The Eyes Have It
No one can lie, no one can hide anything, when he looks directly in someone’s eyes ~ Paulo Coelho.
The best evaluation I can make of a player is to look in his eyes and see how scared they are ~ Michael Jordan.
When a woman is talking to you, look at what she says with her eyes ~ Victor Hugo.
They say that eyes are the window to a person’s soul, and these quotes above support that theory. For the writer and reader of romance, eyes play an important part. They convey emotions, they’re pretty to look at and they also hold mysteries for us to unravel. Should we trust this person and let them into our heart?
Eyes come in all shapes and sizes, the color and appearance determined by our parents. The most common eye color is brown followed by blue or grey. The rarest eye color is green. Strange how many green-eyed heroes and heroines we have in romances!
What I didn’t know is that eye color can lighten or darken over time and genetics plays a part in this too. Blue eyes are becoming rarer in the United States, which is strange to me since my eyes are blue and most of my family has blue or hazel eyes. It’s natural for me to give my characters blue eyes since that’s what I have, but if you’re a writer in the US perhaps brown is a better choice.
Author descriptions of eyes are an excellent method to show characterization. We can have bloodshot eyes for characters who are hung over or sick, sunken eyes and dark under eye circles for those who aren’t getting enough sleep. We can have sexy, thickly lashed eyes—ones that we want to stare into for hours—for the hero. We can give our characters glasses or contacts, we can have them wear sunglasses to help hide their expression if they’re lying or are up to no good. We can give our eyes bling—perhaps an eyebrow stud or makeup to individualize the character and make them stand out.
For writers, here are links that will help you take your eyes from boring to eyes that say just the right thing to highlight your scene.
(Just as an aside check out The Emotion Thesaurus by Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi http://www.amazon.com/The-Emotion-Thesaurus-Expression-ebook/dp/B00822WM2M/ - an excellent book for writers!)
My heroine’s eyes in One Night of Misbehavior are brown to go with her red hair. Her stepmother, stepsisters and grandmother all have blue eyes and blonde hair. One Night of Misbehavior is a modern retelling of Cinderella and the difference in eye color was another way of making Charlotte feel the odd one out.
One Night of Misbehavior by Shelley Munro
He wears his scars on the outside. She keeps hers safe inside.
Charlotte Dixon ignores her stepmother’s edict and, in an act of disobedience, attends one of the social events of the year—a masquerade costume ball. Charlotte’s naughtiness escalates when she dances and smooches with a sexy mystery man. The night of anonymous passion that follows makes her yearn for a different life, but the next day she’s back to her dull routine of household management.
Advertising tycoon, Ash Marlborough is about to set a private investigator on the trail of his nameless princess when she waltzes right into his place of work. Charlotte is shocked to meet her masked man in the flesh, and even more perturbed when he asks her out on a date. Despite craving another night of sexy loving, she doesn’t have time for a man, not when she wants to reinvent herself and grasp a new, improved life with both hands. But Ash knows what he wants, and he’s determined to win the heart of his princess. Let the dance of seduction commence.
Warning: Contains a conniving stepmother, selfish stepsisters, a grandmother with fairy godmother tendencies and a sexy masked man who is willing to face them all for the love of a good woman.
Buy One Night of Misbehavior
Author Bio
Shelley Munro is tall and curvaceous with blue eyes and a smile that turns masculine heads everywhere she goes. She’s a university tutor and an explorer/treasure hunter during her vacations. Skilled with weapons and combat, she is currently in talks with a producer about a television series based on her world adventures.
Shelley is also a writer blessed with a VERY vivid imagination and lives with her very own hero in New Zealand. She writes mainly erotic romance in the contemporary, paranormal and historical genres for publishers Carina Press, Ellora’s Cave and Samhain Publishing. You can learn more about Shelley and her books at http://www.shelleymunro.com.
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CONTEST
What are your thoughts about eyes in fiction? Do you think authors overdo things with the odd colors? What is your favorite color for eyes?
Thanks so much for having me visit today!
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for being here! Love the resources you provided!
DeleteI love reading a good description of eyes. I really like interesting colored eyes. My eyes are green so I am partial to that color but the other thing I really like seeing is a face on the cover of a book. I like looking into the eyes.
ReplyDeleteSuch a great post, and you're spot on, Shelley. Eyes can give anyone away, and yeah, they can be totally sexy.
ReplyDeleteI usually write about eyes. And usually too much that ends up cut. I have green eyes, so I try not to use them in every book.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing and for the giveaway. I like the eyes being described to reflect the story, if the character need weird colored eyes are special eyes because it adds something to the story, Then that's great. If it's just a comment thrown in there, then it is kind of weird. evamillien at gmail dot com
ReplyDelete