Me Tarzan, You Jane by Amelia Grey 

[Note from Frolic: We are so excited to have author Amelia Grey guest post on the site today. Take it away Amelia!]

I’m going to lay it on the line: it’s not easy to put a twenty-first century man into a Regency historical romance and make a modern hero out of him. But it can be done. The reason is that a man is a man is a man. That hasn’t changed. His basic nature is still that of a predator in the jungle; pursue, fight, conquer. And his strongest primal pursuit is to capture the heart of a woman he loves and have her breathlessly ask what took so long. Most would say, it’s women and the world around him that’s changed.

You can take a man out of his time period but you can’t take the time period out of a man. When I sit in front of the computer I’m faced with the challenge of creating a modern man with sensitivity to a woman’s intellect, strengths and desires into a historical man where such thinking wasn’t common. I can’t speak to every time period but during the Regency most gentlemen were the epitome of class and standards dressed in perfectly tied neckcloths, cutaway coats, and boots polished to a sexy gleam. Their honor was their most cherished possession and they guarded it passionately.

I believe most Regency men considered women the fairer, weaker sex and truly wanted to make a young lady feel beautiful, desired, treasured, and cared for in a good way. A Regency man was not only expected to open the door for a lady, pull out her chair, and watch his language and his manners around her, he wanted to do these things. When a man wanted to marry a woman, he had to ask permission from the male head of the family be it her father, brother, uncle or cousin twice removed. Oh, and after marriage, he directed her life and controlled all her finances, too. It was best a woman not have to bother herself with money matters.

In other words, a male was always in control back then. But not now.

As authors, we strive to weave the modern man who wears jeans and a polo shirt and tries his best to understand what women want, into the historical man who wouldn’t go out the door without his coat and neckcloth and believes it’s his duty to care for women. Authors must make the historical hero’s approach to the heroine subtle so readers know his interest goes beyond his physical attraction to her. He must be a man who takes responsibility for his good and bad behavior and apologizes when he should. He must be understanding of her wants and respectful of her as an equal in all aspects of life.

But with all that is said of men then and now, the premise of every story I write is that my heroine wants the hero to desire her more than anything in life and be willing to go after her and prove it—in a respectful, modern way.