by Anne Glynn
Anne Glynn.com
  • Anne Glynn - Books by Anne & Glynn
  • What's New
  • Books & Such
  • The Newsletter Thing

Feel the Rainglow.

6/1/2017

3 Comments

 
Picture
​Over the weekend, my guy and I went out for a walk. When we’re writing together, we often walk around the neighborhood, talking about plotting or characterization issues. Since the current writing project has a single author, I was the only one with an issue to share during this stroll. My issue on Sunday was the difficulty in changing my hero from a happily pleasant civil engineer to a dark and brooding…well, civil engineer. There’s no reason a civil engineer can’t be dark and brooding.
 
Or am I wrong? I’m still feeling my way around this kind of character. I’m not a dark-and-brooding kind of woman on most days, which has resulted in the majority of our heroes being pretty optimistic kinds of men. In an effort to mix things up a little, I’m going against my natural tendencies to create a hero that’s comfortable in the shadows.
 
It wouldn’t be that big of an issue for me, I imagine, if I was starting from scratch. Instead, I’m on Chapter 22 of a 30-chapter romance. It feels like quite the challenge, indeed.
 
When I spoke of my troubles in making my adjustments, Glynn made agreeing-noises and sympathetic sounds. Except for football season, he’s as far from dark and brooding as any man can be so he doesn’t truly understand my plight at all. During a break in conversation, he said, “You should make the hero someone like me,” and he said it in all seriousness. Since I didn’t know how to reply at that moment – he’s my joy, but not so much a Harlequin hero – I pretend I don’t hear him.
 
He lets it pass, and we go on.
 
As we walk, I can hear the rumble of thunder in the distance. Living in California and Illinois, I’d often heard thunder, but it never sounded like this did, growling as it rolled across the Arizona mountains. I could smell the presence of rain all around us; another trick of these mountains is how rain can pour in sheets directly across the street, and never spill a drop on your own house. It’s Nature’s own CGI. Fairly magical.
 
I stop walking to enjoy the sight of the dark storm clouds in the not-so-distance. Glynn steps in behind me and puts his arms around my waist. The smell of fresh rain grows all the stronger, and I inhale deeply.
 
“I love this smell,” I tell him.
 
“What smell?”
 
“This smell. The smell of rain in the air.”
 
“Oh, that’s just me,” he says softly at my ear. “It’s my new cologne.”
 
For the second time on this walk, I don’t know what to say.
 
He continues, “It’s called Rainglow. My cologne, I mean.”
 
Honestly, he said these nonsensical things because…that’s all I’ve got. Just because. He said them with a straight face, as if lightning had struck my head and I might be so confused, I’d believe him.
 
Turning around to face him, I said, “Your cologne.”
 
“Picked it up when I made a Target run. Last Thursday.”
 
“Did you? Interesting. Products have commercials. I don’t think I’ve seen any commercials for ‘Rainglow’.”
 
“Probably missed ‘em. We DVR everything, so you probably just zipped right past it. Maybe more than once.”
 
“That’s a shame.” I wasn’t going to give up so easily. “Products also have slogans and tag lines. Hai Karate had, ‘Be careful how you use it’.” (I don’t know why I remembered that.) “Old Spice used, ‘The Man Your Man Could Smell Like’. What’s the slogan for Rainglow?”
 
Without missing a beat, he said, “Rainglow: Be Your Woman’s Rainbow.”  
 
“That is the saddest, least sexy slogan ever!” I said. He smiled. Then we agreed that maybe we should get inside before lightning struck either of our heads.
 
And that whole silly exchange is why my partner will never find himself as a romance novel hero in a book I write. But if I were to start a comic strip….

3 Comments
A.S. Akkalon link
6/3/2017 01:59:10 pm

I don't know, he sounds like a romantic hero to me. I love the smell of rain. I should get my man some Rainglow.

Reply
Anne
6/4/2017 09:18:11 am

Oh, I do hope there's a romantic element in your upcoming fantasy novel. I can't wait to see how you write your guys!

Reply
A.S. Akkalon link
6/4/2017 02:46:50 pm

My guys are poor lost souls. Well, some of them. Some of them are obsessive bastards. Ah, romance. I sort of intended there to be a romance element, but as it turned out it was more about friendship. But several of my intended betas are romance authors, so we'll see how that turns out. :)

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Picture

    I'm on Facebook

    ... but, really, the good stuff is posted here.



    Welcome!

    At the back of my paperbacks and e-books, you'll find this:
     
    A collector of vintage Barbies and younger boyfriends, Anne Glynn currently resides in the American Southwest.
     
    The truth is a little more complicated. I'm Anne and my S.W.P. (Significant Writing Partner) is Glynn. Together, we write as 'Anne Glynn'.
     
    However, I am a collector of vintage Barbies and I have, on occasion, collected the younger boyfriend. Not so much these days.
     
    I'm glad you're here.
     

    Archives

    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    July 2020
    December 2019
    June 2019
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.