A Quickie

AHA! I thought that I'd post this before I totally forgot:

If I were to ever cast Willa in a movie the actress that would most LOOK the part would be:

Rebecca Hall

Not a perfect match, but she is the absolute closest I could find. She's very pretty, but not insanely, over the top gorgeous. She plays Bertha in "Wide Sargasso Sea", the "prequel" to Jane Eyre.


For reference, here are a few other pictures:

Picture 1

Picture 2

Hey, that's right, I promised to post something...

All right, so in the last two updates I have introduced you guys to Lydia Rush. She's the new antagonist... well, in truth she's the ONLY antagonist (thus far), but I'll get to that later.

Lydia Rush is based off of three of Jane Austen's original characters. I figured just making her your standard bitch wouldn't work. I needed to "Austen" her up a little.

Lydia's first character influence is Fanny from Sense and Sensibility (the girls' sister-in-law). Yeah, you know that bitch. You hate her from the very beginning and she really is an excellent example of how well Austen could develop a character when she put effort into doing so because the truth is that for as likable as most of Austen's heroines were, I can admit that a good deal of them were bland. However, she really seemed to put a lot of effort into characterizing her villains so that you HATED them, no questions asked.

Lydia's next influence: Caroline Bingley. Anyone who loved Darcy and Elizabeth hated Caroline on principle. Really though, she's not so much an antagonist as she is just "that clingy, jealous chick". Seriously, she's just a spoiled brat but there's nothing inherently EVIL in her. She's just freakin' annoying.

And thus I am brought to Lydia's final influence: her namesake, Lydia Bennett. Okay, so Lydia Bennett's not really an antagonist (if anything she's one big plot device), but look at her. She's over-indulged, selfish, boy crazy with streaks of jealous, crazy bitch (she's beginning to sound like Caroline, isn't she?). However I should point out that this interpretation of her comes from the BBC version of Pride and Prejudice from 1995. Julia Sawalha is absolutely brilliant as Lydia mostly because you HATE her and you don't hate her for the same reason you hate Mrs. Bennett (and it may just be me, but that woman was ANNOYING AS HELL). You hate her because all you can think is "Thank GOD she isn't MY sister!"

SO yeah, Lydia Rush will be quite the trip.

Okay, onto the second half of this rant. I mention earlier that Lydia is the only real antagonist thus far in the story. That's because she's the only character I've INTENDED to be an antagonist.

I may have mentioned this before so forgive me if I am repeating myself, but Mr. Lori, or "that bastard" as many of you seem fond of calling him, was NEVER meant to be a bad guy. Yes, he is a manipulative, self-centered, loathsome ASS but he isn't a bad guy. Seriously.

When I threw Mr. Lori into the plot around the second chapter or so, I didn't really have any use for him. I mean, no use for him that didn't fall under just being that "other guy"-- the unlucky dude who's there to NOT get the girl. As the story progressed I realized that I needed someone to drive Willa and Errol apart and Lori just ended up being the fall guy for it. This doesn't inherently make him a bad person either.

The thing is that the dude broke the two up mostly because he wants Willa for himself but ALSO because he was actually, genuinely concerned for her safety and happiness. He didn't want her to get hurt. Sure he went about it in the most jerkwad-ish way possible, but you have to give the guy some props for looking out for the girl he likes. Also, Lori never lies to get what he wants. It's not like he lied about Errol getting that girl pregnant in France; that was what actually happened. If anything, Errol's in the wrong, but I won't get into that.

For right now, Lori has been conveniently removed from the plot, but he will be making a few more appearance and, I'm sorry to say, he won't really be getting what's coming to him. He just won't get the girl.

So, apparently it's hard to find a hot, English guy...

Dude, it's impossible. No, I'm not kidding. What is this pervasive trend among Hollywood and whatever the English equivalent of that is that young actors have to be skinny and, frankly, feminine looking?

Oh, by the way Richard Armitage would be Errol if he were a few years younger. Him or a younger Rufus Sewell. (Look at them and don't squeal in feminine delight, I dare you.)

But back to the rant at hand. Holy crap on a flying crutch was it hard coming up with ANYONE who could play a proper Byronic-ish hero. You can't do that when you look like Matthew McFayden--who I love to pieces and who I find sexy, but Colin Firth he is not. For serious, all of the ruggedly handsome guys are all older and maybe that's my fault. Maybe I mistake rugged for "old" or "haggard" and that's why I think that in his fifties, Sean Connery was hotter than Brad Pitt has ever been.

And since this is the age of retarded, sparkling Vampires, Robert Pattinson isn't in the running for a few good reasons. First of all, I don't think he's that good looking and secondly, my hate for Twilight is so deep that I can't even talk about him without getting a little angry. The same goes for the dude who's playing the werewolf in the new movie, who is only really pretty when he takes his shirt off. Otherwise it looks like his huge, white teeth got into a fight with his eyes over who would get the most room on his tiny face and his eyes lose every time he smiles.

And then she kept changing her mind...

So it's occurred to me in the past to think of which actors and actresses I think fitting to play the roles of my characters-- or at least actors and actresses that LOOK the part.

One of my reviewers mentioned this and it got me thinking and thinking lead to this little realization: I have no idea.

I know that Willa is supposed to be pretty but not air-burshed gorgeous (go; search the internet for a picture of an actress who is under the age of twenty-five and not flawlessly beautiful). Errol hasn't been a picnic to cast either.

After much deliberation, here are a few of my picks.

First off, the casting call for Willa, our heroine:


I describe Willa as having long, dark hair and large, blue eyes. She's supposed to be attractive, but not super model gorgeous.

This is the "maybe pile" of actresses I came up with:


Charlotte Riley

Something about her mouth annoys me and honestly she falls into the totally gorgeous category, but whatever. She at least mostly fits the description and I like her the best of all of the options.

I have also considered Kiera Knightly. I'm not linking to a picture because odds are we all know who she is. Honestly, this is the selection I hate the most and I will gladly explain why: this girl ANNOYS me. She is always this bratty, pouty-lipped snot. Always. It doesn't seem to matter what character she's playing, she's always the exact same person! You know there are some actors where you're not even aware of the fact that they're an actor when they're on screen; they ARE the character they're playing. Keira Knightly is not one of those actresses.

But she also sort of fits the description (besides that broad-as-an-interstate man-jaw she has).


Next is Claire Foy. I'm not linking to a picture of her either because there is not a single one where it DOESN'T look as though she's close to tears because slightly off-camera someone is repeatedly kicking her puppy. But I love the way she talks and unlike the first two she actually has the blue eyes I described Willa have. So point to her. (I really just don't see Willa as frail looking as this girl though...)


Falling into the same "Not quite how I pictured her, but yeah she could work" category as Ms. Foy is Olivia Thirlby. I'm not really sure what it is about her that made her consider her and damn if I can find of picture of her with her mouth CLOSED (try it, I dare you! She's been taking lessons on the "Gaping Pout" from Jessica Simpson I think), but I do like her general look enough to throw her in the maybe pile. (Seriously: what is it about her that makes her sort of kind of maybe fit the part?)

It's all coming back to me now...

I'm beginning to remember why I never keep blogs and it's because I make them and then never update, thus defeating the point. I'll try to be a little bit more consistent, but I'm really being slammed by school right now, so updates here and in the story might be kind of slow.

I've been mulling over Willa and I have to admit that in the last two weeks or so, my original plans have been completely abandoned (yet again) and I'm going in a different direction. I'm glad to report that Madam Whitmore is no longer going to die. Someone will, but not her.

The second change that will be happening is a very simple one. I originally intended for Lady Brandon's nephew to come in and cause some additional drama, but I'm wary of this idea now and I'll tell you why. Willa thus far has two love interests: Errol and Lori. Of course Errol is more-so the love interest and she's Lori's love interest, but you get my meaning. Two guys is PLENTY for one girl. I don't want to play up Willa's charm and beauty in such a way that she's suddenly a man magnet. Therefore, the nephew will play a part, but not the one I originally intended and you're all going to HATE me for who I have in mind to take his place.

Spoiler alert: Lori.

Guys, if you haven't read up until chapter 20, don't read this post.


I've gotten a reaction of surprise from readers about the newest chapter of Willa.

Spoiler alert: Errol got a girl pregnant in France.

Now, I get why this came as a surprise: that's what I intended. But I also understand that there was no (intentional) foreshadowing about this and I only ever mentioned that Errol doesn't like to talk about his past. So, in a lot of ways, this is more of a surprise than I actually wanted.

I'm going to try to explain myself. When I started Willa I really only had a vague idea as to what I actually wanted to do with the story. I just knew that I wanted to write a romance and I wanted it to start it in a way that reminded me of Mansfield Park. That's it. I wanted a girl who was unconventional for her time and pair her with a guy that was the same way. Two anachronisms falling in love.

Then, for a twist, I began to hate Twilight. Really hate it. I'll admit that I've only skimmed the first book or two, but it's the idea alone that I hate. A weak, mindless female lead falling for a guy who is more or less a stalker. Don't get me started on the writing itself. I didn't get through any of the books for the simple fact that it made me want to scratch out my own eyes.

Anyways, I wanted to play off of this. I hate female leads who end up subdued and overpowered by the man they're in love with. Who was once a strong character becomes weak and ineffectual just because she's in love. Maybe it's the feminist in me, but that really grates on my nerves.

So, about four or five chapters in I decided I wanted to eschew this trope as much as possible.

Willa and Errol were NOT going to end up together at the beginning of this story. No, I'm serious. They weren't. That's what all the ambiguity was about. Actually, to be honest, Asher was supposed to enter in as the more grounded of the two men and at the end, when faced with a choice, Willa was going to be her usual, pragmatic self and pick Asher.

That's not the case now (yes, you can all breathe a collective sigh of relief).

All of this compacted means: After all of the above played in to the plot, I originally planned for Errol's "mistake" to be the force that drove him and Willa apart permanently. Now, this project has turned into a "How much can I reasonably redeem one man?" challenge. If things seem weird and confusing right now, they'll get fixed. Or I'll try at least.

Now for big spoilers. Anyone who doesn't want to know ahead of time something that will come into relative importance later should not highlight the bottom of this page.

(The girl Errol got pregnant and the baby both died during delivery. It's not as Deus ex Machin'd as it looks, it only gets more complex after that.)

First Post!

So this is here for the benefit of the people who read my stuff on fictionpress.

Hi guys!

Right now I'm working on a few different pieces but my main focus is a historical romance inspired by Jane Austen named Willa.

It can be found here:

Willa

My other works can be found on my profile page:

Fair Winds