The Purple Bar!

When you upload all your words into the NaNoWriMo site and you've "won" (meaning you've written at least 50,000 words in November) your bar that's been showing your progress in blue gets lit up as purple with the word "WINNER!" inside it.

I GOT MY PURPLE BAR!

As those of you who read this blog know, I earned it after two weeks but it still was awesome yesterday to put in my chapters and hit "update" and see my final count was 80,301! More than I thought...more than Word said but hey...whatever. Word said I was at 80,231 so this just seems to think I wrote 70 more...odd but okay.

To celebrate I shall give you an excerpt from the book that I enjoy, its from near the end. I did pull about a paragraph or two in the middle of this out so as to not give away important plot info---would hate to ruin suprises for those who someday read this.

It's a scene between Cash and Phin. They're at the hospital. Enjoy!

--------------------------------

Tiny section from Chapter 25...

Cash sat on the couch, head in his hands. “What is wrong with me?”

“Do you want a list or would you like it in a power point presentation?”

Cash looked up to see Phin standing there. “Would I get color pictures?”

“But of course!”

“Then Power Point it is,” he said, his head back into his hands, his elbows on his knees.

Phin sat down and put his laptop bag on the ground. “Look, I know I’m not your boy Liam but if you need to talk—”

Cash looked up at him. “You’re my pack brother just like Liam is Phin, you know that.”

“I know—it’s just, well, you two are really tight.”

“He and I drink and party a lot, we don’t talk about serious stuff that much. He’s a great guy, don’t get me wrong, but that’s not how our friendship rolls. You on the other hand—well, you’re more level headed than he is.”

“I think that was a compliment.”

Cash gave him a lopsided grin and a light grasp on his shoulder, “It was.”

Phin paused and then said, “It’s good to have you back.”

“It’s good to be back—I just wish—why is she so difficult?”

“Denika?”

“No, the other bane of my existence.”

Phin laughed.

“Excuse me, sir? Mr. Pankov?”

Cash looked up at the nurse, “Yes?”

“Maria has arrived and has asked for you to meet her on the Squad floor.”

“All right,” Cash said as he stood up. "Thanks Phin.” Cash started to head towards the elevator when Phin stopped him.

“Cash?”

He hit the down button and turned around. “Yeah?”

“My suggestion? Just tell her.”

“Tell who?”

“Denika.”

The elevator dinged and the door opened. Cash reached in and held the door. “Tell her what?”

Phin smiled. “Just tell her that you love her man. It’ll solve a lot of your problems. Trust me. I speak from experience.”

“What makes you think—”

“Stop right there and get on your elevator—lying is not a virtue.”

Cash tried to hide a smile. “Thanks Phin.”

“Anytime good sir, anytime.”

Back to Living Dead Girl; Book 4 - Destiny

It's that time...time to put Moon Over Manhattan down...let it rest...let me detatch from it so I can really edit. I tried to do a lightning edit but I'll be honest; I'm too close to it still to do anything so...into the metaphorical drawer it goes. Don't get me wrong...I was able to cut almost 200 words in the first two chapters so I was doing well--I just found it hard to really see objectively. I might jump back over to it, we'll see.

What I knew I needed to do was get back to Living Dead Girl. I left off after I'd started Chapter 12 (so, basically 1/3 of the way thru) when I began Moon Over Manhattan. Problem was, I needed to re-read it cause honestly, I didn't remember much about it. I've been in a different girl's mind for the past 4 months so, alas, I had to re-read.

I started with the Introduction and had a profound memory recall--THIS main girl is NOT in good shape. I'd forgotten how messed up Atlanta is at this point in the game. I've been in the head of a healthy (and I mean mentally healthy) girl for 4 months. I'd forgotten about what a disaster Atlanta's head is. No wonder I left her for awhile...sheesh!

Anyhoo...wish me luck getting back into the other series. It's SUPER sad to leave Denika behind but alas, Atlanta needs me.

I will say this...I was impressed with the opening of Book 4, which is called Destiny. I'd forgotten how it started...here it is...

xo

Tamsin :)
--------------------------------

Introduction
Main Entry: des•ti•ny
Pronunciation: \ˈdes-tə-nē\
Function: noun
Inflected Form(s): plural des•ti•nies
Etymology: Middle English destinee, from Anglo-French, from feminine of destiné, past participle of destiner
Date: 14th century
1 : something to which a person or thing is destined : FORTUNE
2 : a predetermined course of events often held to be an irresistible power or agency
synonyms see FATE

So I wait.

What do I wait for?

Destiny…to eat me whole. This “predetermined” course of events that seem to have infected my being. The “chosen one”. Prophecy this and prophecy that. I hate it. To feel like you have no choice but yet you’ve made all the wrong ones. It sucks. I am unhappy and I hurt those I love daily. How in hell can this be my destiny? Did I per chance pick the wrong path one day? If so, when did that happen and can I go back and change my mind?

On one hand, I have two beautiful children and powers that many would make a deal with the devil for. Yet, on the other hand I seem to have the propensity for tragedy and horror to follow me and those I care for wherever I go. One might suggest maybe I need to embrace this stay of being. I cannot fathom it. If I didn’t feel I was needed I would find a way to die. Destiny or no, there are things I’ve seen and things I’ve done that make my skin crawl and my non-beating heart cry out for help.

But I can’t. Have help that is. I have made these bad choices, whether they were my destiny to make or not, and I am the one that deals with them. There is no need to share my dirty laundry with those who count on me so heavily. I am the chosen one and I should be able to shoulder this pain and these burdens alone…and I will.

Until it kills me.

As Destiny Unfolds
by Nettie Pennington

There is always a choice to make
When two paths merge and life takes a break
For a split second, all things are one
As destiny and chaos collide once more

When two paths merge and life takes a break
No one will warn you that it is already to late
To change the path you have taken
As destiny and chaos collide once more…

Moon Over Manhattan is DONE!

On July 13th, 2010 I posted on this blog that I had a book idea. I then took you on a journey with me on how I discovered who it was about...how I decided to do a photo-shoot, and so on.

And as of 12:30am this morning...I'd finished the book. No joke. 30 Chapters + a tiny Epilogue (to piss off the readers of course because its the cliff hanger in case I want to write another one...and how could I not? I love these characters!) and BEFORE edit its at...hold onto your belt buckles people...175,829 words. Phew! No kidding...she's a big'en huh? Actually, to be honest, my first novel, Living Dead Girl; Book One - The Betrayal is 188,000 words AFTER edit so...I think I did better this time around on a "book one" (seeing as they need to have more backstory than other books).

Now, there is still a little over a week of NaNoWriMo left...so...what to do? Well, I'm going to do a "Lightning Edit". This is one of those things where I'll sit down and just start hacking away at it--cutting things I feel are "indulgent" or "boring" or "too wordy" (who me?). I would like to, in the end, cut a minimal of 25,829 words so the book is no more than 150,000 but...on the first pass let's set our sights on a more realistic goal...especially since we only have a short time to do it. Let's say.....5,000? Is that unrealistic? We'll see.


Anyhoo...I'm both sad and happy. Happy to have honestly written a full novel in four months...but sad to be done. It's been a great few months and I've had a blast! My story telling has gotten better I feel and this book is a lot of fun. It not only has a primary mystery plot that develops nicely but a love story that I feel is one of my better ones; my two lovely readers were very (and I do mean VERY) investsed in that part so, I think I nailed it better than before. Honestly, I'm going to miss my dysfunctional couple Denika and Cash----though, by the end they're not so dysfunctional.

After I do the Lightning Edit the book will get put in a drawer (metaphorically speaking of course) for a few months while I go back to LDG4. Once I've had some time away I can give it a better edit. I'm too close to the book right now to really attack and hack at it. #ThingsToKnowAboutYourself

I leave you all with a picture of the dynamic due...good gal sister and bad guy brother---ever enemies...Denika and Demyan...

National Novel Writing Month!

For those of you who don't know what this is--let me fill ye in!

Every year many (and I do mean MANY) writers young and old participate in this event; the object of which it is to try and write a 50,000 word novel during the month of November.

You are thinking; "Seriously?"

You're next thought is then one of the following;

A. Who can write that many words in a month that make sense?
B. You can't write a full novel in 30 days!
C. If you do write a full novel in 30 days it'll be utter shite.
D. What novel these days is only 50,000 words?
E. I think I'm crazy enough to try that!
F. That sounds like fun! Where do I sign up?

I was both E and F...cause I am crazy like that! Besides, I write rather fast so I was curious if I could do it. Ah yes, us Leo's love a challenge! :)

Now, in NaNoWriMo (that's the abbreviation we all use--go to Twitter and go to the hash tag of that and you can see all kinds of stuff!) you're "suppose to" start a NEW novel as of November 1st...but...I won't lie, I didn't do that. I have been working on Moon Over Manhattan and had sworn I would finish it by the time I rang in the year 2011. To take all of November off to write something new would put a damper in my need to get this bad boy ready to pitch to agents by the new year so...I held off and began Chapter 16 of the book on the 1st of November.

I tend to write chapters with approx 5000 words per--so I was thinking, "So, in order to 'win' (there are no prizes & you're not really competing against anyone but yourself...so win is a loose term for 'complete') NaNoWriMo I need to do about 10 chapters. I would love to try that! Deal."

I've been known to, on frequent occation, to write a chapter in a day so all I needed was 10 good days and BAM...I'd reach the goal.

What happened though, has suprised even me.

As of today I am writing Chapter 23. I am at 36,722 words as of when I went to bed yesterday evening. I only have 13,278 words to go...so honestly only 2.5 more chapters to go...so to be honest, I could be done by this weekend. Well hell. I didn't want to be done that fast--nor did I think I would be.

But, it is what it is and I'm having fun, which is part of the point, and I've met some really cool people who are writers (who write as they're job job, or their job-to-be in the near future job OR those who write as a hobby--all of which ROCK!) here in NYC by going to "Meet Up's" and "Write In's". I love hearing about what people are writing! I love to listen all the amazing ideas that are in their heads! Plus, I get the chance to talk to people who are like me...people who like to let their imagination out to play on a regular basis. :)

What I am excited about is that I'm reaching the end of the Novel...which is bittersweet...but have no fear, I've totally thought of a way to continue the series if I so choose. What's even better is that I'm getting to bring in some of my awesome witches from my original series, Living Dead Girl. Characters that were children in that story (which begins in 1997) are now young adults and I'm really enjoying that!!! In particular, Gabriel Cotswald is 9 years old in Book Two of the LDG Series and now he's just now 21 years old and full of bravado! ***I believe Rachel describes him as being a mixture between James Dean and Vinny Barbarino*** ---LOL!

Someone who has read the first 3 books I've finished in my first series (I'm half way thru writing Book 4 and I plan to get back to it when Moon Over Manhattan is completed/edited/being shopped) had asked if I was going to bring in the "old gang". But of course I am! What fun for those who read both series! Bring in their favorite characters from one book to the other. I also plan to bring some of my characters from Moon Over Manhattan into LDG 4 and onward...cameo's...but still there. It IS the same world after all.

So that's my news. I know you all wanted more pictures...I know I promised you all the "villians" but those pics are still being worked on...not much longer, I promise.

But for now, I leave you a picture of what it looks like in NYC right now...and to all you NaNoWriMo Peeps! HAPPY WRITING! See you at the write in on Sunday! :) --If I've finished the novel by then, I'll start the editing process so I'll still be working with you all!

TTFN!

xo Tamsin :)

The Hybrid kids from Moon Over Manhattan

L to R: Connor Trevlin (Model: Garret West), Justin Banner (Model: John Jeffords), Tyler MacManus (Model: Robert Skadal), Shannon Yoder (Model: Michelle Medoff), Gabe Cotswald (Model: Tyler Gattoni), Ken "Keebler" Willis (Model: Ben Broad), Riley Trevlin (Model: Allyson Morgan), Kade Warner (Model: Rachel Ghilardi), and Mandy Sue Blume (Model: Anna Wallace-Deering).

In the 2nd book of Living Dead Girl Saga, called Shattered, we meet nine hybrid kids in their teens. By the time we reach Moon Over Manhattan they're young adults in their 20's. When we did the Moon Over Manhattan Photo-shoot I wasn't finished writing the book so I didn't know how big of a role they'd end up playing. But, seeing as they do end up in all the books I added them to the LDG shoot we did the summer of 2011 and I have back-dated the posting to show them here by the other MOM pics.

Note: We also did pics of them younger, for the LDG books. So you'll see pics of them in the LDG section up in October of 2011 as well as here, where they're depicted as being in their early 20's.

Gabe Cotswald (Model: Tyler Gattoni)
Gabe is a hybrid of Vampire and Water Witch. His talent revolves around storms, specifically rain/thunder/lightning...lightning being the key here. Electrical power. Personality wise Gabe would be a cross between Vinny Barbarino (from the TV show Welcome Back Cotter) and James Dean. Raised from the age of 9 by Phoenix Keziah, in MOM he is working for The Order at their NYC office as an intern...which he hates. Though not one of the original eight of the Knights of Cydonia, he's easily the leader and is the first to have ideas for battle. He has a crush on Denika.

Tyler MacManus (Model: Robert Skadal)
When we meet Tyler in LDG he's young, has a stutter, and he is how the readers first get a taste of what hybrids can do. Tyler is a hybrid of Vampire and Fire Witch. As an adult he's gotten rid of the majority of his stutter and has complete control of his gifts. He's the only vampire who can be fully engulfed in flames and be fine. He also can throw fire balls. Yeah, he'd have made a GREAT pitcher for the Yankees. :) He and Gabe are usually at each other's throats bickering like old women. This stems from the fact that Tyler works at the NYC office for The Order also and is higher up than Gabe.

Shannon Yoder (Model: Michelle Medoff)
Shannon is a hybrid of Vampire and Water Witch, like Gabe, but her powers are different. She has control over moisture in the air. Her more impressive skill is using the moisture to create tornados (small and large). And because she's got some skill with a storms she's a fantastic pilot. In MOM she's their helicopter pilot. Liam thinks that's hot. But this loverly lady is taken. Who's the BF? You'll have to read to find out.

Ken "Keebler" Willis (Model: Ben Broad) and his sister Kade Warner (Model: Rachel Ghilardi)
These two have different father's but the same mother, who is a Snow Leopard Shape Shifter. Keeb's father was a Water Witch and Kade's father was a Fire Witch. They control of the seasons/weather. Kade heats up Summer and drys out the Fall while Keeb brings the rain of Spring and the ice of Winter. The other kids call them the Bobbsey Twins or the Wonder Twins in jest. Keebler is the computer wiz kid of the group and enjoys playing the guitar and Kade is the actress of the group. She likes to sing, dance and act.

Connor & Riley Trevlin (Models: Garret West & Allyson Morgan)
These siblings are the only ones that share both their mother and their father. Mom was a Earth Witch and dad was a Werewolf. In LDG these two are very different. Connor is a skateboarding dude with long bangs and the typical "skater" attititude and dress (very laid back). He's megga protective of his sister but mainly because Riley is a tom-boy who is unsure of herself (more so than normal teenage girls) and has a crush on Tyler (who has a crush on someone else, of course). Now, though they are the same make-up, genetically speaking, their gifts with the Earth vary. When younger, Riley can reshape the earth. Need a chair? She can make it from dirt and rocks. Connor can move the earth, as in rocks and boulders. Plus, it speaks to him. He can touch the ground and it'll tell him where something is. As they get older these talents grow. Riley, who feels she's pretty useless, discovers her ability also allows her to open the earth. She could easily make another Grand Canyon if she put her mind to it. She could also create an earthquake. Connor, as he gets older, is able to hurl large rocks and boulders through the air and just by walking barefoot on the earth, can track anyone, anywhere they've gone, as long as it's not been more than a week since they stepped on that ground.

Mandy Sue Blume (Model: Anna Wallace-Deering)
Mandy is a mix of Fire Witch and shape shifter. It's the type of shape shifter that's unique though. She's a phoenix with an easy 6 foot wing span. She can fly totally consumed by fire and breathe it too, like a dragon. Personality wise, she is the leader of the group, especially when the group is younger. She's the organizer, the one who makes sure everyone knows where they need to be and when, the one who sets up the Circle meetings, etc. She's in a relationship with Justin Banner.

Justin Banner (Model: John Jeffords)
Justin is a mix of Cheetah Shape Shifter and a Water Witch. His power with water is different than Shannon's or Gabe's. He's similar to the X-man character IceMan. As he gets older, he can become moveable ice himself, becoming completely see through. *No refrigerator/freezer required* When younger, he's also the "jock" of the group. Plays most sports but of course, prefers Hockey. He loves the NY Rangers. He and Mandy have been a "thing" since they were fifteen.
















For pics of them as kids...head to the October, 2011 postings!

xo

Tamsin :)

Photo-Shoot for Moon Over Manhattan: Behind the Scenes - PART II

No Fantasy novel is complete without swords...or...well...maybe that's just in my opinion? :)

Again I open with a great pic of my leading lady with both her swords and the rest of her pack. In the book she is ambidextrous with her sword fighting skills, a family trait, which is why all pics of her character, Denika, and her brother, Demyan, have double swords. For example...







WELCOME TO PART II OF MY "BEHIND THE SCENES" BLOG...

So, where were we? Oh yes...we had changed location! We walked down West Drive from the castle to Umpire Rocks...loosing Jerome and Richard on the way in the mass of "Walk for the Cure" folks walking for Breast Cancer Awareness. While we waiting on them we decided on war paint for the rest of the primary cast and started getting them all done up.

We were on a time table. You see, two days before the shoot I find out one of my main pack members has to be at work at 2pm in SoHo. And I was like..."Crap! I can still make this work! (You see, when its an ensemble cast you miss one you really just can't do any group shots at all). Then, the night before the shoot another model emails me that he has to be gone by 12:30pm. Well...now I'm in a HUGE bind cause I can get group stuff done by 1pm but there is no way in hell I can do by 12:30pm. Luckily I called and spoke to him and he was able to move his leave time till 1pm and we got both gentlemen out and on their way in time but...it was mighty stressful, I won't lie.


Here are a few pics that Robbie took. First one is of Lauren done up as Denika down by the rocks at Umpire Rocks and then Orion (Cash) and Mark (Phin).



As soon as Richard and Jerome found us and we were done up in make-up we started with a few "boys only" pics (see below)...and then group photos by the rocks (see first pic of this blog entry).



My time was running out to have Phin and Liam there so I knew that one of the things for the website will be solo shots to go with character descriptions so I set up solo shots for Phin and then, because his character and Lexie are slowly becoming an item in the book we got a few pics with them as well.





After we did those we had to get one of Liam...and we decided to do an action shot of sorts...something to fit the character. We had him get set to attack someone coming around the corner. I think it fits him well. :)

Once we let the man playing Liam go it was around 1:30pm so I paid everyone to go take lunch, sending Lauren to fetch MY food whilst I went to fetch the secondary cast members...namely one of my "maybe or maybe not a bad guy" Shade. His pictures, along with those of Demyan will need to be altered in photo-shop due to eye color. We tried the colored contacts but they were not saturated enough ($30 each too...ouch) to show up in person let alone on camera so I will save all the pics of our "bad guys" or I suppose "could be bad guys" until those pictures are fixed up.

After our lunch break we were fighting the "light battle" as our daylight was dying fast...so we began to move with purpose. We did no only solo shots of the "bad guys" but a few with our heroine with her lover, Shade, and her brother, Demyan.


Now, do understand that the book is written in third person, but from two perspectives only...which was different for me since my first series (not saying Moon Over Manhattan will be a series, but it might, we'll see) comes from multiple perspectives. I wanted to challenge myself...see if I could do a whole story just from two. I'd planned on just one but you really can't "see" a character without seeing her from someone elses eyes--a woman never sees herself honestly, we're too hard on ourselves. So, in order to do that, I also write the book from Cash's perspective---how he sees her. They're partnership in this book is vital to the story and so was finding the right guy to portray him...and believe it or not, I found him working a wedding. LOL! Here is one of my favorite shots of Cash (aka Orion Talley). Look at that great tat work on his arms that Niki did! Just wonderful stuff!



While Vince was working with our fight choreographer and swordsman, Mark Rosenthal, I took a few snapshots of my cast sitting around...thought you'd like to see them. We have one of Amanda (Inari), one of my loverly make-up goddess Niki, Amanda (Inari) laying out with Tomer (Marlen), and of course, one of Lauren on break:









We finished up the day with solo shots of Denika with her swords (one of which opened Part I of this Behind the Scenes blog) and showing her wolf tat on her low back...



And finally pics of our Alpha and Beta together.

I leave you (for now) with one last group shot. Tune in next time for PART III of "Behind the Scenes of Moon Over Manhattan Photo Shoot" where I'll have my photos of the "bad guys" and my fantastic secondary cast of characters such as Rachel, Brush, Dmitri, Shade and more Demyan!

xo

Tamsin :)

Photo-Shoot for Moon Over Manhattan: Behind the Scenes - PART I

CAST LIST

Primary Cast:
Denika - Lauren Steinmeyer
Cash - Orion Talley
Lexie - Angela Scherrah
Phin - Mark Knight
Liam - Richard Mark Jordan
Inari - Amanda Arma
Marlen - Tomer Versano
Zane - Robbie Skadal

Secondary Cast:
Demyan - Jerome Champigny
Shade - Mateo MacDermant
Dmitri - Kevin Jones
Rachel - Rachel Grundy
Brush - Cedric Jones

Make-up by Niki Quinn
Photography by Vince Lingner
Sword Choreography by Mark Rosenthal


WHAT AN AMAZING DAY! I couldn't have asked for much better of weather for this time of year in NYC so, thank you God! It was sunnier than my photographer would've liked but, alas, all in all...it was quite lovely out; sunny and 65 degrees with only a little wind.

Here's how the day went...

I was up at 5:30am on Oct. 17th and let me tell you...I'm used to getting home at 5:30am and going to bed after going to the club...not getting UP at 5:30am so it was a wee bit rough on me. I'm sure I'm not the only one who felt that way though.

Lauren and Robbie showed up at my place at 6:15am and by 6:30am we were off to Dunkin Doughnuts to buy 2 "Box of Joe" and some doughnuts for the cast and we hailed a car and off we went to Central Park.

We arrived at 81st and Central Park West by 7:09am and as we started into the park we got a text from Niki (Make-up Artist) and we collected her and off we went up the hill to Belvedere Castle. We commandeered a corner near the look out point so we'd not be in tourist's way and were set up and doing make-up by 7:30am! Here's a pic of Niki doing Angela's make-up:



As we began to do work on Lauren I hear Niki say "O.M.G." and I'm like, "What?" and then I turn around and say, "O.M.G." I'm so sorry I don't have pics of what I'm about to tell you but we didn't want to encourage them...so to speak.

I turned around to see two men, possibly in their early 40's, both dressed in normal attire but...they each had on a orange and black striped witch hat that had wild looking orange hair sticking out from under them (same orange as the stripes and obviously part of the hat). They were obviously wasted...and it didn't take long for them to spot us (as we were the only other people there at that hour) and they offered us beer. That's right, 8am and they had a mini-keg with them of Heiniken I believe and they were basically still up from the night before...enjoying the sun rise in Central Park...with us. LOL! Oh dear...they were a sight! We were lucky they decided not to "hang" out with us and went on there way to sit on the steps and sing and yell out drunken think like, "Oooh myyyy Gahhhd...I lost my iPod!" over and over...but usually it was just the "Oooh myyyy Gahhhd"...repeated. :)

They left by the time 9am rolled around so it wasn't a problem for the last half of the cast who showed up, but it was funny for those of us who watched the sun rise over the trees at Central Park. :)



Slowly but surely the group started to arrive. I'd scheduled them in broken up intervals so as to not cause actors to sit around with nothing to do as best I could...but know this, there is always downtime for the actors and models for something like this. Why? Because we can only do make-up on one or two people at a time. But I think we did pretty good and getting folks done quickly. We started with wigs, moved to make-up, then tattoos.

Yes, tattoos! Because the characters are supposed to be covered in a lot of urban tribal tats and my actors obviously were not, our Make-up goddess air brushed them from stencils she made prior to the day. Here she is putting some on Lauren:



While getting ready my behind the scenes photo guru, Robbie Skadal, was doing video and photos...as was I...I'll put them on the left or right as I continue to tell about the shoot. A HUGE plug for my friend Jet Berelson's store, VAMPIRE FREAKS for loaning us some of the clothes you see in these pictures! Most are from the store, either bought or lent. So if you like what you see you should visit the site! http://vampirefreaks.com/


Originally I'd not thought about make-up, like a fool, until Vince mentioned it and then I realized that he was right. Niki's work, as you will see from the final pics, is amazing work and I hightly recommend her. Great to work with, on time, professional, great with the actors/models, takes initiative, and comes through 100%. Her site is http://www.wix.com/nikiquinn/niki2 . She's just lovely to work with!

And for those of you who don't believe in make-up making something amazingly different, let me share these photos with you...this is Robbie, who plays Zane. We did a before and after Pics of him.

Also should mention our amazing photographer, Vince Lingner. Vince is a man of many talents; from acting to photography to set design/construction and the man can sew!
I should also state, that since my Stage Manager for the project ended up getting ill and her replacement bailed on me I had to really focus on timeline and technical things so my "creative side" was having a lot of trouble coming to the surface. Vince would ask "What do you want?" and my mind would go blank. It was wildly frustrating and upsetting to say the least, but Vince was my hero...as he often has been...and when I said "help" he jumped in with both feet and was just fantastic with getting shots we'd discussed before. Many thanks and hugs to that man are due in abundance! :) xoxo

So, on to the shoot itself, yes?

We started with group photos at the castle and it took everyone a bit to feel comfortable and fall into the groove but by the time we were done with the second pose they started to really get into it and have fun. We did pictures of not only the group but also of some singular shots so that the website can have a photo for each character description.

Here's a great one of Phin and then Cash:



Here is a candid of Jerome and Mark (Rosenthal)...enjoying the sun as they wait to be needed as well as pics of Tomer, Cash & Denika at the top of the castle, Richard getting his war paint on, a close of of Lauren (Denika), Angela as Lexie and Amanda as Inari!







When the shoot started we really were some of the only people at the Castle but once we hit around 10am, when the Castle opened, tourists started to flood in and it didn't take long for them to start asking what we were doing. I forsaw this so I brought some of my business cards and told the cast if they were asked just to tell them the truth and give them a card. A few people asked to have their picture taken with some of the girls (no big suprise there, they looked hot!) and by the time we were doing the tattoos for the 2nd half of the shoot and the actors/models were getting changed and ready to move to our other location we had a group of really wonderful ladies talking to us and taking some great photos. In fact, one lady got an amazing shot of Lauren I secretly hope she emails me. :) I asked her but alas, if she lost my card I'll never see it. *sigh* Oh well.

We changed clothes and up and moved to our second location...which will be PART II of my Behind the Scenes blog...but before I go I shall give you one of my fave group shots from Belvedere Castle: