Categories
EC: Battleground Fun Hops

WIP The Movie! Blog Hop #cursescanbebroken

This blog hop is co-hosted by Kyra Lennon and Rachel Schieffelbein.

I have several WIPs at the moment, but the one I’m most excited about is the follow-up to my first novel. This first book, Eternal Curse: Giovanni’s Angel,  just came out, but I’m not sitting around idly waiting for people to fall in love with it. There’s so much more of this story to be told. The idea of casting the characters of this book for a movie blew my mind, and don’t even get me started on the soundtrack.

So here is it, the line-up for, Eternal Curse: Battleground…Character Spoilers present but no plot points.

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Giovanni– He’s the title character of the first book and is actually a dual character. Giovanni/Bletsian is a kind of a shape-shifter with angelic and demonic ancestry. For him, I think I’d try to cast a complete unknown so there would be no preconceived notions about how this character would act. But I do have a specific look in mind when I picture him. I picture a handsome Middle Eastern man like Naveen Andrews with Hugh Jackman’s tall frame and Wolverine body, but with long black hair…Oh, and G/B has gray skin, so ethnicity doesn’t doesn really matter here.

 

      from Google search- www.fanpop.com  | from Google search- www.businessinsider.com

When I think of how G/B feels about and interacts with the overall story and the other characters, I think of the song, Thank You by Dido. (click here to watch video)

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Mira– She is human and is G/B’s love interest, and she’s also black (which some people find shocking). What is so special about this character in this second book is that because she’s been around G/B’s supernatural presence for so long, she too has begun to change. She is older and aging, but aging incredibly graceful. For her I picture a combination of two actresses:  Angel Bassett and Naomie Harris. Angela looks more than good for her age making her idea for the role, but Naomie fits her better in every other possible way.

  

from Google search- kissrichmond.com | from Google search- www.hellomagazine.com

When I think of Mira, from both the first book and the second, I think of Superwoman by Alicia Keys. (click here to watch the video)

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Tori (Victoria)- She is a new character to the series and pretty much the heroine of this installment. She is Mira’s daughter, but there’s more to that story than I’m currently willing to giveaway. Needless to say, they don’t really look alike. Tori is also human. She sounds nice and sweet, which she is for the most part, but later on it becomes clear why her name means “victory”. For her I picture someone like either of the Mowry Twins (more Tia Mowry-Hardrict) or Sydney Tamiia Poitier.

 

from Google search- www.eurweb.com | from Google search- www.fanphobia.net 

When I think of Tori, I think of Fighter by Christina Aguilera.

(click here to watch the video)

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Sheldon– He is also a new character to the series, and is by far, the saddest character in my story simply because of who he is. He’s a pale prepubescent boy with pointed ears, a tail, and an inability to grow up. He is G/B’s son and also a supernatural being, in case that wasn’t clear. For him I might also go with an unknown simply because kids grow up so quickly. When I think Sheldon, I think compare him more to other child characters. I guess for him, I could image some actors when they were younger, such as: Ernie Reyes Jr., Dante Basco, and Noah Hathaway.

  thelastdragontribute.tumblr.com | rufiozuko.tumblr.com | hermes-trismeg.blogspot.com

When I think of Sheldon, the song Bitter Sweet Symphony by The Verve comes to mind. (click here to watch the video)

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The next few characters I won’t spend so much time on because I could just keep going on for days and pages. These are secondary characters who are vital to the overall story.

Jack– He is new to the series and is another human who is up in age, though he hasn’t aged so gracefully. However, he is strong and physically fit from never faltering on an active military-like lifestyle.  For him I image someone like, Stephen Lang.

Google search- screencritix.com

Lilly– She is also human but is a returning character to the series. When my readers first meet her she is a young child, but in the second story she is a simple elderly woman of Asian descent.  For her I imagine someone like Amy Hill.

from Google search- www.asiansonfilm.com

Michael (Michelangelo)- He is another human and new character to the series and just happens to be crazy about Tori. For him I image pretty much any young, tall, blond actor. For now I’ll go for Colton Haynes with a dye job.

from Google search- instinctmagazine.com

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Up top are the major players, but I have so many more worth mentioning, but I’ll only throw in a few.

Fred– He’s a supernatural character who is new to the series. He’s tall, dark-skinned, and nice looking from the front, but from behind has a spine lined with spikes. His knees and elbows are also spiky.

Ester– She is a very important supernatural character who is also new to the series. She is a symbol and representation of purity; for that reason her skin is white like marble. She is completely hairless; yes that means she’d bald, but she still exudes femininity.

Iris– He is also new to the series and is a supernatural character. He’s a very serious character and a leader. He’s very tall and muscular and looks like a tar statue. His skin is actually black as tar.

Marcos– This is the same villain from the first book. Just as in the first story, Marcos remains a hideous troll, the opposite of his once beautiful self. In this story however, Marcos spends most of his time hidden in the form of his host. He’s uses his host body so that he’ll not have to face the harsh reality of his true appearance.

Ivor– He’s the host for Marcos in this story. He’s an average looking man, but even before he encounters Marcos he is deeply troubled and has a rather menacing look about him. He was once a gypsy.

The overall feel of this second Eternal Curse book makes me think of Uprising by Muse.
(click her to watch the video)

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ECGA coverWhile I’m making efforts to get this manuscript out to some beta readers and lastly into final edits, why not check out the first installment in the Eternal Curse Series to see where all this stared.

Click here or on the image up top to visit more stops on this hop.

Thank you for taking the time to read this post. If you like it let me know and share it with others. See you next time, Toi Thomas. #thetoiboxofwords

Categories
Spotlights

Author Spotlight: Ian Mathie 1.3

spotlight

New Release!

Now available through Amazon.
Kindle and other digital copies coming soon.

For further information about Ian and his work, please visit: http://www.ianmathie.com.

Thank you for taking the time to read this post. If you like it let me know and share it with others. See you next time, Toi Thomas. #thetoiboxofwords

Categories
Excerpts Spotlights

Author Spotlight: Ian Mathie 1.2

spotlight

A Bio

image from ianmathie.com

Having worked his way through two energetic careers, Ian Mathie retired and became a full time author. Using the pile of detailed notebooks he had kept during the years he spent working in the African bush, he began a series of African Memoirs in which he shares the many exciting experiences and gives his readers an intimate look at tribal life from within.

With four books in the series already published, the fifth volume is due for release any day. After that he intends to try his hand at fiction, with a fast paced spy thriller.

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Born in Scotland, within sight of Edinburgh Castle, Ian was taken out to Africa aged three, when his soldier father was posted to be second in command of the Northern Rhodesia Regiment in 1951. After a sea voyage to Cape Town, during which he spent most of the voyage confined to his cabin with measles, the family spent four days on a train as it crawled across southern Africa, eventually stopping on the bridge over the Victoria Falls to wash the dust off the carriages in the spray.

Not long after arriving in Lusaka, Ian was sent to the local mission school, along with his father’s soldiers’ children. There all the teaching was done in the local language and in the mornings he did lessons, while in the afternoons the wide open bush was his playground.

At seven and a half Ian was sent back to UK to a boarding school, and hated its restrictive environment. Fortunately he was able to fly back to Africa for each of the school holidays, where he spent most of the time wandering in the bush with his local friends. Boarding school continued for the next nine years, during which he developed an interest in flying and demonstrated some talent by gaining his gliding certificate on his sixteenth birthday. Two years later he joined the Royal Air Force to train as a pilot.

Due to politically driven defence cuts, Ian’s career in the RAF only lasted four years, and then he returned to Africa. Someone in the service had noticed that he got on well with all the African students on his military courses, and he was invited to join the government’s overseas aid programme as a rural development officer. He was sent to West Africa and soon found himself specialising in water resources, living among isolated communities far out in the bush. As the work developed, the territory for which he was responsible increased, and he was given a light aircraft to fly himself between remote projects, often thousands of miles apart.

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Over the years, Ian visited and worked in most of Africa’s countries, only returning to UK when changes in the political situation meant there were more local people available to take on the work he had been doing. Inspired by wanting to know more about what had motivated the tribesmen among whom he had worked, he took a place at Cardiff University and retrained as an industrial psychologist. He went on to develop some innovative and challenging motivational and performance development programmes, returning regularly to Africa on short term assignments and working across Europe.

When health issues restricted his work and travelling, Ian became a full time author, and now lives right in the centre of England, in south Warwickshire, with his wife and his dog.

For further information about Ian and his work, please visit: http://www.ianmathie.com.

Thank you for taking the time to read this post. If you like it let me know and share it with others. See you next time, Toi Thomas. #thetoiboxofwords