Chapter Two - Leading Lady / Leading Man

I have always been obsessed with movies, theatre and other visual media.  As a child I was bullied so I spent a lot of my time alone,  I would loose myself in movies and books, characters became my friends and every chapter my escape.  I think I started writing as soon as I learned to put pen to paper.  I developed a talent for seeing what I was writing happening in my head like watching a movie and that's still the way I approach my writing now.

I sit at my computer tapping out the words describing the scene I see in my head and part of that is seeing the actors play out the characters I create.  I always have a dream cast in mind when I write, I know who I  would entrust my characters to. I'm sure if you ask anything author who wanted their book to become a movie, which I would love to happen one day, they would have dream cast in mind.  So now I will tell you how my dream cast starts out for The Poppy Garden,

Leading Man - Nick Robinson 

My leading man, a wounded army officer with a good heart. I must admit my dream actor kind of presented himself in a timely or coincidental manner, I haven't decided which, on Sunday night TV in the UK. 

Richard Rankin, The Crimson Field BBC One 

Let me set the scene, it's nine o'clock on a Sunday evening, I'm sitting on the couch my dog lying at me feet as I work on jotting down the idea that's been rattling round in my head distracting me from working on my other project, the second in the Jonah Axe series.

Anyway, as I sit with my cup of tea fingers tapping at the keys I look up to catch the start of The Crimson Field, a BBC Drama based on the VAD's in WW1. The show revolved around the experiences of the female characters, written by the amazing @PhelpsieSarah. It quickly became my favourite show and I couldn't wait for Sunday nights to roll around.

 In the first episode I noticed a new actor I hadn't really seen before, Richard Rankin, and there was something about him that just clicked and I thought I could imagine him playing Nick. As the episodes rolled on I became more and more convinced Rick Rankin was the perfect to make the character of Nick come to life.

Leading Lady - Sky Robinson 

... Lily James photographed by
Fabrice Dall'Anese during Cannes Film Festival
 for Vanity Fair May ...

The other half of my leading duo is the character of Sky, a horticulturalist, with a love of animals, she's sweet, kind and caring.  

I have seen a lot of new young actresses across film and TV this passed two years, a lot of whom I have a great deal of admiration for.  There was only one however I could close my eyes and see morphing in to Sky, brining the right kind of lightness with hidden depths and strengths that this character will need.  

Now a Disney Princess I would have to have a miracle I think to have her play this character in any way shape or form, but I would never say never and if you can't dream big well.... 

Sky to me will always be Lilly James.  

Now I had a starting point, and the rest of the characters developed as I wrote them and maybe I'll reveal a little more next time!