I think most writers have specific types in mind when they start crafting characters.  I know when I start to flesh out my leads in particular, I start by coming up with a list of attributes, is she kind?  Spunky?  Sarcastic?  What color hair does she have?  Is she an only child?  Does she get along with her parents?  The more detail I can drill down, the richer the character ends up.  Being a visual person, I almost always end up picking an actor or actress in my mind that I associate with the character, down to the bit players who just show up in one scene.  It makes it much easier to keep everybody straight in my head (actually I cheat, I keep a spreadsheet of names, who they are and who they look like).  You can’t help but think – if they made a movie or tv series out of this story, who would play so and so?  In the spirit of this, here is my dream casting of who would play everybody in Angel of Mercy. 

Mercy – Amelia Warner – a pretty obscure British actress who I think is beautiful and spirited
Sam – a younger Jude Law, pre-Talented Mr. Ripley.  I came across a couple of pictures of him taken by the paparazzi and he was a little ruffled and baffled looking, it really caught that part of Sam’s clueless personality
Adam – Ian Somerhalder because let’s face it, he could play this character in his sleep and he’s just a sexy beast
Ben – Mark Rufalo – he has that every guy quality that’s easy to overlook sometimes, but he can be so charming!
Parker – Bradley Cooper – because he can play an ass and still be pretty to look at
Matty – Justin Long – I think he could pull off the slacker brother so well
Daphne – Amanda Seyfried – with that long blonde hair and blue eyes, she has that wide eyed innocence that I associate with Daphne
Weatie – Jeremy Sisto – I can totally picture him playing an intense, scruffy looking scumbag
Nathanael – Matthew McFadyen (go see him in Pride and Prejudice as Mr. Darcy) – He has the intensity to look really pious and thunderous
Walter (the bouncer at Eden) – Marc Blucas – he’s got the muscle and all American looks to be a sweet guy that just doesn’t ring Mercy’s bell
Rachel (the nurse) – No idea what her name is, but the red headed nurse from “While You Were Sleeping” was who I pictured, it was probably on TV or something
Jilly (waitress at Eden) – Kristen Bell – because I love Kristen Bell and I like to incorporate her whenever I can. 
Mariah (Adam’s wife) – Morena Baccarin – a la Inara from Firefly, because I could see her tempting an angel to fall from grace
Cephas – Badger from Firefly, because I love the accent and he plays a great baddie
Mimsy – one of my own cats!  Because she’s so cute and curious and her squeaky sounds are like nothing I’ve heard from a cat before. 

Did I miss anybody?

(I’d love to hear it, by the way, if any readers had a specific person in mind when they read the story as well!)

Well it only took about a month after it came out as an e-book, but Angel of Mercy is finally available in print through Amazon.com.    And seeing as how I’ve been meaning to post an excerpt from the book, this gives me a good excuse to get one up.

This is fairly towards the beginining of the book, Mercy has spotted her mysterious blue-eyed stranger and has followed him home.   (kids at home, never try this!)

This was crazy.  I was in a bad part of town, following a guy who may or may not be real, into an unfamiliar building… to what end?  Still, I found myself pressing the elevator button, toes tapping with impatience for it to arrive.  The car was empty when it stopped on the ground floor, and I stepped inside and pushed the button for the third floor.  The ride was short, and the elevator doors opened to reveal… nothing.  Just an empty hallway.  So what was I supposed to do now?  Start knocking on doors?  Not exactly a safe prospect in any neighborhood.

I was just about to rethink heading back to my car, when two doors down, a little boy, maybe eight years old emerged; his arms loaded down with trucks that he unceremoniously dumped onto the hallway floor.

Bingo.

I had never been one to approach strangers of any kind, remembering what my mother instilled upon me since birth.  At that moment, I was hoping this kid’s mom hadn’t been quite so strict.

Approaching the boy hesitantly, I gave him what I hoped was a harmless looking smile, not in any way predatory.  “Hey, can I ask you something?”

The boy didn’t look up, he was too busy lining his trucks up into two meticulous lines, facing each other.

Undeterred, I forged on, nothing to lose.  “I’m looking for a friend of mine, he lives on this floor but I forgot which apartment is his.”

Still no reaction from the kid; maybe he was deaf?  More likely the cars were just that much more interesting than I was.

“He’s tall, with blonde curly hair and blue eyes, he wears a long brown coat most of the time, have you seen him?”

“You mean the magician?” the boy asked without looking up.