Okay, that’s not exactly correct, but as a writer, I’m prone to dramatize/exaggerate/ romanticize, so sue me. Anyway, I was watching American Idol this week, and pondering what to write about, and I realized that many of the same things that fascinate me about American Idol are the same things that I use when writing for Blaze.

First of all, I love, love, love when the ordinary becomes the extraordinary. Has everybody seen the Susan Boyle video? If you haven’t, because you’ve been, like, marooned on some uninhabited island without the net, twitter, human contact, or even that stray message in a bottle that washed up on the deserted beach (“Tears were streaming down my cheeks! Tears!!!”) , check it out here

Now, back to American Idol. Do you remember when Anoop Desai first came on? Gah! The sand-colored checked shirt, the preppy khakis, the beachcomber sandals, all paired with those bear-pelt eyebrows???

And then he opened his mouth and sang, and it was… cool. As the weeks went on, he became a little more sure of himself, his stage presence went from zero to hero, and he truly started hitting all the notes, not just the important ones. This past Wednesday, I did NOT want him to go home (not that I wanted Allison, either, but hey, if Danny got a surprise ouster, I wouldn’t be nearly that heartbroken).

His version of Everything You Do is Here

I love watching the ordinary grow to extraordinary. It’s the ultimate hero’s journey, and you see it so often in the Blaze line. Yeah, the heroes and the heroines are fabulous, but in the beginning, they’re usually not tycoons or royalty. They’re very much ordinary people that you want to hang with. Now, I know that the seven-foot super-uber-hero with muscles erupting from his leather motorcycle jacket is very ragey in romance, but when I read those those books (and I do), I replace the hero with my own guy who usually tops around six foot, isn’t quite so Incredible Hulkish, would never, ever be caught in leather pants. Best of all, he always has that look in his eyes: What the hell am I doing in a romance novel?? I confess. I melt.

The second American Idol lesson is tension. Ryan Seacrest, come on, you know how to milk it…. Sixty minutes of waiting on the edge of your seat. Who’s going off this week? America has voted, and it’s time for the moment of truth, one of these contestants is going to end the journey tonight, and the name is on this card, and it’s… it’s……. coming up right after the commercial break. I spring up from my chair, shouting at the TV: RYAN!! I HATE YOU!!!

Now, that is this some awesome suspense. You’ve waited a long time for this, sitting on the edge of your seat , heart pounding, and oh, please, don’t let it be – insert name of favorite Idol contestant here.

This is what Blaze does so well. Twenty-hundred and forty-pages, waiting for the payoff. And no, a little sleight of hand there, it’s not the sex. Pardon my pun, but in Blaze, that cherry has long been popped. The payoff is The Moment. That exquisite “Oh, YES!” when everything comes down to two people finally realizing that they’re everything for each other. Another huge sigh.

The last lesson, and it’s probably the biggie. Heartbreak, and how to handle it. On the elimination show, there’s always heartbreak, one hour of tension, palm-sweating waiting. Your heart is aching for the elimination-seat-sitters who have ginormous, foreboding eyes that know heartbreak is just on the other side of the break. As a viewer, you have to sit there along with them, knowing what’s coming, watching their heartbreak. Sometimes, there are tears, sometimes, it’s quiet courage, and sometimes you have to watch someone being emotionally gutted, all in front of twenty-four million television viewers.

I don’t exactly know why heartbreak fascinates us, but it does. Whether it’s “Oh, God, I’m glad that’s not me,” or some buried piece of human empathy that sits inside our psyche, I don’t know, but there’s something, and it never fails to draw my eyes and touch my heart.

I love American Idol. Every year, I say, not this season, I’m not watching. I’m too busy, and did you hear the record that – insert name of hated American Idol winner here—released. Crap! Unadulterated crap! And once the auditions are over (I truly don’t watch the auditions. It’s too painful), and the real journey begins, that’s when I’m hooked. So, American Idol fans here? Predictions? Biggest surprise? Biggest disappointment?

This entry was posted on Friday, April 24th, 2009 at 6:00 am and is filed under Kathleen O'Reilly. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.