By Sharon Clare, author of Love of Her Lives and Rhapsody
In this day of cyber space, nothing gives me more pleasure than to watch my kids play an old fashioned game. You know the ones, a deck of cards, a board, little game pieces inching toward the winning square.
My kids are now in their twenties. My two daughters are 24 and 26 and my son is 20. I only mention this because the traditional game players are usually my daughters. I don’t know if it’s a gender thing or an age thing, but my son plays video games not board games.
We didn’t own a computer until my son was 2 and back then our computer was basic as far as graphics go, but I remember watching him log on and open his Sesame Street game. I wondered if his brain would be wired differently than my daughters.
A few years later, he had a Game Boy, one of those handheld games. Again I wondered how this game would change his brain. (I was doing a science degree in psychology at the time, hence my fixation on the brain) Unlike the games I grew up with, he was now playing a multi-dimensional game. Parts of his game existed on other planes, worlds his character had to get to, a concept I was never exposed to at his age.
No wonder our kids seem to intuitively understand computers when my generation can be stymied by it. They have computer brains.
Games will evolve, but I imagine they will always be a part of human culture. Games are a way for us to relax, to think creatively, to strategize, to build brain cells.
I think games are good for us, and so does Finn, the mischievous Alfarian elf in my paranormal romance novels. He prefers to use people as his game pieces although he does so for everyone’s greater good or so he believes.
Finn has a good reason for his games. This short excerpt is from my paranormal romance novella Rhapsody and takes place at a tropical resort where Finn explains to his king how his games will benefit both the human and Alfarian realm:
The king let go a snort. “Leave you to play games with the humans?” His gaze traveled over the sea of dancers. “Do you see a miserable face out there, Finn? Humans love their holidays, yet they allow themselves little leisure. No wonder so few find true love. Create. Destroy. Over and over. No one understands them. How could you have insight enough into the ways of these creatures to pair them with their true mates?”
Finn had watched humans for as long as he could remember. He didn’t know why he was entertained by them when most Alfarians viewed them as inconsequential. Centuries ago, he’d started to see the energy that swirled around them, how the color of the energy changed dependent on their thoughts, how love surpassed all energies, even hatred. “I read their minds.”
Shortly after, Finn casts the spell to begin his game. It’s a board game, but not the sort I grew up with. Rhapsody is a game with magical twists and prompts meant to push the players, Isabelle and Jonathan, out of their comfort zones and into each other’s arms. It’s a game of seduction and Finn is master of the board.
You can find more about my books at sharonclare.com.
Do you play games? Please leave a comment and introduce us to your favourite game.
