Guest Post: Love at First Sight by Amy Corwin
Love at first sight is one of those notions that cause writers no end of difficulties. You see, it obviously exists in real life, but everyone pooh-poohs it when the beleaguered writer tries to include it in her book in an ill-conceived attempt at verisimilitude. As everyone knows, when you write fiction, you must always be very careful to avoid verisimilitude whenever possible. It’s simply not believable.
It does exist, you know. Love at first sight. In fact, one of my friends and fellow author, Lilly Gayle, suffered (and still suffers) from it. She even went so far as to marry the instigator of her condition. And she’s not the only one I’ve met during my long, meandering life. I’ve met dozens of innocent souls who have been struck down in the prime of their lives by the very same affliction. In real life, that is. You can’t make this sort of thing up.
So, why does it happen? Doesn’t it take a long time (at least fifteen minutes, if not longer) to get to know someone well enough to fall in love? Perhaps intellectually. But there are these pesky little biological things that happen to us, quite hidden from conscious will and control. Pheromones and other nasty chemicals scrambling our brains and causing us to make the strangest decisions. We have almost no control over it. We look into someone’s eyes (or eye, as the case may be) and wham! It’s like a ballpeen hammer to the frontal lobes. Not the base of the brain, of course, but those bumpy nodules in the front that are involved in logical decisions.
In the end, we stumble, falter, and then collapse into a heap of senseless desire. Like Paris and Helen of Troy. Love completely annihilated Paris’ front lobes and he abducted Helen, spiriting her away to Troy in order to start the Trojan wars. Oh wait, perhaps that wasn’t quite his intention, but on purpose or not, it’s certainly happened. Or not, depending upon how much credence you place in ancient Greek myths. In any event, he appears to have had very little control over what happened.
And later, there was Beatrice and Dante. Dante Alighieri fell in love with the mysterious Beatrice in the 13th century, despite the fact they only met twice. Dante claimed he loved her throughout his entire life and she was the muse for his poetry. I don’t want to cast aspersions, but considering the fact that his most notable poem was The Inferno, which consisted largely in descriptions of Hell, I’m unsure about his definition of love. But then, perhaps they didn’t know any better in those days, since they had to wait another four centuries for enlightenment.
In my own books, my characters have been very circumspect about flinging themselves headlong in love. Pru Barnard in The Vital Principle may have felt a spark of something when she gazed into Knighton Gaunt’s eyes for the first time, but I suspect it was more annoyance than love. Unfortunately, Knighton wasn’t nearly as logical and controlled as he thought when he prevented the constable from immediately charging Pru with murder and incarcerating her. A touch of pheromones there, I think, but it came out all right in the end.
And Charlotte Haywood in I Bid One American may certainly have disdained titles, being an American who simply didn’t believe in them, but she wasn’t immune to Nathaniel when they first meet on the moonlit terrace at a ball. There is undoubtedly a spark, a whiff of that intangible but irresistible force that destroys the logic centers of the brain. Both Charlotte and Nathaniel are affected. They may have believed they were acting sensibly, but someone with all her brain cells intact might have disagreed.
So, do I believe in love at first sight?
Yes. But you’ll never catch me writing about such a far-fetched notion.
The Vital Principle
In 1815, an inquiry agent, Mr. Knighton Gaunt, is asked by Lord Crowley to attend a séance with the express purpose of revealing the spiritualist as a fraud. When the séance ends abruptly, Lord Crowley is poisoned during the turmoil by an unseen killer.
Gaunt is now left to investigate not only fraud, but murder. Suspicion turns first to the spiritualist, Miss Prudence Barnard, but as Gaunt digs deeper into the twisted history of the guests at Rosecrest, he discovers more deadly secrets. Inevitably, long-time friends turn against one another as the tension mounts, and Gaunt is challenged time and time again to separate fact from fiction before another death at Rosecrest.
The Vital Principle is the first mystery in the Second Sons Inquiry Agency series and features coolly intellectual Mr. Knighton Gaunt, the agency’s founder. This witty, historical whodunit in the tradition of Bruce Alexander’s Blind Justice, will keep you guessing until the unexpected end.
“Murder, mystery, and a dash of romance combined with witty dialogue and unforgettable characters make The Vital Principle a book that will definitely go on my keeper shelf!” Lilly Gayle, author of Into the Darkness and Slightly Tarnished.
A Rose Before Dying
A murderer is stalking the streets of London and the evidence points to Sir Edward, the uncle of Charles Vance, Earl of Castlemoor. The first victim is none other than Sir Edward’s mistress who threw him over for a younger man, giving him a clear motive to kill her. However, Charles is convinced Sir Edward is innocent and enlists the aide of Mr. Knighton Gaunt of the Second Sons Inquiry Agency. When more clues surface, including roses hinting at another victim, Charles steps in and takes control. He can’t let his uncle hang for murders he didn’t commit, despite his uncle’s foul temper and abundant motivation.
Charles teams up with noted rosarian Ariadne Wellfleet to decipher the clues and prove Sir Edward’s innocence and stop the murderer before he can strike again.
The Necklace
Legends foretell death for anyone who possesses the fabled Peckham emerald necklace, lost by an Archer ancestor. Certainly, it has brought the Archers nothing but heartache. So Oriana is relieved it’s missing, assuming it ever existed. She has enough difficulties protecting her uncle—and her heart--from his dangerous new friend, Chilton Dacy. However, when Oriana finds the necklace, the curse reawakens. The necklace disappears, only to reappear clutched in a dead man’s hand.
The stranger’s death leaves Oriana with a frightening choice: ask Chilton for help, or face the possibility that she may hang for murder.
A Brief BioAmy Corwin is a charter member of the Romance Writers of America and recently joined Mystery Writers of America. She has been writing for the last ten years. She writes romance, historical and cozy mysteries. To be truthful, most of her books include a bit of murder and mayhem since she discovered that killing off at least one character is a highly effective way to make the remaining ones toe the plot line.
Amy’s books include the three Regency romantic mysteries, I BID ONE AMERICAN, THE BRICKLAYER’S HELPER, and THE NECKLACE; Regency mysteries, THE VITAL PRINCIPLE, and A ROSE BEFORE DYING; and her first cozy mystery, WHACKED!, will come in in 2012 from Five Star.
Join her and discover that every good romance has a touch of mystery.
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