Sunday, January 15, 2012

Beth Fantaskey's "Jessica Rules the Dark Side"

Beth Fantaskey is the author of Jessica’s Guide to Dating on the Dark Side, Jekel Loves Hyde, and the newly released Jessica Rules the Dark Side.

Here she explains her difficulty in imagining any particular actors portraying her characters on the big screen:
I can’t, for the life of me, choose actors to play my characters. As I write, the people I create become very vivid in my imagination, and they never look like anyone but... themselves. Every now and then, readers will send me pictures of actors and say, “This is who I imagine as Lucius Vladescu.” Or, “This actress would be perfect as Jessica Packwood.” And I think that’s great. But inevitably, I look at the images and think, “No, Lucius has a different nose,” or “Jess’s eyes aren’t quite like that.” I can’t even seem to speculate on choosing actors, myself. It’s almost like I’m afraid I’ll start writing dialogue that I think would be suited to the actor, not the character. I suppose I need to really believe in the unique people I’ve tried to create, or they won’t come across as genuine on paper. I’m not a very “quirky” writer, and I usually don’t over think things, but that is one strange habit that I have. Keep sending me photos, though. I love to see who other people are picturing as they read!
Learn more about the author and her work at Beth Fantaskey's website.

--Marshal Zeringue