Oh Dakota you a ‘muse’ me

I just compled my third novel HARTFORD 1944, and I'll confess to feeling a bit of post-partum depression. After working on it, living it,  for the past three years, and working quite feverishly these past four months.  I dotted my last 'I' and crossed my last 'T' and I knew the time had come to put  Hartford aside. Now what was I was finished, what was I going to do?  Well, I started a new book.

 

It's funny how things work out. I had scarcely put pen to paper than what should land on my desk, in my weekly Dakota Fanning updates, but this picture of a quite lovely dark-haired  Dakota.  At first, the picture is quite a shock and takes some getting used to after watching this girl grow up since 2001.  Where has my fresh faced little blonde girl gone?  Well, she has grown up and become quite a beautiful woman.  Apparently Dakota is a woman who feels the need to break with the past and strike out on her own.  Make a bold   statement and be her own person.

       I finalized the name of my new protagonist/heroine. I think deciding on the name for my character is one of the most important and catalytic decisions I make. I always try to choose a name that offers numerous flexible plot points. I settled on: DARCY DORA O'DWYER . . . Dwyer means  “black” in ancient Celtic. Darcy is cute and sporty, but counterbalanced with dowdy Dora. To further the coincidence, by an entirely unrelated quirk of happenstance  The protagonist in my new book has dark hair, raven hair, almost black is how I describe it. Here's a what I wrote for the opening paragraphs.

Dorcha hated her hair. The girl sat in front of the mirror with her scissors. She gazed at her face in the glass, the face that looked back at her was not her own.  She raised the scissors, poised to cut the first long hanks of hair. Her arms were scared from where she’d cut herself.

 “Jesus loves you, but I don’t.” The first lengths of lustrous luxurious dark brown, almost black coppery hair cascaded to the dressing table. Dorcha cut and cut, she cut the stranger’s hair with a random fury, a spiteful furious vengeance, until her self-destruction was complete. She looked at her face in the mirror; and cried a dry, tearless cry, less of a cry for help and more a cry for vengeance. She felt powerless to punish those who hurt her most so she lashed out and hurt herself instead.

“Happy birthday Darcy O’Dwyer.” She felt black, even her name meant “black.” A black soul to go with her black hair, sixteen-years-old today and Dorcha couldn’t have felt blacker.

  “Satan is your father.” Dorcha repeated, and she sheared another hank of hair from her head. Satan really was her father.  She thought of her father downstairs; he was back from the pub for sure. She’d heard the cellar door slam. He always came in that way, he thought himself clever, the way he came through the cellar thinking no one would notice.  But he always forgot and tripped on the stairs letting the cellar door slam announcing his return, riotous, belligerent, and drunk as a lord from a night of playing cards. How much did he lose tonight? He was down there no all right, sitting naked, watching telly, plastered, shit-face drunk in his ratty chair.

Oh how she hated him. Not all the bruises on her arms were self-inflicted. Would he come for her tonight? Dorcha continued cutting until her poor shorn locks resembled a dishevel cabbage. Maybe now she was too ugly to be of any interest to father. The lousy lout of her father and her lush of a shrew step-mother they could all rot in hell!

    Darcy what have you done?

 

A KILLING IN ENNISKILLEN

© 2012 by Steven McAllister

All rights reserved

 

The Hanneliator Cometh

Genevieve Hannelius (b. December 22, 1998), is an American child actress and singer born in Boston Massachusetts; Better known professionally as “G” Hannelius.   G is a theatre veteran and began her acting career at the age of seven at the Children’s Theater of Main   with roles in local Maine productions including the starring role as Madeline in “Madeline’s Rescue” and Jenny in “Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing.”

         Hannelius plays the role of Emily in “Den Brother,” a Disney Channel original movie and Amy Little on “Leo Little’s Big Show.” On ABC’s "Surviving Suburbia" with Bob Saget. Hannelius has plenty of experience with talking dogs, having lent her voice to Disney’s “Treasure Buddies” and “Spooky Buddies” as the fun-loving golden retriever, Rosebud. Hannelius is also provided the voice of Rosebud in “Air Buddies.” G is currently staring  as Avery, the middle step-sister in the new Disney Channel sitcom “Dog with a Blog.” That premiered on October 12, 2012.
         

The series, told from a dog's point of view, follows the newly adopted dog Stan of the blended Jennings family. G. plays Avery Jennings, the smart, responsible and passionate rule follower, along with her step-siblings, Tyler,  and Chloe, and her parents Bennett and Ellen, as they adjust to life as a new family. As Avery Jennings, G Hannelius is the highly intelligent, hard working middle child.  Avery is very straight-forward in following the rules she is very smart, an overachiever and knows what she wants. She wants everything to be handled in an orderly fashion, such as posting sign-up sheets in the living room for the bathroom. Avery is socially responsible and despises boys. 

 

G  seems quite small for her age, and I was very surprised to discover she is thirteen-years-old.  That’s not surprising since Disney has a long track record of employing child actors as old as possible and  who look young as possible. I discovered her through random channel surfing, I stopped immediately and said, “Whoa, who’s that girl!” I was  at once smitten. Lightning doesn't often strike twice as with Dakota Fanning, but we expect to see good things to come from G. I thought G was exceptionally cute, a  funny, bright and a very expressive young actress. She has a quirky little thin mouth that reminds me of a (young) Meg Ryan, that lends itself to adorable expressions. G was especially funny during a scene where she acts out the famous“I'm Spartacus!”  Her fans are affectionately known as Hanneliators, how cute is that?

Beautiful Isabelle Allen

Newcomer Isabelle Allen will play Young Cosette in the upcoming film version of the musical Les Misérables is directed by The King's Speech's Academy Award-winning, Tom Hooper, based on the stage musical by Boublil and Schonberg, and the novel by Victor Hugo.  The movie adaptation of the successful stage musical stars Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, Anne Hathaway and Amanda Seyfried. 

 

Set in 19th century revolutionary France, Les Misérables tells the story of paroled prisoner 24601, Jean Valjean (Jackman) is released from prison and breaks parole to create a new life for himself while evading the grip of the persistent police inspector Javert (Crowe)—a timeless testament to the survival of the human spirit. The Universal pictures film is scheduled to open on December 25th.  

 

Here is a side-by-side comparison of the movie poster and the original Broadway poster. The photo recreates the iconic Émile Bayard's etching. It's interesting to note the art director chose  NOT to go with the “nude” off the right shoulder look of the original French illustrator.  The movie poster features the prominent  face of beautiful Isabelle Allen as young Cosette in the upcoming movie version of Les Misérables. Little Issy's character is known for her haunting solo Castle in the Cloud.

Little Issy looking adorable at the Les Misérables premiere.

 

 

Here's a cute video of Issy with Dominic Tighe