By Renee Field, author of Claiming the Temptress (Harlequin Spice Briefs, October 2012)
Why do we love the gods? Because they’re immortal and represent the best of humanity in beauty, strength and courage. I love to take a myth and make it my own. The waves of the Atlantic Ocean were and still are my backyard and playground so when I started my writing career it felt natural to start with what I knew. I’m comfortable writing stories featuring titans and sirens (some people call them mermaids and merpeople, but really, they don’t like that) and I’ve always had this fascination with life in the seas. The seas are a mystery.
I kept this note from a reporter who worked for the Vancouver Sun. “About 40 years ago, we sent 12 astronauts on six different missions to the surface of the moon, 400,000 kilometres away. Ten years prior, in 1960, two aquanauts dove 11 kilometres below the surface in a submarine, to the deepest part of the ocean in the Marianas Trench. In the 50 years since, not one person has been that deep, only two unmanned remotely operated vehicles (ROVs).” http://www.oceanleadership.org/2011/world-ocean-day-why-should-we-know-more-about-the-moon-than-our-oceans/
The first book I wrote featuring sirens didn’t play with the god myth so much but Claiming the Temptress and Claiming Poseidon’s Heart certainly do. I wanted to write about Poseidon—he’s probably going to kill me when he reads this, but lucky for me his wife just so happens to be a good friend. Plus Soki, Poseidon’s wife, knows if I die, no one else will supply her with the scientific periodicals she likes to read.
Claiming the Temptress is a light, sexy read featuring Lily, Poseidon’s daughter, who trust me, has behaved herself for enough years to make a saint weep. Lily, while a goddess, is like most women who live with a very controlling, strong-willed father. She wants to set her own destiny, find her own mate and if need be will even flee to the earth realm for maybe her one night of pleasure.
Fate is always at play with the gods and all my stories feature how they like to string people and the gods along. Now, I’ve had a number (long number, okay) of years to deal with the gods and their offspring (in all their many forms). My family keeps hoping I’ll leave them alone. Seriously, why would I? Most of them are immortal and when you have the lottery-of-life ticket , life has a way of making their lives funny. I’m sure they don’t think that when they’re battling evil or killing the wandering humans who continually try to find their true homes, but to me, it’s all part of my writing imagination.
I should warn readers Claiming A Siren’s Heart, debuting soon, was a hard story to write. It meant writing a goodbye story to a good navy friend of mine who found his true love thanks to a night of thievery. If you want to read more siren stories check out Rapture, set in Halifax, Nova Scotia and just maybe you’ll learn more about my so-called wonderful love of the oceans.
What do you love about the sea? What god is your favorite (that will make their day)? Drop me a note. I’m giving away a $25 Amazon gift card plus an e-copy of Claiming the Temptress and Claiming Poseidon’s Heart to one lucky person.
Renee, I think Marianas Trench scares me WAYYYY more than the moon. I’m soo claustrophobic! At least in space you’d feel like you were… in space. LOL
I agree with Donna – something about the ocean scares the crap out of me – and when I see those underwater movies that James Cameron shoots I’m always waiting for some kind of monster …
I don’t have a favourite God … but I do love the look and sound of the ocean (from land of course). I just find it so calming …
And a wonderful job you’ve done with making myths your own!
I also love the ocean, or at least when it’s at its more benign – soft lap, lap, lap of the waves and its endless blue horizon. But it’s that never-ending horizon that offers such great fodder for your ‘super’ active imagination. Keep those books coming. Cheers!
Renee,,,i do hope to read your books,,,you are such a super mom and author…cheers girlie
I love the vastness of the ocean–you feel so tiny and insignificant standing near it. Which also makes it a scary sort of place, I think. Artemis is my favorite Greek god!
thanks for a fun post and congrats on the new release! Ummm… The ocean is kinda scary and full of scary things. But I like the beach
I love all the stories of the ocean and the fantastic sirens and mermaids. Yours sounds like a lot of fun!
Apollo and Zeus are my favorite males and Athena my favorite female. I suspect Apollo has an enormous ego that begs to be brought to its knees by love of a good woman. I hope that Zeus is a mostly misunderstood guy who loves attractive women and hasn’t always kept his hands to himself (an intensely sexual guy) who made the mistake of marrying an insanely jealous, vindictive woman. Athena is clearly smart, independent, and capable, and it would take quite the attractive, self-assured man to garner her interest, a man who would not be threatened by how powerful and independent she is but would appreciate her brains and enjoy matching wits with her without feeling insecure.
I love the seas. They are gorgeous and I love to sleep with sound of waves. And I like posidion and Apollo are my favorite gods.
I like the color of the sea. I like Zeus.
I love the sound of waves on the beach; it’s such a wonderful thing to be lulled to sleep to. I like on an island so we’re always surrounded by water & it’s a short drive in any direction to reach the sea. It can be intimidating at times but wonderfully beautiful & calming at others: rather like everything else that is Nature. Apollo is my fav God & Artemis, my fav Goddess.
I love listening to the sea, both when it’s calm and when it’s wild.
I don’t really have a favorite god.
I live only a mile from the Pacific. Love it. Get to go beach-combing whenever the weather is decent. We’re having our first storm of the season right now. In a few days the beaches will have lots of goodies to find.
Don’t really have a fave god, mainly depends on how they are portrayed which can differ from one storyteller to the next.