Friday, January 27, 2012

Fun Fridays: Q&A with actress Emily Perkins of "Supernatural"


OK, I admit it: Supernatural is my favorite show on television. For those of you who don’t watch it (and shame on you!), the CW’s Supernatural follows two insanely hot brothers, Sam and Dean Winchester (Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles), who have spent the last six seasons slaying monsters and demons, partnering with angels to stop the Apocalypse and, in general, being totally awesome ass-kickers who cause fangirls everywhere to swoon under their epic good looks. When the show broke the fourth wall by recognizing its fandom within the storyline in season 5, the character of Becky Rosen was introduced as a fangirl of the The Supernatural Books by Carver Edlund (a fictional author/character on the show. I know. It's complicated to explain, but if you're a fellow fan, this all makes perfect sense!)

As a recurring character, Becky has hilariously tricked Sam and Dean into attending a Supernatural fan convention, used a love potion to get Sam to marry her – briefly, thank goodness – and obsesses over the Supernatural books with a passion most of us real-life authors would kill to inspire.

Emily Perkins is the talented actress behind the character of Becky Rosen – a wickedly clever and amusing (and sometimes scary!) exaggeration of the show’s fangirls – er, myself included. Aside from that, Emily is also famous among horror fans for playing a teenage werewolf wallflower in the Ginger Snaps series of films – and we all know I’m quite partial to werewolves! I thought it would be fun to ask Emily's publicist if Emily would mind discussing with me the character that Supernatural fans either seem to love or hate as well as offering her take on reading, writing and fandoms. Being the totally awesome woman she is, Emily agreed!

Angela: Welcome to my website, Emily. I’m so thrilled to have you. You’d probably be surprised at how many paranormal romance and urban fantasy authors and their readers absolutely love Supernatural. The show is often a source of much discussion among us on Twitter and Facebook. Personally, I have been a huge fan of yours since Ginger Snaps. When you first appeared on Supernatural I did a huge internal “Squee!”and cheered. It’s even more awesome that your Ginger Snaps co-star Katharine Isabelle has also appeared on the show. I just had to say that!

Emily: Thanks Angela. ... I'm really happy to answer any questions you have!

Angela: Becky Rosen is kind of a comic exaggeration of a lot of Supernatural fangirls out there. How much input did you have in creating the character?

Emily: I originally had auditioned for just the 2 scenes in the first episode that I was in, so the later episodes were written with me, or my performance, in mind. For that reason I think I had quite a bit of input in creating the character.

Angela: Are you yourself fanatic about any fandoms?

Emily: When I was in high school I loved Star Trek the Next Generation. I started a fan club at school, we all made uniforms out of black track suits. We wrote and performed Star Trek skits at school assemblies, and I always played Commander Data. It was so much fun!

Angela: Becky has written some fan-fiction on the show. Do you have any writing ambitions?

Emily: I'd love to write - I certainly admire those who do. I think I might take a creative writing class - who knows, maybe it will spur me to the action that I never seem to find the time for otherwise.

Angela: Do you enjoy reading, and if so, what are some of your favorite books?

Emily: Reading is my favorite pastime. I love the work of David Foster Wallace, Peter Carey, Jennifer Egan, Margaret Atwood, Alice Munroe, and many others. I read the New Yorker every week, and Harper's literary magazine monthly.

Angela: You’ve been a working actress since you were a child and have a very impressive resume. Just to name a few things, you've played a werewolf, a fangirl, and holy cow, you were even in Juno! Which role has been your favorite to play? Are there any roles you’d love the chance to play?

Emily: I think the role of Brigitte in Ginger Snaps was my favorite because it was most intense and involving. I liked the challenge of showing different aspects of a character, having many scenes in which to bring the character to life and make her as real as possible. I'd love to play a character in a film based on a novel. There would be so much more to inform the imagination that way. I love characters that inhabit moral grey areas, or who are non-conformists in some way. I'd also love to play a historical character.

Angela: What projects do you have coming up that your fans can keep an eye out for?

Emily: Nothing right now.

Angela: I would probably be hunted down if I didn’t ask this (forgive me), but do you think we have seen the last of Becky on the show?

Emily: I think it would be really cool if Becky could rally other fans of the Supernatural books and they could all come to Sam and Dean's rescue one day.

Angela: If you could write an ending to Becky’s storyline, where would you take the character?

Emily: I see Becky opening a road-side motel, where drifters or hunters like Sam and Dean would find a temporary shelter. I think she'd take inspiration from the characters passing through and start her own e-book series. Who knows, she might even run into Sam and Dean again that way. It would be a bit of a Bates motel, the kind that would scare the normal people away, but for Becky it would be a sanctuary.

Angela: Ha ha. I love that answer! Is there anything you’d like to say in parting to any fans who might be reading this?

Emily: If fans didn't exist, these great shows like Supernatural wouldn't exist, so thank you!

I want to offer a HUGE thanks to Emily for taking the time to answer my questions. Check out the brief clip below to see her in action on Supernatural, and if you're a fan of horror, definitely watch Ginger Snaps if you haven't already!

Thursday, January 26, 2012

My fandoms are sabatoging my writing career!

That's right. I admit it. I have been spending way too much time watching my favorite TV shows, reading online news about upcoming movies ("The Hunger Games," anyone?) and diving into new fandoms to actually sit myself down and churn out the words needed to meet that self-imposed quota toward my next book (or two).

Don't worry. As soon as February rolls around, I will be more disciplined. I just have to find out what happens to Sam and Dean Winchester first, right after I catch up on those "The Vampire Diaries" episodes I've gotten behind on. Oh, and I've got "Once Upon a Time" recorded somewhere too. And "Glee."

Darn it!

Before you say anything, I haven't been totally amiss in my writing. I've been squeezing out a chapter here and there, plus working out some ideas on the awesome things to come to this blog that I mentioned in my last post. Basically, I've been trying to combine my writing duties with my fandoms, and oh, boy, am I excited about that! I've got three guests lined up for Q&As here, and trust me, these are some epic guests. I don't want to say too much in case I jinx myself or things fall through, but let's just say one of them is quite "supernatural" while another often gets lost "finding bigfoot," and a third is a fantastic up-and-coming author whose book was one of my favorites in 2011. What do they have to do with me, my books and writing? You might be surprised. You'll get to know me a little better because I truly don't plan to feature anyone I'm not a super fan of, and it will be interesting for me and you (I hope) to see how I can tie it all together under the theme of books and reading.

I can't wait to take a short break from my writing to share their Q&As with you on what I think will actually be called Fun Fridays here at the blog. Fingers crossed. First one should be up soon!

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Coming soon: Awesome things!

Now that the new year has come and gone, I've been outlining new projects, including some ideas for this blog. I could drone on and on about myself and what I'm writing, but I have a feeling that would scare most of you away...uh, pretty quickly, too. I mean, I might be interesting, but no one is that interesting, right?

GIRL POWER FRIDAYS
Coming soon, I will be hosting some awesome women here. Not just other authors, but (fingers crossed), other celebrities as well -- actresses, screenwriters, publishing executives and editors. Heck, I'd even love to throw in the occasional reader, too! I'm hoping to call it Girl Power Fridays, where I'll post fun, quirky and interesting Q&As, each with an underlining theme -- books! Favorite books. Least favorite books. Ideas for books. People who inspired books or resemble characters in books. You name it.

Know someone you'd like to see featured? I can't make any promises, but I'll certainly try my best. Guys, don't feel left out. I might change the name to include you, too. Hmmm. We'll see.

In the meantime, I'm still knocking out pages in the TWO books I'm writing simultaneously. It's actually a lot more fun than I expected it to be!

Friday, January 6, 2012

Happy New Year! Now, let's write!

It’s hard to believe it’s a new year, but boy, am I glad. It hasn’t been the greatest start so far for me (car wreck, stomach virus and other assorted problems), but by golly, I’m determined to make sure the rest of it is just plain awesome!

What have I been up to? Writing. That’s it, in a nutshell.

I got ambitious last month and decided to try my hand at writing not one, but two manuscripts simultaneously. Some might call me crazy. I call myself …well, I haven’t decided yet. Probably crazy, unless it works out, then I’ll gladly wear the hat of genius! I know. I’m scaring myself too.

I’m currently working on the second book in my paranormal romance series. The first book was sent as a partial to my first-choice of publisher, and a full manuscript was requested by them in return. Now I am waiting to hear if they want to publish it. Cross your fingers, people. My kitty needs to eat.

Plus, I really like the finished story. I’d really like to share it with the reading world, and wrap up the overall plot by completing books two and three, which have been carefully outlined and hidden in a place only me (and my cat) know about.

While I was working on book two of that series, I saw a headline that intrigued me so much I started thinking, “Wouldn’t that be a hilarious premise for a romance novel?” And another manuscript was started. This one is a straight-up contemporary romance with comedy elements — and maybe a dash of the paranormal, too, depending upon how you look at it.

I’ve never done this type of writing before, so it should be interesting to see the end results of each. I’ve been trying to write one chapter of each story a day. Sometimes I meet that goal. Sometimes I do not.

Should be interesting…

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