Creative Collaboration Is A Thing of Beauty
The one thing writers try to do is convey what they are seeing in their heads. They can see their characters and try to bring those characters to life – fleshed out people with a great deal of character, flaws and quirks. They can see the image in their head and when the image becomes real, their brain explodes!
This was on of those moments when the character's whole attitude is portrayed in an image that just SCREAMS Zoe Lambros at me. Similar to when Kat Cavanaugh's face somehow found itself inside my head as I was writing Eva Muller in the year 2000. I didn't meet Kat until 2013 (this is where you insert the Twilight Zone theme song). Seriously spooky. Or that time when Kat and her awesome wife Penny brought Eva and Zoe to life in the film promo (see below for the video!) It was one of those moments.
In my eternal quest to find one perfect image to add for my book “Mabel of the ANZACS” (which is about an ANZAC Nurse Mabel, Zoe Lambros and the meaning of service, sacrifice and heroism) I found a few that just screamed Zoe to me back in August 2017. That image had Zoe's attitude all over it.
I really wanted to use one of those images for the cover. Usually I licence the images that I use for the covers and I'm happy as a clam – similar to the images of the model that I use for Zoe. The images above were taken by Derek Cutting at Firemate Photographic – the model is Erin Elliott (a redhead…what is it with redheads Love redheads) So I do a quick google search for Firemate Photographic, find the site (thank you google) and contact Derek via FB. Explain what I'm doing and why I'm doing it.
I fully expected to pay a licence fee for the use of the image – as per standard practice. Derek and Erin have given me free reign to choose whatever image I want for the princely sum of CREDIT in the book. Imagine me squealing and doing handstands (well in my mind I was doing handstands) because I got the perfect series of images to choose from. HUGE thank you goes to Derek and Erin.
A proper credit will be added to the book but I thought I'm going to share my excitement here as well! Derek's site is here – Firemate Photographic https://www.firemate.ca and the awesome Erin with Zoe attitude is www.nire.portfoliobox.net and you find her also on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/eerin.elliott/
oh and the cover of Mabel of the ANZACS? See below!
The New Yorker magazine has a very interesting article. The Root of All Cruelty? Perpetrators of violence, we’re told, dehumanize their victims. The truth is worse.
I'm stoked to announce that my new radio play “Zoe's Promise” will be performed on Sherri's Playhouse around Easter. Definite date to be announced. A more expanded version of the play will be released as a novella soon after.
When I was doing research for my first book “In The Blood of the Greeks” – I wanted to give my character, Zoe Lambros, a role model that she was inspired by. I just love research and this led me down a whole different rabbit hole.
