Fictional Husbands and Stuff

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I have a bit of an obsession.  With Books.  I can’t help it.  I’m a junkie when it comes to written words.  They offer me an escape, a way to fly into the mind of someone else, to journey through a world of black and white that bursts into a kaleidoscope of rich colorful hues in my mind.  They take me from loathing to respect, sorrow to joy, hate to love, angst to calm, and from agony to delight.  The characters come to life, attach themselves to my core, and walk around with me until I see them to the final chapter, the last page…the end. The End.  Gah!   And when the book ends, I’m blue.  I get ridiculous book hangovers and walk around for a few days missing these fictional people, the ones to whom I relate, the ones that I admire, the ones that I *gulp* picture…in my head.  The men…those alpha men…ahem.

I have a few favorites.  It’s grown over the years, my list of fictional boyfriends, but I only have one…just one fictional husband.  Let me introduce you.  Maybe you’ve met him….drum roll please.

James Alexander Malcolm MacKenzie Fraser

Click on the link below to see a pic of him.  In his kilt.  What’s underneath?  Wouldn’t you like to know?  You see his ginger stubble?  Mmhmm.  Stand back, ladies…he’s all mine.

http://www.dianagabaldon.com/other-projects/outlander-tv-series/first-look-sam-h-as-jamie/

You can find Jamie Fraser in Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander, a novel written from Claire Randall’s point of view, an English field nurse in WWII, who finally after the war, takes an opportune honeymoon with husband and history scholar, Frank Randall, to Scotland where together they explore and secretly watch what seems to be a druid ritual around a circle of standing stones called Craigh na Dun.  When Claire goes back to the stones alone the next day, she falls through them and lands in 18th century Scotland where she runs into English Dragoons and Scottish Highlanders and lots and lots of drama.  This to me is where the book gets interesting.  I mean, Frank is nice and all, but in 18th Century Scotland, she meets…dun dun dun…Jamie Fraser, and he constantly comes to Claire’s rescue.  Seriously, this chic can’t walk two feet without finding some kind of trouble, and my fictional hubby comes riding in on his dark horse over fields of plush heather, auburn hair shining in the sunlight, kilt bouncing up and down flowing around his long sexy legs and rescues her.  Every. Single. Time.  And I’ve never even found myself attracted to gingers.  I won’t go into details about the story.  It’s a good one.  If you haven’t read this book, read this book, and the other six. Now, like right now, before the eighth book comes out in March.  You will not be disappointed.  Unless you are, and then you will be, but that’s your fault because even if you hate everything about this series, Diana Gabaldon generously gives you Jamie Fraser.  And that’s enough.

He’s been creeping into the hearts and fantasies of women all over the literary world for years, but since the news came out of the television series on Starz, and Sam Heughan was cast as The Jamie Fraser, women from 20 to 90 are google imaging him and drooling over their computer screens today, right this minute, this very second in the multitudes. Hop over to Twitter, and you’ll see the obsession that is everything Outlander, Jamie Fraser, and Sam Heughan.

Here are a few of my favorite lines he’s said in his sexy Scottish accent throughout this book series.  All written, of course, by the ridiculously talented Diana Gabaldon:

“When the day shall come that we do part…if my last words are not ‘I love you’, ye’ll ken it was because I didna have time.”  The Fiery Cross (Book 5)

“You are my courage, as I am your conscience…You are my heart and I your compassion.  We are neither of us whole, alone.”  Drums of Autumn (Book 4)

“Don’t be afraid.  There’s the two of us now.”  Outlander (Book 1)

“Your face is my heart, Sassenach, and the love of you is my soul.” Drums of Autumn (Book 4)

“…yet when I think of you wi’ my child at your breast…then I feel as though I’ve gone hollow as a soap bubble, and perhaps I shall burst with joy.” Dragonfly in Amber (Book 2)

“I want to hold you like a kitten in my shirt, and still I want to spread your thighs and plow ye like a rutting bull.  I dinna understand myself.”  Dragonfly in Amber (Book 2)

“Oh aye, Sassenach.  I am your master…and you’re mine.  Seems I canna possess your soul without losing my own.”  Outlander (Book 1)

“It has always been forever for me, Sassenach.”  Voyager (Book 3)

“And I mean to hear ye groan like that again.  And to moan and sob, even though you dinna wish to, for ye canna help it.  I mean to make you sigh as though your heart would break and scream with the wanting, and at last to cry out in my arms, and I shall know that I’ve served ye well.” Outlander (Book 1)

Sigh

See what I mean?  Pick up your panties, and go buy this book.  The television series premiers in August on Starz, and I have no doubt…this show will be epic (Geez, I really hate that word.), but for me, the challenge is set.  Will they portray the emotion, the heart, the soul that Diana Gabaldon writes into her novels?  Will they be able to transfer that onto a television screen?

Her words create the most elaborate and beautiful pictures that my mind can construct, and the romance between Claire and Jamie, builds slowly, and passionately, and grows so that my hearts swells in my chest ready to burst with love, and I want to wrap myself in their story over and over and over again and wear it like a cloak, like a kilt, with nothing underneath.  I will watch, and I will love it, but the series will never replace the absolute devotion in my heart for the novels that introduced me to my book husband, Jamie Fraser.

You’re welcome to look all you want, but in my mind, he’s mine.  All mine.

So speak to me…who’s your fictional husband, book boyfriend, major literary crush?  Come on…I’m sure I’ve met him, and if I haven’t, I want to…soon!

28 thoughts on “Fictional Husbands and Stuff”

  3. I love your passion for books. Especially this book, which you introduced me to.

    I’ll have to think about this question. Who is my literary hubby? Hmmm

    I’ll get back to you on that.

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  4. Wrote a couple of poems about the book hangover, after reading assorted Outlander books. Then someone made a remark on Facebook about her being kissed by the muse, and I thought the muse was a whole lot more involved than that ((cough)) and so I wrote this one:
    http://shawnbird.com/2013/06/30/on-being-thoroughly-mused/
    Diana has read it a couple of times, and commented about it. I had an editing session with her last fall, which I recorded. As we were wrapping up, she said, “By the way, I love that poem you wrote for me,” and she chortled. It is a rather seductive chortle of bemusement, one that suggests I didn’t recount anything in the poem that wasn’t so! 😉

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  6. Never heard of this series, but I do hope they get the Scots accent right. The best I’ve seen it written is in the Terry Pratchett novels, wi’ th’ Wee Free Men (wi’ names like ‘Bigger than wee Jock but no so big as Big Jock Jock’)

    I do love a Scots accent (almost as much as I love the Irish)

    Your literary husband seems like a cool guy.

    Mine’s not. Or rather, he never really grew up in the book. I sorta fell in love with him when I was about 8 and he was 12. Welllll he’s STILL 12, and I’m now 30, so I had to grow him up a bit in my mind, and ohhh he turned out good. It’s Dickon from The Secret Garden (and let me tell you, now he’s 34 and hench as anything, with hobnail boots and a soft Yorkshire burr, hands gnarled from working the land but still able to be tender with the tiniest creatures…I’d share a secret garden with him ANY day!)

    ((In case it’s not obvious, YES, I’ve totally overthought this, but it was a shared fantasy held by my BFF and I. We grew him up into ‘Farmer Boy’ and have been known to have long, indulgent conversations about what he’s like now))

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    • Now that’s romantic! As far as the accent goes, the wee lad they’ve chosen to portray my book babe, Sam Heughan, is a native Scot with an authentic accent. I think he’ll do just fine. And The Secret Garden…I get it.
      If you love books, and I think I’ve read that you do, you should check this one out. It takes a bit to really get into it, but once you’re in, you’re in. I recently recommended this series to a friend, and she finished it in about a month. Each book is nice and long, typically 700+ pages…my favorite books are always at least 500 pages. Diana Gabaldon seamlessly weaves detailed aspects of both history and landscape, and then sprinkles the love story throughout. You dive in and live in the pages. Check it out. Tell me what you think.

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  8. You made my day!! I started reading the series years ago. I get it. I love Jamie, too!! (swoon) I guess I’ll finally have to subscribe to Starz. I can’t wait. I highly, highly recommend the books. I don’t buy too many hard covered books and when I do, it’s so I can add them to my permanent library to read again and again. The whole series is on my shelf.

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    • Oh – I have my Outlander that I actually read and the one that sits pretty on my bookshelf, signed by Diana Gabaldon, courtesy of my dear friend who introduced me to this phenomenal series. And swoon is right. My husband loves when I read these books…wink.

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  9. Ha! Oh my gosh, this sounds like something I’d probably just catch on Netflix so I can enjoy it with my eyes 😉 I haven’t read enough fiction lately, it’s no bueno… I need to get back into that groove.

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    • Oh, Aussa, if you need any book recommendations, let me know. I read so many great books last year. I have been on a book hiatus, too, but I’m diving back into a new thick series, which will hopefully cure my withdrawal.

      I’m pretty sure I read somewhere that Outlander will be available on Netflix and Hulu. If so, you MUST check it out, if for no other reason, to see Jamie’s arse.

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  10. I absolutely LOVE the way you wrote about your addiction with books. Beautifully said. No way could I have said it better! And I feel EXACTLY the same way. I really relate to that “blue” feeling, particularly when I’ve finished a book by an author who doesn’t have another book out yet and I have to WAIT!

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    • Rachel, thanks so much for the nice words. It’s nice to meet another book junkie! I know what you mean. I absolutely hate waiting for the next book. I make myself dive into a new one right away to get my mind off of the old one. It’s sad really.

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  12. Scoot over my dear, I am sharing Jamie with you! I have loved these books for years, and Jamie is the reason I would basically lay across hot coals for a guy with a Scottish accent. I will be subscribing to Starz in August…I hope the series doesn’t disappoint!

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