chrissymunder | Clare and Chrissy Reflect on Romance

Clare: Welcome to wonderful October. Autumn is officially in full swing, the apples are crisp, the air is crisper, and filled with the nostalgic scent of burning leaves.

Chrissy: And Anniversaries.

Clare: Pardon?

Chrissy: Anniversaries are in the air as well. Yours. Mine. The vast decades in between.

Clare: Gawd, I’ll agree as long as we quickly skip past the decades’ part. But you are right, now that we’ve been wined and dined in celebration…

Chrissy: … or beer and brat’ed as the case may be…

Clare: We couldn’t help but chat about a topic near and dear to our hearts and keyboards.

Chrissy: Booze?

Clare: Romance.

Chrissy: ‘Cause we’re silly that way, (and it will keep us away from another "Autumn" versus "Fall" conversation).

Clare: Did you ever notice how everyone’s idea of romance seems to be different?

Chrissy: Which is good, otherwise a lot of us might end up feeling a bit unfulfilled.

Clare: You mean, different strokes for different folks…

Chrissy: Thank goodness ^_~.

Clare: So, this being the Internet age, we started with a little investigation into La Romance. El romance, romantikken, romans ki… In Romanorum.

Chrissy: As you can see, Clare has now exhausted Google translate...

Clare: Languages both dead and alive *hehe*.

Chrissy: Undaunted, we fixed our steely gaze on Wikipedia and The Free Dictionary online.

Clare: Both sites informed us that romance is “the pleasurable feeling of excitement and mystery associated with love”.

Chrissy: Interesting description, but like a few dates I can recall, vaguely unsatisfying. I hear the words, but I don’t *feel* the sensations. I need more.

Clare: Of course you do. You always do. Fine. What do you suggest?

Chrissy: Seeing as we are authors of erotic romance, and visual learners, my mind immediately flashed to paperback book covers. After all, growing up they were one of our first exposures to what would be considered an expression of romance.

Clare: Those were the days. With nary a headless torso to be found on my Grandmother’s bookshelf.

Chrissy: Hey, I happen to be extremely fond of the headless torso book cover.

Clare: *Sigh* I knew it.

Chrissy: And just like a good book and cover, we want our romance to be more about the show than the tell.

Clare: In other words, you can talk a good game, but you’d better be prepared to back it up with some action. Let me repeat that loudly, in hopes the hubby will hear. But doesn’t the perception of romance seem to shift according to the times?

Chrissy: Good point. For example, if I believe the residents of my Grandmother’s nursing home, romance during WWII flared quickly, burned bright in the uncertainty of the times, and then was pushed aside in favor of the more practical aspects of repopulating a lost generation.

Clare: That does seem a trifle grim. Less mystery and excitement, more about being good breeding stock.

Chrissy: Maybe some of the gals on those "Teen Mum" television shows ought to consider things from this angle. MIght give them a whole new perspective...

Clare: Down, Chrissy. Down.

Chrissy: Right. Do you remember the early days of cover art? Exotic locals, swarthy strangers, and candlelight dinners behind a dewy-eyed heroine? Oh how we longed to be swept away to a tent somewhere in the desert. Sand in tender crevices and all other practicalities be damned.

Clare: And in honour of the unfinished bodice-ripper on my hard drive, how about the Fabio era of romance? All those chiseled torsos, heaving bosoms, and quivering thighs.

Chrissy: *Sigh* I think the last time my thighs quivered was after my Introduction to Zumba class.

Clare: And I could never get my hair to achieve the same perfectly tousled coif that he did. Quite disheartening.

Chrissy: Still, with one quick glance at the cover of the book clutched so eagerly in the hands of the woman seated beside us in the doctor or dentist’s office, (what IS he wearing in that photo, btw...) we instantly knew *there* was romance.

Clare: False advertising, honestly. Nothing in real life ever comes close.

Chrissy: Do you think our idea of romance has shifted again with the times and the cover art? There are still no headless torsos in my day to day routine.

Clare: Given my choice, a swarthy stranger and a candlelit dinner versus a strapping fellow willing to haul the laundry about, change a few nappies, and pitch in when it comes to cooking the evening meal? Swarthy strangers just don’t go the distance.

Chrissy: Not even the wounded, or oh so mysterious hero? With or without an eye patch.

Clare: Will his lack of depth perception (or excessive guyliner) interfere with his ability to do dishes?

Chrissy: And just like that, we are back to the more practical side of romance, and a laundry basket on the cover of our favorite novel.

Clare: I don’t think we ever really left it. Romance, like all things, is in the eye of the beholder and requires that lovely suspension of disbelief. Let’s face it, your idea of romance might be a real yawner to me.

Chrissy: *waggles eyebrows*

Clare: *sniggers*

Chrissy: We are so not going there. Back to the topic at hand, practical or impractical. It doesn’t matter if it’s the simple touch of skin on skin as we twine our fingers together when the kids finally go to bed, a windswept beach with only two sets of footprints, or a jet waiting on the tarmac to whisk us away…

Clare: …What matters is how we feel about it. And in the end, that’s what determines romance.

Chrissy: Hmmm, those definitions in the beginning weren’t so off, after all.

Clare: As long as we perceive the mystery and excitement in the bottom of that laundry basket, it works for us.

Clare and Chrissy: How about you? Where do you find romance in the world around you? Is it expressed in your favorite novel’s cover? Do your prefer the practical or impractical, and is it different when it comes to real life and reading? Let us know what you think and be entered in our random drawing for some Clare and Chrissy Swag. Winner to be announced at our next monthly post.

September Winner:

anne_barwell - Congratulations! Please email your mailing address to Chrissy at chrissymunder@yahoo.com for your festive Clare and Chrissy Swag.

Let's raise our glass in a special thank you to Ms. London for taking a break in her whirlwind travels and stopping by for this month's chat. Remember, Pictures! We want Pictures! (and leftover chocolates!)

Missed any of our posts? Follow the 'sticky' post for these rambles of ours HERE.