Congratulations to Lisa Careccia from Facebook and @KyunhaeC from Twitter, who advanced to the Travia finals! They are the newest readers who have won the chance to compete in the TRAVIA THROWDOWN on March 1, and could win their choice of a Nook HD or Kindle Fire, and an ARC of Walking Disaster!

See you all on Facebook/Twitter on Monday, February 25  at 7 PM CENTRAL STANDARD TIME  for Round Three:  your final chance to compete in the Travia Throwdown!

On to today’s TRAVIS TUESDAY feature:

When I dream, I never see people’s faces. Even when I speak with someone, they are a blurry version of themselves. I interact with their “essence”. This is also the way I envision the characters in my books as I’m writing. Visualizing a scene, I don’t see the character’s physical attributes, but the essence and emotions of those characters. This is probably very odd, and understandably so, but focusing on the emotion and dialog and not the imperfections of a character’s nose is just my process.

To celebrate Day 19 of TRAVISPALOOZA, I have a special treat for you.  I have been asked several times who my dream cast would be to star in the upcoming Beautiful Disaster movie. What? There is going to be a Beautiful Disaster movie? Yes! Yes, there is! Read all about it, HERE!

I hesitate to share this. First, I do not describe my characters to a T on purpose. As a reader, my personal preferences are attached to my favorite characters. Keeping that in mind, I like to give plenty of room for imagination when it comes to the characters in my books. Second, it’s impossible to make everyone happy if I throw out a single choice. However, I get this question all the time. Here is my disclaimer: I WANT you to have your own Travis, Abby, America, and Shepley. It is just as important to me as it is to you. The following are not the end all and be all to the characters of Beautiful Disaster. My choices do not invalidate yours. They aren’t necessarily who Warner Brothers will choose for the movie. They are for this blog, and believe me it took a long time to put this together because no one is exactly Travis, or exactly Abby.

So…

Abby: Julianna Guill. She has such a fresh look, and her eyes and hair are pretty much spot on. I love Lucy Hale, too.

America: Brittany Snow. Brittany has been America since Day One.

     

Shepley: Cam Gigandet. I wrote the character with Cam in mind.

Parker: Drew Van Acker

Brazil: Ryan Guzman. This one was tough. Brazil could also be played by Jesse Metcalf (appearance-wise), but I decided Metcalf was a better fit for Jesse, Abby’s ex. (see below)

Jenks: Alan Ritchson.

Kara Lin: Jamie Chung. Kara was written with Jamie in mind.

Adam: Matthew Gray Gublar. This was tough, and actually the only choice here that isn’t based on the original physical description. As I thought about Adam, Johnny Knoxville kept coming to mind, and Gublar has similar features with acting chops.

Mick: Dan Hedaya. Another surprise for me, but at the same time, he fits.

Benny: Paul Sorvino. Of course.

Jesse: Jesse Metcalf. I think about our perfect Travis seeing Jesse kiss Abby near the poker table in Vegas, and how it nearly threw him into a rage. Travis is jealous and protective, anyway, but I felt it would take someone exceptional to really make Travis sweat.

Josiah: The late, great Michael Clarke Duncan. Mr. Duncan was exactly who I envisioned while writing BD. It would’ve been a small potatoes role for him, but he IS Josiah.

Jim Maddox: Eddie Jones. Mr. Jones was who I envisioned while writing BD. I didn’t know his name, or even what he’d played in, but I remembered he played a superhero’s dad, and he had kind eyes. It wasn’t until I Binged and Googled my computer to death did I finally find him! I was positively GIDDY that I could share him with you!

Travis Maddox:  Let’s face it: No one on earth is perfect enough, equally mean and sweet enough, wounded enough, hot enough, tattooed enough, built enough, or tall enough to be Travis Maddox. He is different for everyone. Writing BD, I envisioned a young David Beckham at his prime physical condition. Before you throw up your hands and scrunch your face, I searched for HOURS for who might be even close to Travis, and I couldn’t find one. Just couldn’t. However, for the purpose of this blog, I will offer what I can, which is the perfect Travis, taken from several different men:

The scowl and stubbornness of Taylor Kitsch;

The gruffness, short temper  and size of Chris Hemsworth;

The smoldering sweetness of Mark Salling;

And 10 cups of Shayne Ward to spice it up.

I know. Trust me, I KNOW that some of you have the perfect actor or model for Travis, and he didn’t make the cut here on Day 19’s blog … but that’s okay! It doesn’t mean you’re wrong, or that he’s not perfect, or even that he won’t be cast in the movie. Shayne Ward isn’t even an actor … he’s a singer. But I’m not casting today. Today, I’m dream casting, and even then, I couldn’t find someone that encompassed the perfect imperfection that is Travis.

So! I hope that was fun for you! I spent a LOT of time on this, took it very seriously, and I’m looking forward to hearing who Warner Brothers casts for these parts as much as you are! And, don’t worry, I am confident WB will do a fantastic job finding the perfect cast for Beautiful Disaster.

-Jamie