Honor is sharing the inside scoop on her sweet young adult, contemporary romance, where between the pages you’ll find Cupid, God, Goddess, Love, and Animal Rescue. Cupid was published in February 9, 2012.
Honor wanted the title to cut to the quick. “The name, Cupid, conjures with it so much history and allure that I found it didn’t need anything else,” she said.
Honor has always been a fan of mythology and folklore. “Roman and Greek gods and goddesses are among my favorite,” she explained. “And Cupid is one of my favorites from among those. There was something about a god being at odds with her natural ability that intrigued me. The idea of the god of love being unable to stomach love based on her millennia of experience with it all the while cursed to look like a teenage girl for the remainder of her days was a concept I couldn’t walk away from. Teenage girls are beacons of love. They are experiencing the sensation of falling for someone for the first time. The juxtaposition of the cynical alongside the physical embodiment of those expected to be most optimistic was very inviting indeed.”
Cupid’s theme is about rebirth. “Every person, at some time or another, has to face the difference between how they want life to be and how it is,” Honor said. “Cupid has to do that with love. She has very high expectations of love yet she finds that the enterprise ends in heartbreak and tragedy all too often. Still, she can’t get away from it. She can’t hide from love, no matter how badly she wants to, because she is love. She inspires love wherever she goes. She is the seed of love. So this journey is about her coming to terms with who she is and finding a way to be in the world that is more consistent with who she wants to be.”
The majority of Cupid occurs at Happy Animal Rescue and Transport, HART, an animal rescue facility in a small, unnamed town in the United States. “HART is made up of a barn and other buildings and outbuildings that house animals in need of rescue.” Honor said. “It is situated on a handful of acres. There are cats, dogs, pigs, cows, horses, etc. The buildings start off faded, but the main barn and converted house are painted white and accented in bright turquoise as the story progresses. The county in which HART sits has covered bridges and lots of rural land and foliage.”
The small town in Cupid, and more specifically HART, is a paradise of sorts. “It is rural and filled with signs of life, such as the animals that are being adopted out,” Honor added. “There are country lanes and backroads as well as small town amenities, such as a movie theater. HART harkens back to a bygone era, a time and a place when Small Town, USA was the beating heart of the United States and the world.”
In Cupid you will meet the heroine, Cupid, the teenaged-appearing god of love, full of cynicism and crowned with long unruly hair. “Deep down, she longs to believe that true love exists, that it is worth the frequent heartache and pain that people must suffer to find it. But she no longer thinks she believes. She is at a crossroads and drops out of her everyday responsibilities, against the wishes of the other gods, in order to find a way to permanently quit or continue. Throughout her journey, she is commanded to return to her duties by her fellow immortals. But there is something about HART and the animals it seeks to help that draws her in.”
We will also meet, the hero, Toryn, an adolescent boy with a heart of gold. “He cares about the animals he helps take care of and is down-to-earth. He isn’t searching for love, but love and kindness embody who he is. He is a challenge to Cupid’s cynicism and possibly her redemption.”
Cupid seeks to make her peace with love or find a way to stop from inspiring it in those whom she is near. She must face that love isn’t perfect, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t worthwhile. Toryn finds in Cupid something he has never found in a friend before. He must learn what it means to be a mortal in an immortal’s world. And he must learn to cope with his own losses along the way.
We’ll also be introduced to a secondary cast of characters. Aydan is a young girl who works at HART and Toryn’s ex. She still carries a flame for Toryn and isn’t interested in seeing Toryn and Cupid grow closer. Millie is HART’s operator. She is a grandmother-like figure to all of the kids who volunteer there. Cupid holds a special place in her heart. Toryn does, too. Mona is a middle-aged HART volunteer with a tragic past. Her story challenges Cupid’s sense of love more than most. Venus, the god of beauty, is the gods’ ambassador. She is sent to bring Cupid back to them and to her responsibilities when it is clear Cupid is having difficulty returning on her own. Honor added, “Special note: All gods in the story, whether male or female, go by the term god.”
“There is no human villain. The other gods in the story do try to pull Venus back to her responsibilities. But the true villain is what can come of love in the negative. Whether that negativity takes the form of abuse, selfishness, one person using another, or loss, such negativity threatens to tear Cupid from her ability to spread love forever.
The main elements of Cupid are: Love is imperfect; it is also worthwhile. Love is the reason we are alive and on this planet, to experience giving and receiving it. The feeling of love is as close to immortality as any of us can expect to come.
“Cupid has a different message for everyone,” Honor said. “But, most of all, it puts the reader in touch with love, with his or her experience of it. If Cupid can help the reader sit with love, even for a little while, I have done my job as a writer.”
While Cupid is not a part of a specific series, at least a portion of Honor’s future projects are likely to include either gods or goddesses or some form of Roman or Greek history.
To learn more about Honor and her book, visit:
http://honorstjames.com/
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5751523.Honor_St_James
@HonorStJames
Let’s get a closer look at Cupid.
Forget what you know about the god of love. He isn't a round baby with a bow and arrow strapped to his back. He doesn't fly to and fro while smiling at painters, sculptors, and digital artists along the way, thrilled to pose for his admirers. He isn't angelic, happy, or bashful.
Cupid is an angry teenage girl who wears jeans and sneakers more days than not. She is constantly battling to keep her hair the size of a small country rather than a continent. She is simultaneously isolated and overexposed in every room she enters.
You can trust me. I should know. I am Cupid.
Cupid begins with a young god’s decision to abandon her universe-granted gift for inspiring love, over which she has little control, and ends with a choice that will reverberate across the lives of mortals and immortals everywhere. When everything a young god has ever known is questioned and everything an immortal has ever feared comes true, no life will remain the same.
https://www.amazon.com/Cupid-Honor-St-James-ebook/dp/B0077T2HI0/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1522430542&sr=8-1
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