Cupid Waits in Unexpected Places by Rose Anderson

Please help me welcome Rose Anderson to my blog today. Rose is giving away a copy of her book Hermes Online, a CataRomance Sensual Reads Reviewer’s Choice Winner, to one lucky winner, so be sure and leave her a comment.

WWcover3_2With Valentine’s Day around the corner, I thought I’d give a nod to that rascally cherub – Cupid. Depending on which mythology you ascribe to, this pudgy little deity is the immortal son of Venus (Aphrodite) and Mars (Ares) – an allegorical blending of love and war. Because he was the uniting power of love and therefore the bringer of order and harmony to the universe, some mythic tales make him a fundamental contributor in the formation of the world. A little known detail that gets overlooked as the lover’s holiday approaches: Cupid carries two arrows in his quiver – one of love and another of hate.

To the Orphic and Greek philosophers, he was the son of Nyx (Night) and Boreas the North Wind – the first complete manifestation of Divinity. In other depictions, Cupid is considered a primordial god – an old one who came before Zeus and even before Zeus’ grandparents Gaia and Uranus. From the very beginning, even before the fabric of the universe was woven, Cupid personified love.

As his Roman counterpart Eros, he was known far and wide as the god of passionate love, and fertility cults, among other things, rose in his honor. Some tales even have him with multiple heads, four eyes and various animal attributes. In other mythic versions, Cupid is blindfolded, and only the truest hearts will draw his blindly shot arrows. I had no idea Cupid was such a multifaceted little amorino.

When I met the love of my life, it was literally love at first sight for us both. I wasn’t looking, he wasn’t looking. It was fate. The arrow struck us both and it was totally unexpected. I write that love in my romances. I can see Cupid in my mind’s eye… his arrow notched on his bow. He’s tucked behind a tree or rock, poised to let his charmed arrow fly at just the right moment. When it hits, it’s totally unanticipated. It’s fate. Sometimes love is like that. Sometimes love waits in unexpected places.

In honor of Cupid and his day, I’ve collected a few lines from my recent releases. To me, they’re the moment the arrows hit. I hope you enjoy.

The Witchy Wolf and the Wendigo
Inspired by the very real legend of the Wisconsin Wolfman.
Roots of a legend at USA Today

Ash rolled side to side, his tail wagging and teeth bared. Livie laughed, and it made him pause. He’d heard her laugh when she talked with Jenni, but he hadn’t heard her laugh like this, and never for him alone. The sound was merry and genuine and it made him happy. To his surprise, he wanted more. He craved her touch. He craved her. He nuzzled his nose under her hand. Touch me Livie.

“How did you heal so quickly? This just doesn’t make sense.”
Ash knew she spoke more to herself than to him but listening to her eased him. Heal? Yes, that’s what’s was happening. He felt the flutter in his chest and knew it for what it was. His heart was healing. He’d loved his wife with his heart’s every beat. He’d loved their precious child with his every breath. He always would. But because of this gentle, caring woman, he felt his shriveled heart expand for the first time since that monster stole his family from him.

After a while her hand stopped its gentle caress and Ash knew she had fallen asleep. Listening to Livie’s regular breathing, he crawled up beside her and laid his heavy head across her chest. He closed his eyes and let her heartbeat lull him.

LL-ROSE_ANDERSON-3_2Loving Leonardo
An unusual bisexual, polyamorous, Victorian love story, with a touch of reader-interactive art history

I sat Ellie and pulled a chair for Mrs. Ormont as she waited for her husband. A moment later, Colonel Ormont brought the historian to our table and made introductions. Luca Franco, late of Florence, was a Professor of Antiquities returning from London. I found the Italian quite the attractive fellow, impeccably dressed as he was. When in the presence of true beauty, my mind often imagines the person unclothed as the artists of the ages might have seen him. Sitting at my table was a statue carved in marble by Gian Lorenzo Bernini; an artist known for his remarkable ability to capture the essence of a narrative moment. And I found Luca Franco to be exactly that — a moment indelibly captured in time — a moment of meeting the mind could revisit in its entirety.

From every angle, he was beautifully made: black-haired, of medium build, and physically fit. He possessed a warm hue to his skin, his lineage no doubt stamped centuries past by the darker Moors or Turks. In startling contrast, and quite handsomely framed by black lashes, he had striking eyes the color one might see in a shadow falling across snow — not quite sky blue nor exactly steel gray, but a blending of the two in gradated rings.
I rose to shake his hand and felt the unmistakable current of compatibility. If this man weren’t forward in his mutual attraction, it was there nonetheless. I watched him bow over the ladies’ hands and found it curious that he lingered over Ellie’s fingers a tad longer. It made me smile. I had the distinct impression I was in the presence of a fellow dual-nature like myself.

Rose Anderson – Love Waits in Unexpected Places
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About Rose
I love words and choose them as carefully as an artist might choose a color. My active imagination compels me write everything from children’s stories to historical fiction. As a persnickety leisure reader, I especially enjoy novels that feel like they were written just for me. It’s hard to explain, but if you’ve ever read one of those, then you know what I mean. I tend to sneak symbolism and metaphor into my writing. You might say it’s a game I play with myself. It’s really a kick to have readers email to say they’ve found something or to ask if I meant what they think I meant when they read a portion and their brain goes…hey wait a minute! I want people to feel the story was written just for them. Hidden insights are my gift to my readers.

23 thoughts on “Cupid Waits in Unexpected Places by Rose Anderson

  1. Fascinating article, Rose. I love mythology and while I knew much of the Greek myth, there was plenty to learn on this subject.
    Thanks also for the two very different but totally intriguing excerpts.
    Good luck with both books.
    Lyn

    • Thanks Angela. I have two taglines that I use here and there around “town”. The title above is a little spin on my first: Love Waits in Unexpected Places. I also have “You’ll LOVE Reading Rose!” on some of my promotional goodies. Thanks for stopping by.

      Rose

  2. Thanks for having me today, Cindy! Both snippets shown above are the first books from series stories. Their second books will be out soon. For anyone stopping by today, please feel free to ask questions! I’ll be online throughout the day and will stop by to answer.
    🙂
    Rose

  3. Thanks for the Cupid insights. I particularly like the little fat cherubs that tend to be on Cupid’s flank in depictions. So cute.

    Very interesting stuff, Rose.

    Best of luck with your wonderful books. 🙂

    • Thanks Christine. It’s curious to note that cherubs are only cherubs in Christian art. They take on a sort of angelic role. If they’re depicted in non-religious works, they’re considered putto (or Putti if more than one). All are genderless, and the latter are wily and like to have their way. Who knew? I’ve gone my whole life thinking a cherub was a cherub and one of those was Cupid!

      In my research I’ve found Cupid as a full grown effeminate young man, a colt-limbed child, a pudgy baby with wings, and a youth with a winged hat. The most intriguing bit was the primordial god business. When the ancients gods have their own older god of love, that just shows how important and long-standing the emotion of love is. Thanks for stopping by!

  4. Cupid strikes us and life is never the same. Finding that true love and living with it makes it easier to write romances.

    But why do so many people have problems finding true love, or do they find it and throw it away? Is it our lifestyle? Jobs? Money? Are people looking for an idealistic impossibility?

    • Good question. It wasn’t all that long ago when western society was arranging marriages as loveless business transactions and you just hoped for affection over time.

      As far as Cupid goes, I think falling in love was once an easier proposition. Perhaps it’s the bombardment of “ideals” thrown at us through media that get in the way today.

      My husband does a good deal of genealogy work and finds many examples of brothers and sisters of one couple often marrying each other too. There was no need to go for perfect smiles or pinnacles of beauty. I think they were just thrilled to find a life partner. Thanks for stopping by E. 🙂

  5. Thanks for sharing the information about Cupid. Interesting
    I am always looking for new authors to read. I have added your name to my TBR list.

  6. Hi Rose and Cindy! So glad to read the excerpts here. I loved Loving Leonardo and need to take the time to read The Witchy Wolf and the Wendigo. It sounds like another powerful read.
    Congratulations on both releases.
    *hugs*
    JD

    • I’m glad you enjoyed it! I like to stretch myself as a writer by adding strong historical facts to the flights of my fancy. 🙂 Both novels have their sequels coming soon, and Loving Leonardo’s characters keep whispering how much they’d like to have other adventures. Such pushy fictitious people they are. 😉

  7. Cupid’s arrow caught me offguard, too, because the moment I saw my hubby, I knew he was the one I wanted. We just celebrated our 44th wedding anniversary. Guess for once I was definitely right.

    Loved your excerpt. Best of luck with your writing. 🙂

  8. I hadn’t read that before about Cupid being before Zeus. It seemed to me that Zeus distoryed all the Gods of old. But I’m old and my memory doesn’t always remember correctly. I love werewolf stories. That one sounds great. It’s going on my TBR list. Keep writing so I can keep reading.

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