The very first book I self-published, oh those many years ago, was a love story. Well, it was a horror story but it was really about falling in love for the first time. Basically the same thing, I know. It was titled "The Tunnels Under the Roses" which served as both a metaphor and a location.
It was a metaphor because it meant there are all sorts of dark places that lie just beneath the beauty of love. A bit dark, sure. But the most beautiful flower needs dark, rich soil to grow in. And it was a location because it was set in the Shanghai Tunnels, a series of creepy passageways under downtown Portland, the City of Roses.
Now, descending into the Underworld to find your true love is not an original idea. It's a story that's been told over and over through the ages. You've heard of Orpheus and Eurydice, right? In my version, there's ghosts, severed arms and undead babies. But Orpheus had a lute though so....¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Love is a well that never runs dry for artists. We paint pictures about our love. We write poems and songs and stories about falling in love, falling out of love, losing our love, winning our love. It's a subject everyone can relate to on at least a few levels. And every time we think we're experts on the subject, there comes out a new song or show that drops us like a brick and before we know it we're crying ugly tears into our glass of wine on the couch at 1am.
Or, if you're from the Midwest, you bury all those feelings and pretend you're not affected.
Whichever.
Anyway, I definitely weave love stories throughout all my works. The Story King Chronicles has a number of love stories in it. Love between friends. Lost loves. The loyal love of a pet. And I'd argue that 'The Born and the Made' is a love story at its core. It is essentially a story about learning to love yourself which is, I think, the most difficult love to master.
Horror and pain, bliss and warmth. Love is all of these and so much more. So so much more that a simple four-letter word doesn't do it justice. Love is so all-encompassing I feel it should have this gigantic, ridiculous word like Alle altomfattende kærlighed or something.
So we take the hits. We let Cupid pierce us with his arrows and let our hearts bleed out onto the ground. Because we know love will conquer all. Our pain is our sacrifice for becoming something more than an individual. Through love we transcend ourselves and join with others. Our energy mingles and mixes and we transform into something larger and more bad-ass. Like a MegaZord.
