"If It's Just Like The Movies..."

This post was supposed to be finished last night, but a youtube load ate my network.  The plus?  I have a video of my vintage hats ready to share.  The minus? I'm going to try and cram this post in before work this morning.

Let's see what a sleepy Issy creates!

Kyra at Write Here, Write Now and Rachel at Writing on the Wall are hosting the WIP: the Movie blogfest today, and I've decided to hop on board.

The rules:
"Cast at least one character from your book, and post a picture of him or her on your blog.
Post at least one song that would be on the soundtrack" (and, of course, following these awesome ladies would be great!)
To be perfectly honest, until about a month ago, I just couldn't imagine trying to cast the characters of The Desired.  Sara and Jer have such specific looks in my head that I couldn't imagine any actor fitting them and Sebastian, well, he's based on a real historical figure.  Talk about being blocked into a "look."

But.

Last month, I was watching one of those Hallmark Hall of Fame feel-good movies and I saw Jer.  (Well, technically, it was Logan Huffman, but who's keeping track?)  When I went online to find more pictures of Logan Huffman, his pics from V were even more Jer-like.  He just needs a little bit of a haircut and some green contacts and Logan would be the perfect Jer (click on pics for links to original source.)

Jeremiah Thatcher, in a dramatic moment

Jer and Sara, video-chatting.  All he needs is a ratty Camp Elemeyomik polo to finish the look

“Is that Eurotrash guy there?  I wanna warn him to keep away from you and Liz…”  Through the fuzzy video chat, Jeremiah still managed to make out the look on my face and hastily added, “in a protective big brother way, of course.”

Then, I was flipping through the pictures on one of my favorite photo/fashion bloggers' blog and found this image:

Sara Lobos, or as close as I can find

Rosalind over at Clothes, Cameras, and Coffee is not only lovely, but she's also an incredibly talented young photographer.  I have to admit that her and a few other fashion bloggers are the reason why I decided that Sara was going to be a photographer-- and that Sara was going to have a fashion/photography blog.  While I can't find anyone who has Sara's face, this picture of Rosalind above just struck me as Sara-like.  She would take a picture like this.

As much as I had hoped to have Lizzie as a model, I liked how the pictures were turning out.  Her short, blondish hair wouldn’t have had the same impact as mine, standing in high contrast to the dress and my pale face, made paler by a heavy coating of powder.  In the fading light, my hair looked almost black in the images, the red-brown only peeking through in random shifts of light.  Morning glories and foxglove twined with the ferns around my feet.  I looked old fashioned, ethereal, and even a little bit pretty.

And, of course, I have to post images of the dress that she's wearing during one of her photo sessions.  These beautiful pictures below are courtesy of another favorite blogger, Lauren at Blooming Leopold.  Sara stuffs herself into an Edwardian lawn dress just like this one:

Sooooo pretty, no?

Next, Sebastian.  He's a real person out of history and, while paintings from that time exist, finding a real person who looked sort-of like him has been a challenge.  So, just pop into a time machine and bring back a 20-year old Chris Helmsworth.  Because he's perfect *swoon*:

Sebastian, just hanging out in the woods and being mysterious

Of course, setting is as much a character as people.  From forests in Portugal and castles (for Sara) to the Pine Barrens of New Jersey and Philadelphia (Jer), setting plays a huge part in my story. (all images below are mine)

A field of foxglove in Portugal near the Serra da Estrela (Star) Mountains

The view from Sara's bedroom in Portugal. In the fictional version of this room, the non-stone wall is painted white... the antique dresser, though, stays.

Santa Maria da Feira Castle. This is where the battle and turning point in the story takes place...

More Pine-barren-y goodness

Now, the soundtrack.  Because I need to get my butt to work, I'm going to list the soundtrack here and go back and link to Youtube later tonight! (DONE!) Many of these songs were a part of my original writing soundtrack-- The Desired really seemed to love Within Temptation, Kyo, and the occasional Eurovision song contest entry. These aren't in order-- sorry!

1. Haunted by Taylor Swift:  This is really Jer's song.  I love the conflict that plays before my eyes when I listen to this song... and the theme of the song carries over into D2.

2. A Thousand Years, Christina Perri (and no, I didn't know that this was a Twilight soundtrack song!)

3. Satellite, Lena: Eurovision song winner from Germany! Yay!

4. A Lenda d'el Rei Dom Sebastião, Quarteto 1111: Uhm... if you know Portuguese, this is slightly spoiler-ish *wink*

5. Boom Boom Yeah, Axel: Sara goes to a club and a town party... this would fit in either place. Try not to dance to this! (Another Eurovision song, though this didn't make it past the country level.  Portugal missed out, because this song is soooo much more awesome than the stupid one that they sent out.  There's also an English version with Sasa Lendero-- but the Portuguese version is so much better, imho.  Europop rocks!)

6. Am I Dreaming, On a Plain: A Portuguese rock band (in English)-- the chorus says it all: "Should I believe or am I dreaming?"

7. Reverie, Megan McCauley: This is a turning point song.  The lyrics are so perfect for Sara's "moment of choice."  And on a non-WIP point, it makes me want to dance so badly.  Can't you just see a tilt turn in the chorus? EEE!

8. L'enfer, Kyo: A French Rock band.  The translation of the song's title is "Hell."  "J'ai donné ma vie pour partager la tienne  Bien écorché vif, je m'éveille.  Mais un mot de toi pour ma peine, Ma paranoïa sur tes lèvres, Mais Alléluia le vent se lève  Cet enfer est tout ce qu'il me reste" *sigh*

9. Enchanted, Taylor Swift: Swift captures that wonderful feeling that you get after you meet someone, before you find out that he's already in a relationship or trapped in some time-prison...

10. The Howling, Within Temptation: The big battle song, and a bit perfect when it comes to choosing sides.

11. Memories, Within Temptation (more for the video than the lyrics) I've ownd the CD for ages, but I only saw the video after writing the manor house scene in The Desired.  Some of this video is reminiscent of that scene!  Plus, the imagery is just gorgeous-- I see a few stories in here:

12. What Have You Done? Within Temptation: "Why does fate make us suffer? There's a curse between us, between me and you."  The lyrics aren't literal to my story at ALL, but I love the feel of this song.  Plus, it made a great battle soundtrack.

Now, hop on over to Write Here, Write Now and Writing on the Wall to see more links to other WIP blogfest participants!