Fantasy Casting THE DARK DIVINE movie: Grace Divine

10/13/10

***First things first, I wanted to tell you all that I'm speaking at the Salt Lake City Main Library this Friday (October 15th) at 7 pm in the main auditorium as part of their Dewey Lecture series. I'll be speaking about the power of words--and I may have a special little present for people who come out to the event.***


On to the fantasy casting:

Phew! Can I tell you how much work it was to compile all the pictures of the actors/actresses you guys nominated and then narrowing it down to my favorites? Pleasant work, yes, but hard and time consuming, none the less. There were so many great nominations!

I decided to make an individual post for each character rather than overwhelm you guys with too many options at once. That will be 8 posts in all over 16 days. Each post will stay up for 48 hrs so you guys can vote--and then in the end I'll post the "Ultimate Fantasy Cast" for a TDD movie. Be sure to vote in the poll over on the SIDEBAR of the blog, AND also leave a comment on EACH post saying you voted. I will select 10 random commentors/voters to each win a bottle of the new THE LOST SAINT Nail-polish.*

You will get an 1 entry for each character-post you comment on/vote for. But only 1 entry per vote per character--voting multiple times for each character won't get you additional entries.

Today we're starting with Grace. I've narrowed down the nominations to my 5 favorite choices, including the actress who got the most nominations.

So let's get started...

GRACE DIVINE

Physical description: Almost 17. Fair skinned with long, dark brown, loosely curly hair and violet eyes. She describes her nose as being "Roman." Has that "girl next-door" fresh-faced kind of beauty going on. Short.

Actress choices:

Lucy Hale (I think she looks a lot like the actress in the TDD book trailer)


Emily Browning (Got the most nominations [8] but not my own most favorite...)


Allison Miller (Love her "girl-next-door" look)


Dakota Fanning (Not dark-haired, but she gets tons of bonus points for her talent. Plus, she can always dye her hair, right?)


Emma Roberts (Always one of my personal faves)


Now cast your vote in the poll (over on the SIDEBAR of this blog,) AND leave a comment saying you voted on so I can give you credit for your entry. You know you want some of that nail polish!* The poll for Grace will be open until 2:30 pm MST on October 15th.

*Nail polish can only she shipped within the United States. If an international winner is selected, they will be sent TDD stickers and a signed bookmark instead of nail polish.

Deleted Scene from THE DARK DIVINE & Giveaway!

Hey Peeps,

Want to read a never-before-seen-by-the-public deleted scene from THE DARK DIVINE? Then click HERE.

Go ahead, you know you want to.

Also, if you check the out the deleted scene, you can enter to win a signed copy of TDD and a bottle of TDD nail polish. See you over there!

The Dark Divine soundtrack: song #13 and #14

NOTE: IF YOU CAME HERE LOOKING FOR THE BIG ANNOUNCEMENT, CLICK HERE.

Since we had a minor interruption in our regular programming yesterday (and what an interruption it was!), I'll be presenting two songs (as promised) from the play-list this evening. I'll talk about each song and then post the player for them at the bottom so the text doesn't go all wonky again.

Our first song is another by Spoon. Stay Don't Go is another one of those perfect songs to listen to while running on the elliptical. Which means it is also one of the songs I listen to while plotting in my head (for action in my novel, not for diabolical schemes--I save those for the shower). I love this song, and it is absolutely perfect for the way Grace feels at this point in the novel (you know, the novel that is getting PUBLISHED!).

Side note: This song is actually the reason I titled my blog "Confessions of a Mere Mortal," because I love the line, "Confession is: stay don't go." Originally I wanted to start each of my blog posts with something like "Confession is: [fill in the blank]," but I ultimately decided that it might get a little old after a while. It's a fun idea, so I may still use it from time to time.

The next song on the play-list is I Will Follow You Into the Dark by Death Cab for Cutie, and it is one of my ALL-TIME favorites (only to be recently surpassed as current favorite by Postal Service's Against All Odds). To say that I am obsessed with this song would probably qualify as an understatement. In fact, my obsession has gotten so out of hand, I probably shouldn't include this song in the soundtrack for this book, because I have actually started writing another novel based on this song. (That's my Persephone/Orpheus story for anyone who is keeping track.)

To me, this song represents sacrifice. A willingness to follow someone into the dark, or do something unbelievablely difficult for someone else without knowing what the outcome will be for yourself. This song is about the heart of love.

Another side note: Even though this song talks about death, that doesn't necessarily mean that someone in my book dies. (But me giving you this disclaimer, doesn't necessarily mean that someone doesn't die, either. You'll just have to read the book--you know, once it's PUBLISHED!)

Anyway, here are the songs. Enjoy them, because they are a couple of my favorites.

The Dark Divine soundtrack: song #6

Today's song is one of the few on the list that mostly represents Grace's point of view--and it is the only song on the soundtrack that is preformed by a female vocalist. Feist is actually one of the few female singers that I enjoy listening to--I don't know why, I just tend to prefer the sound of male vocals. But Feist has one of those unique voices that I can't help but love--and interesting music to go along with it.

And My Moon, My Man just happens to be the perfect, romantic, (and to be perfectly honest) sexy song for the way Grace is feeling at this moment in the story. (This is a romance, after all!) Grace is in love with a guy who is far from perfect--and at the same time he's the perfect guy for her. (Or is he? ;))

I love the lines of the chorus:

"Take it slow
Take it easy on me
And shed some light
Shed some light on me please
Take it slow
And shed some light
Shed some light on me please"

Part of Grace wants to take it slow, the other part wants to rush right in. Also, at this moment, Daniel is "shedding light" on a very important revelation--one he has to ease into for her sake. How perfect is that?

Anyway, enjoy. I mean, who doesn't like a nice, sexy love song?

The Dark Divine soundtrack: song #4 and #5

I left my house yesterday morning around 11:00 am, and I basically haven't been home until right now--so many apologies for missing yesterday's song. Seriously, it's been stressing me out. Therefore, today I will give you two songs for your listening enjoyment (and they're really good ones!).

The Dark Divine song #4 is Ooh La by The Kooks.

I love The Kooks. They have recently made it into my top 3 favorite bands. My friend Rachie did a recent post on The Kooks where you can listen to more of their songs if you want (and why wouldn't you?!) Ooh La is not only one of my favs (and a song I often listen to while writing) it is a favorite of the entire Despain family. I do believe this is the first song little KidA ever started singing along too. It is so cute to hear his tiny, raspy, toddler voice (did I ever mention that KidA has a smoker-baby voice?) crooning the "Ooh las" from the backseat of the car. And KidZ always requests this song for our family dance parties (even I am known to dance along with this one).

The line: "She was such a good girl to me," is the one that resonates the most with my book. But the overall feeling/mood I'm going for at this moment in the soundtrack is that of someone feeling used or unneeded. Or perhaps that of someone else lamenting the fact that they've made the other person feel used or unneeded.

Have a listen--and I dare you not to dance!

So on to song #5: Be Still My Heart by The Postal Service (the Nobody remix--and yes, it absolutely has to be the Nobody remix!!!)

The actual words of this song don't have much to do with what is happening in my book (other than the line: "This could be a brand new start . . .with you"), it is more the feeling of the song that I wanted for the soundtrack. I wanted to capture the elation/excitement/overwhelmingness (yes, I know, that is also not a real word) of starting a new relationship with someone, or sharing something really special with another person--and no, I am not referring to sex ;).

Enjoy this beautiful song . . .and if you want to download it from iTunes, just remember not to settle for anything less than the Nobody Remix. Ben Gibbard may be a genius, but Nobody took that genius and like multiplied it by ten.

Be Still My Heart (Nobody Remix) - The Postal Service


Oh yeah . . .I wish you all a joyful and amazing new year!

The Dark Divine soundtrack: song #3

Today's song is brought to you by the band Spoon. I love Spoon--especially when I'm running on the elliptical or exercising on my recumbent bike. There's nothing like a good Spoon song to get my heart-rate up. And since I do some of my best plotting while working out, it was only inevitable that a couple of Spoon songs would make it into my play-list.

(Side note: you know how at the end of a yoga class, you're supposed to just lay there on your mat and empty your mind of all thought? Yeah, that SO doesn't work for me. This is usually when I end up writing dialogue for romantic scenes in my head. Yes, I know, I'm weird.)

Anyway, the song for today is Spoon's The Way We Get By. Probably not everyone is going to love this song as much as I do, but I really feel like it reflects Daniel's life--or at least how Grace thinks Daniel feels about his life (at first). Kind of a flippant, "Yeah, my life is messed up. But this is how I get by."

Enjoy (or not) and try running on the elliptical to it

Note: Inserting the music player has been doing funky things with my text (single spacing or that giant quotation mark in yesterday's post) so from now on I'll put the song after its description.

The Dark Divine soundtrack: song #2

Song #2 for The Dark Divine play-list/soundtrack just happens to be another by The Notwist. Don't worry. Don't worry. I promise there is more variety in the soundtrack than just sixteen songs by the same band--but let's face it, soundtracks often have multiple songs from the same band throughout. However, this is the last song by The Notwist (I'm just warning you for when we get to the Ben Gibbard portions of the play-list--that man is a genius).

NOTE: If you are scratching your head, thinking, "What the heck is The Dark Divine play-list/soundtrack?"--then you need to go back and read this post.

So anyway, today's song is One with the Freaks by The Notwist. Take a listen and tell me what you think.

In my opinion, not only is this a beautiful song, it just works with my book in so many ways. First, there's the question: "Have you ever been all messed up?" Because, frankly, Daniel is messed up. I also love the line: "Things look much bigger on your knees." I have no idea if I'm interpreting the line right at all, but to me it symbolizes when you sink so low, that getting on your knees is the only way you can even try to figure things out--and from there things look so big, you can't possibly do it on your own. This is Daniel. He needs help--and Grace is the only one who can help him.

But I mostly see this song as a warning to Grace. She is drawn to Daniel, but Jude (knowing a pretty dark secret about their former friend) tries to make Grace stay away from Daniel. But she doesn't--she can't. Grace sees herself as Daniel's "life-line" (or lifeguard as the song says), and her decision to help Daniel behind Jude's back is what propels the action of the story. But can Grace help Daniel find his way, without losing her own?

I love the lines in this song that go:

"Miss the signal
Miss the signpost
Miss the exits to it all
And all of a sudden
you were one with the freaks"

Okay, so future song descriptions probably won't be as detailed as this one. So far
I haven't given more away than you'd learn in the first chapter (or by reading the
back of the book while standing in B&N) but I don't want to spoil anything for
those who haven't read the book yet. . . So for now, enjoy the song and tell me
what you think. The next one will be posted tomorrow.

XOXO,

Bree