CASTING CALL for THURSDAYS AT COCOONUTS

 

Here we go with another weekly challenge from one of the talented authors of Romance Writers Weekly (RWW). This week, Victoria Barbour http://victoriabarbour.com/blog asked us to create a cast of characters from our new release or WIP. I hope you made it over here from Jeanne McDonald's blog at https://authorjeannemcdonald.wordpress.com/

In my newest release, THURSDAYS AT COCONUTS, I have quite a cast of characters and know who would be IDEAL to play them in a movie. See if you agree or feel free to suggest your own cast. Here goes:

Suzy - A wedding planner who can't find her own wedded bliss. She's a motherly single mom who is still pining for her high school boyfriend and faces the ultimate betrayal on her wedding day. She single handedly deals with neurotic brides and a horrible, pretentious mother of the bride--all with a smile (mostly). To play Suzy, I'd suggest Amy Adams. She looks like the perfect wedding planner who could handle my crazy brides.


Alex (Alexandra) - A bank marketer who falls for a sexy bad-boy cop. Alex is a beautiful blonde professional who is a savvy businesswoman but falls for a married officer who may be stalking her. She also has a "touch" of OCD and is habitually late. Reese Witherspoon would make a fantastic Alex. I could see her in the boardroom, being sexy and harried all the while having serious chemistry with the cop.




Hope - A fun high school guidance counselor who is adored by her students. But Hope hates her body, her frizzy hair, and is straddled by hippie parents. She loves her BFFs, Alex and Suzy, but wishes she had one-ounce of their sexiness. Hope faces many trials with her hippie parents and discovers a secret that almost went to the grave. Melissa McCarthy would make such a great Hope. I can just see her dealing with the hippie parents, Larry and Montana, and the students would love her!




Sgt. Tony Montgomery - A sexy bad-boy cop who has a cheating wife. He falls for Alex but won't leave his marriage because of his young son, Joey. Tony has a few secrets of his own but that swagger, chiseled jaw line, and icy blue eyes pretty much let him get away with anything. I don't KNOW who would be best for Tony. He needs to have dark hair and be tall. I describe him as a younger, taller George Clooney in my novel. Any suggestions? Maybe a taller Adam Levine? I know Adam's a singer but he has the right look. Feel free to suggest an actor to play the cop! Thanks to Leslie for suggesting Ian Somerhalder for one of her characters. He'd make a great Tony/cop!

Okay, that was fun. And, by the way, my novel is available on Amazon at

tinyurl.com/l9m26ht

THURSDAYS AT COCONUTS has gotten over sixty rave reviews! I can't tell you how much that excites and humbles me. Thank you! Please comment and then hop over to see the cast of characters for  Carolyn Spear at http://www.carolynspearromance.com/blog

Leapin' Lizards

 

 

Challenged by the talented attorney-author Veronica Forand, the writers from RWW are supposed to write a 100-word fiction story using these three words: Coffee, Spring, and lizard. I wrote my story in 15 minutes and it's exactly 100 words. Enjoy! I hope you made it here from Veronica's page  http://www.veronicaforand.com  then head over to read Susan Scott Shelley's flash fiction at http://www.susanscottshelley.com/#!blog/c1cod

 

“That lizard is so sluggish.” Julie sipped her coffee. “He hasn’t moved in an hour.”

Her neighbor, Sylvia, ignored the comment and snipped Hibiscus blooms. “I love Spring.”

Julie studied the lizard. “Do you think he’s alive?”

Her friend peered at the statue-like lizard. “Not sure but he certainly has good balance.”

Julie walked inside to answer a ringing phone. With warp-like speed the lizard crawled across the screen, onto the wicker patio table, and into Julie’s pink coffee cup. Sylvia covered her mouth to keep from screaming—or laughing.

Julie reappeared. “What’s wrong?”

“Um, apparently Mr. Lizard likes lattes.”

Choosing Novel Settings

It's Tuesday which means the Romance Writers' Weekly blog hop is hopping away. This week's question was posed by the lovely and talented Brenda Margriet.  http://www.brendamargriet.com/blog/romance-writers-weekly-whats-up-with-settings-lovewritechat 
Brenda asked her fellow writers how we choose our settings and whether they are real or fictional, no matter the genre. I hope you made it over here from Elizabeth's blog http://elizabeth-janette.blogspot.com

In THURSDAYS AT COCONUTS, my characters live in a town called Crystal City (fictional) and is set in Missouri (real). Crystal City is mid-sized and loosely based on my home-town of Springfield. Side note: Since I have cops in my novel, I tried out different names to make sure the abbreviated version of Crystal City Police Department (CCPD) would sound okay over a police scanner! I do enjoy the familiarity of writing about places I know but also like the challenge of creating entirely new worlds, people, and places.

As far as my three main characters' job settings, they're all very different and only one is similar to my real-life experience.

Alexandra (Alex) is a bank marketer who gets involved with a sexy bad-boy cop who may be stalking her. I was a bank marketer and did date a cop (cough, cough). Many of her duties such as creating branding campaigns, chairing 8 o'clock Monday morning marketing meetings, writing television scripts, and getting promoted to VP all happened to me.

Hope is a high school counselor. Of course, we ALL went to high school but I've never been a teacher nor a counselor, so Hope is completely fictional. She has hippie parents (I didn't have those either) but I loved the seventies and wanted to incorporate that decade. Hope also hates her looks, hair, and compares herself to her gorgeous girlfriends. Who doesn't do that?!

Suzy is a single mom who is a wedding planner. I, too, was a single mom for many years. As far as Suzy's company, Weddings By Suzanne, I've never been a wedding planner but discovered I thoroughly enjoyed coming up with themed weddings--and creating neurotic brides and a nasty, pretentious mother of the bride was icing on the ol' wedding cake.

So, the long answer to the question posed is a little of both--I used a few real-life experiences and settings but the vast majority of my novel is fictional. I hope you'll comment and then head over to Gemma's blog at http://gemmabrocato.com/blog I was lucky enough to meet Gemma/Heidi when we both went to Kansas City to hear Stephen King talk. What a great time. Meeting the fun, sweet, prolific Gemma and hearing SK on the same day! Wow. It's not often that authors who live in other cities, states, and countries get to meet, so this was a big deal. I'll never forget her first words when I walked into the B&N coffee shop. "I'd know you anywhere." Sweet.

Please follow the fun, quirky, talented RWW writers on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/RomanceWritersWeekly?ref=bookmarks or Twitter at #lovewritechat.

Romance Writers Weekly Blog Hop

It's Tuesday which means it's time for another installment of the Romance Writers Weekly blog hop! Each week, an author from the group poses three questions for several romance authors to answer. Follow us and you'll get insight into our writers' minds! Be sure to like our page on Facebook. https://www.facebook.com/RomanceWritersWeekly and stay tuned. There's going to be a HUGE give-away toward the end of this month!

This week's great questions come from author Tessa Gray. Thanks, Tessa. I enjoyed these.

1.   Do any characters you've written into your books remind you of yourself? Explain which ones and why.

It's sometimes hard to keep bits of ourselves out of our writing. Sometimes we do it purposefully and other times, for me, it sneaks in. In my August debut, THURSDAYS AT COCONUTS, I have a character named Alexandra (Alex) who is quite a bit like me. For instance she has a "touch" of OCD (some days I have more than a "touch") and she loves T.J. Maxx (so do I). Alex also occasionally falls for the bad boys and likes men in uniforms, especially cops. Enough said.
 

2.   Was there a teacher or mentor in your life who helped nurture your writing?

 

I had three--one in junior high, one in high school and one in college. Don Sharp was my English teacher at Pipkin Junior High. Mr. Sharp was entertaining, nurturing and pushed me to become a reporter for the school newspaper. Several of my articles were published and I was hooked.

 

In high school, Laura Fleetwood was my English and literature teacher. She had a lovely, easy, conversational way about her with an ability to draw the students in. I remember she had us put our desks in a circle which I thought was cool. Mrs. Fleetwood also had a section on mythology which I loved.

 

My college professor, Jo Van Arkel, was amazing. I told her once that she could make a rock creative. She gave us several observation exercises which were very helpful and she had us write and write some more. I always made "A's" and received encouraging comments on my papers. During one of my expository writing classes, she made a comment that I remember almost verbatim. "I'm not exaggerating to suggest that this article could be published in a major women's magazine." I've never forgotten that. I was in my mid-to-late twenties and a single mom. I just held onto her encouragement--and that essay--for years but never sent it in.

 

3. Every author has that moment when they doubt their ability to write. When that happens to you, how do you pull yourself up by the bootstraps and continue? What do you do to inspire YOURSELF?    

 

I think this happens to every author. On many days we're filled with self-doubt. Isn't that why Hemingway drank?! What I usually do is either reread things I've written in the past to boost my confidence or I'll read a book. Reading others' work always gives me confidence and courage. It's not that I think I'm better than those authors, but I see exactly how they string sentences together to create a story and reading someone else's book always makes me ready to get back to my own storytelling.

 

Please leave a comment, and after you're finished, be sure and check out answers from the next writer on the hop. She's the lovely, talented actor-turned-writer Kim Handysides  http://kimhandysides.com