Yes, I know....
I just posted to this blog yesterday. But have I ever mentioned how inspiration can be at times? It's a "write it or lose it" world for a writer, and therefore......THIS:
I've discovered an odd phenomenon happening on my Facebook page, and it's not necessarily because of who I have on my friends list. It's more of a situation where I'm starting to feel like I have an angel on my shoulder, and if I listen and obey what she's telling me, I can get what I asked for - within reason.
Take, for example, what happened last week.....
I've been merrily writing along on "A Wild Tiger's Heart", the third in The Tiger Series (as the publisher, Write Words Inc., termed it). As I hit points when the characters are mulling over where I'm going next with it, I drop terms into search engines and see what pops up (i.e. "Italian Male Model" or "Native American Female Model") and see what comes in for results, sometimes seeing something I can use on the Facebook Fan Page for the book, but sometimes just getting lots of those pink bunny slippers I've mentioned in past posts.
And, of course, when I'm not even at home, I think of things that I can do for this book, such as the video book trailer like I did for the first two books last year. The video trailers on You Tube may not be getting much play, but when one has no budget for marketing, one uses all the free tools available. But, of course, to produce a video for the book, I need to find the models to use for the characters.
Brain fart time...
On the 5th of June, while at work, it suddenly struck me that I have a whole bunch of people on Facebook who helped me out with the last book. Why not ask them?
So on Friday, June 6th, I posted a little message asking for assistance with finding models for my characters. I described my characters: Stefan, whom his countrymen (countrywomen?) think is the epitome of "tall, dark and handsome" and Kelly, pretty, but not model material, dark hair and eyes, looking enough like my model for Aloriah (which, for those of you who haven't figured out how to pronounce that, it's "Al-Oh-Ree-Ah" said fairly quickly) to allow us to really believe we are looking at Ree's mother.
I have never had the Universe slap me silly within 24 hours for asking for such a thing.
I monitor modeling pages on Facebook on the off chance that one of the dozen or so sites might post someone I can see as a character. (For instance, if I hadn't already seen Teo Theodoridis before liking those pages, I would have found my Kyle there, as he has been featured a couple of times. There have also been a few alternates for Teresanna, Ree and a couple of the other "background characters" on those sites. Never have I had all the modeling sites post the same model at the same time.
Until June 7th.
ALL the sites that feature male models posted photographs of Daniel Sobieray on June 7th. Several of my friends who also like those pages hit me in private messages with photographs of Daniel Sobieray from those same sites. Several other friends who DON"T like those pages on Facebook sent me private messages with photographs of Daniel Sobieray.
I looked the man up. On his own Facebook page within the first few posts, I found about a half a dozen photos that made the Stefan in my head poke me - hard - and say "Yes, that could have been me posing."
So what is a poor writer, looking at a news feed that has become a temple to a Los Angeles model to do?
Yes, you guessed it. While I was right on Daniel's Facebook page, I liked his page and dropped him a message, basically introducing myself, telling the little story I've just shared with you, and the result. As with my past models, I asked his permission to use his photographs to represent Stefan with my standard "creative borrowing set up" - that any photos used with have the source included, and he would be identified as the model, making it very easy for anyone who liked him as this character to locate more photos, possibly leading to more jobs......
Yup. Standard approach. Sometimes I get shot down when I approach the models like a stalker crawling out of a sewer, but sometimes, as with this time, I get a very lovely response thanking me for compliments I've included in my intro and I get permission to use the model as my character.
So the next step is always putting the name in Google to see what comes up for photos that strike me as the character. As the kids these days put it: O M G!
The first couple of pages I visited were like when I stumbled across Dylan Griner when looking for a model for Chase Benton. In particular, there was this photo that made my chin hit the floor - almost literally.
The Stefan in my head keeps telling me that he started doing cocaine when his agent started harping on him about starting to "look fat". As I looked at this photo, personally admiring the view, Stefan's agent/manager, Christof, started yelling in the back of my head "Look at those love handles you're showing! You're getting fat and lazy! How can I sell your photographs when you're fat, wrinkled, and starting to show grey hair? You need to keep your weight under control for the good of your career!"
The hanging head and general feel of this photo just really got to me - especially when another photo right after it was either photoshopped or just shows enough of a different angle to make Daniel look much leaner, but no less defined.....
Of course, one of the pages I visited listed some stats, and that was when the theme from The Twilight Zone REALLY started to play.
You see, I've described Kyle Benton as 6'2", muscular, green eyes, dark hair. The stats on Teo Theodoridis match that description exactly.
I've described Chase Benton as almost the exact duplicate of his father, but he also takes after his mother a little. The stats on Dylan Griner put him at 5"11" or 6', depending on which site you look at, and he otherwise matches the description.
I hadn't really thought about how tall Stefan might be, but the description I gave above - and the fact that Kelly is about 5'6" and, in a couple of scenes I've been shown, Stefan is a bit taller than Kelly. She actually makes a comment to that effect, as her husband was about her same height, so she was never able to wear heels when they were going somewhere special. (Being 5'8" myself, this happened a lot before I went to college, as most of the guys I went to school with prior to that were mostly my height or shorter.)
Daniel is either 6'2" or 6'3", depending on which site you look at.
So, basically,, if I were to get my three chosen male models together with the two ladies I have for my characters (I'm still looking for Kelly), the men would tower over the ladies in the same way that the characters do.
Sometimes, the Universe is a little disturbing when giving me what I ask for......
I just posted to this blog yesterday. But have I ever mentioned how inspiration can be at times? It's a "write it or lose it" world for a writer, and therefore......THIS:
I've discovered an odd phenomenon happening on my Facebook page, and it's not necessarily because of who I have on my friends list. It's more of a situation where I'm starting to feel like I have an angel on my shoulder, and if I listen and obey what she's telling me, I can get what I asked for - within reason.
Take, for example, what happened last week.....
I've been merrily writing along on "A Wild Tiger's Heart", the third in The Tiger Series (as the publisher, Write Words Inc., termed it). As I hit points when the characters are mulling over where I'm going next with it, I drop terms into search engines and see what pops up (i.e. "Italian Male Model" or "Native American Female Model") and see what comes in for results, sometimes seeing something I can use on the Facebook Fan Page for the book, but sometimes just getting lots of those pink bunny slippers I've mentioned in past posts.
And, of course, when I'm not even at home, I think of things that I can do for this book, such as the video book trailer like I did for the first two books last year. The video trailers on You Tube may not be getting much play, but when one has no budget for marketing, one uses all the free tools available. But, of course, to produce a video for the book, I need to find the models to use for the characters.
Brain fart time...
On the 5th of June, while at work, it suddenly struck me that I have a whole bunch of people on Facebook who helped me out with the last book. Why not ask them?
So on Friday, June 6th, I posted a little message asking for assistance with finding models for my characters. I described my characters: Stefan, whom his countrymen (countrywomen?) think is the epitome of "tall, dark and handsome" and Kelly, pretty, but not model material, dark hair and eyes, looking enough like my model for Aloriah (which, for those of you who haven't figured out how to pronounce that, it's "Al-Oh-Ree-Ah" said fairly quickly) to allow us to really believe we are looking at Ree's mother.
I have never had the Universe slap me silly within 24 hours for asking for such a thing.
I monitor modeling pages on Facebook on the off chance that one of the dozen or so sites might post someone I can see as a character. (For instance, if I hadn't already seen Teo Theodoridis before liking those pages, I would have found my Kyle there, as he has been featured a couple of times. There have also been a few alternates for Teresanna, Ree and a couple of the other "background characters" on those sites. Never have I had all the modeling sites post the same model at the same time.
Until June 7th.
ALL the sites that feature male models posted photographs of Daniel Sobieray on June 7th. Several of my friends who also like those pages hit me in private messages with photographs of Daniel Sobieray from those same sites. Several other friends who DON"T like those pages on Facebook sent me private messages with photographs of Daniel Sobieray.
I looked the man up. On his own Facebook page within the first few posts, I found about a half a dozen photos that made the Stefan in my head poke me - hard - and say "Yes, that could have been me posing."
So what is a poor writer, looking at a news feed that has become a temple to a Los Angeles model to do?
Yes, you guessed it. While I was right on Daniel's Facebook page, I liked his page and dropped him a message, basically introducing myself, telling the little story I've just shared with you, and the result. As with my past models, I asked his permission to use his photographs to represent Stefan with my standard "creative borrowing set up" - that any photos used with have the source included, and he would be identified as the model, making it very easy for anyone who liked him as this character to locate more photos, possibly leading to more jobs......
Yup. Standard approach. Sometimes I get shot down when I approach the models like a stalker crawling out of a sewer, but sometimes, as with this time, I get a very lovely response thanking me for compliments I've included in my intro and I get permission to use the model as my character.
So the next step is always putting the name in Google to see what comes up for photos that strike me as the character. As the kids these days put it: O M G!
The first couple of pages I visited were like when I stumbled across Dylan Griner when looking for a model for Chase Benton. In particular, there was this photo that made my chin hit the floor - almost literally.
The Stefan in my head keeps telling me that he started doing cocaine when his agent started harping on him about starting to "look fat". As I looked at this photo, personally admiring the view, Stefan's agent/manager, Christof, started yelling in the back of my head "Look at those love handles you're showing! You're getting fat and lazy! How can I sell your photographs when you're fat, wrinkled, and starting to show grey hair? You need to keep your weight under control for the good of your career!"
The hanging head and general feel of this photo just really got to me - especially when another photo right after it was either photoshopped or just shows enough of a different angle to make Daniel look much leaner, but no less defined.....
Of course, one of the pages I visited listed some stats, and that was when the theme from The Twilight Zone REALLY started to play.
You see, I've described Kyle Benton as 6'2", muscular, green eyes, dark hair. The stats on Teo Theodoridis match that description exactly.
I've described Chase Benton as almost the exact duplicate of his father, but he also takes after his mother a little. The stats on Dylan Griner put him at 5"11" or 6', depending on which site you look at, and he otherwise matches the description.
I hadn't really thought about how tall Stefan might be, but the description I gave above - and the fact that Kelly is about 5'6" and, in a couple of scenes I've been shown, Stefan is a bit taller than Kelly. She actually makes a comment to that effect, as her husband was about her same height, so she was never able to wear heels when they were going somewhere special. (Being 5'8" myself, this happened a lot before I went to college, as most of the guys I went to school with prior to that were mostly my height or shorter.)
Daniel is either 6'2" or 6'3", depending on which site you look at.
So, basically,, if I were to get my three chosen male models together with the two ladies I have for my characters (I'm still looking for Kelly), the men would tower over the ladies in the same way that the characters do.
Sometimes, the Universe is a little disturbing when giving me what I ask for......
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