Sunday, February 17, 2013

Welcome Sonnet O'Dell Today


According to Plato's Symposium, human beings originally had which featured four legs, four arms, and a head with two faces. However, Zeus feared the power of the combined human form, and so cut humans into separate males and females, resulting in a perpetual ache of separation and a longing to regain the completeness by finding one's soul mate.
According to Aristophanes (a character based on a real contemporary of Plato) "love" is the term describing the yearning and pursuit of each half to re-create the whole, a concept resulting from the split of the original body. Greek mythology shares the soul-mate idea with many other cultures throughout history that have stories to explain the strong energetic connection between two people who often feel more complete with each other, where regular concepts like "friend" or "mate" are not adequate.

Imagine for a moment if that were true. What if every person had one soul mate, some random person somewhere in the world? Would we find each other? Or could we be happy with someone else. The idea that there is one perfect someone out there for all of us has been floating around for as long as I can remember. We see it everywhere whether it be an ad for a dating website or in literature. Romance novels are always keen on the idea of soul mates, love at first sight or that sense of the completeness.

Let’s assume a soul mate is set at birth. You know nothing about who or where they are, but—as in the romantic cliché—you’ll recognize each other the moment your eyes meet. But there is a major problem. Is your soul mate even still alive? A hundred billion or so humans have lived, but only seven billion are alive now. If Soul Mates are paired up randomly, 90% of our soul mates are long dead. But wait, we would have to include an unknown number of future humans as well. For if it’s possible for your soul mate to be in the past, then it also has to be possible for your soul mates to be in the distant future, to not currently have been born.

Also there is the theory of reincarnation to consider. If the soul cannot be destroyed and it keeps going round and around, will it always be paired with the same mate? Does the body it goes into matter? Does Gender? Or will they keep missing each other over and over again?
Got a headache yet?

Personally I believe that if you do have a soul mate, that they should be born around the same time as you. I mean no deity could really be so cruel as to not even give you a chance of finding each other.

We’ve seen the soul mate phenomena more and more in books. Couples who find they were destined for each other. Take Twilight for instance, it’s clear that Edward and Bella are a classic soul mate pairing, but had Edward never become a vampire he would never have met Bella. But perhaps he would have settled down with a nice Chicago born girl and had a family. It’s even more weirdly expressed in the same book with the werewolf imprinting. Imagine that, having to forget the feelings your might have for someone else because a stranger shows up and he/she is the one.

Now don’t get me wrong – I enjoy very much reading about soul mates. Any romantic does. The idea that there is someone out there who’s been looking for you as much as you have been them is very appealing to the single lady like myself. That this love will be the be all and end all and will make all the lonely nights, the bad dates, the valentine’s days on your own and watching all your friends pair up worth it. In my own writing I like to play with the idea of there being some force that draws to people together, an undeniable connection sometimes to a complete stranger.

In Triton Rising, for instance Karsh and Anna are drawn together because of the powerful euphoric effect of a mating dance. You see mating dances in a lot of cultures but most don’t have that supernatural Velcro that attaches to characters together. That comes from the “taking” of a mate. A more physical action that leads to a supernatural bond that links two characters, often happily, to one another.

In my latest release, Mistakenly Mated, I play with the idea that in a society – in this case werewolves – that know enough about a supernatural mating bond that they can influence it. Chose who becomes mated to who, in order to control things like genetic and population. But what would happen if the person chosen was not the most appealing option, if by chance someone lurking nearby attracts your attention. This is what happens to Kerry and Caleb. But just because a physical act bonds you, what about romance? Natural wolves don’t think about romance, once they take a mate, that’s all there is to it, but humans want and yearn for a deeper, more emotional connection. If you’re a werewolf, with a dual nature, on which side of the fence are you supposed to drop down on. It’s certainly an interesting conundrum.
On the whole the being in love, the motivations for seeking it or the possible supernatural connection, is such a fascinating thing. Its why people write about it now and probably still will for many years to come.

Sonnet x
www.sonnetodell.com
http://sonnetodelldustypages.blogspot.co.uk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-VIb68VFMA

Teaser Excerpt from Mistakenly Mated by Sonnet O'Dell
Eternal Press

Curiosity only kills cats, right? 

Kerry never expected to have a mate among her own kind. White wolves, like her, are considered cursed.

When curiosity gets the better of Kerry, she becomes the mate of the handsome Caleb and her future takes a dramatic turn. They crave each other through a bond that after a month will be unbreakable and they have till then to get to know each other.

Surviving that month is the only problem! Someone is out to kill Kerry, but who and why?

Excerpt from Mistakenly Mated



Caleb leaned down and took her mouth in a fierce kiss, she melted into his kiss parting her plump lips to allow his tongue to taste inside. The same peppery scent that clung to her skin, that was unique to her was also inside her mouth, it was like licking flames as he kissed her. When he broke it, he was gasping as if he’d been walking for days in the desert and needed some cool water to sooth his ravage tongue.

“I take it that, that’s your version of hello.” Kerry was a little breathy herself as she spoke but her lips were curved into a very pleasant smirk.

“Hello Kerry,” he said in his deepest sexiest voice. He watched her shudder and delighted in it. His hand ran down her shoulder, curving around her breast prepared to induce shivers in her another way when she stepped back from him. He looked puzzled.

“Don’t be so hasty,” she said and turned her back on him. He watched the line of the dress as it lay over her buttocks and had to appreciate the view. She was being playful. Kerry looked back at him over her shoulder and smiled very warmly at him.

“But then again,” she said pushing the dress so that it fell from her shoulders, sliding like a fabric waterfall over his skin, till it pooled at her feet. “I want to see if you’re really as fast as I remember.” Kerry threw her body forward landing on her four paws as a white wolf. Caleb took time to admire her in this form too. Her coat wasn’t pure white; there were undertone of cream around the eyes and in the scruff under and around her neck, her back paws were the same as if she were wearing wolf sized shoes. Her tail was full and bushy, flowing up from the end of her spine almost like that of a Persian cat. Her eyes were clear Arctic blue in her wolf form but they were far from cold. She strolled around him assessing his human form with her wolf eyes and then bit him in the bottom. Caleb yelped and stumbled forward, turning to face her and her wolfy grin. Oh yes, he thought, very playful.
“Oh that’s it,” he said stripping out of his shirt. “You’ve really asked for it now.”

Author Bio
Sonnet was born at the John Radcliffe in Oxford and spent the first six years of her life living in the town of Abingdon close to both her grandparents and most of the rest of her family. She moved after that to Cornwall for three years and then to Devon for another three before moving to where she has lived for the last fourteen or so years. Sonnet now lives in Worcester, Worcestershire, famous for Lea & Perrin’s Sauce and as the site for the last battle of the Civil War. Sonnet has had a passion for the written word from a very young age and enjoys nothing more than to read a good book. The worlds created by words.

4 comments:

blcsdina said...

Hi Sonnet-Beautiful cover! Your book sounds outstanding! Dina Rae

cornelia amiri said...

I love the post and the premise and the excerpt is luscious - so hot. Can't wait to read the book.

Linda Hays-Gibbs said...

I believe in soul mates. It makes senses to me that there is one person meant to be with another. Sometimes they never meet but what if one isn't what they are supposed to be? Would you love them any less? I think not.
Love this blog
Linda Hays-Gibbs
Angel in My Heart, Devil in My Soul

Fiona McGier said...

Husband has said many times over the years that he thinks we've been together forever...and I don't mean now! He means we've been mated before, sometimes he was the man, sometimes the woman, and me too. But he thinks we always manage to find each other. Of the two of us, he's the bigger romantic. I think men usually are, and women are more practical because we have to be, for the protection of our babies.

Books with shifters often use the mated theme so two people who may not even like each other, have to give each other a chance. Many times in real life, we're not willing to give each other that chance.

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