Let's Get Scientifical #19: From Shakespeare to Hallmark-Just Add Chocolate

Welcome to Unwritten's February blog event! Of course, this is the month of love, so I wanted to celebrate that theme as I've done in year's past. But this year, I've decided to add a scientific spin to it. All month long, talented authors from several genres will write about some aspect of love from their books as it relates to science. It could be social, psychological, biological, or anything in between. Our blog event is sponsored by "HMC by Kate", a fabulous independent jewelry crafter. Kate's giving away one of her very beautiful necklaces that I think fits our theme perfectly. She's also offering everyone who stops in a 10% discount on any item from her Etsy store. Be sure to enter the giveaway at the end of this post and check out her lovely offerings! Without further ado, please welcome our guest author:

From Shakespeare To Hallmark: Just Add Chocolate

By Alayna-Renee Vilmont

“If making love is an art

And improper courtship a crime,

The way to a true lover’s heart

Is a mixture of chocolate and rhyme.”

--- Alayna’s Deservedly Unpublished Valentine Collection

It may be a bit simplistic, but Hallmark has stumbled upon something with this observation, continuing traditions that have been around for centuries, and adding chocolate. While many have dubbed Valentine’s Day a Hallmark holiday for this very reason, the roots of using poetry as the ultimate romantic gesture stretch back to at least the Middle Ages. In the time glamourized by the stories of Lancelot and Guenevere, or Isolde and Tristan, knights and ladies were not just busy occupying themselves with liaisons that would be honoured in poetic form years later. A love poem scrawled to the object of one’s affections could be tucked neatly into one’s locket or hidden underneath a suit of armour, and served as a promise of reunification in a world where the average life span barely touched middle age.

If the fastest way to lift a woman’s skirt was to lift her spirits, preferably while sharing a glass or two of them, it was the Elizabethans who took romantic poetry and letters to another level and started a trend that would last roughly 350 years and is still kept alive by greeting card companies. In an era defined by inequality, many peasants still didn’t know how to write well, much less compose verse. Education was often considered wasted on women, yet a background in art, music, literature, and dancing were talents that made upper-class women more attractive and marriageable. Therefore, hastily scribbled verses pining over a lover were not uncommon, and were one of the only discrete and acceptable ways to inform a potential suitor of romantic interest in a society where arranged marriages were law of the land and fidelity a seldom-kept promise in people of any station

Of course, for a young man who could not rely on his looks or station to have women competing to fall into his bed, romantic verse was a tool in the art of seduction that did not discriminate. The idea of becoming a talented man’s muse or a less talented man’s object of flattery was often one not to be sneezed at, and remained that way for centuries---unless you happened to be a pragmatic heroine in a Jane Austen novel.

While many of the poems in fashion throughout Europe during the Elizabethan and Victorian eras were bawdy limericks, or thinly veiled pick-up lines, others were true works of art. More so than any other author, it is the love poems penned by William Shakespeare that live on. Shakespeare’s cranky but insightful Jacques describes the phase of being a lover as “with a woeful ballad made to his mistress’ eyebrow”. While Jacques mocks the convention of bad rhyme as courtship, in 2015, we are still comparing others to a summer day. Words are still sweeter when whispered in secret, in really not-so-secret from a balcony, or in the case of Roxanne and Cyrano, recited by a best friend who is single for a reason.

Did Romeo offer Juliet chocolates in a heart-shaped box while offering immortal words of love? Probably not, but chances are good that if you’ve forgotten a card with a short rhyming verse as a token of your affection, you won’t be getting any luckier than that immortal pair.

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Alayna-Renee Vilmont is a freelance writer, blogger, performer, and modern-day Renaissance woman currently residing in Atlanta, Georgia. This year, she did not receive a Hallmark valentine and penned this blog instead. Her first book, “Ophelia’s Wayward Muse”, is a poetic anthology based around the many facets of human relationships and experiences. Alayna is also the voice behind Jaded Elegance: The Uninhibited Adventures Of A Chic Web Geek, which has been entertaining readers since 2000. She maintains an active presence on Facebook, Goodreads, Twitter, and almost every other form of social media out there. She is a frequent contributor out in the blogosphere, and has a second book in the making---as soon as reality television is discontinued. Alayna has previously appeared on this site, winning last year’s flash fiction contest and contributing other guest blogs. If you’d like to follow the adventures of this modern-day wayward muse, please stop by and visit at www.jadedelegance.net

* Facebook: www.facebook.com/princessalayna

* Twitter: www.twitter.com/princessalayna

* Blog: www.jadedelegance.net

* Goodreads Author Page: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6862252.Alayna_Renee_Vilmont

* Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Ophelias-Wayward-Muse-Alayna-Renee-Vilmont/dp/1478218886/

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Let's Get Scientifical #18: From Widow to Wife

Welcome to Unwritten's February blog event! Of course, this is the month of love, so I wanted to celebrate that theme as I've done in year's past. But this year, I've decided to add a scientific spin to it. All month long, talented authors from several genres will write about some aspect of love from their books as it relates to science. It could be social, psychological, biological, or anything in between. Our blog event is sponsored by "HMC by Kate", a fabulous independent jewelry crafter. Kate's giving away one of her very beautiful necklaces that I think fits our theme perfectly. She's also offering everyone who stops in a 10% discount on any item from her Etsy store. Be sure to enter the giveaway at the end of this post and check out her lovely offerings! Without further ado, please welcome our guest author:

From Widow to Wife
by
Mysti Parker

In my upcoming historical romance, A Time for Everything, Portia McAllister has to make a difficult choice. With her husband killed in battle, her only child taken by sickness and with taxes a poor Confederate widow cannot pay, she decides to leave home to work as a tutor for a Union veteran’s son in Lebanon, Tennessee. Only after a great deal of resentment do she and her employer, Beau Stanford, find common ground and eventually love.

Had it not been for the war, her progress from widow to wife would have been much different. If Portia’s husband Jake had died of natural causes at home instead of on a battlefield, she may have had the chance to sit beside him in his last hours. She would have worn black mourning clothes for a period of up to two years. Should her daughter have died—and this was still quite likely, as child mortality rates were much higher before the rise of vaccines and antibiotics—Portia would have worn black for at least a year.

Having had no other close relations, her husband’s brother Frank and his wife Ellen would have taken her in. Portia would have helped take care of their children and home, while Frank would have made the decision whether to sell his dead brother’s property or claim it as his own.

Soon as the mourning period passed, Portia would have been eligible to marry again. Her husband would most likely have resided nearby in Brentwood or the area surrounding it. He would have to have Frank’s blessing to marry her, as her brother-in-law was her closest male relative and would be responsible for her well-being. Once married, she would move into her new husband’s home and be fully integrated into his family. 

A Time for Everything coming this fall
 from EsKape Press

But the war changed everything, especially for the former Confederates. Many widows who were poor already like Portia were left practically destitute. Even if they were lucky enough to have family who could take them in, that family might be just as destitute. In Frank and Ellen’s case, it was all they could do to keep themselves and their children fed, so they couldn't take on the burden of a dead relative’s property or a widow. Though they begged Portia to stay, she didn't want to add to their hardship.

So she did another thing most women would have never done pre-war. She left home to live and work in a stranger’s household. A Union household at that. She didn’t arrive wearing mourning clothes, either. Not because she didn’t want to, but because she couldn’t afford to purchase or even dye those garments herself.

Before the war, Beau would have never entrusted his son to a Confederate’s widow, nor would he have allowed himself to fall in love with her. Yet, the war obliterated more than men and bricks and mortar. It forced new social rules upon everyone. Former slaves were now free, but struggling under the weight of what freedom brought with it. Veterans were left handicapped, with missing limbs or internal scars that would never heal. And widows were left to fend for themselves, taking on the provider role of their late husbands.

When widows finally did become wives again, they often had to marry men who were much older or younger, or those who had once been considered enemies. Like Beau and Portia—two people who understand the pain of loss, let go of dead social conventions, and find comfort in each other's arms. 

Sources: 

http://civilwarwomenblog.com/civil-war-widows/

http://www.essential.civilwar.vt.edu/assets/files/ECWC%20TOPIC%20Widows%20Essay.pdf

****

Bio: Mysti Parker is a wife, mom, author, and shameless chocoholic. She is the author of the Tallenmere standalone fantasy romance series and The Roche Hotel romantic comedy series. Her short writings have appeared in the anthologies Hearts of Tomorrow, Christmas Lites, Christmas Lites II, Christmas Lites IV, The Darwin Murders, Tasteful Murders and EveryDayFiction. Her award-winning historical romance, A Time for Everything, will be published this summer by EsKape Press.

Other writing pursuits include serving as a class mentor in Writers Village University's seven week online course, F2K. She has published one children’s book, Quentin’s Problem (as Misty Baker), with another (Fuzzy Buzzy’s Treasure) coming this spring.

When she's not writing fiction, Mysti works as a freelance editor and copywriter. She also reviews books for SQ Magazine, an online specfic publication, and is the proud owner of Unwritten, a blog voted #3 for eCollegeFinder's Top Writing Blogs award. She resides in Buckner, KY with her husband and three children.

Author links: 

Subscribe to Mysti’s blog, Unwritten 

Visit Mysti’s website: www.mystiparker.com

LIKE Mysti’s fan page on Facebook! 

Follow Mysti on Twitter @MystiParker

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Let's Get Scientifical #17: Love at First Sight--Myth or Reality?

Welcome to Unwritten's February blog event! Of course, this is the month of love, so I wanted to celebrate that theme as I've done in year's past. But this year, I've decided to add a scientific spin to it. All month long, talented authors from several genres will write about some aspect of love from their books as it relates to science. It could be social, psychological, biological, or anything in between. Our blog event is sponsored by "HMC by Kate", a fabulous independent jewelry crafter. Kate's giving away one of her very beautiful necklaces that I think fits our theme perfectly. She's also offering everyone who stops in a 10% discount on any item from her Etsy store. Be sure to enter the giveaway at the end of this post and check out her lovely offerings! Without further ado, please welcome our guest author:

Love at First Sight--Myth or Reality?

by Tony Acree

In The Hand of God, when my protagonist, Victor McCain finally finds the woman he’s sent to find, Samantha Tyler, he falls instantly in love with her. Or perhaps, instantly in lust. Is there a difference?

Laura Schwecherl wrote a column in the Washington Post discussing the possibility that love at first sight might have a biological component, suggesting animals may have a pre-programmed perfect mate and when you see them, it is instantaneous. And I believe there is a case for two people to have a chemistry which matches up. But does instant physical attraction equate to love? When Vic and Samantha meet, the attraction is instant and hits him physically.

Dr. Helen Fisher, a research professor at Rutgers University, says, “Sexual chemistry does not always equal love, and this is because we’ve evolved distinct brain systems for mating.” Or in other words, just because your attracted to someone, doesn’t mean it will work out.

I think there is a combination of things when it comes to the science of love. Two people can have a quick chemical connection, that “something in the air” moment where you meet a person and the static electricity cranks up between the two of you.

But I also believe there is a part of the equation which science cannot explain. Humans are complex beings and I don’t think any one formula can describe why two people hit it off. You hear couples all the time saying, “we were meant to be.” Perhaps.

In the end, Samantha also finds feelings for Victor, but the attraction was not quite as immediate. One thing Vic knows for sure, though, is despite only knowing her for one day, he knows he will love her for the rest of his life. In the end, that’s all that matters, science be damned.  

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Amazon best selling author, Tony Acree,likes putting characters in situations they think they will never survive, and find out if they're right. He lives near Louisville, Kentucky with his wife, twin daughters, two female dogs, a female cat, and says the way the goldfish looks at him, he's sure she's female, too. 

Buy links:

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=tony+acree

Barnes and Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/c/tony-acree

Website: Tonyacree.com

Twitter: @Tonyacree

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AuthorTonyAcree

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Let's Get Scientifical #16: All in the Family--Goblins & Inbreeding

Welcome to Unwritten's February blog event! Of course, this is the month of love, so I wanted to celebrate that theme as I've done in year's past. But this year, I've decided to add a scientific spin to it. All month long, talented authors from several genres will write about some aspect of love from their books as it relates to science. It could be social, psychological, biological, or anything in between. Our blog event is sponsored by "HMC by Kate", a fabulous independent jewelry crafter. Kate's giving away one of her very beautiful necklaces that I think fits our theme perfectly. She's also offering everyone who stops in a 10% discount on any item from her Etsy store. Be sure to enter the giveaway at the end of this post and check out her lovely offerings! Without further ado, please welcome our guest author:

All in the Family: Goblins & Inbreeding

by Jaq Hawkins

Goblins are very aware of the effects of a limited gene pool. If a small community breeds only within its borders, the inbreeding will result in autosomal recessive disorders, which occur in individuals who have two copies of the same gene for a particular recessive genetic mutation.¹ The alleles (versions of genes) collect a multitude of deleterious mutations which diminish fitness in the bloodlines.² Therefore, to mix genetic lines more broadly, goblins seek out mates from other grottos. What's more, the tradition of the succubus; the female creature who visits unwary males in the night and seduces them, provides outbreeding¹ for more diverse genetics when a sufficiently humanoid looking female goblin is able to conceive from such a seduction.

Love is considered a separate issue to goblins. There is no room for jealousy in a species in danger of extinction through insufficient fertility. The fact that fewer females are born within the goblin grottos is nature's way of reducing the inbreeding, but it also limits the number of females that might bring new strains into the bloodlines.

Goblins share common ancestors with humans, and therefore are able to crossbreed. Genome sequences harvested from Neanderthal bones have previously confirmed that Neanderthals (the direct ancestors of the Deep Dwellers) and modern humans mated, and that about 2% of the genomes of people who descend from Europeans, Asians and other non-Africans is Neanderthal.^3,4.

In earlier times, human communities also suffered the effects of inbreeding, before transportation developed so that more humans could travel on a regular basis. The obvious solution to two communities who have become inbred was of course to trade the occasional infant so that both communities could benefit from more diverse lines. The tradition of changelings, unfortunately, had to be abandoned some time ago. The humans objected to the exchange and would torture the goblin infants and leave them exposed in the woods until their own infants were returned.

The goblins, who treasure every birth and could not understand the ability of humans to be cruel to innocent babes, ceased the practice and instead seek more direct fertilisation via the succubus, leaving the humans to deal with their inbreeding problems in their own way. Fortunately they eventually developed long distance means of travel and their communities began to diversify.

As for the goblins, they continue to seek ways to diversify. Runners, the goblins who carry information from one grotto to another, are always in demand when the females choose their mating partners at The Dance. The primal seductivity of The Dance encourages regular matings, though not always with the partner that the female loves most. Exclusive partnerships are rare, but goblins do love.

Goblins recognise emotional love as a unity between two like-minded entities who share attitudes and opinions most closely. Physical attraction may be involved as well, but the goblins recognise that pheremones⁵ are strongest between a male and female who are most likely to be able to breed. It is simple biology, sensed on a subtle scent level.

References:

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inbreeding

2. http://helorimer.people.ysu.edu/inbred.html

3. http://www.nature.com/news/modern-human-genomes-reveal-our-inner-neanderthal-1.14615

4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archaic_human_admixture_with_modern_humans

5. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sex_pheromone

Dance of the Goblins

Amazon

http://www.amazon.com/Goblin-Trilogy-complete-ebook/dp/B00MGIAXE2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1422016805&sr=8-1&keywords=goblin+trilogy

Smashwords

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/123080

Lulu

http://www.lulu.com/gb/en/shop/jaq-d-hawkins/dance-of-the-goblins-new-expanded-third-edition/paperback/product-21642070.html

****

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Let's Get Scientifical #15: Half-Human + Half-Alien = ?

Welcome to Unwritten's February blog event! Of course, this is the month of love, so I wanted to celebrate that theme as I've done in year's past. But this year, I've decided to add a scientific spin to it. All month long, talented authors from several genres will write about some aspect of love from their books as it relates to science. It could be social, psychological, biological, or anything in between. Our blog event is sponsored by "HMC by Kate", a fabulous independent jewelry crafter. Kate's giving away one of her very beautiful necklaces that I think fits our theme perfectly. She's also offering everyone who stops in a 10% discount on any item from her Etsy store. Be sure to enter the giveaway at the end of this post and check out her lovely offerings! Without further ado, please welcome our guest author:

Half-Human/Half-Alien Reproduction by Jane Novotny, MD 

Transcribed by P. E. Sibley

Mark Praed is the product of interspecies breeding between a human male and an alien female from the planet Kyree in the Steglos System. Kyreens are a humanoid race with DNA similar to that of homo sapiens. To understand if Mr. Praed would be able to father children, one must first understand the reproductive processes of Kyreens.

Unlike human women who, during every twenty-eight day cycle are fertile five to six days (ovulation), Kyreen females are fertile every day of the Kyreen solar year (which is four hundred forty-eight days long) unless pregnant. Females reach puberty at the average age of fifteen, and fertility begins to taper off at the age of sixty, although there are records of the occasional female giving birth into their early seventies. It should also be noted the average life span of Kyreen females is one hundred twenty Kyreen years (roughly one hundred sixty Earth years).

Eggs are stored in the tolaren, a single organ similar in function to human ovaries. When the female is completely sexually aroused, an egg is released from the tolaren into the insolen or uterus. There it waits for spermatozoon from a male.

Given the length of time a female is fertile, one would presume the planet of Kyree has a population problem. However, Kyreen males are fertile only three times within their long solar year, and only for three days at each occurrence. In the past, the males had no idea when those days of fertility would happen, although some reported an increase in libido just before. Only in the last one hundred Kyreen years has testing been possible.

If the egg is not fertilized, it will pass through the uterus within three days, in the equivalent of human menses. Kyreen females do not have regularly monthly menstrual cycles as do human females.

The question of fertility was raised in the case of my patient, Mark Praed. With parents of differing species, he wondered if he might be sterile like a mule born of a donkey and a horse.

Fertility tests confirmed that he would be able to father children year round as do human males; sperm counts were consistent throughout the Earth solar year. However, higher counts were observed three times during the four hundred forty-eight days of the Kyreen year (even though testing was performed on Earth). Odds of conception would be higher if coitus occurred with a Kyreen female at any point in time. Procreation with a human female by traditional intercourse would be possible during the three Kyreen periods of higher fertility. To guarantee conception, in vitro fertilization would be the most efficient course of action.

 ****

Bio:

For P. E. Sibley (a.k.a. Pat Sibley) writing is a passion, or perhaps a compulsion.

She was born, raised, and educated mostly in Orange County, California. A voracious reader as a child, she became interested in writing early on. She wrote her first short story in second grade about an ant. It ended rather abruptly when the ant was smashed by a foot.

By the time she reached her mid-twenties, she was living a near-gypsy existence, moving from one city to another. She traveled to Europe several times (Scotland is the preferred destination) and to the Middle East, and tried numerous occupations including climbing telephone poles, picking oranges on a kibbutz in Israel, and managing a bookstore.

She went back to school for a Teaching Credential from Cal State University, Long Beach, doing her student teaching in Hampshire, England.

She moved numerous times more—mostly eastward and northward—to San Francisco and then Sierra Nevada Mountains and now resides in rural Eastern Washington State with her husband, a wolf-canine mix, a cattle dog, and a cat that believes she’s a dog.

http://www.amazon.com/Cruel-Reckoning-Praed-Novel-Novels-ebook/dp/B00P5WKBJI/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1422591512&sr=1-1&keywords=A+Cruel+Reckoning

http://www.amazon.com/P.-E.-Sibley/e/B00FKMI8Z2/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1

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Let's Get Scientifical #14: Love = Mailed Letters > E-Mailed Letters?

Welcome to Unwritten's February blog event! Of course, this is the month of love, so I wanted to celebrate that theme as I've done in year's past. But this year, I've decided to add a scientific spin to it. All month long, talented authors from several genres will write about some aspect of love from their books as it relates to science. It could be social, psychological, biological, or anything in between. Our blog event is sponsored by "HMC by Kate", a fabulous independent jewelry crafter. Kate's giving away one of her very beautiful necklaces that I think fits our theme perfectly. She's also offering everyone who stops in a 10% discount on any item from her Etsy store. Be sure to enter the giveaway at the end of this post and check out her lovely offerings! Without further ado, please welcome our guest author:

Can Love Come Through the Mail? 

Proving that Mailed Letters Create More Positive Reaction than Emailed Letters

By D. G. Driver, author of Passing Notes

“But I really want to see her.”

Letter first.

“How should I give it to her?”

Mail is best. It is a thrill to receive mail.

“Mail is slow. We call it snail mail these days for a reason. That’ll take days. Can’t I just slip it into her locker?”

No. Mail it. Heed my words and learn.

In my Young Adult novella, Passing Notes, Mark is in love with a girl that is smart and beautiful and hasn’t paid him a bit of attention in all the years he’s adored her – until now. Only, he doesn’t have any flare for romance and all the texts and emails he sends to her backfire. Suddenly he begins to find notes advising him on how to write a love letter: it must be on nice stationery, in cursive, and sent through the real mail. Why? This mysterious teacher knows it will get the best result.

It turns out that Mark’s ghostly helper is right. Dr. Simon Moore, Chartered Psychologist at the British Psychological Society, conducted a study on the psychological impact of letters verses email. There wasn’t a single instance in the study where an emailed message got a more favorable response than a hand-written, mailed letter. Some of things discovered were that participants in the study felt that hand-written letters were more personal and that they read the physical letters with more attention rather than scanning an email. “15% the participants stated they would definitely read through all of their emails carefully, while 85% said they would definitely read letters more carefully. Interestingly a whopping 95% of the participants rated letters as being ‘more real’ and 80% of them thought letters offered a better chance of persuading someone of something.” (1)

In another study (2005), it was proven that people felt that physical letters were more trustworthy and polite. The effort of taking time to write a note by hand, fold it, put it in an envelope, address and stamp it and then drop it in a mailbox was considered to be more earnest. On the other hand, the ease of email and something called the “online disinhibition effect” seemed to make dishonesty or rude comments more likely to occur. A study done in 2010 found that people considered email to be more like “chatting”, which resulted in emails coming across as less sincere. Recipients of emailed letters said they felt “emotionally distant” as compared to physical letters. Also, emails can be sent impulsively, preventing the author from taking the time to make sure the words written were the words intended. Writing a letter by hand allows the sender time to choose words more carefully and weigh the value in mailing it.

And what does this mean for love letters, specifically? In an article for Psychology Today, Aaron Ben-Zeév Ph.D. wrote, “It is often easier to describe your heart in writing… letters can be reread again and again and thereby enhance romantic responses.”(2) So, I’m pretty sure he’d agree with Mark’s love letter tutor in my book.

I found articles on this topic from several major periodicals, including the Wall Street Journal and Forbes Magazine, leading me to believe that letter writing is still important to a lot of people and not something to let fall away. So, here’s your homework after reading this highly scientific and educational post: read Passing Notes for fun, and when you’re done, write a sweet letter to someone (lover, friend, family) and send it by mail. See if all these psychologists (and the ghost from my book) are correct, and enjoy the response you get in return.

(1)   http://www.avery.co.uk/vgnfiles/OP/en_gb/Projects%20&%20Ideas/Articles/Love%20Letters/love_letters_report.pdf “A Study Comparing the Psychological Impact of Sending and Receiving Letters v. Emails”

(2)   https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/in-the-name-love/201112/falling-in-love-through-writing   “Falling in Love Through Writing” by Aaron Ben-Zeév Ph.D., Psychology Today

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D. G. Driver is a member of SCBWI and lives in Nashville. She sold her first story 20 years ago and is amazed at how fast time has flown since then. As Donna Getzinger, she has had several critically acclaimed and award-winning nonfiction books published . In 2014 she changed her name to D. G. Driver and had her first young adult novel, Cry of the Sea, published by Fire and Ice Young Adult Books. She also had a story published in the pirate anthology A Tall Ship, A Star, and Plunder. Passing Notes is her 2nd book with Fire and Ice, and later this year her middle grade novel No One Needed to Know will be published by Schoolwide Inc.

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Passing-Notes-D-G-Driver-ebook/dp/B00RMZBLJK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1422837356&sr=8-1&keywords=passing+notes

Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/505480

www.fireandiceya.com/authors/dgdriver/passingnotes.html

www.dgdriver.com

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Let's Get Scientifical #13: Mom, Dad, and Lover Makes Three?

Welcome to Unwritten's February blog event! Of course, this is the month of love, so I wanted to celebrate that theme as I've done in year's past. But this year, I've decided to add a scientific spin to it. All month long, talented authors from several genres will write about some aspect of love from their books as it relates to science. It could be social, psychological, biological, or anything in between. Our blog event is sponsored by "HMC by Kate", a fabulous independent jewelry crafter. Kate's giving away one of her very beautiful necklaces that I think fits our theme perfectly. She's also offering everyone who stops in a 10% discount on any item from her Etsy store. Be sure to enter the giveaway at the end of this post and check out her lovely offerings! Without further ado, please welcome our guest author:

Happily Ever After, Happy For Now…

by S.S. Hampton, Sr.

            Happy Valentine’s Day!

            You know, the romantic song Love Changes Everything (Andrew Lloyd Webber, composer; Charles Hart and Don Black, lyrics) says it all.

            It says it all about those couples who find Happy Ever After, and even those who find Happy For Now. And what if those couples add a third person to the mix? By the way, we are talking about ordinary people here—not rich corporate CEOs, beautiful college girls, or powerful politicians and sexy secretaries. Just ordinary people who explore the world around them.

            In my novel Sharing Rachel (MuseItUp Publishing, 2014), an ordinary husband and wife, small business owners in Kansas, are left with an empty nest when their daughters go east to attend a university. Faced with an unchanging routine that threatens to stretch far into the future, Burt Markham has a surprising idea. But, will his wife Rachel accept the idea? And if she does, will that threaten or strengthen their marriage?

            It is no surprise that there are many couples (admittedly a small minority) who explore the sexual world together, even if only one of them passionately and intimately embraces that world—with the permission and support of their other half.

            Studies have shown that love physically impacts our bodies through releasing various chemicals. For example, dopamine—when released it provides pleasure through a variety of activities, including love. The chemical oxytocin is a “bonding chemical” that reinforces the feeling among a couple of belonging to a loved one. Testosterone is present in both men and women, especially when sex is involved.

            Those chemicals (along with many others) are also present if, for example, the wife with her husband’s approval and support, maintains a short-term or long-term lover outside the marriage. Or several lovers over a span of time. Of course, this does not mean that the husband and wife love each other any less. It simply means that the wife has the freedom to explore her sexuality with other men (or sometimes other women).

            It also does not mean that the woman loves her lover—though the same chemicals are present, she may be driven more by lust than love. After all, who has not had the experience of encountering someone attractive, feeling immediate lust, followed by sexual gratification? That experience can be as exhilarating as love, though lust is usually much shorter in duration.

            Admittedly, this sort of marriage, this sort of love, is not for everyone. But for those who explore and find that a 3-person relationship works for them, then it is just as much Happy Ever After or Happy For Now, as it is for a traditional couple.

            And so remember, it really is true that Love Changes Everything. (I believe that love also makes all things possible.)

            So, Happy Valentine’s Day to you and yours! Or, in some cases, Happy Valentine’s Day to you and yours, and hers!

           

****

            Stan Hampton, Sr. is a full-blood Choctaw of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, a divorced

grandfather to 13 wonderful grandchildren, and a published photographer and photojournalist. He retired on 1 July 2013 from the Army National Guard with the rank of Sergeant First Class; he previously served in the active duty Army (1974-1985), the Army Individual Ready Reserve (1985-1995) (mobilized for the Persian Gulf War), and enlisted in the Nevada Army National Guard in October 2004, after which he was mobilized for Federal active duty for almost three years. Hampton is a veteran of Operations Noble Eagle (2004-2006) and Iraqi Freedom (2006-2007) with deployment to northern Kuwait and several convoy security missions into Iraq.

            His writings have appeared as stand-alone stories and in anthologies from Dark Opus Press, Edge Science Fiction & Fantasy, Melange Books, Musa Publishing, MuseItUp Publishing, Ravenous Romance, and as stand-alone stories in Horror Bound Magazine, The Harrow, and River Walk Journal, among others.

            In May 2014 he graduated from the College of Southern Nevada with an Associate of Applied Science Degree in Photography – Commercial Photography Emphasis. A future goal is to study for a degree in archaeology—hopefully to someday work in and photograph underwater archaeology (and also learning to paint).

            After 13 years of brown desert in the Southwest and overseas, he misses the Rocky Mountains, yellow aspens in the fall, running rivers, and a warm fireplace during snowy winters.

            As of April 2014, after being in a 2-year Veterans Administration program for Homeless Veterans, Hampton is officially no longer a homeless Iraq War veteran, though he is still struggling to get back on his feet.

            Hampton can be found at:

Dark Opus Press

https://www.createspace.com/3685965

Edge Science Fiction & Fantasy Publishing

http://www.edgewebsite.com/books/dansemacabre/dansemacabre.html

Melange Books

http://www.melange-books.com/authors/sshampton/index.html

Musa Publishing

http://www.musapublishing.com/index.php?main_page=index&manufacturers_id=50

MuseItUp Publishing

https://museituppublishing.com/bookstore/index.php/museitup/mainstream/better-than-a-rabbit-s-foot-detail

Ravenous Romance

http://www.ravenousromance.com/anthologies/back-door-lover.php

http://www.ravenousromance.com/anthologies/virgin-ass-first-times-tales-of-anal-sex.php

Amazon.com Author Page

http://www.amazon.com/SS-Hampton-Sr/e/B00BJ9EVKQ

Amazon.com. UK Author Page

http://www.amazon.co.uk/SS-Hampton-Sr/e/B00BJ9EVKQ

Goodreads Author Page

http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6888342.S_S_Hampton_Sr_

BONUS QUESTION! 

Stan's offering an extra prize:

What famous author in the 1920s wrote a novel about wife-sharing, and what is the title?

The prize for the first person to answer correctly, is a RED spaghetti strap top emblazoned with "Of course I'm not cheating...I let my husband watch"

ENTER TO WIN!

This beautiful handmade necklace from HMC by KATE

            

a Rafflecopter giveaway