Guest Post with Adam Wing

Welcome to the January 13th stop on the blog tour for Matriarch by Adam Wing, organized by Rockstar Book Tours. Be sure to follow the rest of the tour for excerpts, other guest posts, and reviews!

Today’s stop is a guest post with author Adam Wing, so I’m going to turn it over to Adam now and then I’ll be back with more information about the book. Take it away, Adam!

Guest Post

I, like many authors, have fantasized about my books being adapted into films or TV series. So, it’s the most natural thing in the world that I’d imagine what the ideal cast for one of my books might be.

Today, I’d like to share my dream cast for my novella, Matriarch.

(Note: I’ve tried to limit my choices to living actors who could realistically play the characters for whom they’re cast. So even though Audrey Hepburn would be perfect in one (or more) of the roles, I could not bring myself to include her on my list.)

The Characters

Ayla
The crux of this story, Ayla’s a 19-year-old courageous Turkish girl. She is practical and sure of herself. She will absolutely throw herself into an impossible situation, and she will never compromise when it comes to what she wants (or doesn’t).

Oliver (Ollie)
Ollie (age: 23) might be considered the protagonist of this story (though perhaps not). He is a British soldier, who upon being sent home from the war, escapes instead to pursue a romantic life of travel and adventure.

Gran
Gran is Ayla, only she’s no longer 19. One-hundred years later (at age 119), she is the oldest living member, matriarch, and grand dame of a vast family. On her deathbed, she relates the tale of how she met Ollie, and how he came to meet her, back in Turkey so long ago.

Cass
Cass is Gran’s 30(ish)-year-old great-granddaughter. She listens to the story Gran is spinning, with growing unease as she realizes there’s far more at stake than simple family secrets.

Qunae
Qunae is a mysterious, millennia-old, genderless being of extraordinary power.

The Cast

Ayla
Ideally, we’d get a brilliant and beautiful Turkish actress to play Ayla. But even with Google’s help, I couldn’t find any whose work I was familiar with. I went then, with Lilly Collins, most famously known for the Netflix series, Emily in Paris. She’s charismatic, she can act, she has the right look, and though she’s 31 to Ayla’s 19, she can play young.

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Oliver (Ollie)
It’s specified in the story that Ollie is pale, with red hair, and hie looks English. I couldn’t think of anyone to play him except Eddie Redmayne. As with the previous choice, Redmayne is a shade older than his character (38 to Ollie’s 23), but, again, I think he could easily play young.

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Gran
It’s hard to find an actress that actually looks 119-years-old. Luckily for us, Gran is extraordinarily well-preserved and could pass for a woman of eighty-five. For Gran I’d select Helen Mirren. She’s a bit young still, but she’s got the chops, could pass for an older version of Lily Collins, and come on; she’s Helen freaking Mirren. (Again, an older Turkish actress would be ideal, but I don’t know any.)

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Cass
Cass is a surprisingly important character to this story—though she seems little more than Fred Savage in The Princess Bride. As with Ollie, I could only see one actor to play this role. Tuppence Middleton (perhaps best known for her role as Riley, the Icelandic DJ in Sense8). I can pretty much guarantee you though, this choice is not made as a misguided attempt to reunite the cast of Jupiter Ascending.

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Qunae
Qunae would most likely be a voice acting role, accompanied by CG visuals. If you’ve seen the English dub of Princess Mononoke, I’m sure you’ll readily agree that for a primal being of immense power, no voice would be better suited than Gillian Anderson’s.

And that is my dream cast for my novella, Matriarch. If you’ve read the book, maybe you’ll agree with me. If you disagree, I’d love to hear your thoughts (you can reach me on Twitter at @adamwingwriting). If you haven’t read the book yet, I hope you’ll read it, and maybe then let me know your thoughts. And if you happen to be a Hollywood producer, you feel free to reach out to me too. (haha)

Jenna’s Comments

That looks like a great cast! Thank you so much for sending along this great guest post. I hope you don’t mind that I grabbed photos from each actor’s Wikipedia article rather than finding the exact Getty Images photos that were embedded in the word document. I have yet to figure out how to extract image files from a word doc I didn’t create myself…

About the Book

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Matriarch
by Adam Wing

Published 1 December 2019

Genre: Fantasy
Page Count: 124
Add it to your Goodreads TBR!

The story is over. It’s already too late.

At the end of the Turkish War of Independence, a British soldier disobeys orders to return home. Setting out to explore a country he had only known as trespasser, he uncovers danger, mysteries, and magic—adventure, obsession, and true love.

One hundred years later, the soldier’s great-granddaughter sits at her great-grandmother’s deathbed while the old woman recounts this very tale; it is the last she will ever tell.

Secrets are revealed as past and present collide, and as one woman’s future draws toward its inevitable close, another finds hers thrown into uncertainty.

FREE for Kindle Unlimited Subscribers!

Amazon US | Amazon CA | Amazon UK | B&N | TBD | Bookshop.org

About the Author

Man of many hats: teacher, engineer, editor, scholar, mountain climber, bar tender, student, world traveller, and through and above it all, writer, Wing has dedicated most his life to the craft of writing fiction.

Wing’s published works include the novel, Icarus, and a book of short stories, Apoca Lypse Sink Ships, and he has fantasy work on the way.

Website | Twitter | Instagram | Amazon | Goodreads

Giveaway Alert!

Two (2) Canadian or US followers of the tour will win finished print copies of Matriarch, and two (2) more (international) followers will win eBook copies.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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