I pause, in the middle of this very interesting discussion of pacing, to give you Robert Downey Jr, in a super hero suit, looking sweaty.

He’s an artist, a traveller, a rebel, a partier, a charmer, a doer of everything to excess, a romantic, a disillusioned grieving man who hasn’t let himself face the sorrows of his past because he believes, down deep, they are all his fault.

He also looks like this:

Ohhhhh, yes.

Yesterday’s post just reminded me of how much I LOVE JOHN CUSACK.

So I am going to share this little bit of wonderfulness with you, which was sent to me by fellow writer Josh.

I LOVE JOHN CUSACK on YouTube

And a nice little pic of him in what is possibly one of the best movies ever made, Grosse Pointe Blank.

No, no, no, a psychopath kills for no reason! I kill for money! It's a job! —That didn't sound right.

Nicola Marsh is having a hot hero countdown to Valentine’s Day on her blog this month. Every day a different author posts a picture of a hot man who inspired a hero in one of her books. There are giveaways and lots of phoaaaaar.

Today I’m up, with a lovely pic of the lovely Maine man who inspired the hero of my book Honey Trap. And I’m giving away a copy, too.

Go visit, today and every day till Valentine’s Day, to check out the totty! And also to congratulate Nic on becoming a USA Today Bestseller!

Oh, dear. I just watched a rerun of Qi and I think I have revived my strange crush on Alan Davies. I used to watch Jonathan Creek just for his duffel coat and lisp.

I really should stay away from the television.

I’ve been away in Maine, so I haven’t posted for ages, but I couldn’t let tonight’s television event pass me by without posting a picture.

Goodbye, my lovely David. I will miss you zooming around in your Tardis. Please stick around so I can look at you often. Maybe you could consider taking some more roles where you have to get naked. Just think about it. For me.

Please?

So, as my birthday present to myself, I spent a happy half an hour last night doing a naked Google search. Which, in this case, consisted of me typing in the names of lovely men accompanied by the word “naked” into Google image search, and then clicking on the first result that showed a new-to-me picture of the man in question with some bare skin showing.

And as I am the kind of girl who likes to share her birthday booty, here are some of the results of my searches:

“Naked Owen Wilson”:

“Naked Christian Bale”:

(There are a LOT of naked photos of Christian Bale out there, for good reason I say. This is just a nice sweaty manly one.)

“Naked David Tennant”:

(This is apparently Naked Dr Who, as he’s in the Tardis. I missed this episode. HOW!?!? There are also some very naked photos of David T. out there, including at least one that shows the Little Doctor. You can go look for yourself if you are that way inclined.)

“Naked Hugh Jackman”:

(This is naked Wolverine. Yowr.)

“Naked Adrian Brody”:

(As a complete bonus, there is a photo of Naked Matthew McConaughey attached! Apparently they were both swimming the same day. Again: WHERE WAS I??)

“Naked Ewan McGregor:”

(There should be a lot of naked Ewan pics out there as he reveals all at the drop of a hat, but I couldn’t find many. However this one was special because it had a Ewan quotation attached: “I was so happy this year when that young kid from ‘Forgetting Sarah Marshall’ got all the questions about his penis. I wanted to say, ‘Thanks, mate. Now me and my penis can be moving on.’”)

Happy birthday to me! Do feel free to post any other people you would like to have the naked search performed on, or links to the results of your own searches.

(PS I did find very naked pictures of Cillian Murphy, but I didn’t want to scare Kate Hardy so I’m keeping them to myself.)

It is one of the many pleasures of belonging to the Romantic Novelists’ Association that we get to vote annually on who we fancy most. This year, the sexiest male celebrities are:

1 Richard Armitage
2 Johnny Depp
3 Hugh Jackman
4 George Clooney
5 Daniel Craig
6 Sean Bean
7 Alan Rickman
8 David Tennant
9 Pierce Brosnan
10 Gerard Butler

(Read the rest of the article here.)

This gives me the perfect excuse to post another picture of David Tennant. What a hardship.

“What, only number eight??”

Yikes! Yikes! Yikes! Stop press!

I was watching CBeebies this evening with the Fecklet, when who appears on my screen to read the bedtime story but this man!

I have never seen him before in my life but his name is Tom Ward and he is the hero of the book I am writing right now! Holy cow! Where’d he suddenly spring from?

And does he want to come round for tea?!?!

I’ll talk more about Sophie tomorrow, but I’ve got a post up today on The Writing Playground about how I came up with the hero of Honey Trap, Dominick Steele. I’ll also be giving away a copy of Honey Trap there, to a person who comments.

So please visit The Writing Playground!

Meanwhile, here is a picture of the physical inspiration for Dominick Steele. A beautiful man, and one who happens to have grown up about forty miles from my home town…

Okay I’ve had a heads-up that Kate Hardy is going to mock me for fancying men who she deems “not old enough to shave”. Also, I still feel rather guilty for lusting after a dude in a Hogwarts uniform. So today I’m going to explore the other guilty extreme: fancying guys who are in your son’s television programmes.

I am a bad person to watch children’s television anyway. I tend to get a little bored with the storylines and make stuff up, which is why I have a whole theory about how in In the Night Garden Iggle Piggle gives Upsy Daisy telepathic orgasms, and how Makka Pakka is an obsessive-compulsive genius who eroticises rocks. It probably also explains why my favourite line ever in Wonder Pets is when Ming Ming the duck tells an egg “I’m going to love you with my bum!”

But I have to admit that at times I have perked up. For one thing, Sid and Andy, the morning presenters on CBeebies, are actually pretty hot. Especially when they do their number raps.

I’ve heard rumours of other mums fancying Big Cook and Little Cook, and I do have a weakness for chefs. (See, for example, my books Delicious and One Night Stand, and Nina Jones also features two good-looking chefs.) And Little Cook Small is nice I must admit. But I think their dancing is a little bit disturbing. Not like Sid and Andy’s. Which is sexy, in like a totally non-sexy and suitable for children’s television way.

Lately, too, I have found myself ogling Lazytown‘s Sportacus. You gotta admit, those are some fine biceps. You also gotta love a guy who lives in a blimp. Apparently in real life he was an Olympic medalist in competitive aerobics. And hey, Kate, look–he’s got a moustache!

(If I ever tell you I’ve been checking out Bob the Builder, though, please call someone, because it’s a cry for help.)

Hey, it’s a holiday in the US, isn’t it? Not here. In fact I’ve been working all day! What’s the deal with that, then!?!?

Right, I have a moral dilemma. Following my total glom on Twilight series (will finish book 2 tonight before I sleep), I have been confronted by Kris Starr, who accuses me of trying to make her feel guilty for fancying Robert Pattinson, who plays Edward in the upcoming film. I believe that this is because I, myself, feel guilty.

The whole thing is rather difficult. I mean, on the one hand, there is this.

And this is quite scrumptious, even in red velvet, and just exactly the sort of tall, angular, slightly quirky-looking man who I fancy the bejesus out of (see, for example, David Tennant). This guy could be a hero. He really, really could.

On the other hand, there is this.

Now I am not all that old (really) but I am definitely a Grown-Up, and a former teacher at that, and it just seems wrong to fancy Cedric Diggory, or indeed anyone at all in a Hogwarts uniform. I fought the attraction when I saw the movie, and I’m still fighting it now, dammit. I am a moral person.

But…red velvet, though.

Advice? Encouragement? Psychiatric help? Anyone?