We can’t wait for the release of the second book in our Enchanted trilogy, Magic Ember! Hopefully you’re as excited as we are for the next installment of the series featuring magic and romance. If you haven’t picked up the first book Magic Spark yet, you can do so here.
To help with the wait, we are release a series of posts about the stories. Today Wendy Sparrow talks about how opposites attract in her Enchanted stories.
When Opposites Attract
By Wendy Sparrow
I love to read about social dynamics and what makes humans tick. In fact, most of my nonfiction choices are in that realm. Personality types? Yes, please. A Malcolm Gladwell book? At the top of my TBR list. I really enjoy books about body language because it helps flesh out my characters’ movements during writing.
When I was asked to contribute to the Enchanted anthologies, I knew I wanted a sort of opposites attract relationship. When I latched on to using demigods, I decided I wanted demigods on opposite sides of the spectrum to balance out each other. In real life, when seemingly opposites attract, that’s both a source of conflict and a reason for attraction and I wanted to take it to the next level.
My husband is as rational as the day is long. He’s a high-level computer nerd. I’m clinically mental with my OCD requiring medication to take my phobias down a notch. In addition to all my odd quirks, I’m a technophobe. My husband got me a new phone for Christmas…and I tried not to snarl at him…as I do every time. He drags me kicking and screaming into new technology. I’m also a dreamer and an artist. While he’s skilled in many things, my husband tends toward the engineering side of crafting things.
On the outside, we appear to be opposites and that was definitely part of the attraction. There’s something magical about qualities so foreign to your nature. Logic turned out to be sexy. Who knew? He can also parallel park one-handed. Whereas my spatial abilities are so far off that when I retook the driving test as an adult, they suggested I never put myself in a scenario where I had to parallel park. It was that bad. Our differences are also something we have to address regularly. He gives a little. I give a little. We meet in the middle and that’s our love story.
In my demigod stories, the difference in powers is the most obvious distinction. Death versus Fertility. Healing versus Pain. War versus Love. Unfortunately, for my poor characters, they have to find their match, their opposite, because their powers can’t go without balance or they’ll zenith and kill them. Beyond their powers, the couples themselves have some personality traits that require some adjustment and compromise. Because I’m slightly evil, they’re under the gun for that. If they can’t get along and stay together, one will turn into a fireball and the other will go to sleep and never wake up. As if new relationships weren’t stressful enough.
Being able to work in magic into the formula is always fun because I can mix in fantasy with real world problems such as conflicts in personalities. In “When Demigods Court Death,” Chandra has insecurities about being used. She’s also drawn into herself and become somewhat of an introvert due to her powers as Death. Aster, on the other hand, has an upbeat personality. Being able to increase fertility has made him a very sought after fertility specialist. When he finds his match in Chandra, he pursues her, knowing that only this demigod, who is clueless about her own powers, can save him. Of course, this calls into question his motives…with a woman who desperately wants to be needed just for herself. While the conflict’s time clock is magical, it really boils down to a classic relationship crisis that many of us can relate to, wanting to be loved for ourselves.
I loved writing these novellas about demigods, and I hope you enjoy reading them just as much.
At home in the Pacific Northwest, Wendy Sparrow writes for both an adult and young adult audience in many genres but always with a happily ever after. She has two wonderfully quirky kids, a supportive husband, and a perpetually messy house because she hates cleaning. She’s an advocate both online and in her community for autistic children in addition to actively trying to raise awareness about obsessive-compulsive disorder. Most days she spends on Twitter procrastinating doing the dishes.
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