I also once - somewhat tongue in cheek - described the sheikh as a cowboy who was wearing a different hat (it has recently been quoted in a serious book on the subject!)
Actually, it's not a bad comparison, at least in terms of the romance. They are both usually loners, damaged, outsiders who need the one woman who can touch their soul and rescue them. It's his power, the ability to command and answer to no one but himself that gives the sheikh the edge for me.
I've lived in the desert, met these men and I know that, like the cowboy hero, they are fantasy figures, straight out of a fairytale. That is their enduring appeal for me; that an the silence and emptiness of the desert. Oh, and yes, I saw Peter O'Toole as Lawrence at an impressionable age!
I'm battling through the final stages of the work in progress (it's been a bit of a pineapple - or maybe even a porcupine) so just for now I'm giving away one of my favourite sheikhs. Just click on the link to my Facebook page, give a "like" and leave a comment to be in with a chance. It's international an I'll be drawing the winner onf Saturday morning.
3 comments:
Since I've only read a few, I've always wondered at the reality of some of the relationships--but I don't obsess over it.
I think you can say that about most romances. :)
That comment is perfect (about sheikhs and cowboys). I LOVE sheikhs as heroes, they're a bit like the romance genre's original 'alpha males' for me, mixed with the thrill of the exotic.
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