We've been having a lot of fabulous thunderstorms lately. When I left work yesterday, it was raining, and there's something that's so much fun about singing "Bouncing Off Clouds" at the top of your lungs while driving, and lightning illuminates the sky. Annie must be visiting the area. I think it's funny that a lot of my family members and close friends will mention Annie whenever there's a big storm going on. It's like my weird alter-ego story character has been embedded in the minds of those around me, and thunderstorms conjure up the goddess of bad weather in their thoughts. And "Bouncing Off Clouds" is such an Annie song too. One of the many fun quirks about Tori Amos that I really enjoy is how she likes to add random vowels into her words. Like sometimes one or two extra vowel sounds. But in this song, she goes for ALL the vowels in one word. "We could be bouncing off the top of this claaaeeeeeiiiiooooouuuuuud." Way to go, 5 vowels for the price of 2! Gods, I love that song, it's my new favorite. I listen to it at least 5 times a day.
Speaking of Annie, I'm adding another minor character to my novel. His sole purpose is to have a strange, confusing, semi-ambiguous, almost-relationship with Maggie (the mortal-who-accidentally-gains-crazy-godlike-powers) when she's in college. He's basically there to drive her batshit crazy, which serves a purpose I'm not going to share right now, but is important to the plot. And because there's already a crapload of unresolved sexual tension between a couple of the characters, and SOMEBODY in the novel needs a romantic outlet. Well, besides the cat, who isn't neutered and does as he pleases, but his friendships tend to be more simple. So, I created this character who is basically the stereotype of every guy in Argo. Nerdy, sensitive, eccentric, completely lacking self-confidence, sweet, intelligent, and socially awkward, especially around girls. He spends most of his time playing video games (then again, so does Maggie), and never kissed a girl until college (hey, they really are compatible...). I named him Leo. Yeah, after the really nerdy "brown sheep" who we used to talk to online, and I drew "The Hilton Head Adventures" comics about what would have happened if we went to visit him. Hmmm, those comics were actually critical to my character Andy's evolution from Sarah's random dream to a "friend" of Leo's to my imaginary husband, and finally to an ancient god. Of course, most of you probably don't know what the heck I'm talking about, unless you've known me for at least 10 years and were in my crazy group of friends in junior high.
So anyway, this character Leo really isn't based off the real Leo, although I may give him big lips for the fun of it. He's totally not the Mary Sue love interest either. He's chubby and geeky-looking, with glasses and overgrown curly hair (that I've-been-in-college-a-whole-semester-and-my-mom-stopped-taking-me-to-her-salon look). But I think he's adorable, and if I could only write a scene with him that wasn't just a boring conversation about video games, he'd be a really interesting yet minor character. Gah. You try to get two nerdy fat people to show some interest in each other, and all they can talk about is who is getting the most XP/treasure. Well, fine then. Be your shy, inexperienced selves. The time will come when you beat the game and are sitting there staring at the ending credits, and you turn and look into each other's eyes, and WHAM, you're suddenly rolling around your dorm room floor, making out like it's your last night on earth even though it's your first time and you have no idea what you're doing or why this is happening. Ah, what a nerdy love scene that would be. Hmmm... Now if only I could write love scenes without getting all embarrassed and totally botching them. This is why I don't write romance.
"Bouncing off of claeiouds, we were... Is there a love lost and found? Make it easy, make this easy, it's not as heavy as it seems..."
