Sunday 1 April 2018

Guy "Popcorn Guy" Popplewell

Guy "Popcorn Guy" Popplewell  Character Post 41


Popcorn Guy was an automotive tutor at the Tech, back in the mid 1980s. He was a cheerful young man, not very tall, and with strong arms and shoulders. He had a few non-confrontational tats and he enjoyed a beer with his mates and a dance at the local disco.
Guy Popplewell, which is his real name, was easy-going and well-meaning. With only mild protest, he escorted his younger sister to the cinema to see what he'd undoubtedly call a chick-flick. Having put himself out he discovered his sister's friend at the movie with her mum. About to leave his sister to their company, he spotted a familiar figure watching the film; a young woman he'd seen at the tech. Since she was doing a business course their paths hadn't crossed much, but she motioned him to sit beside her. At half time they went out for popcorn, leaving Mish's escort to his own devices. Over conversation in the line they found themselves so entertained they decided to ditch the film and take off together.
Guy considered himself a gentleman in some ways, so he was quite pleased to go out later as a foursome with Mish's original escort and his girlfriend. He even apologised for blowing him off at the cinema. The two young men became casual friends, and over a beer and a banana, Guy even ventured to ask Tom's advice on buying a ring for Mish. Not an engagement ring, or even a friendship ring, he said hastily, but just something nice for his girl; something other girls wouldn't have.
 Guy was only mildly puzzled to discover Tom had been thinking of him as "the popcorn guy" without ever actually realising his real name is Guy Popplewell. What's funny about that? he wondered. The family came from Yorkshire originally...

Guy Popplewell is a minor character in The Kissing Ring and, having made him up for convenience, I was surprised at how much I actually know about him and how much he's stuck in my mind. Some minor characters are like that!
 The Kissing Ring.   


ABOUT THE BLOG

Sally is Sally Odgers; author, anthologist and reader. She runs  Prints Charming Books. (Sally is me, by the way, and I am lots of other things too, but these are the relevant ones for now.)

The goal for 2017 was to write a post a day profiling the background behind one of my books; how it came to be written, what it's about, and any things of note that happened along the way. If you're an author, an aspiring author, a reader or just someone who enjoys windows into worlds, you might find this fun. The books are not in any special order, but will be assigned approximate dates, and pictures, where they exist. 2017 is now behind us, but I ran out of year before running out of books. As of February 18th 2018 I STILL haven't run out of books, but many of those still to come are MIA by which I mean I don't have copies and remember little about them. There are more new books to come, and I'll certainly showcase those, but in between times, I'm profiling some of my characters, just for a change. Thank you so much to everyone who's come along on this journey so far!

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