Casting Call & a Giveaway for As You Wish

Thanks, Lime, for having me on your blog!

I’ve recently released my self-published, debut contemporary romance, As You Wish. It has a rock star hero and a florist heroine and is set around Christmas.

Here’s a longer description:

Love doesn’t always follow the sheet music . . .

This Christmas, Portia Jackson needs a miracle to save her family’s generations-old florist shop. What she gets instead is a car that breaks down during a blizzard. Help arrives unexpectedly when the infamous Aubry Riley pulls over. She only expects him to drive her to the gas station . . . she never expects that kiss. But Portia lives in the real world—she knows this is only a holiday fling for Aubry. Except it doesn’t feel so temporary, and the last thing she wants is a broken heart.

Sometimes you have to sing some different notes . . .

Rock star Aubry Riley has no secrets. Thanks to the media, everyone knows about his troubled past. Six years have gone by since his world crashed, and now he’s ready for a comeback. But first he needs to reconcile with his family—starting with his six-year-old daughter. A month-long vacation at a Vermont lake house affords him the perfect opportunity to take a step in the right direction. He doesn’t need any other emotional entanglements, especially not with the bright-eyed florist he can’t stop thinking about. But no matter how hard he tries to resist her, he can’t. Now all he has to do is to convince Portia that there is nothing temporary when it comes to love.

One of the things I like to do when writing is to mentally cast the characters for my story. Now, I know when people read they form their own image of who the character looks like, and there’s always the danger that you could say oh, my hero looks like Tom Cruise and then Tom Cruise jumps the couch.

So, I hope none of the celebs I’ve chosen pull a Tom. 😉 And to make sure I don’t get Lime in any trouble with copyright issues, I’m just going to give links to said pics.

Aubry Riley is my jaded rock star hero. He’s described as: “He had long, sun-streaked brown hair to his shoulders, sea-green eyes, and deep slashes of cheekbones that made his face seem harsher in the dimmed light. His skin was a warm golden color from the California sun, and there were tight brackets lining his firm mouth.”

Now, confession, I searched a while for Aubry’s name. His name actually started off as a different one, but we both didn’t like it. I wanted something unusual for his name—something that felt rock starish. I actually got his first name from someone’s last name. I came across this picture of Gabriel Aubry, which just screamed Aubry to me.

http://impatientchick.com/2010/07/02/random-pic-of-gabriel-aubry/

Portia is my florist shop heroine. She’s got long, wavy, golden blonde hair and hazel eyes. She’s on the short side and soft-looking. She’s got a very optimistic attitude and can say things that are . . . unexpected. Her name comes from Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice. For Portia, I thought that Portia de Rossi (and I swear that this time the similar name is just a coincidence, lol) might be a good fit.

http://www.popcrunch.com/portia-de-rossi-will-play-lily-munster-in-nbcs-mockingbird-lane/
Laura is Portia’s best friend. She’s brown-haired, brown-eyed, and a librarian. For Laura, I picture Ginnifer Goodwin.

http://topnews.in/ginnifer-goodwin-hes-just-not-you-world-premiere-arrivals-2120289

And then there’s Finn, who’s Portia’s oldest brother and a math professor. Finn is very . . . contained. Dark hair with threads of silver and blue eyes, and I had Dermot Mulroney in mind when I wrote Finn.

http://www.celebs101.com/image-197746–3373–Dermot+Mulroney+Picture+Gallery.html

As you can see, I had some fun with this. Such a hard job to look for pics. 😉

Who would you want to play a hot, damaged rock star? I’ll giveaway an ebook copy of As You Wish to one commentor.

About Elyssa Patrick: Elyssa Patrick is a former high school English teacher who left the classroom to write fun, sexy, and emotional contemporary romances. Besides being slightly addicted to chocolate, she loves cupcakes, classic movies, and Shakespeare. She is a member of RWA. Elyssa lives in New York, where she is currently working on her next novel. (Website, Twitter: @elyssapatrick)

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