Passion: Emotion with High Stakes by Laurie A. Green

Valentine's Day usually brings to mind the softer side of love—fragrant flowers, delectable candy, soft music, a candlelit dinner and the liquid bouquet of a fine wine. Touching, tender moments spent with someone you love.

But love also has a more unruly and tumultuous side.

Passion.

According to Wikipedia, passion is from the Ancient Greek verb πάσχω (paskho) meaning to suffer)…a term applied to a very strong feeling about a person or thing. Passion is an intense emotion compelling feeling, enthusiasm, or desire for something.”What defines passion?

Passion isn’t necessarily confined to the realm of romance. The ancient Greeks saw love and war as virtually the same thing, two pursuits driven by the same emotion. In their mythology, Aphrodite, the goddess of love, and Ares, the god of war, were usually paired. Hand-in-hand they were the hallmarks of Passion.

In Science Fiction Romance, love is the tie that binds, but passion can compel a character to do surprising things. To act in a way that defies everything they believe in, to take enormous risks, and put their lives and everything they hold dear on the line. Indeed, passion can “launch a thousand ships.”

In the motion picture Avatar, Jake becomes torn between two worlds when he mentally "drives" an avatar with alien-human DNA and immerses himself in the environment of the sentient moon, Pandora, and its Na'vi people. His tutor and guide, the female alien Neytiri, is at first disgusted by Jake's blundering attempts to learn about her world, which does not compute to the former Marine. In her words, Jake cannot learn because he cannot “see.” Even as he begins to understand and form a deep bond with Neytiri in his Avatar form, his human alter ego is supplying information to a military commander who's twitching for a chance to unleash superior military might on the natives. When Jake is forced to choose between two worlds, it’s passion that drives him to take an insane leap (literally) and win back the respect of Neytiri and her Omaticaya clan, earning a place as their new leader. In doing so, Jake not only puts his life on the line, but his human existence. Love and war again intertwined in a dynamic story of risk and emotion.

Exploring passion in SFR gives readers a stake in the plight of the characters and their futures. Understanding what drives a character to react or rebel brings them to life. What better way to understand their core strengths than by sharing the journey toward overcoming their weaknesses. By mentally joining with them as they gamble their very lives or the existence of everything they believe in.

As a reader, give me a tale that takes a character right over an emotional cliff—and then brings them back again—and you’ll have a fan for life. A story that fails to deliver on passion never lives up to its full potential.

Maybe Joss Whedon, the creator of Firefly, said it best: “Passion, it lies in all of us, sleeping…waiting…and though unwanted…unbidden…it will stir…open its jaws and howl. It speaks to us…guides us…passion rules us all, and we obey…Passion is the source of our finest moments. The joy of love…the clarity of hatred…and the ecstasy of grief. It hurts sometimes more than we can bear. If we could live without passion maybe we’d know some kind of peace…but we would be hollow…Empty rooms shuttered and dank. Without passion we’d be truly dead.”

And so would our stories.

Laurie A. Green writes award-winning Science Fiction Romance and blogs at Spacefreighters Lounge. She is best known as the founder of the SFR Brigade community of writers and fans. Always fascinated by stories of romance in the final frontier, she began seriously penning SFRs in 2007. Her first two novels were finalists in the 2011 RWA Golden Heart® Awards and have won numerous writing competitions across the US.

For the Love, Lasers and Light Swords Valentine’s Bash, Laurie is offering a chance to win a full length SFR novel that sizzles—Barbara Elsborg's LUCY IN THE SKY—the story of a heroine from Earth swept away by Three, a lusty alien hunk from the stars. But Three's passion-driven impulse spells doom. If discovered on his mothership, Lucy will be guaranteed a one-way trip into space without a spacesuit. If you are over the age of 18, enter a comment below for a chance to win. Be sure to include a contact email address. (Choice of print or digital copy for addressees inside continental US, digital e-book outside US, or an Amazon e-Gift Certificate).



Be sure to check out previous posts from the Valentine's Day Bash for more chances to WIN!
Arlene Webb
Graylin Fox
Barbara Elsborg

Don't Break My Heart by Barbara Elsborg

How many times have you read – her heart was breaking? Or—He broke her heart. Or she broke his heart. Don’t want to be sexist here. Doctors have identified a condition that mimics a heart attack, most often suffered by post-menopausal women who’ve lost a loved one. But any emotional trauma – grief, anger, anxiety—can trigger a massive surge of adrenaline that overwhelms the heart. It freezes the left ventricle, reducing its ability to contract and pump blood, and causes symptoms similar to an actual heart attack. It’s been called a concussion of the heart and it’s rare. Only 1-2% of people diagnosed with a heart problem have this, but it accounts for 6% of women’s heart attacks. The good news is lasting damage is rare and the heart recovers.

Bit of a morbid topic for Valentine’s Day, but I wanted to write about what a fantastic organ the heart is. It pumps (if you’re lucky) without problem for your entire life. Day after day, week after week, year after year. If only we could invent motors that worked for so long! So far 620 days is the longest anyone has survived with an artificial heart. While I can’t imagine an artificial brain being produced in my lifetime, I do believe that scientists will manage to build a long-lasting heart. Technology advances in leaps and bounds and is catching up with science fiction. Humans will have bodies that are built to last, skin that doesn’t age, muscles that never tire, and a heart that never wears out. When they fathom out a way to control adrenaline surges, then we won’t even have a concussion of the heart, but I suspect writers will still be using the expressions – he broke her heart. She broke his heart.

Don’t do that today. Today make someone’s heart sing by telling them you love them. Then remember to do that the day after and the day after that for as long as your heart keeps beating.

My heroine Lucy – in Lucy in the Sky thinks her heart’s about to stop when she’s whisked into space, but it turns out to be a journey to love. For one randomly picked commentator – I offer an ebook copy of Lucy in the Sky.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

www.barbaraelsborg.blogspot.com

www.barbaraelsborg.com


Be sure to check out previous posts from the Valentine's Day Bash for more chances to WIN!
Arlene Webb
Graylin Fox