Andy Free's Blog - Posts Tagged "fatal-opposite"
True Love: What it is Really Like
"Our society has swallowed a lot of mistruths about love and romance that bedevil us at every turn..."
Recently I was asked: Who is my favorite fictional couple and why? This prompted some thoughts on what true love is - and is not. Now, in some ways, my answer will at first look like naked and egregious book promotion, but bear with me because the explanation will be interesting and has some value to just about anyone.
I like my own fictional couple in Avalon: Companions, Dan Monroe and Claudia Chantal better than any other I can think of right now. The reason is that they are light-hearted most of the time but love each other intensely. Real love has warmth. Real love is not complicated. Real love has no fear. I write from experience. I have been down some exceedingly dark and painful roads for love, mostly because I was attracted to the wrong kind of women (kind of like a "fatal opposite"). I learned eventually that getting uncomplicated is hard. Unlearning the patterns of youth (when they were hurtful) was hard. Retaining belief was hard. But love itself, though not easy, was not hard.
Our society has swallowed a lot of mistruths about love and romance that bedevil us at every turn. The thing that I like about Dan and Claudia is that they both came from backgrounds similar to mine, and won through to a better place as I have. No wimpy neurotic maundering for them. No constant fear and self-doubt. So their light-hearted banter is not shallow, but floats on a deep ocean of steady good feelings. It is possible. More than anything else in the book, while trying to tell an entertaining story, I wanted to show that in their relationship. I hope people will see it, and more than that, feel it in their hearts as they read the book.
Avalon: Companions
Recently I was asked: Who is my favorite fictional couple and why? This prompted some thoughts on what true love is - and is not. Now, in some ways, my answer will at first look like naked and egregious book promotion, but bear with me because the explanation will be interesting and has some value to just about anyone.
I like my own fictional couple in Avalon: Companions, Dan Monroe and Claudia Chantal better than any other I can think of right now. The reason is that they are light-hearted most of the time but love each other intensely. Real love has warmth. Real love is not complicated. Real love has no fear. I write from experience. I have been down some exceedingly dark and painful roads for love, mostly because I was attracted to the wrong kind of women (kind of like a "fatal opposite"). I learned eventually that getting uncomplicated is hard. Unlearning the patterns of youth (when they were hurtful) was hard. Retaining belief was hard. But love itself, though not easy, was not hard.
Our society has swallowed a lot of mistruths about love and romance that bedevil us at every turn. The thing that I like about Dan and Claudia is that they both came from backgrounds similar to mine, and won through to a better place as I have. No wimpy neurotic maundering for them. No constant fear and self-doubt. So their light-hearted banter is not shallow, but floats on a deep ocean of steady good feelings. It is possible. More than anything else in the book, while trying to tell an entertaining story, I wanted to show that in their relationship. I hope people will see it, and more than that, feel it in their hearts as they read the book.
Avalon: Companions
