COWBOYS OR MEN IN KILTS: MUST WE CHOOSE

As countless thousands of her loyal readers know, Hannah Howell has written many wonderful books set in sixteenth century Scotland. The level of heat between hero and heroine is suggestive but not explicit.


You can read Hannah’s books in the cafeteria at work, on public transport, or anywhere. My favourite place is the bathtub with water hot, white wine chilled and dark chocolate within reach.

There’s just something about a tall, strong man in a kilt that sets my heart beating. That broad chest, those muscular thighs, that kilt blowing in the wind….

Then there’s cowboys, riding high in the saddle, setting blood pumping through my veins. The broad chests, muscular thighs, snug jeans cupping butts that just makes you want to smile.

I should mention I write hot and erotic romance.

COWBOY SANDWICH, electronically published by Siren-BookStrand, Inc. in June, 2009, features two hot cowboys. Adam and Bryan are eager to prove to our heroine that live is worth living fully.

The sequel, COWBOY DOUBLE-DECKER, due out electronically by June 2010, has even more fun. While happy with his life, Bryan heads out from their Montana organic cattle ranch to find himself a wife of his own.

But no matter the level of heat, the men in Hannah’s kilts and my saddles are heroes. The sort of man you rarely see anymore in cities. No office ‘cube dudes’* the heroes in these books are the type of men who go out in all weather, facing dire consequences, to do what must be done.

So, what is it about these heroic men that makes us want to jump into stories featuring them? Yeah, great bods are a given. And isn’t it wonderful to take those arrogant so-and-so’s down a few pegs?

Real men wear kilts with pride. These men know what they’ve got and how to use it with dignity, perseverance and a twinkle in their eye. Muscles? Go to any Highland Games and you’ll see men tossing the caber (56 pound telephone pole, end to end) or throwing a (16 pound) hammer. Watch them dance the fling or the sword dance (two crossed swords, dancing between and around the sharp bits). See the kilts, well, fling as they dance.

Is it hot in here or is it just me reacting to all that testosterone?

And while we’re on the subject of heat, what about hot cowboy romance? Erotic romance featuring cowboys fly from electronic publisher’s shelves, downloaded by eager readers all over the world. The men in my COWBOY SANDWICH are so hot they’d leave a brand in the saddle if they lived in real life.

Ah, yes. Real life.

Would we want to marry any of these men?

I know what you’re thinking: have one man to fix all those things falling apart, another to cook and clean, and the third to amuse you. In fantasy-land the master bedroom is larger than the back half of your home or whole apartment, the bathroom is the size of your kitchen and you never have to bend over to scrub the darn tub!

But real life? We get up before the crack of dawn to start on our day. Working outside the home, or even harder inside it, with hungry children with homework to supervise, food to cook, laundry to wash and that man holding the remote with an iron grip until everything’s done and he wants to get frisky.

THAT’S why we need to read a romance book. To sigh over wonderful heroes in kilts or saddles who take us far from reality.

To Scotland, where the midges never bite naughty bits while we’re rolling in the heather with our heroic man, sans kilt.

To the mountains and plains where our cowboys ride hard and fast in tight jeans to meet us by the secret pond. Where we then enjoy kisses and more without black flies, mosquitoes, chiggers, snakes, or [insert your choice here] to bother us.

In both cases we return home to castle, keep or ranch where some helpful servants take care of all those boring chores. Then it’s happily ever after time.

We close the cover of our book (or e-reader), sigh and realize the bath water is cold, the wine warm and the chocolate melted.

Whether it’s with a cowboy or hunk in a kilt, we’ve spent some wonderful time far away from reality.

We might even learn something to teach our partner(s). With erotic romance, you might point out to your partner a few choice sections to provide ideas of what you’d like. Maybe not the whipped cream and chocolate because we know who’ll end up doing the laundry, but maybe that thing about the silk ties and blindfold….

* Reece Butler claims the phrase ‘cube dude’, referring to men who sit behind computer screens all day, surrounded by five foot high cubicle walls, yet think they’re wild and free. Some are, but others only live it through the television, trading one screen for another. They race from one to the other in revved-up vehicles with more acceleration than common sense. Perhaps it’s a compensation thing, to make up for their oh-so-normal jobs? Unless the large, heavy trucks and SUVs are to compensate for something else, something no romantic hero would ever sport. Yeah, this does have something to do with that three-syllable ‘O’ word. But I digress.

Reece Butler writes hot and erotic romance. Her first two publications feature Montana cowboys (plural) having a lot of fun after working all day on the Double R ranch. You can find her work at to http://www.bookstrand.com/cowboy-sandwich.