Guest Post by Holly Webb

 

 

Fantasy Cast List

Rose – Chloe Moretz

This is so difficult! Rose needs to be brave, determined, but quite matter-of-fact. She’s horrified by her magic at first, as she wants to be a maid – she’s amazed that she’s been lucky enough to get a job, and she thinks the magic will spoil everything. So whoever played her would need to be able to get that determination across, but be overtaken by the excitement of the magic growing inside her.

At first I thought of Kirsten Dunst, as she was amazing as a child vampire in Interview With the Vampire, but of course that was years and years ago. Actually, if I could have any child actress from whenever, I think I would go for Mara Wilson, who played Matilda in the film. She seemed quite as I imagine Rose – pretty, but not beautiful, very sensible, but with a sly sense of humour lurking underneath. I wonder if Chloe Moretz (Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Hugo) would be able to look young enough to play Rose? In the book Rose thinks she’s ten, but she’s not quite sure, and the hard life at the orphanage, and having to be grown-up very quickly, would make her look older.

Mr Fountain – Colin Firth

But only if he could grow a large, curly moustache.

Miss Sparrow – Emma Watson

Miss Sparrow needs to be very beautiful, possibly too beautiful – not to spoil the plot, but her looks are magically enhanced. I’d love to see Emma Watson play another magical character, but this time, an evil one. (Thinking about it, Emma Watson would also have been wonderful as Rose!)

Bill (Or Freddie! )– Asa Butterfield

Bill is another of the servants at Mr Fountain’s house. He’s an orphan too, and he loves being a little bit older and more used to working than Rose. But he’s actually very kind, although he does his best to hide it. He needs to sound like a Londoner, which I think is probably easier for a British actor. But then I can see Asa Butterfield as Freddie, the snotty, conceited magician’s apprentice, too! He has a magical look to him. Can I have him twice with different-coloured hair, please?!

Gus (voice) – Alan Rickman

Because he has a lovely voice!

Gus is Mr Fountain’s spoilt white cat, and one of the first magical things to happen to Rose is that she realises she can hear him talking. He’s proud, lazy and obsessed with fishpaste sandwiches.

I first saw Alan Rickman in Truly, Madly, Deeply a long time ago but he can also be fabulously nasty (as the sheriff of Nottingham and of course as Snape in the Harry Potter films).  He’s great at sounding grumpy, which is very important for Gus!

Guest Post by author Patty Blount!

Inspiration for TMI Characters

By Patty Blount

When my Sourcebooks editor agreed to publish my first novel, SEND, she asked me if I had any other internet issues stories. I had a few, but none were written. When I told her about TMI, she loved it!

The ideas for both SEND and TMI came from the news. SEND was inspired by a boy put on the sex offender’s list for forwarding a sext message. And TMI was inspired by the story about a young girl who committed suicide after she discovered the boy she’d met online wasn’t real; he was a hoax created by her best friend’s mother, to get back at her for some insult. I started trying to imagine what kind of personality would take an online breakup so seriously and eventually decided it could be someone almost starved for love. The personality I originally envisioned would later become Bailey in TMI. 

In my original vision for TMI, my best friend main characters were living almost identical lives but were so similar, we thought readers might have a hard time distinguishing between them. So I deliberately wrote Meg and Bailey as almost polar opposites. Meg is practical while Bailey is playful. Meg hates fashion while for Bailey, it’s her life’s blood. Meg is a very diligent student while Bailey performs only the barest minimum of work in order to pass.

But these are all surface differences. Underneath all that, my girls are still very much on the same path – starved for and looking for love. It’s the subtle ways they both respond to that starvation that form the story. Bailey’s actions are overt and sometimes, kind of desperate. She reinvents herself for every guy she dates but it isn’t until she ‘meets’ Ryder that she figures out who she really wants to be. Meg’s actions are covert – even she isn’t entirely aware of what she’s doing. She clings to Bailey because she believes best-friend-love is safe and won’t interfere with her plan. But yet she twists herself into a pretzel trying to be what she thinks Bailey needs her to be instead of listening to what Bailey wants. The more distance that forms between the girls, the closer Meg grows to Chase.

Chase, ooo – he’s a fun character, my favorite in the story. He started off as just the boy next door – a sort of walk-on character I’d planned to keep in the background until the electricity he has with Meg sizzled off the pages. That wasn’t planned on my part; it sort of grew organically from the story. In fact, it almost took over and I debated writing the whole book from only Chase’s point of view, as he observes the implosion of the girls’ friendship. As Chase demanded more and more stage time, I knew it wouldn’t be enough to draw him as merely Meg’s ‘opposite.’ He had to become her missing piece. He has as a large, noisy, interfering family because Meg doesn’t. But more importantly, he needs to escape that family to see what he can become by himself – a variation on Meg’s “Plan” and a link they share. Similarly, Bailey’s need to find her father is an extension of Chase’s Escape and Meg’s Plan – she has to know where and who she came from in order to figure out who she’s going to be. The story is about the things that hold us back as well as those that compel us forward to do just that.

I’m grateful for the opportunity to explain some of the story’s subtleties to readers.

Win Counting by 7s!

In the tradition of Out of My Mind, Wonder, and Mockingbird, this is an intensely moving middle grade novel about being an outsider, coping with loss, and discovering the true meaning of family. 

Willow Chance is a twelve-year-old genius, obsessed with nature and diagnosing medical conditions, who finds it comforting to count by 7s. It has never been easy for her to connect with anyone other than her adoptive parents, but that hasn’t kept her from leading a quietly happy life . . . until now.

Suddenly Willow’s world is tragically changed when her parents both die in a car crash, leaving her alone in a baffling world. The triumph of this book is that it is not a tragedy. This extraordinarily odd, but extraordinarily endearing, girl manages to push through her grief. Her journey to find a fascinatingly diverse and fully believable surrogate family is a joy and a revelation to read.

Goodreads Summary



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Give Yourself a Raise by Gordon Bennett Bleil

Give Yourself A RAISE is a complete how-to guide for finding more money to reduce the stress in your life and lead you to financial freedom. Suitable for beginners and professionals alike, it will lead you to more contentment about money! Unique to this book are: The Financial Freedom Risk Assessment Quiz-take it and evaluate your own risk! Goals made easy-the complete foundation for personal money management The Freedom Money Management System -harness the power of electronic banking to organize your personal finances You will also learn how to: Control impulse spending Eliminate family conflict Get out of debt and stay out Practice spending strategies to stretch your income. Stop wasting money

Goodreads Summary

When I was newly married, my husband found a magazine in his office. The whole point of the magazine was "pay yourself first." We were young...we read it, and it made sense to us. We tried to folow some of the advice. Now that we are older, some of the advice probably helped us to be in a better financial position.
Bleil's book could do this for young people today too. On page 4, you will find the basic precepts that will help you to become financially more secure. "1) Pay yourself first. 2) Live within your means. 3) Stay out of debt." Unlike the magazine we read so many years ago, Bleil goes into more detail, which is helpful. On the other hand, some subjects-such as health care insurance, emergency preparedness, and government help-only get a quick overview. That's to be expected sine the subjects are so complicated, but it might make reading the book a little daunting for readers who aren't too interested in financial matters My age is showing when it comes to one of Bleil's biggest pieces of advice. He advocates using online banking as much as possible-both for control and dollar savings. I'm not too comfortable with  that, just because of security issues. On that subject, I'm sure Bleil is right; he calls it your "new best friend"-"the invisible banker". This book could help your plan your way to a more secure financial future. The worksheets that are available for planning and for figuring out where you stand now are easy to use.
Try it!

Four stars

*Reviewed by Colleen*

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