Devika Fernando's Blog, page 69

Blogging from A to Z Challenge - Letter S (Soul Mate)

S for Soul Mate
I have chosen LOVE as the theme for my post for the Blogging from A to Z Challenge 2015. As such, I shared some flash fiction for the letter O, titled OBSESSION. You can read it here. I was flooded with requests to continue the story that had ended on a cliffhanger. As I had already chosen S for SOUL MATE as my planned post for today and as it fits perfectly, here’s Part 2 of the tale. I am planning a Part 3 and maybe more.


If Damian had possessed a beating heart, it would have leapt out of his throat in shock. As it was, he merely grew as stock-still as the hard clump of ice in his chest that he had for so long thought was incapable of feeling anything.
Did she know that he was following her? Why else would she stop so suddenly and stare right at where he was standing?
He was not able to make himself invisible, but as many others of his kind he had perfected the art of blending in and cloaking himself with matter so as to not attract any attention. Dressed in black and ensconced in a corner well out of the reach of the street lights, he wasn’t more than an indistinct blur, although his emerald eyes glowed with emotion.
There she was, looking right at him and not through him. His Sheila, his obsession.
While part of him was still wondering and worrying—Had infatuation made him careless? Was he losing his preternatural gifts?—a much bigger part reveled in being able to study her face clearly. He hardly ever caught a frontal view of her because he was reduced to spying on her, and her beauty seemed out of this world.
Tonight she was wearing her chestnut hair piled high on her head, the longest strands cascading down to tickle her shoulders. It left her tantalizing neck exposed, and he could feel his fangs elongating with the acute need to sink into that column of flesh.
Damian feasted on her features, determined to drink her up with his eyes and memorize her for a lifetime because he couldn’t break the Law and actually drink her blood.
More than physical beauty—of which she lacked none—it was what her facial features told about her personality that fascinated him. Her eyes were full of a secret fire, somewhere between feminine warmth and fierce power, and they shone not only with intelligence but also with determination. Her pupils were slightly dilated, and he could see her delicate nostrils flare a little. Her luscious lips were pressed into a thin line, and his superhuman eyesight saw the blood rush through the soft tissue. If he could just scrape the tips of his teeth ever so slightly across those lips and lick away a droplet of her taste, if he could just…
He actually shook himself, something that seemed all too human and uncharacteristically weak. She, on the other hand, looked strong and in control, if you disregarded the way her teeth pressed into her lower lip, fueling his desire to bite her.
She was standing proud and erect and taller than every clueless person around her. Her pale skin was almost luminous in the street lamp’s glow; her hands were fisted but not clenched.
She was a mystery.
Everything about her spoke to him, pulled at him, as if she had sunk tiny hooks into his very soul. She wasn’t just an obsession, she wasn’t just a source of wonder and a fount of delicious blood that would go to his head like the best designer drug. She was his soul mate. He could feel it deep down inside where nothing had been felt for centuries.
But how on earth could a vampire and a human ever bond? As per the Law, they weren’t even allowed to speak because he was no hunter and she was no prey.
Just when Damian had decided that he needed to get a grip on himself and vanish before he brought trouble upon them both, she shocked him again.
I can see you.
Her lips remained shut, by the looks of it pressed together even tighter now, but her voice was ringing inside his head, wreaking havoc with the last fleeting bit of reason.
Frozen in place, awash with the glory of her silent voice invading his mind but also alight with more confusion than he had ever felt, he was unable to react. Her voice spoke silently again, a caress more intimate than any touch could have been.
I see you. I feel you. I know you, yet I don’t know you.
Shivers slithered up and down his spine. If her thought voice could make him shudder, what would a touch, a taste, do to him? Was she his doom, sent from the devil?
Who are you? The question penetrated deep, more a command to reveal himself than a plea for knowledge.
Damian jerked into action as if he had no will of his own.
He threw off his shield and took three measured steps into the street, mindless of whoever might see him apart from the only one in the world who mattered now.
The moment he stopped, Sheila lifted her hands, palms facing him. To stop him? To ward off evil? To ensure his attention?
He could feel her gaze on him, wandering over his body like searching hands, crawling in torturous slow motion, making him tingle. She took in every single inch of his form, and he could sense invisible fingers slide around in his head too, as if her gaze held X-rays to scan him.
The moment dragged forever, and he felt helpless and enthralled at the same time.
Sheila dropped her hands, and the next moment her mouth relaxed and stretched into a slow, secretive smile that made his blood boil with need.
Damian the Dark, her voice whispered in his head.
When he automatically executed a small bow and raised his eyebrows in a silent question, her smile widened.
You and I were meant to meet.
Her statement jolted him out of his reverie, and he took some less measured steps closer, sending his own thought voice out to her.
Who are you?

Blogging from A to Z Challenge - Letter R (Romance)

R for Romance
I’m a romance novelist, so in keeping with my theme of LOVE for the Blogging from A to Z Challenge, I’m dedicating the letter R to Romance.

If you ask me – yeah, I know, I’m biased, but anyway – romance is one of the most versatile genres you’ll find. There are so many different subgenres:
-    contemporary romance
-    paranormal romance
-    romantic suspense
-    historical romance
-    Regency romance
-    inspirational romance
-    Young Adult / New Adult romance
-    multicultural / interracial romance
-    erotic romance
Then there are all the themes that are popular among romance novels and can almost be viewed as subgenres too, e. g. medical romance, sport romance, military romance, M/M romance, second-chance romance, African-American romance. And as if that weren’t already enough choice, you can liberally borrow from other main genres and infuse your romance novel with it, especially with elements of fantasy, science-fiction and mystery.

So, what is ROMANCE? There are many definitions:

(1) : a medieval tale based on legend, chivalric love and adventure, or the supernatural (2) : a prose narrative treating imaginary characters involved in events remote in time or place and usually heroic, adventurous, or mysterious (3) : a love story especially in the form of a novel. – Merriam-webster.com

The romance novel or romantic novel is a literary genre. Novels of this type of genre fiction place their primary focus on the relationship and romantic love between two people, and must have an "emotionally satisfying and optimistic ending." – Wikipedia

What it boils down to is that there has to be a love story as the overall theme of the book, but of course it’s not as simple as that. Many romance novels involve more than infatuation and desire, and especially romance novels with a lower ‘heat level’ deal with more than the physical attraction and tug of war between the hero and heroine. There are endless possibilities and motifs to choose from, which is probably why romance is the most successful and popular genre in literature.

According to the RWA (Romance Writers of America) and other websites, romance firmly holds the 1st place among book genres that make the most money. Total romance sales exceed one billion US Dollars. That is a lot more than 2nd place and 3rd place (horror/mystery and religious). More than 80 % of the readers of romance novels are women, but men are slowly warming to the genre too. The age group that buys the most romantic novels is 30-54 years. Interestingly, paperbacks are almost as much on demand as eBooks (32 % and 39 % of the market share).

Enough rambling… Tell me, why do you like (or not like) the romance genre? For you, what is a must in romance novels? And who’s your favourite romance novelist?

Blogging from A to Z Challenge - Letter Q (Quotes)

Q for Quotes
Today I’ll be sharing quotes about love that resonate with me. Please feel free to share your favourite love quotes in the comments!


Love is composed of a single soul inhabiting two bodies. – Aristotle

Where there is love there is life. – Mahatma Gandhi

Immature love says: ‘I love you because I need you.’ Mature love says: ‘I need you because I love you.’ – Erich Fromm

Lovers don’t finally meet somewhere, they’re in each other all along. – Rumi

Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it. – Rumi

Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage. – Lao Tzu

A woman knows the face of the man she loves as the sailor knows the open sea. – Honore de Balzac

If you want to be loved, be lovable. – Ovid

I love thee with a love that shall not die, until the sun grows cold and the stars grow old. – William Shakespeare

The course of true love never did run smooth. – William Shakespeare

True love is like ghosts, which everyone talks about and few have seen. – Francois de la Rochefoucauld

You, yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection. – Lord Buddha
This post is linked to the Blogging from A to Z Challenge 2015.

Blogging from A to Z Challenge - Letter P (Perfect Partner)

Today’s post for the Blogging from A to Z Challenge deals with P for Perfect Match, in keeping with my overall theme of LOVE.

How do you find the perfect partner? Is it written in the stars, connected to your horoscope? Sri Lankans (and Indians) firmly believe so. Before two people marry, their horoscopes are tallied. There are roughly 20 points of comparison (don’t ask, it’s VERY complicated), some more important than others. The way I understand it, the temperament / character / future of the two partners are matched against each other. Essentially the horoscope matching helps to find out whether the two partners will be able to lead a happy life together or not – which is important for an arranged marriage because sometimes the future bride and groom don’t know each other at all.
I don’t much believe in this, but I can see that it makes sense… more sense actually than marrying someone on a whim because you’ve fallen in love, only to find out that once you remove the rose-tinted glasses of infatuation, you have nothing in common to build a life on. On the other hand, some people are truly in love, but not allowed to marry because their horoscopes don’t match. And I’ve seen many marriages that are a disaster, although the horoscopes tally nicely.

So what’s a better way to find Mr. Right / Mrs. Right? The internet is full of websites for online dating and online match-making. Personally, I am highly critical of those because it is just too easy to lie and to be deceived. Then again, who’s to say that the ads in the newspapers are true or that a person you meet is really showing their true face? I think if one opts for a website to find a partner, it’s best to narrow the search down as much as possible or to focus on those sites that are for a special group of people. If you have a common religion, ethnicity, age group, hobby or interest to start from, the chances might be higher that you ‘click’.

Speaking of ‘perfect match’, does that mean you have to be 100 % alike? But then what about the old adage “opposites attract”? I think – as is so often the case in life – the middle way is the best.
Firstly, it’s very hard to find someone who’s just like you. Secondly, if (for example) you’re both lazy and suck at making decisions, how on earth are you ever going to achieve anything? It’s best if you have common interests to anchor your love in but also differ in certain areas so that you form a team. You can only walk properly if you wear a left shoe and right shoe, not if you wear two shoes that are exactly the same.
I’ve seen that with my husband and myself: He’s a numbers person (accountant) and I’m a words person (writer), and we think completely differently. I can’t live without books, and he only ever reads a few newspaper articles here and there. He’s very practical and I’m all about theory. We tackle problems from two opposed angles. Yet we match well as a couple: Because like that both sides of the coin are covered, and because we have other areas in life where we’re perfectly in sync, small and big matters that bind us together and make us stronger as one.

Enough rambling… What do you think helps to find the ‘perfect partner’? What should match, and how do you determine who’s compatible?
Perfect Match

Blogging from A to Z Challenge - Letter O (Obsession)

O for Obsession (Short Story)
I’m sharing some flash fiction I wrote for today’s post for the Blogging from A to Z Challenge, sticking to my theme of LOVE.

Damian’s head snapped up, and his eyes widened. His body grew rigid, and combined with his pale skin and luminescent emerald irises it made him look like a statue.
She was near.
He knew it as certainly if she had walked straight past him, but his senses told him she was still a few hundred feet away.
Sheila, his obsession, his forbidden passion. His doom?
Damian forced himself to swallow and to take deep, shallow breaths, although he didn’t need either. Everything inside him wanted to run and revel in her presence instead of waiting for her to reach him and having to live with her never knowing about him.
Her tempting scent tickled his oversensitive nostrils. Ginger, vanilla, and a hint of something feminine and flowery, driving him crazy, feeding his addiction and sending him into a frenzy.
He had first stumbled upon Sheila 65 days ago—yes, he was counting the days—when she had stopped three schoolboys from bullying a much smaller and thinner boy in a dark alley where he had been hunting. She had hit him like a cannonball…or maybe like a bullet coated in silver, for she would surely be his ruin.
Damian loved everything about her. Her intelligence and fierce confidence that bordered on pride but was nowhere near cockiness. Her slow gait with just a little enticing swing of her softly rounded hips, her taut calf muscles brought out to perfection by the high heels she preferred to wear with her pencil skirts. Her self-sufficiency and her fearlessness when she strode through the dark with her head held high like a modern-day queen.
Her almond-shaped eyes and luscious lips. Oh, those lips… How he wanted to drive his teeth into them and catch just the tiniest taste of her!
And let’s not forget her voice that shot straight through his heart like a piercing arrow whenever he eavesdropped on her—which he did on a daily basis now. It was soft as velvet yet husky, quietly afire with the thrill of secret delights. And her swan neck, long and slim and pale, taunting him as if he wasn’t already tortured enough with thoughts of drinking her blood. He tossed and turned during the self-enforced rest at daytime, imagining brushing back her chestnut tresses to expose the column of her neck and sink his fangs into her soft, tender skin.
Need rocketed through him, so powerful that it was painful. He wanted her, with every fiber of his being. Body, mind and soul. He was obsessed with her. And she was not his to be.
She was a human. Humans were off limits unless you chose a victim to feed on.
In a bid to reason with a mind that was way too besotted to be open to rational thought, he recalled all the horrible tales he had heard: If a vampire revealed his true nature to a human—as many love-sick males of his kind had done it throughout time—it would mean one of two things: Either the woman would go raving mad or she would see him as evil and try to harm him.
But what about his Sheila? Surely a creature so noble and strong, so sure of herself and of what she wanted, would not react like that? What if he revealed himself to her and took the chance?
She rounded the corner, and Damian instinctively shrank back into the dark corner where he had been lurking like a ghost. If his heart had been beating, it would have stopped at her sight. What good were three hundred years of solitude and strength if a mere woman rendered him a fool?
He feasted his eyes on her figure walking carelessly through the crowd, standing out like a beacon of light, and just as destructive to him as real sunlight would be.
Would she remain his obsession or was day 66 meant to be the turning point for them?
Just when the thought entered his muddled mind, Sheila stopped in mid-stride, turned to her left, and stared straight at him.

Free photo from pixshark

Blogging from A to Z Challenge - Letter N (No Limits)

I searched and searched for a word starting with N to match my theme of love for the Blogging from A to Z Challenge. The result: N for nada, null, nothing, nichts! ;-) And exactly that gave me an idea, for I suddenly thought of “Love knows no limits”. That prompted me to do a Google search, and the interesting results are what this post is about. As you can see from this screenshot, there are many things that love doesn’t know. And I heartily agree, for we can see it time and time again that love can overcome anything and everything. Look at my husband and me: I grew up in Germany, where I spent 19 years of my life and formed a more ‘Western / European’ character despite my half-Asian roots. My husband, on the other hand, grew up in the small developing country of Sri Lanka and hadn’t been abroad before meeting me. He’s also considerably older than me and part of a big, traditional family while I’m a modern only child. So many differences… races, age, cultural background, customs and traditions, knowledge, family background… even our expectations in life and plans for the future were different to start with. And yet love prevailed. We’ve been married for more than seven years now, and our love has helped us overcome all obstacles and differences.

Truly, love knows no limits – and that is a message that can be found in almost all romance novels. Be it the hero and heroine overcoming ‘pride and prejudice’, stereotypes and class differences, physical distance or law and regulations, their love gets them through and wins in the end. How many times have we seen a couple receive their Happily Ever After even though the odds were against them? Somehow, they make it, and that’s one of the things I love most about writing and reading romance novels.

Blogging from A to Z Challenge - Letter M (Marriage)

M for Marriage
Following my Love theme for the Blogging from A to Z Challenge, today’s topic will be Marriage.

It’s interesting how closely love and marriage are linked, yet how far apart they can also be. In Western and modern countries, love doesn’t necessarily come as a package with marriage anymore. In fact, some people have an altogether cynical view on married life and even say it ruins love. There might be a kernel of truth in that – at least, I agree that married life comes with routine, with responsibilities and with obstacles to face, which can all be a killer for affection. Then again, it can also be argued that what is broken so easily was never love in the first place, but only or mostly physical attraction or the thought and thrill of being in love, followed by falling out of love.

Many ‘Westerners’ joke about how a marriage is eventually followed by a separation or divorce, and mention the ‘seven year itch’. Apparently, a marriage starts to decline and degrade by the 4th year and is doomed to end by the 7th year. That is probably in relation to the above-mentioned problems that darken the light of love once you’ve tied the knot. However, I don’t think something as individual and special as love (and marriage) should be generalized like this. Many couples make it through seven and many more years without such trouble – or fail much earlier than that. I’ve been married to my wonderful husband for a little more than 7 years, and we’re still in love and nowhere near calling it quits!

On a different note, many Asian and more traditionally-minded countries still view love and marriage as inextricably linked. You cannot have or live the former if you don’t enter into the latter. On the other hand, exactly these countries also rely heavily on arranged marriages where love isn’t part of the picture or only becomes part of it over time.

I could write about this topic for hours because it’s so complicated and interesting, but I don’t have time and I don’t want to bore my readers. So let me conclude with what I think about love and marriage in a nut shell:
I do think they belong together, though I agree that marriage isn’t a must. And I certainly don’t think that marriage destroys love, because if you truly love someone, then you’ll jump over the hurdles together and grow stronger by facing all the problems along the way. You’ll learn to make compromises, to appreciate each other, and to fight for your relationship. If there really is love, then there is no reason to give up! After all, the vow is all about “in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health”.

Blogging from A to Z Challenge - Letter L (Love)

As my overall theme for the Blogging from A to Z Challenge April 2015 is LOVE, it was a no-brainer to choose this very word for the letter L. I'm sharing a poem I wrote a few years ago, during times when hardly a day would go by without writing a new poem.
L for Love
Love is two people respecting each other
But love is also two people blaming one another
Love is expecting wonderful things
But love is also an eagle without wings
Love is kissing the whole day
But love is also not finding the right way
Love is everything you desire
But love is also an aggressive fire
Love is two people holding each other
But love is also screaming at one another
Love is greenly growing grass
But love is also splitting glass
Love is a protecting shield
But you know love is also a battle field.

Love is…
When people say they’re happy
When people say they’re just not happy
When you could embrace the whole world
When you want to be embraced by the world
When you want to sing with the birds through the ages
When the mute birds are caught in golden cages
When the sun is shining only for you
When the moon is crying with you
When you forget all your fears
When you’re washed away by tears
When you’re watching your soul grow
When the flowers are covered by snow
When four eyes are shining bright
When two hearts are open wide.

Love is…
The only thing you want to escape
Love is…
The only thing you cannot escape
Love is…
A thousand red roses on the floor
Love is…
A thousand people walking over them
Love is…
Swimming against the current
Love is…
Standing with the back against the wall
Love is…
A tamed animal
Love is…
Wild creatures of the dark

Love is…
The bullet everybody wants to be hit by
The pencil to write your own story
A ray of light that gets you through the day
The path to success
And the path to yourself

Love is Love

Blogging from A to Z Challenge - Letter K (Knight in Shining Armour)

For today's post for the Blogging from A to Z Challenge, I'm sharing a poem I wrote yesterday. K is for Knight in Shining Armour. I had thought of choosing the obvious topic to fit my love theme - Kiss - but I have kind of covered that one in this post on Intimacy already...
Knight in Shining Armour (poem)
I want a knight in shining armour
To sweep me off my feet
Who rides a white horse to battle
But knows when to accept defeat

I want Prince Charming to be all mine
And surprise me anew each day
I want a man who knows what he wants
But also lets me have a say

I want a king who holds me captive
But is susceptible to my spell
Who showers me with attention
And knows all my quirks too well

I want a knight in shining armour
To get down on his knees
Who worships the ground I walk on
And knows just how to please

I want Prince Charming at my beck and call
Turning the ladies a jealous shade of green
I want a man who knows his worth
But cherishes the power of his queen

No, let me rephrase my wishes
I want a hero in my life
Who chooses me as his wife
Because he cannot live without me
And is as perfect as a man can be
With all the flaws a human has
I want someone to love me so much
That he needs no shining armour, no white horse and no palace
Because he’s got my heart, and I own his

Blogging from A to Z Challenge - Letter J (Jealousy)

J for Jealousy
Love isn’t only associated with positive emotions and behaviours. Unfortunately, feelings like jealousy are also linked to it.

If a person is jealous, it means that they are in some way threatened with a loss, mostly because a third person stakes a claim on someone (or something) they value highly. The most common scene is someone being jealous because their partner is enjoying himself / herself or receiving attention from another woman / man. You can read more about how psychologically complex the topic is here and here. Jealousy is of course not limited to love or relationships, but also occurs among friends and family members as well as at the workplace, closely linked to envy.

I’ve seen jealousy as part of romance novels many times. Often the heroine tries to make the hero – who rejects her love or doesn’t want to admit his attraction to her – react by (seemingly) throwing herself at another man. And it seems to work. By realizing that he’s feeling jealous, the hero finally admits to himself – and due to the resulting anger or possessive behaviour also to others – that he’s interested in her.

This might sound tempting to try, and does prove successful in literature, but jealousy is a huge problem that can destroy relationships and eat up the person until it causes a serious psychological disorder or becomes a lethal threat to others. A little jealousy is healthy and can be positive because it results in some possessiveness and commitment and is a sign of love. After all, we feel jealous because we care about a person and don’t want to lose them. But extreme jealousy is not to be taken lightly. So here are 5 ways to deal with jealousy:


1)      Step back from the situation and look at it from a neutral point of view.

2)      Admit that you’re jealous. Understanding jealousy is the first step to preventing or controlling it.

3)      Dig deeper and find out why you feel jealous. Lack of confidence? Previous failures? Not sure where you stand with the person? Loneliness and fear of abandonment? Insecurity and self-loathing?

4)      Talk about it, with others and with the people concerned. Communicating your feelings will lessen the burden and explain your odd behaviour.

5)      Realize that jealousy is ego-centered and usually has nothing to do with the other person. Even if said person might actually try to make you jealous, the reaction lies in your hands.

This post is linked to the Blogging from A to Z Challenge 2015.