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| Click the banner to go to the kick-off post with two huge giveaways! |
Giant Squid Books, which put out The Six Days last April, is a small, brand-new company (thanks again Kristen for helping us spread the word!) and Hollywood is not exactly breaking down my door trying to get the rights to the movie version. Although--if there ARE any Hollywood producers reading--I have a screenplay and I’m willing to negotiate!
For now, if a book will do it for you, good luck in The Six Days giveaway that Kristen is hosting! Giant Squid Books is giving away a paperback and two ebooks. I hope you win and I hope you love the book.
THE BEST FRIENDS
Jamie and Nia, the double protagonists of the book, have been best friends for as long as they can remember--a friendship challenged in The Six Days by the revelation of long-kept secrets.
Dream casting: Matt Lanter as Jamie Carpenter
Jamie is the main character of The Six Days. He’s not very heroic. Actually, he’s kind of a mess. He’s seventeen, bad at school, and the book opens with him sleeping through his alarm after being grounded for breaking someone’s nose in a fist fight.
Dream casting: Alexia Fast as Nia Jacobs
Nia is Jamie’s best friend. She grounds him. All I can say about these two is: they’d do anything for each other. But the book is about them growing apart.“Nia arrived with her rose-gold hair a tangled mane around her face. In her cutoff overalls with the brass buckles fastened slightly askew over a white t-shirt and the cinnamon sprinkling of freckles across her nose, she was strangely, oddly bright against the flickering fluorescent light of the store. Nia was always more real than everything else around.”
THE CARPENTER FAMILY
The Six Days is ultimately the story of a family, with the three Carpenter brothers at its heart. When the youngest brother, Danny, is kidnapped at the beginning of the book by a witch who holds him ransom for a family secret (spoilers: MAGIC) Jamie and Cal immediately set out to rescue him.
Dream casting: Joshua Bowman as Cal Carpenter
“Of the Carpenter boys, Danny was the one who remembered their mother the least and resembled her the most: blond and blue-eyed with a tendency to turn pink in the sun. The most defining feature of Danny’s appearance, however, was not inherited: the curling shiny scar that ran up his right arm all the way up to his neck, from wrist to throat, the skin there cracked and shiny and tight. The scar was another thing that had happened the night their mother left; it was another thing none of them could really remember, and another thing they did not talk about.”
“Thomas Carpenter was not an old man; he was not yet fifty. But in appearance he was aged beyond his years: his hair, the same dark shade as Jamie and Cal’s, was graying around the temples and his forehead was lined with the troubles of a much older man. If he had been a kind person, people might have pitied him, abandoned by his wife with three sons to raise—but Thomas Carpenter had made it clear that he preferred to suffer in solitude.”
“She was one of the tiniest people Jamie had ever seen. Like the Queen she was dark-skinned but where age had whitened Io’s hair this girl had inky black curls caught back simply at the base of her neck. She wore white, which was stark against her skin; she stood with her hands clasped behind her back, the sharp edge of her collarbone like a shard of shattered dark china.”
“Kyrie was dressed richly from head to toe in wine red and gold in a robe that was fastened in the middle with a golden belt inlaid with jewels, with sleeves that fell and draped over themselves in rich layers all the way down to the floor. There were rings on every one of her fingers and around her neck a strange piece of jewelry: a small golden bottle, worn on a long chain. Her skin was creamy, her hair a rich dark red; her nails were long and sharpened to points, and they were painted gold. Her lips and her eyelids were gold as well and black paint around her eyes sharpened to points at the corners like cats’ eyes, the kohl stark against the silver of her eyes.
Kyrie was so beautiful that she might have been carved from stone: elegant, and timeless, cold. She was so terribly perfect that it almost hurt to look at her; but at the same time, there was something familiar about her that tugged at Jamie, something he couldn’t quite place…”
Cal is one of my favorite characters. He starts as kind of a square and ends as the sweetest guy you’ve ever met. He suffers a lot in the story, because he cares about his brothers and falls in love and gets his heart smashed into a billion pieces more than once. But even when he’s suffering (and even when he’s kind of pathetic), Cal is never cruel. Simply put: Cal is your best friend’s big brother, the one who’s always quietly looking out for you.
Dream casting: Jan Uczkowski as Danny Carpenter
It’s Danny’s kidnapping that is the catalyst for the story--because taking care of their little brother is the only thing Jamie and Cal can agree on. But Danny, who’s the youngest and most good-natured of his brothers.“Of the Carpenter boys, Danny was the one who remembered their mother the least and resembled her the most: blond and blue-eyed with a tendency to turn pink in the sun. The most defining feature of Danny’s appearance, however, was not inherited: the curling shiny scar that ran up his right arm all the way up to his neck, from wrist to throat, the skin there cracked and shiny and tight. The scar was another thing that had happened the night their mother left; it was another thing none of them could really remember, and another thing they did not talk about.”
Dream casting: Katee Sackhoff as Rachael
Rachael (Carpenter), the long-missing mother, shows up in The Six Days mostly in flashbacks and dreams, preserved as the badass she was when her sons were born. She battled her whole life to have it all--to be a powerful witch and a loving mother and a girl deeply in love with her husband. She’s not in the book very much...but her legacy is the catalyst for the story and when Cal, Jamie and Danny learn what she left them, it changes their lives forever.
Dream casting: Edward Norton as Thomas Carpenter
Thomas Carpenter is Jamie, Cal and Danny’s father. He fell in love with a witch and when she left him to return to the magical world, he lost the love of his life and was left with three sons and a hatred of anything magic.“Thomas Carpenter was not an old man; he was not yet fifty. But in appearance he was aged beyond his years: his hair, the same dark shade as Jamie and Cal’s, was graying around the temples and his forehead was lined with the troubles of a much older man. If he had been a kind person, people might have pitied him, abandoned by his wife with three sons to raise—but Thomas Carpenter had made it clear that he preferred to suffer in solitude.”
THE QUEEN'S COURT
Dream casting: Lorraine Toussaint as Queen Io
Queen Io is kind of a badass. She’s ruled Nahar, the Queendom of the humans in Emanu, for fifty years. She defends the weak and champions the Old Magic over the flashy magic of the witches, who think humans are there to be ruled over.
Dream casting: Zoe Kravitz as Sadia
Sadia is a princess, but for her being royal has mostly meant hard work and anxiety. When we meet her she’s about to take over a tumult-ridden Queendom from her mother--and she’s not sure she can do it. Another one of my favorite characters--I think I relate to self-doubt, and the challenge of learning to be fearless in the face of failure.“She was one of the tiniest people Jamie had ever seen. Like the Queen she was dark-skinned but where age had whitened Io’s hair this girl had inky black curls caught back simply at the base of her neck. She wore white, which was stark against her skin; she stood with her hands clasped behind her back, the sharp edge of her collarbone like a shard of shattered dark china.”
Dream casting: Braeden Baade as Rowan
What can I even say about Rowan? He swoops in to save Cal, Jamie and Nia and deliver them safely to Io. But he’s not what he seems. Are his chiseled jaw, rippling muscles, and charming personality a facade? Is it all a bluff? Is it a double bluff? Whose side is he on, anyway? And who gets to make out with him? These are the questions we ask when we think about Rowan and look at Braeden Baade at the same time. Oof. I’m feeling feisty. We better move on.
THE WITCHES
Dream casting: Scarlett Johansson as Rebecca
You have villains...and then you have Rebecca. Her mother was killed in front of her when she was just a kid and she’s spent her whole life alone, thinking about nothing but getting revenge on the person responsible--so it’s not a big surprise that she’s a little crazy. You almost have to admire her a little bit.
Dream casting: Jessica Chastain as Kyrie
Maybe Rebecca is misunderstood...but no matter how you look at it, Kyrie is the true villain of the story. She’s the second most powerful witch in the world of witches, and she got there, basically, by betraying her best friend. She has ideas about witches are supposed to be like and she doesn’t care for humans.“Kyrie was dressed richly from head to toe in wine red and gold in a robe that was fastened in the middle with a golden belt inlaid with jewels, with sleeves that fell and draped over themselves in rich layers all the way down to the floor. There were rings on every one of her fingers and around her neck a strange piece of jewelry: a small golden bottle, worn on a long chain. Her skin was creamy, her hair a rich dark red; her nails were long and sharpened to points, and they were painted gold. Her lips and her eyelids were gold as well and black paint around her eyes sharpened to points at the corners like cats’ eyes, the kohl stark against the silver of her eyes.
Kyrie was so beautiful that she might have been carved from stone: elegant, and timeless, cold. She was so terribly perfect that it almost hurt to look at her; but at the same time, there was something familiar about her that tugged at Jamie, something he couldn’t quite place…”
Dream casting: Sean Connery as Venn
The head of the Council of witches, Venn is calm and less showy than Kyrie, but just as dangerous. He doesn’t play a huge role in the book...but this is my dream cast, and I really wanted Sean Connery!
That’s about it. Happy birthday, Kristen, and thanks for the opportunity to gush about my characters on your blog!
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