You have to love stories of second chances, the ones you make for yourself.

The Shade Under the Mango Tree by Evy Journey released in November in the Contemporary Multicultural Fiction genre.

After two heartbreaking losses, Luna wants adventure. Something and somewhere very different from the affluent, sheltered home in California and Hawaii where she grew up. An adventure in which she can also make some difference.

Lucien, a worldly, well-traveled young architect, finds a stranger’s journal at a café. Though he has qualms and pangs of guilt about reading it, they don’t stop him. His decision changes his life forever.

Months later, they meet at a bookstore. Fascinated by his stories and adventurous spirit, Luna goes on a Peace Corps stint to a rural rice-growing village in Cambodia. There, she finds a world steeped in ancient culture and the lasting ravages of a deadly history. Will she leave this world unscathed?

An epistolary tale of courage, resilience, and the bonds that bring diverse people together.

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Meet the Author:
Evy Journey writes. Stories and blog posts. Novels that tend to cross genres. She’s also a wannabe artist and a flâneuse. Evy studied psychology (Ph.D. University of Illinois) so she spins tales about nuanced characters dealing with the problems and issues of contemporary life. She believes in love and its many faces. Though she has traveled to many places, she has one ungranted wish: To live in Paris where art is everywhere and people have honed aimless roaming to an art form. She visits and stays a few months.

Passion. What Is It, Really?

Passion. Is it love? Lust? Both? When I asked a psychologist, we got into a lively argument. His take—people equate it with sexual desire (aka lust).

But that doesn’t jive with what Lucien, the hero in The Shade Under The Mango Tree says—his passion is art and design. He is so devoted to it that he has little social life.

Then, there is the passion of Christ. Passion flower. Passion fruit.

So what is passion, really?

The word comes from the Latin word “to suffer,” a meaning closest to “the passion of Christ.”

Peter Kahn, Ph.D., has studied or spoken on passion, especially what he calls the primal passions or the “wildness” within. He expresses it beautifully, though he also gets a bit mystical (that is, I can’t understand exactly what he’s saying)

First he says:

Primal passions can initially seem scary. Sometimes they are. Sometimes there’s unnecessary violence in heart, mind, and action. But sometimes that can be a starting point for tapping into something deep and powerful and ultimately beautiful within the human psyche.

Fine. I’m still on his page. But he drones on, quoting a sexy passage from a James Balwin novel, and ends with  “That’s human nature,” too (referring to violence in passionate love).  I think he’s struggling to explain because passion is a complicated human experience. Its object is not always another person. It might be an idea or an action.

In my latest book, passion comes in many guises. Lucien’s is one. Luna’s desire to make a difference is another. So is what triggered the violence to Luna’s friend, Asha. And, of course, what develops between Luna and Lucien.

People may equate intense emotions in lust with passion. Lust and love, though, are not the same beasts. Dr. Helen Fisher’s pioneering brain research says the seat of love in the brain differs from that of lust. Love happens in a higher center associated with reasoning. Intriguingly—so does drug addiction.

Addiction? Passion? Going deeper doesn’t necessarily make things clearer, does it?

Connect with the Author: website ~ facebook ~ pinterest ~ twitter

Giveaway:​

• Enter to win a signed copy of Evy Journey’s THE SHADE UNDER THE MANGO TREE, plus $25 Amazon Gift Card (3 winners) (USA only)

https://gleam.io/FyAHi/the-shade-under-the-mango-tree-book-tour-giveaway

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