Sustaining Passion

Last week, Lisa blogged about the bio-chemical aspects of love, telling readers that being in love is similar to a drug high. Well, if new love is like cocaine, what’s “old” love like? Quaaludes? Valium? Shock therapy?

I’ve been reading Marriage Confidential: Love in the Post-Romantic Age by Pamela Haag who posits that, after the honeymoon, most marriages fall into the “low-conflict, low-stress unhappy marriage.” In the face of mortgages, kids, careers, and carpools, intimacy recedes like the Red Sea before Moses and passion fizzles out.

No wonder women read so much romance and, my personal favorite, romantic suspense (RS). We’re starved for a “love high.” But, how does the romance author keep her fictional couples madly, passionately in love in a multi-book series?

I’ve identified three basic models with some overlap. There are probably more, I’ll depend on you to tell me, but here’s my shot:

Keep ‘em Danger – There is nothing like the rush of danger to spark passion. Roarke and Eve Dallas (J.D. Robb) epitomize this model. Eve has a dangerous job, Roarke helps out and they both carry a lot of angsty-baggage which cranks up the flame.

The Crisis of the Uncommitted – Can’t fully commit to the relationship, can’t completely quit. Breaking-up to make-up. My R8 chums turned me on to a few good ones in this category Dr. Temperance Brennan and her detective boyfriend Andrew Ryan (Kathy Reich);  Boston-based PIs Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro (Dennis Lehane).

Marriagis Perfectis – Pam Haag describes most marriages as melancholy and this model is the reason why. In “marriagis perfectis” (not a real Latin word) the committed couple deal with mortgages-careers-carpools-kids and still have energy and desire for the bedroom. (See? Gotta be fiction.) They’re best friends having a torrid love affair. Where to begin? Jesse Stone and his gal Susan (Robert Parker); Sheriff Joanna Brady and Butch (J.A. Jance); Wimsey and Harriet Vane (Dorothy L Sayers), and Nick and Nora (Dashiell Hammett).

How do you keep passion burning after the first book? Share it here!