How "Dirty Dancing" Sparked My Romance Career

Merry Farmer is an award-winning novelist .... She has been writing since she was ten years old and realized one day that she didn’t have to wait for the teacher to assign a creative writing project to write something. It was the best day of her life. She then went on to earn not one but two degrees in History so that she would always having something to write about.

Merry Farmer

Today she is a giant History nerd and a hopeless romantic waiting for her own love story to start. Her first book, The Loyal Heart, is a swashbuckling Medieval Historical Romance involving a love triangle that will keep you guessing. Both The Loyal Heart and its sequel, The Faithful Heart, are available wherever eBooks are sold. The third book in the trilogy, The Courageous Heart, will be available sometime this Fall. She has also begun a new Western Historical Romance series set in Montana in 1805. The first of that series, Our Little Secrets, is now available. The second, Fool for Love, will be released in early 2013. 

Farmer's novels available on Amazon

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Excerpts from Farmer's essay How Dirty Dancing Sparked My Romance Career:

.... Dirty Dancing is one of the reasons I became a Romance writer.

Dirty Dancing came out in 1987. I was in 7th grade, and I was not allowed to see it. My mom, who was sweet and gentle and conservative and divorced under heartbreaking circumstances (my dad cheated and left us) didn’t want me going anywhere near this reportedly steamy film about an inappropriate relationship. I was a good girl too and I didn’t see it. … Until it came out on video. My mom may have been conservative, but she wasn’t dictatorial. We watched it together.

I remember the scandal of that love scene between Johnny and Baby in Johnny’s cabin. I can still hear my classmates talking about it. “Did you see that??? He kissed her neck!” “And oh my gosh, she touched his butt!” I can still remember the pre-adolescent fascination – delighted or disturbed depending on which classmate you asked – over the sheer sexiness of the whole scene! And I’m not gonna lie. Thirteen year old Merry’s socks were knocked off!

I must have watched that scene, the Sylvia and Mickey scene, and every dance scene in the movie about a million times … and we didn’t even own the tape! But believe you me, that was one of the first VHS tapes and then DVDs that I bought.

The funny thing is, by today’s standards that epic love scene – the first I ever remember seeing – is really tame. There’s hardly any skin, there’s no deep-throat snogging, and for the five seconds that you see them in bed there is no realistic forward and backward movement. Today’s thirteen year old girls probably watch it and say “Psht! Whatever!” (which is a whole other kind of problem).

But in all honesty, that’s still one of the hottest love scenes on film as far as I’m concerned. The heat and chemistry between those two is amazing. .... As they dance you can see them both smoldering on the inside. Every look sizzles. And she touches his butt! Oh my gosh, does she! Never have two people on screen so obviously wanted to rip each other’s clothes off and do naughty things so blatantly.

THAT is what Romance is all about. Sure, I like the graphic love scenes, both reading and writing them. But what really toasts my crackers is the build-up, the slow burn, the dirty dancing. When you can capture a thousand emotions and a hundred thousand years of human wanting in a single touch, you know you’re in the presence of greatness. ..... It’s about finding your soul-mate. ...

Of course, that begs the question, Did Johnny Castle and Baby Houseman get married and live happily ever after?

Of course thirteen year old Merry was certain they did. No question. Then I got older and wiser and started to think about it more. Would they? I mean, they come from completely opposite worlds. Could Johnny handle the pressure and perfection of an upper-class life (and let me tell you, he doesn’t look that Jewish to me). Would Baby be content to compromise her dreams to fit Johnny’s into her life? She wants to join the Peace Corp. I would assume Johnny wants to do something with dance. Is there a middle ground to those two things?

Jaded late-twenties Merry began to think things wouldn’t turn out so great. ...

But what does late-thirties Merry think about Johnny & Baby’s chances?

You know, I think they just might be able to make it. I do! Baby may be super young (eighteen seems like a child to me now), but Johnny wasn’t all that old either. Both of them were bound to go through a lot of changes before they settled on what they really wanted to do with the rest of their lives. I think there is a strong chance that Baby’s dad might just concede that his daughter is a good judge of character and do something to help Johnny get enough of a job doing what he wants to support Baby.

Granted, it was 1963 and they would have gotten married or broken off entirely. But I think there is a strong chance Johnny would have put his dreams on hold to support Baby’s. They would have gone into the Peace Corp together for a while. It would have been good for Johnny to see more of the world and to have a chance to help people even less unfortunate than him. The thing is, you can’t stay in the Peace Corp indefinitely. At some point you have to leave and get another job. That’s when they would have gone back to real life … and opened a dance studio.

See what I mean? All those years ago Dirty Dancing got me thinking like a Romance writer. We’ve definitely got to have a Happily Ever After, but how we get it and where it goes is what the story is all about.

So there you have it. My love of Dirty Dancing will go on and on as long as I can imagine Romance. I’m sure I’m not the only one out there either.