Angeline M. Bishop

Wow, what a weekend! I’m sure all of you have been inundated with the Lamar Odom and Khloe Kardashian wedding news last week.Reporters were speculating on her health (is she pregnant) to his mental stability (is he bipolar) but this weekend it all came down to… will they actually do it? Well, they did.And you know what?The
world kept turning and life marches on.

I honestly believe the sanctity of the marriage union is between the people taking the vows and God. The opinions of society at large shouldn’t come into play unless laws are being broken. (i.e. He’s still married to another woman or someone is trying to married a minor.)

At this point, I don’t have an opinion on the Kardashian-Odom nuptials because I know people are going to do what they feel is right for them. Some people dated for several years and got divorced after a few months of marriage and others didn’t meet their future spouse until a few weeks before an arranged marriage and the marriage lasted a lifetime.

Would the whole thing make a great romantic novel? Yes, I can think of a number of reasons this story could captivate a writer and intrigue readers but it would take a lot of work to construct. I understand how our jaded society views marriage.It’s not like our grandparent’s day when people strongly upheld their marriage vows and if they didn’t they felt shame for dishonoring them.Today, everything is tabloid filler and the more scandalous the breakup the better. So instead of rooting for Khloe’s happiness reporters anxiously await her annulment or divorce.People are placing bets on her marriage’s duration and everyone is looking for some indication of a baby to justify the hasty union.

No one wants to believe this was a man that fell in love with a woman. And that he didn’t want to spend another day without her being his wife. I know it’s hard to find love in this world and to find true love is even rarer but can we just take a moment and believe. Believe that some people know someone is right for them the moment they meet and decided to do something that seemed right to them… and forget others’ opinions.

I truly wish them well and pray their loved ones support their decision to walk this journey together.

A long time ago I heard a romance author say, “the hero and heroine should meet in a memorable way.”  I use to think that meant different from the way normal people have met their future spouses and lived happily ever after.  But today, I understand that ‘memorable’ meetings should reflect the tone of the story.  The way your characters relate to each other and to other people in their lives can be very telling. Do they have relatives and friends that they interact with every day, or are they loners? Different plotlines require different relationship situations.


In my novel North Star, it’s very important to set the stage for Caresse and Graham.  They are multi-dimensional characters and some of the conflicts they face deal with breaking away from their comfort zones.  They may have met in a very ordinary way but the situations they are placed in are anything but ordinary.


One of my blog fans asked me why I started the Sheridan series with Graham instead of one of his other siblings and the answer was quite obvious.  He’s a tortured soul.

 

Extravagant Spirits by Maya Angelou

Without their fierce devotion
We are fragile and forlorn,
Stumbling briefly, among the stars.

We and our futures belong to them
Exquisitely, our beliefs and our
Breaths are made tangible in their love.

By their extravagant spirits, they draw us
From the safe borders
And into the center of the center ring
There they urge dance upon our
Leaden feet
And to our sullen hearts,
Bright laughter.

Not the crowd’s roar nor the gasped
Breath of the timorous can stay their mission.

There is no moderation in their nature.
They spit upon their fingers
To test the wind of history,
They slip into our bonds and steal us
Away from the slavery of cowardice.

They skin back their thin lips over fanged teeth and
Rocks in hand, in our presence
Face down our Goliath.

These mothers, fathers, pastors and priests,
These Rabbis, Imams and gurus,
Teach us by their valor and mold us with their courage.

Without their fierce devotion
We are only forlorn and only fragile
Stumbling briefly, among the stars.