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For me, the essence of a TSTL heroine is the moment when the hero thinks (with agony) "The Danger! She had no idea of the danger into which she just rode..." and he clutches her to his medieval breast while she snuffles quietly into his jerkin.

The thing about TSTL heroines is that they can remain loveable and yet put themselves in the grasp of villains without noticing what they're doing. Julie Garwood writes brilliant, brilliant TSTL heroines. Sometimes it's merely the hero that the heroine antagonizes by throwing all his dogs (and their bones) out of the castle. I love the moment when she sits down and "makes a tapestry in his colors"--all hung up neatly by the time he gets home from doing a little extracurricular hunting.

These are brilliant books because Garwood does the impossible of making us love someone we wouldn't respect in normal life, and that allows us to be thrilled by the danger she gets into and then thrilled by the hero's agony trying to keep her alive.

I actually like heroines who are stupid at the beginning of the book. I relate to them (and to Terri) -- must reference the time we were moving and I was racing between houses and I pulled into the driveway at the new house, didn't put the car in gear, leaped out to open the garage door and heard this huge BANG! ... which was, of course, my car rolling backward into the pickup of the lady across the street who came over crying because she loved her pickup so much thus confirming my TSTL status in the new neighborhood. The point is, I learned from my mistake and check the stickshift when I park on a hill.

The heroines I consider TSTL are the ones who won't/can't learn. I read a historical and the Regency era heroine couldn't figure out why everyone got excited when she was caught alone with the hero, not once but at least three times. I didn't finish the book. I did fling it against the wall because honest to God, how dumb could she be? Why didn't she figure this out? How could she be all innocent and huffy about having to marry the hero? What a dummie! But the book sold a BUNCH and is a lot of people's favorite. So I'm going to guess that despite the negative talk on the web, TSTL heroines are actually a favorite of many readers.

Guess what I'm writing now? Okay, she does learn, but man, for the first half of the book, she's clueless -- and happy about it.

Who are the Eagles?

Christina, who thinks Terri should toss out her LPs and get a good Ipod.

Man, I only said they were from Kentucky!

Connie

Oh, man, are you guys going to make me THINK on this blog? Form coherent impressions? Opine? (Actually, I kind of like opining. When I know what I'm talking about. Or have had enough wine that I THINK I know what I'm talking about. Or, better still, have had enough wine that I don't care what I'm talking about. But I digress.) See, this TSTL thing is one of the reasons I stay off the 'Net unless it's to trawl eBay or ABEbooks. Or, now, participate in this blog. Because I want to write my books in as much of a vacuum as I can. If I start worrying about what people think are too much stupidity in my heroines, or too much arrogance in my heroes, or a staggering lack of reality in my plots, or a staggering absence of plot for that matter, I freeze up. I start second-guessing everything, start wondering if I'm going to offend someone by writing a certain thing, and then I run the risk of toning everything down and making everything bland. A brilliant writer friend of mine once said that if people love her work, great. If people loathe her work, great. It's when people think her work is average that she worries. Because she wants to rouse some strong reaction in readers, be it good or bad, and when she gets no reaction at all, she knows she's not writing a strong story. I totally agree.

I can't please everyone. So I try to please myself. And my mom. And, to a lesser degree, my Aunt Dot. Sometimes I succeed, sometimes I don't. I just feel like when we start dissecting the stories and the characters, they start to lose some of their magic. I mean, how many books did I read before I was a writer that I could completely immerse myself in, that I could sigh over, that I'd be haunted by for days, that I'd go back and reread and be able to recapture every last spark of that magic? But as a writer, I've gone back and read them, only to find flaws in the story or characters that prick a little chink in the enchantment. Because I THINK too much about them now. I hate that. I want to be a pure reader again. And I want to be a pure writer. Or as pure as I can be. So I can't think about it. (And those who have been in my office can attest to the sign framed in gold sitting atop my desk that says, "JUST DON'T THINK ABOUT IT." So maybe my heroines are TSTL. Maybe some of the heroines I like to read about are TSTL, too. I don't know. I've not read anything on-line or elsewhere that tells me they are. And I hope to keep it that way.

Elizabeth

Hey, speak for yourself, Terri! I just came home from the MALL. Yes, we have MALLS where *I* live in Kentucky. And eight-lane highways. And restaurants that serve stuff with hollandaise sauce. And skyscrapers seb'n stories high, which is 'bout as high as a buildin' oughta grow--yessir! (Oops. Slipped into "Oklahoma!" there for a second. Sorry about that. Actually, we have skyscrapers even higher than seb'n stories high.) Okay, okay, I saw some cows on the drive back to the house. But only a few. Okay, dozens. Scores, even. They were all well read and urbanely attired. And, yeah, I'm barefoot now, too, but I put shoes on before I went into the mall. And MY cousin and I only dated for a few weeks.

Elizabeth Bevarly

TERESA MEDEIROS WRITES:

Okay, I have a confession to make. I'm TSTL. That's right--My name is Teresa Medeiros and I'm too stupid to live. The first day we moved into our new house, I ran the car into the garage, effectively wrecking both of them. After listening to the song LIFE IN THE FAST LANE by the Eagles at least 10 million times since the 70's, I just figured out the line that says, "There were lines on the mirror" is talking about cocaine, not wrinkles. Only today I risked life and limb (and my beloved Jag) to drive to Starbuck's during a terrible thunderstorm/tornado watch because I couldn't bear to live another moment without a Mocha Lite Frapuccino Grande. So I consider it a personal affront when readers say that they can't stand heroines who are too stupid to live. Just go ahead and kill me now, why don't you? (For other examples of my stupidity, you may contact any of the other Bloggers on this loop by private e-mail and a comprehensive list will be provided to you.)

But seriously, I hate almost any black and white rules that put limits on my fiction, either writing it or reading it. I want to write about all sorts of characters and my very favorites are characters who make mistakes and learn from them. One of my favorite themes is to follow a girl as she makes the journey toward womanhood. And you know what--girls often do foolish, impulsive things, especially in pursuit of love. Things like climbing out of a window in a ballgown like Lottie in ONE NIGHT OF SCANDAL. I love that Connie brought up Lolly in the classic romance JUST A KISS AWAY by Jill Barnett because it was Jill who once said to me, "I love to write about people who make grand and glorious mistakes and who suffer terribly for those mistakes and who are better people for it by the end of the book." Isn't character growth the very definition of well-written fiction? So many things that we used to simply call "a plot" are now dissected mercilessly on the internet as "characters that are TSTL" or "Big Misunderstandings" or "Mary Jane heroines". If we avoid all of these things, then eventually we won't have anything to write about except perfect (and boring) characters and the romance genre will continue to grow even narrower in scope.

Every one of us has suffered through that moment in the horror movie when the heroine decides to creep down into the cellar all by herself with only a flashlight for a weapon to investigate the mysterious noise. I may shout, "Don't do that, you idiot!" but it doesn't usually make me stop watching the movie. (And while we're on the subject of flashlights, how come those people on CSI don't ever just turn on the freaking lights?!?!?!)

I would also like to argue that there are all different kinds of smarts in this world. In my book SHADOWS AND LACE, when Gareth asks Rowena how long it's been since she's eaten, she says, "Four days" and holds up three fingers. Is she stupid? No, just uneducated. I once had a fascinating conversation with another writer about Jed Clampett of THE BEVERLY HILLBILLIES. Was he stupid? Nope, he was innocent. There's a distinct difference. Was Lucy Ricardo stupid because she managed to get herself into all of those messes? Nope, she was funny.

I'm a very open-minded reader. Give me characters I can care about and I'll let them get away with murder (sometimes literally). I only have one hard and fast rule--the hero must never, EVER kick a kitten.