Today we have Brian Rowe, author of the Happy Birthday Trilogy, for a guest post!
How I create my stories usually differs with each book. There's always some elements of my real life in my stories, and all of my novels I've written so far have originated from events that have actually happened to me. Now, that doesn't mean I've actually aged seventy years in 70 days or anything; I'm still aging normally, and just celebrated my 27th birthday. But I've always been interested in the obsession we have as a society with birthdays, and I wanted to explore that in this Birthday trilogy.
I don't brainstorm a whole lot, actually; I'm lucky enough to have creative inspiration all the time, and usually I have more ideas than I know what to do with. I really hate to sit at my desk and just ponder things. I like to go with my instinct and, whenever possible, let the voices of the characters guide the way. I never intended Happy Birthday to Me as a trilogy, but the ideas, and Cameron and Liesel especially, just wouldn't leave my head. After I finished the first book, I simply felt like the story wasn't done. And It didn't take long to imagine the scarier Book 2 and the apocalyptic Book 3. I'm now so thrilled I wrote these two sequels, because they're the most fun I've had so far in writing fiction.
If Happy Birthday to Me were made into a movie, first of all, I'd hope it'd retain the dark edge of the books, and not be a G-rated tween fantasy film. The casting process is tricky to think about because the actors who would be perfect for these roles now would probably be too old if it took 3, 5, or 10 years to get the films made. But I were the casting director of the first book right now, I would have a blast in casting these roles. The easy choice for Cameron would be Zac Efron (he made a similar what-if film with 17 Again), but I'm a big fan of Glee and I actually think the adorable Darren Criss would make a great Cameron. Liesel is a red head in the books, and the perfect red head would be Emma Stone. For Wesley I really like the young actor Kyle Gallner, and for Kimber, Chloe Grace Moretz. I also think a big name should be cast for the Mrs. Gordon character, since she's arguably the most interesting adult character in the first book. Frances Conroy from Six Feet Under would be a great choice, as would Kathy Bates.
Brian
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