influenced him from most to least – things like parents, friends, the internet, etc. Then Hubby and I had to do the assignment, too, and list the things that influenced us when we were his age.
Of course, when he and I were kids, there was no internet. Both of us listed “books” as the thing that influenced us most When We Were Young
This got me thinking about what influenced me as a romance reader. What books or shows or other things influenced my tastes as a reader?
So what influenced you guys?
Amanda: Barbies.
I’m not joking.
Redheadedgirl: Cinderella.
Amanda: That and my nana watching her “stories.”
Redheadedgirl: The Little House books. History and how people lived and romance and family and adventure.
Elyse: Disney’s Beauty and the Beast
Redheadedgirl: YES
Elyse: Gothic castle. Redemption of a beastly hero. Everyone deserves love.
Cinderella too. And Sleeping Beauty. Basically Disney owns my soul.
Redheadedgirl: Also he gave her a library as a grovel gift.
THAT GROVEL IS SUFFICIENT
Sarah: Scarecrow and Mrs. King.
I was the only one who knew how to program the VCR to record things while we were out of the house, and so I amassed quite a collection of Scarecrow and Mrs. King episodes on a big old stack of VHS tapes. I loved that show. I loved the mysteries, but I really loved the very slow burning, unresolved tension between the leads. I also liked that Mrs. King was an ordinary divorced mom who didn’t let anyone give her any crap about her life.
The theme to Scarecrow & Mrs. King still gives me the shivers, too. Like my inner 12 year old perks up and gets all eager to grab some Triscuits and ginger ale and head for the couch.
(All spies wear sweater vests and beige turtleneck sweaters in a size too small, right? Of course they do.)
And Beauty and the Beast — the TV show. BaTB was my first fandom obsession, before there was the Internet, which nurtures fandoms as part of its DNA I think. I had graphic novels. I had the soundtrack – and I bought a used CD copy off eBay last year because my original was a cassette. It took me awhile to realize that the episode descriptions were all about the mystery but the episodes themselves were also romances, too, with a tenuous possibility for a happy ending. And in my headcanon, she doesn’t die, though I was still introduced to Dylan Thomas’ poetry.
(That 80’s dress when Linda Hamilton first appears on the balcony was to young Sarah the HEIGHT of glamour.)
The X-Files was a similar influence, but only the romantic parts. Once I found a listing of all the shipping moments in various episodes, I’d watch them and fast forward through some of the “too scary” parts and get to the fragments of schmoopy parts. (That page still exists! IT IS ON ANGELFIRE. Oh, helloooo, nostalgia.)
So my biggest influences were tv shows that were romances disguised as something else, be that mystery or crime drama. I think my love for those shows matches my intense dislike of insta-love (slow burn! SLOW BURN. WORK FOR IT, DAMMIT) and my frustrating affection for very slow-building attractions that builds in tiny moments amidst everything else.
Redheadedgirl: Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves
Forreal.
Sarah: Oh HELL yes.
Redheadedgirl: As an introduction to the glory that is Alan Rickman, that was a good one!
Sarah: It was like two different movies because of Rickman. There was Costner and Morgan Freeman just emo-scowling everywhere, and then there was Rickman, who was clearly in some other film
Redheadedgirl: Forever Knight was the first show that got me interested in fandom.
OH MY GOD
HOW COULD I FORGET HIGHLANDER?
Sarah: HIGHLANDER OMG.
THERE CAN ONLY BE ONE.
Redheadedgirl: The movie is okay, but the show? THE SHOW WAS A GLORY OF EVERYTHING
EVERYTHING!
Sarah: Mystery wrapped around a romance – hellooooooo catnip. Wait, there was a show? I never saw the show!
Redheadedgirl: Oh lord, Sarah
Sarah: Hello eyebrows.
Redheadedgirl: Have a look at all of these.
The show was everything great about 90s adventure shows.
I mean that genre in general. No wonder I love the old skool crazysauce: it’s what I consumed during my adolescence.
Amanda: I think the whole nana watching her soap operas and me with my Barbies were deeply connected. She’d babysit me while I was younger and had a ton of romances with Fabio covers, by the way. But she’d sit in her chair and watch soaps and then I’d go home and I’d use my Barbies to act out whatever crazy shit happened.
But I also liked how Barbies could be whatever the hell they wanted and honestly, all of my “storylines” with my dolls had a romance central to the plot. As I got older, I actually started watching soaps. Shout out to General Hospital. They’re so addicting. When you first catch an episode, you have no clue what’s going on, so you have to watch the next day and then the next one and the one after that to fully grasp all the storylines. If I ever see GH on TV, I will try to avoid it like the plague or else there go all my afternoons. And come on…everyone is in love with everyone on soaps.
My mom also worked a lot, so she’d drop me off to “before care” at school and I’d stay for “after care” once school let out. In the mornings, they’d play Sailor Moon in the cafeteria for all the kids to watch while the ate breakfast. And while Tuxedo Mask was a mysterious hunk, I was all for the bad guys (see our villains post), Alan and Prince Diamond.
Sarah: And in soaps, they only get ONE episode to be happy. Maybe two, using the L shaped sheet that covers her but leaves him naked all the way south to the thin part of the treasure trail
Y’all. Can you imagine the reaction if before-care breakfast at school had television on, let alone Sailor Moon?!
Amanda: It was super depressing, haha. I would be at school before the sun came up and then was there until around 6pm.
And the cafeteria at 6am was always freezing and eerily quiet.
Sarah: That makes me sad. I mean, working means that happens, but wow.
Amanda: My mom worked far away, so she had a heavy commute in South Florida. But I got to hang out with this awesome woman, who I think was a teacher’s aide and her name was Mrs. Moxie!
Sarah: That’s a GOOD NAME
Amanda: And she’d help me put cream cheese on my bagel because for some reason, they always gave me a damn spoon to put it on with.
Sarah: WTF
So before-care, Mrs. Moxie, and Sailor Moon: formative influences! That’s rad.
What about you? What influenced you as a romance reader? Can you see any parallels between the shows you loved and the books you love now? (And should I re-watch all the episodes of Scarecrow and Mrs. King? I shouldn’t, right? No, I shouldn’t.)
When I was a kid the library had a collection of YA from the 1940’s, 50’s and 60’s by Janet Lambert. The ones I liked best took place within military families, the Parrish’s and the Jordan’s. The books carried their lives from kids to teens to adult life. It was a progression that I understood. I think my first experience with death was in those books when Tippy Parrish’s fiance dies in Korea and when Alcie Drayton dies in an auto accident. I knew these people as I had grown up with them and their trials, tribulations and their romances. As an adult I bought up the books on eBay and Amazon, and they still resonate with me on some level.
Shortly thereafter I found Kathleen Woodiwiss, very different themes. But I loved them too!
I was a teenager back in the early 2000’s when purity rings were all the rage and great movies such as She’s All That and A Walk to Remember were out. The good girl/bad guy trope and ugly duckling trope has been my catnip ever since.
My influence as a young girl in the 70’s… Gone with the Wind, Paint Your Wagon, West Side Story, and Cary Grant. My mother hooked me up to all the old romance movies. Beach Blanket Bingo movies and Tammy and the Bachelor and Gidget. James Darren, Gene Kelly and Cary Grant…sigh (he is worth mentioning at least twice). My mother and my aunt were without a doubt my biggest influence with movies, tv and books for romance. My mother would laugh, and even cry while reading and even I thought it was a more than a bit strange I was still intrigued so much so that I snuck her copy of Flame and a Flower. That was it for me. I was hooked.
My girlhood books of Little Houses, Trixie Belden’s, and all of my Madeleine L”Engle books went in a box (that I still have) and I devoured all of my mom’s romance books. I actually just sent for her birthday romance books of a few of my favorite authors I want her to try.
I watched superhero stuff as a kid in the 90s – Batman with Adam West and Julie Newmar’s playful and sexy Catwoman, Wonder Woman with Lynda Carter, Xena, the animated X-Men series. My childhood was shaped by these powerful women and love in dramatic circumstances.
Then, when I was about 15, I found the original Star Trek series and my OTP. Kirk/Spock showed me these two guys, one extremely charismatic and warm, one logical and super intelligent, who defied the odds to stay together because they each found someone who complimented their own nature and balanced them. Spock didn’t have to be the Perfect Vulcan around Kirk – he could let loose and smile a bit, and Kirk was just delighted to have him around. Spock balanced Kirk’s impetuosity and gave him the emotional “beach to walk on” (which Kirk longed for in “The Naked Time”), a place he could be both lover and loved without the constant burden of command. (Space Husbands forever, y’all. Even death couldn’t keep them apart.)
I wish I could say something way cooler than Sweet Valley High, but I basically inhaled those as a kid.
Grimm’s Fairy Tales (I was that kid who was vaguely disappointed in Disney movies because of all the changes. Do not get me started on Sleeping Beauty. (Mainly, because I can’t remember the full rant.)
Comic books. A lot of relationship stuff went on in Uncanny X-Men in the 80s.
I loved Scarecrow and Mrs. King! Remington Steele was also big for me – romance, banter, and mystery with pretty, pretty leads. A few years later, Moonlighting filled that same niche. In movies, Labyrinth was huge (although I would have been 15 by then, so a little older). Books were hugely important to me as a person, but I’m not sure how much influence they had on me for romance until I was old enough to read actual romance novels. I do remember loving novels like Little Women and the Little House books for the love stories as well as the history.
My extremely conservative, extremely controlling parents tried to keep me away from any book with romance in it…they failed. I started with inspirational romances, but honestly it started with making my Barbie and Ken kiss behind a recliner. I’ve always been a fan of romance, even when I didn’t really know what was going on with it.
Every Edgar Rice Burroughs book ever written, beginning with Tarzan. Everyone knows exactly what we’re talking about when we say, “Tarzan and Jane.” He lurves her. She lurves him. Ain’t never getting a divorce, except in the Geico commercial.
The one book that really influenced my romance tastes was “Gone with the Wind”; it traumatized me so much that I required the HEA from then on. 🙂 I read GWTW when I was 11 years old, so although I didn’t “get” a lot of it, it still frustrated me. Well, Scarlett frustrated me! I began reading Harlequin Presents when I was 14, and I never looked back. I grew up watching the old 60s shows (“I Dream of Jeannie”) that were already in reruns by the mid-70s, but I can’t say those influenced my reading habits.
Mine was Candy Candy. It was this anime historical romance saga I watched obsessively as a child. It had it all it was like an animated soap opera! Candy was an orphan but secretly an heiress. She was mistreated, ridiculed and her first love died in a horrific accident. Through it all Candy remained cheerful and strong. But the best part of Candy Candy was Terry the illegitimate son of a duke. He was dark, brooding,handome, sarcastic and secretly harbored an obsessive love for Candy.
He was my first fictional love and the reason I’m still obsessed with Apha males and secret unrequited love story lines. He loved Candy but of course he couldn’t admit this so he treated her horribly but was always there when she needed him :sigh:: now I’m off to You Tube.
I concur with Heather S about seeing DC superhero characters like Batgirl, Wonder Woman, and Catwoman on live tv. (Being born in 1970, these episodes were a lot more recent.) (I also suspect that those attractive live-action characters were the reason there was a lot more erotica/fanfic/porn based on DC characters than Marvel ones. It was a lot easier to fantasize about Yvonne Craig, Lynda Carter, and Lee Merriweather than ink drawings of Marvel heroines (though Scarlett Johansson and Jessica Alba have leveled that playing field somwewhat.)
I also enjoyed reading superhero comics, which did have a decent amount of romance, whether it was the star-crossed would-be lovers (Spider-Man and Mary Jane, Cyclops and Marvel Girl, Superman and Lois Lane) or successful dating/married couples (the Wasp and Giant Man, Mister Fantastic and the Invisible Girl/Woman).
My first big crush was on Laurence Olivier in Wuthering Heights. Sigh … “Heahtcliff, fill my arms with heather ….”
@Sarah: Big high five for She’s All That!
Sneaking the Mary Stewarts out of the adult section in the library – that was my start. Also, I had a piano teacher who listened to Portia Faces Life, the Australian version, while also listening to her students – and she could hear the slightest misstep, radio show or not. She also introduced me to Victoria Holt. And there we went.
There are so many different influences. Off the top of my head: the Superfriends cartoons on Saturday morning (early 70s), Bugs Bunny, Lucy Maud Montgomery, Little House on the Prairie (the books and the T.V. show), Victoria Holt, Encyclopedia Brown, Ladyhawke (the movie would have been much better without Matthew Broderck), Willow, Wonder Woman, the Bionic Woman, MacGyver and General Hospital in the early 80s (the whole Ice Princess plot was crazy but so much fun),
Bollywood romances! My very first generation immigrant parents were very strict about me watching white people romancing it up on TV, but if brown people were doing it, it was no big deal, right? (Mom, dad, what were you thinking???) But, anyway, there was five-year-old Nuha, watching the classic Bollywood romantic drama, Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge. It’s got everything! Catchy dance numbers, romantic Eurorail trips, parental disapproval, the wierd immigrant experience where your parents expect you to long for a homeland that only feels half yours, and a dude with floppy hair who will drop everything to come and rescue you from an unwanted marriage. His game plan? To relentlessly charm EVERYONE and I have been being relentlessly charmed ever since.
The Ghost and Mrs Muir (which really dates me), seen on American TV when we spent a year in the States when I was seven coming up eight. Books would be Jean Plaidy, particulary one about … aaaargh, John of Gaunt’s second wife … except having googled it clearly isn’t by Jean Plaidy hmmmn. Right it’s about Katherine Swynford, John of Gaunts third wife, still no idea who the auther is, but it was my first encounter with romance, as opposed to lust which was The Godfather.
SB Sarah you should try some Highlander, Adrian Paul has gorgeous cheek bones and a smile to die for! The series also has some very interesting guest actors including Roger Daltrey from the Who
Sarah
Clearly, I am younger than most of the commenters so far, but: Caroline B. Cooney’s time-traveling trilogy that starts with Somewhere in Time; Lurlene McDaniel’s tragic love stories and Amish love stories (which I now realize are inspirationals for teenagers); and Philip Pullman’s Ruby in the Smoke trilogy. I also second the commenter above who mentioned Mary Stewart, except I didn’t have to sneak them — my parents let me read whatever I wanted.
Oh lord — the first romances I discovered were by Virginia Henley and I DEVOURED them. I think the first one I read was the Falcon and the Flower? I no longer read Ms. Henley’s books — I tried re-reading in the last year, and there were too many plot lines and just a bit too much craziness. But I definitely still love history in my romance, which is one reason I like Courtney Milan. If the author has done a ton of research and then puts that into the plot (hello Nora Roberts and my love of learning about random careers like salvage diving)…give it to me.
But also, I was the target demographic for the WB back in the day and watched all of the shows — Buffy, Angel, Dawson’s Creek. Those probably influenced me as well. And seconding Sarah’s love of the slow burn. I love the tension, and that is part of why I like series or trilogies — I usually get to see at least one couple build up to their story over numerous books.
Silly as it sounds “Star Blazers” was a huge romantic influence on me as it was the first “cartoon” I ever watched where there was a progression and a goal and a “real” romance between Derek Wildstar and Nova. I thought it was wildly romantic and used to race home to watch it every day after school. Beverly Cleary’s book “Fifteen” (despite it being set in the 1950’s and I was reading it well in the late 1970’s or early 80’s) was my idea of teenage romance heaven. Of course all the other classic young girl books like the “Little House” series were huge influences. I was so disappointed that the TV Almanzo seemed kinda goofy and nothing like the dashing book version.
Beauty and the Beast, Ella Enchanted, Tamora Pierce’s books, Josh/Donna on The West Wing…
Madeleine L’Engle’s writing was responsible for shaping me in so many ways. There are certain things from her books I can’t forget (nor would I want to) even years after my last read of said books: the relationship between Meg and Calvin that grew into marriage in the Time Quintet, the date Vicky Austin goes on to the symphony in A Ring of Endless Light, the slowly building relationship between Flip and Paul in And Both Were Young, the descriptions of L’Engle’s own home life and relationships in her memoirs.
L’Engle was responsible for much of my understanding of relationships and family situations that didn’t necessarily look like the ones I had experienced. I will forever be grateful to her and her lovely, lovely books.
Did a CTRL+F for Sweet Dreams books… and I didn’t find any! Those pretty much were romance book primers. Think I started reading those in primary school and I had moved onto the big boys (Johanna Lindsey) by the time I hit the 8th Grade.
Lord. What came before sneaking my mom’s romance books and then openly checking them out of the library? Well, Disney, of course. Scarecrow & Mrs King. Moonlighting. Remington Steele. I guess I’ve had a really long love affair with crime procedurals and spy shows. I do remember some young adult reads that had romance aspects.
I hope I’m not the oldest commentator, but Blake’s 7 with Avon, Andre Norton YA books, Madelaine Brent’s romances (OMG she was really a man!), Michael York who kindly responded to my fan mail, Ursula LeGuin’s Tenar, Jan Cox Speas’ Bride of the MacHugh and My Lord Monleigh. Am I ringing bells for anyone?
I was not a romantic child. My dolls were all adopted and my heroes were animals. But I did read lots of original fairy tales, and as a Teen I went for some Schiller and Shakespeare. My most romantic childhood interest was my love of everything Native American (I am Swiss. Go figure.). But my mother did read fat historical novels by female writers, and let them lie around in the bathroom. I new very early about King Henry and his many wives 😉 Later influences were music videos (of the eighties), French movies (ah, the young Alain Delon), the city of Paris. My favorite romantic movies were and still are Ladyhawke and a tchec version of Cinderella that is a classic hereabouts. Then I found a tattered copy of a historical romance novel on a ski trip, when I was out of reading materials. I could not believe how happy that book made me! I made everybody read it and went looking for more like it. A whole new world had opened up for me.
Disney definitely had a strong influence for me. I still love Beauty and the Beast so much!
I used to watch lots of Buffy and Charmed as well when I was around 9-12. Angel was my first true love
Truth be told, I didn’t really get into romance until about Middle school. Around the same time I also got into anime and of course shipping. My earliest one true pairings were AshXMisty from Pokemon and the main couple from an anime called Inuyasha.
After that I read lots and lots of Shoujo( young girl focused ) anime and manga. As I got older romance become something I actively sought out and looked for in anything I watched . Eventually that became reading romance novels around my late teens.
Watching shows like “Here Come the Brides” and “Bonanza” influenced me along with my early sneak reading of Harlequins at Grandma’s. I remember loving the story of Cinderella when I was a little girl and the Little House on the Prairie Books.
Remington Steele! I was about 13, I guess. Totally the formative/puberty years. I was in looooove. I didn’t even want my family in the same room as I watched. Annoying, snide big brother (out!), pack of little sisters (out!), parents weren’t interested. Ahhhhhh….
And about that time, I read the few Georgette Heyer books that were in my local library. And I was heavy into Jane Eyre.
I watched “stories” with my mom, also when I visited my grandma, and then in middle school it was all about Luke and Laura! I also used to steal my mom’s Harlequins, she finally bought me the teen romances. I probably watched too much TV and played with my Barbies all the time. I received my first ones on my 3rd birthday which was a few weeks after my first baby brother was born. Probably gave my mom a break to have me play with them all the time–she did make all of my Barbies and Kens clothes. Books, Barbies, and UHF!
Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves? Kinda an influence on me. *koff*
Fuck me, he cleared it!
*waves to old skool bitches*
I read a lot of Gothic romances in my teens. I didn’t care much about the romance, but I was all for the heroine being menaced and chased across the moor by a werewolf/highwayman/vampire/gytrash. And of course, the heroes were all sarcastic.
Authors included Jill Tattersall (who had some serious craziness, included a heroine who was convinced she’d killed her parents because she found a grimoire in the attic and pretended to be a witch) and Barbara Michaels (Sons of the Wolf!)
If we’re talking TV show influences, I have to go waaaay back to MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E., original STAR TREK, and THE AVENGERS for a good female role model. Mrs. Peel kicked ass, took names, and looked amazing doing it.
Other strong female characters who resonated with me and influenced my writing were from two obscure TV shows: HONEY WEST and (I swear, I’m not making this up), SHEENA, QUEEN OF THE JUNGLE. Sheena starred (again, not making this up) Irish McCalla and in the credits, Neal the Chimp. There was some guy too, but he was only there to hold her stuff while Sheena did her thing. I wouldn’t be able to watch it now because of the racism, but back then I thought she was a great role model.
Honey West was a PI in Los Angeles who had neat stuff like bracelets that turned into handcuffs. She had smooth martial arts moves and could take down the bad guys and she was who I wanted to be when I grew up.
Thanks for the memories! I haven’t thought about these shows in a while.
Oh, and re: Highlander, the TV series: My sons were fans. I didn’t watch much, but every now and then a call would float down the hallway: “Mom, he’s taking off his shirt again,” and I’d come out to watch.
Those boys were well trained.[g]
Sir Walter Scott’s Ivanhoe- Richard the Lionheart, Robin Hood and Ivanhoe himself all in one romantic adventure story; Dumas’ The Three Musketeers, (particularly Aramis), Louis L’Amour’s Hondo; these were the books and the romantic heroes that my pre-teen mind imprinted on.
Beauty and the Beast was my first romantic influence. Then I got into the Phantom of the Opera as a teen, because I loved the angst and music (I still do.)
I read a lot of Gothic fiction in my teens, but always wanted the romance to be more open and less of a side plot. I loved Victoria Holt.
That was what got me into paranormal romance.
Romance wasn’t a thing growing up. Culturally, I come from the land of arranged marriages and didn’t have any real-life love stories as an example. Mom, dad, aunts, uncles, grandparents, etc. all arranged for various reasons like caste, money, status. My early introduction into romance was Bollywood. In those movies love-marriage was a taboo and love was earned/validated by overcoming odds that were exaggerated and heightened for melodrama. The movies I liked best though were lighter and comedic movies and the best ones, the ones that I watched again were of post-marriage love stories. And that’s still what I prefer in the novels that I read. I love romantic comedies and my first foray in this amazing genre was Susan Elizabeth Phillips. Then I discovered sub-genres and all that is out there. Until this post, I didn’t realize how the early influences and what I was exposed to has stayed with me. To this day, my catnip is arranged/forced marriage or estranged couples who eventually fall in love.
@Dancingcorgi- Madelaine Brent’s “Moonraker’s Bride” was everything! I was floored when I found out in the past few years it was a pseudonym for a man.
I am 100% with you about Michael York. I will stop and watch Logan’s Run anytime it shows up on TV even though I own the DVD. I just loved him in that as a kid and in my teens I discovered him in Zeffirelli’s Romeo and Juliet. I’m very envious he corresponded with you!