Fantasy Casting Wrap-up and Winners

Sorry for the blog silence over the last couple of weeks. It has been a whirlwind of tasks and events, and I've obviously fallen behind in my regularly scheduled duties. I don't think I've replied to an email in almost a month. For shame.

But on the bright side, it's been a fun whirlwind. I got to go to the filming of the TLS book-trailer, spoke at a library, then at a Jr. High school, and am currently working on a TOP SECRET TLS related project that is so much fun, I can't wait to share it with you--oh and worked on TDD3 a bit, too.

Okay, enough excuses. On to some fun stuff. Like, for example, winners!

First, the landslide favorite for the fantasy casting of Daniel was Mitch Hewer.


Mitch captured 83 votes, giving him 55% of all votes. Alex Pettyfer and Thomas Felton nearly tied for 2nd place with 23 and 22 votes respectively.

That concludes our fantasy casting fun and contest. As an added treat, hubby quickly put together a video for you to summarize the choices you all made for each character. I've pasted it below for your viewing pleasure (winners to the contests are posted below as well).



I have randomly drawn 10 winners to receive a bottle of TLS nail polish for participating. I wish I had enough for everyone, especially as many of you participated through the whole thing. Oh, I have also chosen winners for the extra contest of helping to promote the eBook sale that was taking place this last month (only a day left to get a TDD ebook for only $2.99--the special price ends Nov. 22nd). Winners are as follows:

Fantasy Casting Winners
Jenni Elyse
Vivien
Aleksandra
Becky
Krissi Dallas
Jena
Tori [Book Faery]
Amanda Chenevert
Aubrey
Misha Fitt

eBook Promo Winners
Emily a.k.a WilowRaven
Meg
Melanie
BrittLit
Mundie Moms
Chloe

Winners, please email me at admin@breedespain.com with a mailing address and I'll do my best to get your nail polish out as soon as possible.

One last thing. It is almost November 23rd and that means the TDD paperback will be available this week! My publisher sent me an awesome e-card to announce the occasion and asked me to share with you all... so here you go.


Have any friends who still haven't read the book? You are more than welcome to do a click/save-as and share the e-card with whomever you like. Please feel free to post the card on your blog or facebook page, send a couple emails to those still not on the bandwagon, whatever. Oh, and did I mention that the TDD paperback also includes the first chapter of THE LOST SAINT?

That's all for now. Happy Thanksgiving and stay tuned for November's countdown to TLS contest that will be posted on Nov. 28th (fingers crossed of course).

Fantasy Casting THE DARK DIVINE movie: Daniel Kalbi

*** Business First:

1. I'll be speaking and signing at the Bingham Creek Library in West Jordan at 7 pm on the 15th of November. Attendees may get a chance to get their hands on THE DARK DIVINE paperback (with a TLS preview) before anyone else.

2. Speaking of the TDD paperback, it comes out November 23rd (just in time for Christmas gift shopping)!!! The pb includes a the prologue & first chapter of TLS.

3. Mark your calendars: THE LOST SAINT hits bookshelves on December 28th! We'll be celebrating the launch at The King's English Bookshop at 7 pm on December 28th. You are all invited, of course. ***

Yowza, Bridget Moynahan smashed the competition to play Meredith Divine with 61 votes out of 108 (56%). Kelly Preston came in second with 18 votes (16%). Talk about a landslide!






Now on to the event we've all been waiting for. . . casting:

DANIEL KALBI!!!!

Physical description: Age 18. Naturally very blond but sometimes dyes his hair black. Deep, dark brown eyes. Lean build, but tall and well-muscled. Devious smile. Sometimes described as being "wicked hot" but also sometimes he looks like an angel. (A hot angel, of course.)

This one was super hard to narrow down the votes for. Seriously, I'm very protective of my Daniel, plus there were so many hot guys nominated to choose from. This is a very important decision, so I couldn't just show one picture of each actor. And since Daniel needs to have a nice upper-body, it only made since to include a shirtless photo of each nominee for proper inspection.


Thomas Felton (Who knew Draco Malfoy could be so attractive in real life?)


Alex Pettyfer (So, so, so, so hot!)


Chace Crawford (Very cute, but I think he may be too old.)


Mitch Hewer (Can you say "hot angel"? There's a part in TLS where Daniel looks just like the photo of Mitch with his eyes closed.)


William Moseley (was actually nominated for Jude, but I thought he might be better for Daniel. Perhaps a little too fresh-faced?)


Now I give you all the arduous task of picking one of these beautiful boys to play the part of Daniel in our fantasy casting of a TDD movie.

Be sure to vote for your favorite choice up over in the SIDEBAR and LEAVE A COMMENT to get another entry to win 1 of 10 bottles of TLS nail-polish. The poll will be open until 11:59 pm MST on Tuesday, November 9th.

And be sure to keep spreading the word about the $2.99 special on the TDD ebook that runs until November 22nd. Let me know in the comments what you've done to spread the word and I'll enter you to win 1 of an additional 5 bottles of TLS nail-polish. I'll announce those winners when I announce the fantasy casting winners.

Fantasy Casting THE DARK DIVINE: Mrs. Divine

11/3/2010


It was close and hard fought race but super hotty Jensen Ackles came out on top in the last few hours to play Talbot in our fantasy cast with 32 votes out of 88 (36%). Matt Lanter came in second with 24 votes (27%).





We only have 2 characters left to fantasy cast, and since I'm really mean I'm keeping Daniel under wraps until the very end. That means our next character to cast is:

MRS. DIVINE

Physical description: Dark brown hair like Grace's. She's half Italian/half Jewish. In her early forties.

Bridget Moynahan (Looks a lot like the Meredith Divine in my head)


Idina Menzel (Wonder if we could write in a scene where Mrs. Divine breaks into song?--j/k)


Julia Roberts (Would be great to see Julia Roberts playing the mother of Emma Roberts as Grace)


Kelly Preston (Has a nice motherly look to her)


Lauren Graham (Would be fun watching her go all neurotic)


Be sure to vote up over in the SIDEBAR poll and LEAVE A COMMENT to receive an entry to win 1 of 10 bottles of TLS nail polish. (You know you want it!) This poll will be open until 3:00 pm MST on Friday 11/5/2010.

Halloween pics, Fantasy Casting THE DARK DIVINE movie: Talbot, plus an exclusive exerpt from TLS

10/31/2010

***Upcoming Event: I'll be speaking and signing at the Bingham Creek Library in West Jordan at 7 pm on November 15th. If you come, you may get a chance to get your hands on a paperback copy of TDD that includes the 1st chapter of TLS.***

Happy Halloween, friends! I hope you've had a great weekend. In honor of TLS, I donned a Little Red Riding Hood costume and went out on the town with my very own wolfman/woodsman and a couple of tiny Clone Troopers.


(Is hubs the woodsman who killed the wolf, or the wolf who killed the woodsman?--You decide.)


(Little Red, post kicking some wolf butt)


(KidA felt very empowered by that Clone Trooper gun. He blasted anything remotely scary away with it--including every sweet grandma who opened the door while we were trick or treating--in the pouring rain.)

I have to apologize for all silence and slowness on the blog lately. I got hit with an unexpected deadline this past week that totally took over my life. And I'm so ashamed that I missed October's Countdown to THE LOST SAINT contest. Since we haven't finished our Fantasy Casting fun, I've decided to wait until we're done with that before starting a new giveaway. (But I promise it'll be worth the wait!)






So Nathan Fillion won our poll for playing Pastor Divine with 46 votes (40%) and Tim Daly came in second with 36 votes (31%).





Our next contestant for our fantasy casting is a new one for most of you:

NATHAN TALBOT

Talbot is a new character in THE LOST SAINT and plenty tasty--and instead of just giving you a physical description, I thought I'd give you an exclusive excerpt from TLS (Eep!--at least that's how I feel about sharing it.)

So are you ready to meet Talbot?

I turned to dash from the scene, but I’d taken only a few
stumbling steps in my stupid heels when I ran straight into
what seemed to be a flannel-covered brick wall.

“Whoa, there. You okay?”

The brick wall speaks?

I took a slight step back and looked up to see that I’d
smacked right into the chest of a guy wearing a flannel
shirt. He looked down at me with wide green eyes.

“I’m sorry,” I said, and took another step back. “I
didn’t see you there.”

But really, I didn’t know how I hadn’t noticed this guy
before. I mean, if I thought I stood out here, how had I
not noticed someone like him in a place like this? While
the current fashion statement in the club involved ink
and an abundance of black, this guy wore a green flannel
shirt, light blue jeans, and a large bronze antiquey-looking
belt buckle that resembled a Texas marshal’s
star. He had wavy hair the color of milk chocolate that
stuck out from under the edges of his blue baseball cap,
and his tan face was completely free of weird markings
or bad facial hair, unlike most of the guys here. I looked
down, expecting him to be wearing cowboy boots, but
instead he had on a pair of gray Nike running shoes—
otherwise, he would have looked like he’d sauntered
right in here off a ranch or farm or something.

He gave me a friendly smile—making his tanned,
chiseled cheeks dimple—and he wrapped his warm fingers
around my elbow. “A pretty girl like you should be
more careful in a place like this,” he said, and pulled
me farther away from the fight that brewed behind me.

“Yeah. Um. I know. Sorry.”

His large, callused hand was still on my elbow. His
words—pretty girl like you—finally sank into my brain.
I bit my lip as heat rushed into my cheeks. I wanted to
excuse myself and run off to hide in the bathroom or
something.

The guy’s smile widened, and it struck me that there
was something about him—perhaps the shape of his
mouth, or the tone of his voice—that seemed inexplicably,
yet comfortingly, familiar. Like the first wafting
scent of warm caramel-apple pie on Thanksgiving Day
after a full year of not having tasted it. . .

(Oh, and also of note, Talbot is in his early 20s.)

Now are you ready to pick an actor to play our "tasty new treat" (as April calls him) in a TLS movie?


Kellan Lutz (Cute, and got the most nominations [8] but is he too Twilight famous?)


Matt Lanter (Yes, I know, Matt was the winner for Pete Bradshaw, but this pic of him looks so much like the Talbot in my head that I couldn't not include him.)


Channing Tatum (Nice jawline--may be a bit too old, though.)


Jared Padalecki (Looks hott! in plaid flannel)


Jensen Ackles (also hott!)


Now be sure to vote in the poll up over in the sidebar and leave comment on this post for another entry to win 1 of 10 bottles of TLS nail polish. The poll will be open until Tuesday (11/2/2010) at 6:30 pm.

Also, keep spreading the word about the $2.99 ebook promotion of THE DARK DIVINE and leave a comment telling me what you did in order to win 1 of 5 additional bottles of nail polish. (I'll announce winners for this sometime next week.)

Now go vote!

P.S. What did you dress up as for Halloween?

MY HALLOWEEN TREAT FOR YOU ALL + Fantasy Casting THE DARK DIVINE movie: Pator Divine

10/25/2010

****IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT:

You guys know how much I love Halloween, right? Like love, love, love, love it. And not because I'm into creepy things (really, I'm not--says the paranormal fiction author). I love Halloween because it's an entire day (more like week at our house) devoted to playing dress-ups and eating chocolate. What could be awesomer than that?

Oh wait, I know something that would make it even sweeter!

Here's my Halloween treat for you all: Starting today until November 22nd, the e-book version of THE DARK DIVINE will be available for only $2.99 from most major e-book retailers (Barnes & Noble, Borders, Books-a-million, Amazon etc.) and many indie bookstores.

UPDATE: B&N and Amazon are both now offering the e-book for only $2.39!!

Please share this promotion with your friends and followers. Tweet about it, blog about it, facefook it. The more people we can get to read TDD, the better things will be for THE LOST SAINT out of the gate. And who can deny such a fabulous price? I'm going to buy an e-book copy of TDD for the kindle app on my phone just to have a portable version of it with me at all times--and at $2.99, why the heck not?!

But wait, it gets even better. If you help spread the word about this special promotional TDD e-book price--I'll enter you to win 1 of 5 bottles of TLS nailpolish. (That's 5 bottles in addition to the 10 I'm giving away in the fantasy casting contest.) Just be sure to share link to where you announced the promotion in the comments of this blog post.



Also, to kick off the TDD ebook promotion, the ROMANTIC TIMES posted an essay I wrote about "The story behind the story of THE DARK DIVINE." So if you want to know the real life inspiration for the book. Be sure to check out the essay HERE.****

Okay, on to the fantasy casting for THE DARK DIVINE movie!

So Adam Gregory slammed the competition to play Jude in our fantasy cast of THE DARK DIVINE. He pulled in 54 votes out of 109 (that's a whopping 49%)! But seriously, with those eyes, who could compete? Nolan Gerard Funk came in 2nd with 24 votes (22%) but Logan Lerman was nipping at his heels with 22 votes (20%).







Now on to our next character:

PASTOR DIVINE

Physical description: Half Scandinavian, half Russian-ish ancestry. Fair. Wears glasses. In his early forties.

Colin Firth (Is it okay to have a crush on the actor playing Grace's dad?)


Nathan Fillion (Ditto on the crush thing. I LOVE Nathan Fillion!)


Tim Daly (Has a good fatherly look)


Mathew Settle (Possibly a little too rock & roll to play a pastor?)


Now be sure to vote for your fave choice up over in the SIDEBAR and LEAVE A COMMENT to get another entry to possibly win 1 of 10 bottles of TLS nail-polish. The poll will be open until 2:30 pm (MST) on 11/27/10.

And be sure to spread the word about the ebook promo price--and tell me what you did in the comments to be entered into a seperate drawing for 1 of 5 additional bottles of TLS nail-polish.

Fantasy casting THE DARK DIVINE movie: Jude Divine

***I'm participate in a the YA Spooktacular. It's a ghost story told in a round by a bunch of YA authors and writers. I wrote part 2 of the story called A SOUL LAID BARE that was posted today. You can read my part of the story HERE and find the links to the other parts of the stories.

Also, I'm speaking and signing at the St. George Book Festival on Saturday, October 23st at 1:00 pm. If you're in the area, come check out the event.***

Emily Osment won with 31 votes out of 87 (35 %) to play April Thomas. Sasha Pieterse came in second with 20 votes (22%).

Now on to the next character candidate:

JUDE DIVINE

Physical description: Almost 18. Short, dark brown, hair. Violet eyes. Square jaw. Also has a "roman nose." Jude and Grace look very much like brother and sister.

So Chase Crawford and Pen Bagdley got the most nominations for Jude, but even thought I love both of them, I decided both are a little too old for playing high school students now. (Note: If you haven't noticed, I decided to narrow down to the nominations to only actors/actresses the right age to play the characters now. There were so many great nominations, I had to do something to help narrow it down.)

Logan Lerman (What a cutie!)

Adam Gregory (Those eyes!!)

Zac Efron (Used to be anit-Zac, but I loved him in 17 AGAIN. Totally a Zac-convert now.)

Nolan Gerard Funk (Kinda pale, but he looks a lot like the Jude in my head.)

Gregg Sulkin (Maybe a little goofy looking, but he has cute potential.)

Okay, remember to vote up over in the SIDEBAR and LEAVE A COMMENT to be entered to win 1 of 10 bottle os TLS nail-polish. This poll will be open until 3:30pm on Sunday, October 24th.