Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Blog Hop Casting Call


A few friends over at soyoureawriter.blogspot.com told me about this little Blog Hop thing where we put out a call for actors for some of the characters in our books.

I thought of a few to play various characters but maybe you could help with some even better suggestions. So here's a few of the cast of characters from 65 Below & Faithful Warrior along with their resumes. Whaddaya think?

Marcus Johnson: (65 Below & Faithful Warrior)
Physical Data -
Height: 6'
Weight: 204 lbs
Ethnicity: Multiple - African American / Alaska Native
Year of Birth: 1968

Education:
Ben Eielson High School, Eielson AFB / Salt Jacket, Alaska
Graduated 1986

Job History:
USMC 1986 – 2007
Positions held in this occupation: Sniper, Reconnaisance Marine, Special Operations Marine, Other Classified, Retired in 2007 with rank of E-8 Master Sergeant with numerous combat missions.
1st Force Recon 1987-1999.
Classified assignments 2000 -2007

Hunting Guide 2007 – Present
Specializing in rifle or photo hunts for high profile / diplomatic tourists, prefers photo hunts

Expertise(s):
Rifle Shooting up to 2000 meters. Pistol & assault weapon shooting in urban / hostage rescue environments. Helped develop modern Marine Martial Arts System for hand to hand combat, holds Black Belt in the system. Wilderness Survival expert. Fur Trapper. Hunting. Stalking. Tracking. Urban assault team leader.
Languages:
Natively fluent French and Albanian; advanced level Russian, Arabic, Spanish, Croatian; intermediate level Italian, Portugese, German, Dutch, Farsi, Pashto; novice level Mongolian, Mandarin, Japanese

Personality Characteristics:
Quiet contemplative personality. Is very calm, and exhibits extensive self control in stressful situations. His full name is Marcus Orlando Johnson which is shortened by friends to “Mojo”. Was a track star in high school and currently regularly walks 25 miles in a single day in the Alaskan wilderness. Physically very strong. Dated Lonnie Wyatt from High School until the mid-90's. Proposed to her but she said he'd had to quite the Marines to marry her. He couldn't do that and eventually they broke up. He remained celibate after losing that relationship and over time wrote more than 400 poems for and about his love for her, which he shared with no one.


Korean Actress Lee Ji Ah for Lonnie Wyatt
Lonnie Wyatt: (65 Below)
Height: 5'4”
Weight: 128 lbs
Ethnicity: Asian-Korean
Year of Birth: 1969

Education:
University of Alaska Fairbanks: Major – Mathematics / Education

Job History:
Lathrop High School, Fairbanks Alaska 1991 - 1997
Math Teacher

Alaska State Troopers, multiple locations in Alaska 1997 – Present
Trooper / Patrol 1997 – 2005
Trooper / Detective (ABI)- 2005-2008
Trooper Lieutenant 2008 – Present

Expertise(s):
Tae Kwon Do – 5th Degree Black Belt. Hap Ki Do 3rd Degree Black Belt. Certified Forensics Field Examiner. National Police Academy Graduate. FBI Investigative Officer's Academy.

Language(s):
Natively fluent Korean and English.

Personality Characteristics:
Lonnie has a very strong personality and often comes across as cold and hard. Because of her job she struggles with femininity but can use it as a tool for investigative/interrogative purposes on call. She is capable of putting on a frighteningly cold facial expression to coerce perps into divulging data. She is also adept at martial arts in case that doesn't work. Having dated Marcus Johnson for more than ten years, she rejected his proposal for marriage unless he was willing to leave the Marines. Just as they were about to reunite in 1998 Marcus went missing and was presumed dead on a mission in Africa. In her grief Lonnie got pregnant with another man's child only to discover two month's later that Marcus was alive and had escaped Africa on the hope of seeing her again. Their eventual reunion was somewhat rocky.


Aaron Eckhart
Mike Farris (Faithful Warrior)
Height: 6'
Weight: 192 lbs
Ethnicity: Caucasian
Year of Birth: 1966

Education:
Biola University: Biblical Studies graduated 1988
Fuller Theological Seminary: Master of Divinity, 1999

Job History:
US Marine Corps Reserve: 1984 – 1988 – Recon Sniper (Enlisted Reservist)
US Marine Corps Active: 1988 – 1995 – Recon Officer (Spec Ops)
US Marine Corps Reserve: 1995 – 2006 – Recon Officer (Spec Ops Reservist)
Retired USMC with rank of Major in 2006

Trinity Presbyterian Church: Senior Pastor 1999 – 2009

FBI Chaplain & Counselor 2009 - Present


Expertise(s):
Church management and religious teaching. Ministry and Counseling to sufferers of PTSD. Sniper, rifle expert at up to 2000 meters. Pistol expert. Marine Martial Arts Black Belt. Urban assault team leader. Commanding troops up to battalion size in Urban, Rural, Jungle and Desert operations.

Language(s):
Native English, Advanced French, Intermediate Somali and Hebrew

Personality Characteristics:
Mike has a very tender heart for counseling but is also very capable as a warrior with a philosophy of compartmentalization of each aspect of his personality. After an event wherein he was tortured nearly to death by a warlord in Somali in 1993 Mike became interested in treating people with PTSD. He himself did not realize he had signs of the condition until several years after retirement when a violent tragedy struck his family at their church parsonage. Unknown to all but one of his church members, Mike continued to perform special operations missions, usually in a command role, throughout his USMC Reserve duty and is personally known to every President since Ronald Reagan.


Kharzai Ghiassi (Karl's Last Flight & Faithful Warrior)
Raj Kundra, but he'd need bigger hair & thicker beard
Height: 5'8”
Weight: 165 lbs
Ethnicity: Persian American
Year of Birth: 1971

Education:
Indiana State University: Dual Degrees in History and Physics 1993

Job History:
Tastee Freeze: Cook, Cashier, Lady Hitter Onner 1986-1987
Indiana State University Library: Thing Looker Upper, Info Getter for Whatever 1987-1988
JooJooBees FashionWares: Clerk, Clothes Tryer-Onner, Official Flirter With Chickies 1988-1988
Farquharson Tax Service: Guy Dancing with Sign on Street Corner 1988-1993...really liked that job, lot's of chickies gave their numbers.

CIA: Position Classified 1993 – 2010
(all details of his CIA employment are classified and not to be opened until Dec 31, 2080)

Expertise(s):
Laughing, smiling, flirting, dancing, singing badly, telling dumb jokes. Capable of multi-input/output. Killing people...usually just bad guys, but you never know. Oh and can tie both shoes at the same time, one with each hand.

Language(s):
Lots. Yup....lots & lots & lots. Farsi, Arabic, English of course, French & Italian (cuz that makes the ladies swoon), Hebrew, Russian, Pashto, Eewok, Yoda, Arriana Huffington's language...whatever that is.

Personality Characteristics:
I have beautiful thick black hair that jiggles when I wiggle. I like moonlit walks on the beach, barefoot traipsing through the jungle, eating vanilla bean ice cream, slitting the throat of terrorists who thought I was their buddy, playing dead then scarring the whillies out of new guys. (Chief Psychological Officer's note: Kharzai is an interesting study in everything science says does not exist. In middle school he was diagnosed as ADHD but he refuted the diagnosis and refused treatment based on his self-diagnosis as a new condition he termed Bilateral Rapid Understanding Hyper-Attentive Hyper-Active, which he shortened to the acronym BRUHAHA. He has exhibited the capability to participate in multiple conversations while simultaneously writing and / or reading another. When tested he was able to repeat verbatim the content of up to four simultaneous sources of input. He exhibits nearly photographic memory and is capable of mimicry such that he is practically a master of disguise. Kharzai Ghiassi is either the most intelligent human being I have ever met, or is utterly insane. As long as he is on our side I guess we are safe. End Chief Psychological Officer's note)


Gary Sinise
Paul Hogan (Faithful Warrior)
Height: 5'7”
Weight: 226 lbs
Ethnicity: Caucasian
Year of Birth: 1966

Education:
University of Virginia: Criminology 2007
FBI Special Agent Academy 2008
FBI Executive Leadership Academy 2010

Job History:
US Marine Corps: 1988 – 2006 – Recon Marine (Spec Ops)
Medically Retired USMC with rank of Gunnery Sergeant in 2006

FBI Agent: Anti-Terrorism Specialist 2007 – 2009
FBI Special Agent in Charge: Ohio Valley Anti-Terrorist Task Force 2009-2011
FBI Undersecretary for Anti-Terrorism - 2011-Present

Expertise(s):
All Firearms. If it shoots bullets he can master it within moments of touching it. Explosives, standard and improvised. Investigative Procedure.

Language(s):
English, Irish Gaelic, Spanish

Personality Characteristics:
Paul served through much of the first half of his military career with Mike Farris as both his commanding officer and his best friend. He was the Marine who rescued Mike from being tortured in Somalia in 1993, and later worked extensively with him on secret operations. Paul was often the comic relief for the unit and enjoyed telling stories, especially regarding his Irish heritage. In 2001 Paul was among the first Recon Marines to enter Afghanistan alongside Marcus Johnson and saw extensive combat, both special operations and traditional infantry operations in six successive tours between there and Iraq where he met Kharzai Ghiassi for the first time. In the summer of 2006 Paul was nearly killed by an explosion that forced him into medical retirement two years short of his full regular retirement date. He had been studying online for a degree in Criminology with hopes of becoming an FBI agent upon retirement. That career became a reality shortly after his graduation, but it too took a nearly fatal turn just two years later. Paul still jokes around and has fun in his job, just does it with a serious limp nowadays.

Update:  When I originally posted I forgot to add these links to all these other fine writers who are participating in this Blog Hop! CHECK'Em Out!



Sphere: Related Content

17 comments:

  1. Really great descriptions! Good job :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. This is so extensive, I love it. Unfortunately I haven't had a chance to read 65 Below yet (but I will!) but having beta read Cold Summer, I think The Rock and Eckhart are so freaking perfect for Marcus and Mike!!! I like your other picks too but I think those actors would really fit the bill. Oh and I had no idea that baby was not Marcus'. I'm going to have to go back and read all your books now. I love how much depth is here. Really awesome post.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thanks Cassie!

    Lisa, thanks from dropping in! Just so you don't freak...the baby in CS is Marcus's. ;-) But sadly, Lonnie had a past she's not too proud of. :-(

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hey Basil! Thanks so much for dropping by and leaving a comment today. I like this bloghop. It's a lot of fun.

    You've put so much thought into your character descriptions. That must be why your book is so good, or so Lisa tells me anyway. I've seen you around TKZ, too. I'd follow you if there was a way, but I don't see one. I'll just have to remember to come back.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I love your descriptions, Basil! They really add dimension to your characters. Great work! :)

    Thank you for participating!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Fantastic descriptions, I love this group of characters. It looks like a really cool story. :)

    ReplyDelete
  7. Wow! I doff my hat, Basil, that is one whole lot of impressive groundwork. The most I manage for my characters is a few lines of description to make sure I stay consistent from one scene to the next. This is awe-inspiring.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Dang! What wonderful details! You really know your characters inside and out - I love how you formatted it like a resume.

    There's some serious badassery in there, too. Whoo boy. At "Natively fluent French and Albanian; advanced level Russian, Arabic, Spanish, Croatian; intermediate level Italian, Portugese, German, Dutch, Farsi, Pashto; novice level Mongolian, Mandarin, Japanese" i was like o____O.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I love your characters...all of them tough. And your descriptions are perfect. Anything that has the rock in it has to be good. :)

    ReplyDelete
  10. Thankya, Thankya folks. Glad to hear from everyone thus far, and looking forward to what else may be dropped in here.

    My characters are definitely very close to my heart and near in my mind. Having spent most of the past five years plunking out 3 novels & a dozen short stories, and currently working on the 4th novel all with the same core group of characters (although not all are in all of my books) a writer develops a relationship with these fictional people.

    Happy writing folks.

    ReplyDelete
  11. You're teasing me. Now I HAVE to read all your books. :)

    ReplyDelete
  12. Excellent choices. Much more descriptive than I did in mine. Wow!

    ReplyDelete
  13. You were really thorough with your post! Great cast. :)

    ReplyDelete
  14. Wow - so much detail really makes your characters vivid/unique. Great job! And thanks for joining us on the blog hop.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Extensive, thoughtful descriptions and great pictures to go with each!

    ReplyDelete
  16. I thought I'd already commented! Guess not. Really nice job, Basil; good cast of characters. And I totally forgot about Gary Sinise--great actor who just might have been a good fit for one of my characters.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Thanks for all the comments folks. It's a great thing to get to know these characters and then be able to share them with readers.

    By the way, I'd be really appreciative if you could pass on to your own readers a giveaway I am doing at www.basilsands.com.

    Free Kindles in two different contests...Let The World Know!!.

    ReplyDelete