February Love

Jennifer talks about love...

February is the month of love.

Okay, maybe not. But with the push every holiday gets, Valentine’s Day takes on a huge role in stores—flower shops, chocolate and candy stores, jewelry stores and any other store that can come up with something suitable for your sweetie.

As a romance author, it takes on special significance, too. Because everything I write has to do with love. In my stories, love overcomes everything—horrible parents, rough backgrounds, difficult career decisions, physical and mental and emotional scars. No matter what happens, ultimately, love wins.

In books, love is often demonstrated with grand gestures. But in real life, love is often the simple, almost unnoticed, things. It could be a tone of voice or a touch. But it doesn’t even have to be romantic. This year, my husband is away for Valentine’s Day, so we won’t be celebrating. But he shows me his love all the time in things he does for me and by the support he offers me.

As a writer, I try to remember that when I show how my characters express their love for each other. It’s not always the “I love you” moment. Sometimes it’s more subtle than that. However their love is demonstrated, by the end of the book, the hero and heroine go off to live their “happily ever after.”

So, for those of you who write, remember the big and small “love moments.” And for those of you who read, I wish you your very own “happily ever after,” however that may be expressed.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

L is for Love

Debra ponders the many different meanings of love.

Not to sound too lame and wedding toastish, but one of the ways (the entry takes up almost half a column in my Webster's) the dictionary defines love is: A feeling of warm personal attachment.

Love is such an interesting concept. We use the word in so many different ways.

We can love pizza.

We can love hockey.

We love our families and friends.

We love our spouses (or sweethearts or significant others).

The same word can mean so many different things and have so many different levels of emotion. The way I feel about pizza and hockey certainly isn't the same way I feel about my family. And the way I feel about my family is a different kind of love than I have for my hubby.

As romance writers we fill our days and pages with love. The love our characters have for inanimate things tells us about them. Their likes, their hobbies, their hopes, their desires. The love (or lack thereof) of their families shapes and defines them. Past relationships can do the same, giving us oodles of background and internal motivation and conflict.

Of course the crux of our stories is the love the heroine and hero will eventually find with each other. Going back to good ol' Webster: a strong or passionate affection for a person of the opposite sex. Love scenes (hopefully) are filled with this passion and emotion.

Yep. Love is an interesting concept. And I love that I get to spend time creating stories about how two hearts and souls come together in love!

Until next time,

Happy Reading!

Debra
www.debrastjohnromance.com

Where do characters feel their emotions?

Ana finds a body-emotion chart.

This is an interesting chart from a European scientific journal.  Using this data, anger appears most active in the head and shoulders. Depression makes the limbs lethargic.

Anxiety would be centered in the gut, heart, torso area. Disgust turns your stomach. Sadness immobilizes and pains the heart. Contempt is mostly cerebral. Surprise engages faculties and stimulates the chest.

Love stimulates face (can't stop smiling), chest (makes you want to sing), and groin (sex, anyone?).

Happiness makes you snuggly warm all over.