Eye color. Such a generic little topic, but oh so very important. How many times do people move beyond the mundane brown, blue, green, and on to the specifics -- cocoa, sapphire, emerald? Next time you're in the check out line at the grocery store or talking with a friend, look at the eyes. Really look.

Eye color can define a character and bring him (or her) to life just as surely as dialogue. Have you ever looked at someone's eyes and been breathlessly struck with their uniqueness? So will your readers.

Take blue. The range is tremendous, running from pale ice blue to midnight. I had a friend whose eyes were definitely sapphire. She had the most beautiful eyes of anyone I've ever met.

What about green? Emerald, forest, olive. All very different colors.

Brown? It can run the gamut from coffee-colored to copper. Yes, my niece actually has copper-colored eyes. They match her hair exactly. I've never seen anything like it before. Or should I say, I've never noticed anything like it before.

Hazel is lumped into brown, and it's easy to see why because it is such a light golden color that many are unaware of what color it actually is. I suppose in many respects my niece's copper-colored eyes could be described as a kind of dark hazel. I don't think any DMV would allow her to put copper as eye color on her driver's license.

Of course, you have to keep yourself from going overboard with your descriptions. There's just so much specificity a reader can take. For instance, one friend of mine gave her hero eyes the color of cafe au lait. Uhm...beige eyes? I don't think so. Neither did the editor who rejected the manuscript. She had a good laugh over her boo-boo.

If you want a little help with descriptions, go to your eye care provider and ask if they have a color chart of contact lenses. They usually have brochures and are happy to pass them out.

So check out your friends' eyes. My whole life I thought my eyes were brown. My family said they were. Theirs were. But in the last few years I've realized they weren't, and only because of visit to the optometrist when I was perusing the eye color chart. I said, "Hey, my eyes aren't brown!" The receptionist looked at me and said, "Well...no." Hidden language -- "Are you so stupid you don't know what color your eyes are?" So...I didn't have brown eyes. What did I have? A friend suggested my eyes were golden hazel brown. She was quickly corrected.

So...what are they? You can give your opinion the next time you see me, but unless I'm mutating, I'm delighted to say my eye color is green. Amazing what you see when you start to notice.

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