Hot... or Cliché?

I had a lie in this morning and stayed in bed till seven. As I had awoken several hours earlier, to pass the time whilst forcing myself to rest, I cast my mind back to my bygone youth when, for a few weeks, I worked on a building site. I suppose quite a few gay men lie in bed in the morning thinking about building sites and the hunky guys that work on them, but I had a reason beyond the obvious.
I’m not ready to start a major new project at present, so I decided to write a few short stories which I will do wearing my Tom Farrell hat, and I thought I’d base the first one on a building site as I do actually know a little about them. And here’s the first myth I’m going to blast out of the water – most of the guys who work on them aren’t gorgeous muscular hunks with rippling six-packs and impossibly well filled jeans. Most are pretty ordinary, some I’d class as slobs, and none that I came across had latent gay tendencies that had to be expressed as soon as they saw my youthful body!
Ooops!
Did I spoil the fantasy? But you knew that anyway. And don’t worry, when I write the story, the guy in question will be a five star hunk with strong gay tendencies that he happily expresses.
But as I lay there and thought up an outline scenario, it occurred to me that it might be a little cliché. It probably is – a bit of The Village People kicking in. And when I consider my back catalogue, there are quite a number of cliché characters about. You just have to look at a few titles to see that I’m at fault:
Burning Fire – Well that would be about Fireman Farrell.
Dirt! – The star of this book is obviously a mechanic.
The Captain’s Deliverance – He’s a German soldier.
The Vorinov Trilogy – Alexi Vorinov just happens to be the Chief of Police.
And it doesn’t stop there. I’ve done truckers of course, and professional rally drivers; rugby players feature in quite a few books (as Bruce Forsythe would say... They’re my favourite!), and a professional footballer as well. In the Wild Side where everything is fantasy, I can really go to town on the ‘Hot’ imagery or ‘Cliché’ with endless amount of cameo appearances. It’s the only place where I dare do a cowboy, and isn’t Mr. Charles the ultimate cliché? There is even a Canadian Mountie in the latest Christmas offering, and why should I be ashamed – I think they’re sexy as sin!
So why not do a construction worker. If the Village People can have one, then I sure as hell can. He’ll be hot, and plausible, and perhaps a cliché. It’s what I write...
And now a little blush as I do the corniest one of all... I am what I am, so I might as well be proud of it.

Jack