Welcome to The Saturday Spotlight, a weekly feature hosted by TBR's that shines the light on Indie, debut and Ebook/Kindle authors. This week Im excited to introduce:
LISA DARLING
~Author of The Heart of War~
Find Lisa at: Web~Goodreads~Blog~Buy the book at Amazon or B&N
First I'd like to thank our hostess for having me here today, it's a pleasure to be here. Second, when I contacted her I asked, as I always do, if there were particular topics of interest to her readers. Like most writers I suppose, I hate to just go in 'cold' and try to whip something up off the top of my head. If I can get a starting point then I'm great. Tina was kind enough to reply that perhaps I should write about what inspired me to write the "OF WAR" series and who I'd like to see play the major roles in a movie.
People have been asking me that last one for a while but I've never been given space to blog about it. So I think I'll take this opportunity to tell you a little bit about the story, the major players in the "OF WAR" series and then we'll find out who the lucky stars are. I've been interested in and writing about Greek Mythology for over twenty years. I was introduced to it way back in high school in 1984—yes, The Dark Ages, I know. It captivated me right off the bat and, to tell you the truth, it made me feel as though I'd found some missing part of myself. No, I'm not Greek. Several years ago I started writing about or using Ares God of War in my stories. He started out as a minor character, someone in the background but, over time, he grew to a major character and one of my most beloved characters of all-time. This is the guy that readers either outright HATE or they LOVE to hate him. Either way, they couldn't get enough of him so he became an absolute goldmine for me as well as being a very large part of my life.
Ares, being Ares, was never 'the good guy'. He was never 'the hero'. He tried very hard. He really did. Many times he came through in the clinch but more often than not he ended up doing the wrong things for the right reasons or the right things for the wrong reasons. So one day, we got to thinking (the Muse and I); what if Ares fell in love? Not in lust as he so often did and was so outrageously good at but real love. What would happen to him then? The idea kept rolling around and rolling around and rolling around in my head until I wanted to give it a shot but knew it was a loser off the bat. If we wrote the story we'd have to do it for nothing more than our own amusement. Who was ever going to buy Ares as the hero? The REAL Ares, not some watered-down pansy version of him but the real deal hot-tempered, stubborn, mean streak a mile wide, sexy as hell…the whole nine yards. The idea was too wickedly delicious to pass up. We sat down and started to write.
We needed a woman. Duh. At first Magdalena MacLeod was this hot 23 year-old chickie who happened to wash up on the shore of Ares' island. That lasted all of…oh…fifteen minutes, I guess. In my head, Ares started to yawn and I heard the song 'Hey Nineteen' play in my head. Yes, some little chickie was never going to be enough to hold his interest for long. We needed someone else, someone wiser, bolder….with…life experience….we needed an older woman. A much older woman than is usually portrayed in these types of books. Maggie MacLeod became Alena MacLeod a 245 year-old half-fey half-human woman. She is the daughter of a warrior. In order to remind people that she was older we gave her gray hair and eyes. I think older women are sexy and I don't mean the ones you see on the TV pushing 'age defying make up'. I mean REAL older women, those who wear their gray hair as a badge of pride and honor, who know they earned every laugh line and aren't afraid to let them show. Others have disagreed, they don't like her because she has gray hair. To each their own I suppose. All I know is when she formed Ares stopped yawning, Steely Dan stopped playing, and we went full-tilt-boogie down our merry little path.
We have lots of bad guys in the "OF WAR" series…tons actually. There's: Zeus, the Father who loathes Ares but will use him at any turn he possibly can. Apollo, the Brother who also loathes Ares and never hesitates to stick it to him. Aphrodite, the Ex-Lover who's so jealous of the love Ares and Alena share she can't see straight. Cernunnos, the Husband of Alena whom he kidnapped when she was quite young. Raven, Son of Ares and Alena who's true destiny is yet to be revealed but he is one angry young man. We have a few others in there as well. Now that I have, hopefully, piqued your interest…let's talk about that movie.
A lot of people suggest Gerard Butler or Hugh Jackman or Eric Bana to play Ares. The two of them would be excellent choices but I don't really care about the third. However, in my head, since 1995 or so, Ares has ALWAYS been Kevin Smith .That man burst on the scene and stole my heart. I never really got it back. So, personally, I can't ever even imagine anyone else bringing my version of Ares to life. RIP Kevin Smith.
On to Alena. She's a sticky one. I really don't know who would be good at portraying her. Do you have any suggestions? Liv Tyler was tossed around by people but she's not old enough, at least not for my tastes. Even though we didn't write Alena with anyone at all in mind, somehow, if I could have the above, I wouldn't mind seeing Lucy Lawless give it a shot....I think that's far enough removed from 'Xena' so as not to be an obstacle. Then again…Marcia Cross isn't a bad choice either.
Zeus…personally I can't really see anyone else pulling this off…
If I could really really really have whomever I wanted for Apollo the role goes to….
Brad Pitt….oh Gods I LOVE "Troy" While we're 'shooting for the stars' here, Raquel Welch would make a stunning Aphrodite. Not to mention Susan Sarandon would play well opposite Sir Ian McKellen to make an excellent Hera. We could make Tim Robbins Hades or Poseidon.
We need someone to play Eros, how about….Matt Damon?
Last but never least, we need a hot young man to play Raven. I have no idea who this juicy stud is but he's got the part if he wants it. If you know who he is please let me know!
Thanks Lisa for stopping by today! How fun to see your actor choices for the book. Im all for Matt Damon playing all the roles!! Best of luck to you and The Heart of War novels.
**Team Matt**
GIVEAWAYToday Lisa is giving away one Ebook (version of your choice) copy to a reader of TBR's. To enter just leave a comment and a winner will be drawn Dec 17, 2011.
Update 7/26/12- Due to Copyright Laws all the celebrity photos had to be removed- sorry!
Thank you very much for doing this! It looks wonderful!!
ReplyDeleteOMG, what a fun interview! Lisa, I love your choices for characters. Man, I wish the guy that played Ares on the Xena series hadn't passed away - he was so HOT and just perfect!
ReplyDeleteThank you for participating in yet another blog hop! And thank you for hosting, Tina! I've found another blog to follow =)
Happy Holidays!
Gena Robertson
[email protected]
Lisa,
ReplyDeleteWhat a great interview. I always wondered what happen to Kevin. I loved watching him in Xena. He was such a great Ares.
Your choices of actors & actresses are good. However I can see bitchy Alexis Carrington (Joan Collins) playing Hera.
Thanks for sharing your work.
Teresa K.
tcwgrlup41(at)yahoo dot com
Joan Collins is a GREAT choice for Hera! Thanks for coming by today :)
ReplyDelete(Sigh) I miss Kevin too. :( Thanks for coming to read glad you enjoyed the interview! :)
ReplyDelete