hotreads

 This went beyond rude. It was offensive to Canadians, dragged in other commentors by name, and was disrespectful to the entire forum, which includes Sylvia Day. It's what's known as an Internet troll attack, and whoever posted this is not sorry.  I'm responding not to take the flamebait, which only feeds a troll. I'm posting to say I'm sorry to see someone tried to disrupt the place. But even more importantly, please don't let this spoil everyone elses enjoyment, or worse worry about being attacked too. Â

Then there's Nathan as a TV character? In the books, we never see present day Nathan, because Eva never comes face to face with him when he's in New York? But if the TV series wanted to have scenes where Eva isn't in them, stuff about Nathan that Eva later was told about by other people (Gideon, Monica) then Nathan definitely would be way up on the cast list? Â Like when Nathan went to Gideon's office? Would there be an action scene on the screen of them fighting? Gideon eventually told Eva about Nathan's visit to the Crossfire, weeks later when they were alone together in their lovenest. If a script stuck strictly to the book scenes, then the stuff on the screen would be of GidEva talking. How about an action scene with Nathan attacking Cary, something that happened while Eva was hundreds of miles away? Or forensic scenes of the dead body in the hotel room? Eva was told about that stuff by Detective Graves, but she never saw any of it with her own eyes. Â If there was a present-day Nathan appearing on screen, I would list him right after Cary and just ahead of Corrine.

Anyone want to re-arrange the cast of characters? I go back and forth on whether to list Eva or Gideon first. A lot of the fantasy casting lists start with Gideon, but in the books, Eva is in every single scene, because we get the story from inside her mind. If the TV series followed that format, Eva would be in every single scene, while Gideon would be in a lot of them, but not all. Â How about moving Mark up just higher than Angus, given the amount of screen time that actor would get in all three seasons? (If Season One was Bared To You, Season Two Reflected in You, Season Three Entwined With You?) Does he count more than Angus simply because Mark interacts directly with Eva more frequently than Angus? Because Mark would appear all the time while Eva's at work, and her career is crucial to her? Or is Angus more important, because he's Gideon's father figure and Eva's protector?

Anyone up for some fun creating our own "Dreamcast" lists? If this were me, and the TV series was at the end of, let's say Season Three, Entwined With You, here is how I would have the cast credits roll on the screen at the end of the season finale episode: Â Eva Tramell/Cross Gideon Cross Cary Taylor Corrine Giroux Deanna Johnson Brett Kline Monica Stanton Victor Reyes Angus McLeod Mark Garrity Christopher Vidal Jr. Magdalene Perez Detective Shelley Graves Elizabeth Vidal Ireland Vidal Dr. Terry Lucas Dr. Anne Lucas Jean-Francois Giroux Megumi Tatianna Cherlin Trey Richard Stanton Benjamin Clancy Dr. Petersen Parker Smith Raul Steven Ellison Arnoldo Ricci Detective Mincha Chris Vidal Sr. Scott Shawna Ellison Martin Stanton Lacey Partners at the advertising agency (I'm spacing those three names) Then list the names of various walk-on characters here, actors/actresses who would appear on the screen briefly in one scene, but have at most a couple of lines of dialog. Some wouldn't talk at all, and some the characters wouldn't even have a name. Members of Six-Ninths Daniel Emergency room doctor Corrine Giroux's father Corrine Giroux's mother Receptionist at Crossfire Industries. Â I'm sure I missed some people, but at least I remembered people like Brett and Deanna.

I saw that "Dreamcast" column, and while I will say the writer who created it was spot on about how she described each character, overall she made some very serious mistakes that make me wonder whether she even read Entwined With You? The way she's set up her list, you'd think she stopped halfway through Reflected In You, at the point where GidEva's relationship imploded?  Number one - she forgot Brett entirely. Number two, she forgot Deanna entirely. Number three: she forgot Detective Graves entirely. Number four, she missedJean-Francois Giroux entirely. Number five, she forgot Anne Lucas entirely. She missed some other noteworthy people too, like Arnoldo. But missing Brett and Deanna was huge, missing Detective Graves and Jean-Francois was sloppy research, and overlooking Anne Lucas was missing the cliffhanger ending of Entwined With You..  Mistake number six: the way she assigned every other character to particular categories made no sense. The only other people who counted as "Main Players" besides Gideon, Eva and Cary were GidEva's parents/step-parents. Since when is Chris Vidal Sr. a "Main Player?" He's a secondary character.  Number seven: people who definitely should have instead been in the "Main Players" category instead got lumped down at the very bottom of the list in her "Last But Not Least" category. Like Angus. Terry Lucas too. With the sole exception of Shawna, the one thing the six people have in common in the "Last" category is that right now or at some point in the past, they've been paid by GidEva and/or one of more of GidEva's parents. So the "Last" list is main up of servants or paid professionals, like doctors.  I think Angus counts a lot more as a character than Chris Vidal Sr. Angus is practically a father to Gideon and is literally at his side every single day. And Gideon trusts Angus not only with his life but trusts Angus with Eva's life too. By contrast, Gideon barely sees his mother and stepfather.  Here's a link to the list: http://www.heroesandheartbreakers.com/blogs/2013/11/on-the-fantasy-casting-couch-sylvia-days-crossfire-series  Oh and she misspelled Tramell as Trammell. Although that's a goof that a proofreader should either have caught, or possibly have made?

 I love that we can have spirited discussion here about a song. Kinda fitting because a song, Golden, is a crucial part of the Crossfire love story. Gideon hates the song, and he and Eva both hate the music video. And here, Brett's one of the characters who we love to debate. Some hate him, some think he's OK, some go back and forth hashing out him as a character here?  I haven't read Gabriel's Inferno, Gaia -- are the song lyrics themselves in the story, not just the song title? That's interestering if the author got copyright permission to use them? One of my favorite authors, Stephen King, often gets copyright permission to include song lyrics in his novels, giving the songs interesting turns to set moods -- scary moods in his case, because he's a master at the horror genre. So if Nine Inch Nails allowed an author to use lyrics, that means whoever holds the copyright is very open to granting permission for authors to use its work, and so probably equally open to permission to let TV/film producers use its songs too?  Your English is excellent, by the way, coming across as truly bi-lingual. English, well the American version of it, is my only language, and I wish I knew more. I love foreign language films, like The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, I liked the original Swedish version of the movie better than the Hollywood remake. Given the choice between an original foreign movie with subtitles and a Hollywood remake, I always like originals better.

I wonder about casting for and creating the music of Six-Ninths for the television series? Would the series producers tap into established musicians and previously-released songs for most of the the band's material, or, go with newly-discovered musical talent and have original music created? Will the producers look to cast musician-actors for the band members? Even go with a musician-actor to play Brett? Â I know lots of fans have wish lists of various actors/actresses, top of the list being Henry Cavill for Gideon? I'd like to see an actual musician play Brett, a previously unknown musican-actor getting a shot at real-life stardom in the series? It'd very much tap into the character Sylvia created, someone who becomes a star? As for the music to go with the lyrics of Golden, I hope the producers could sign a big-name composer to create original music to accompany the lyrics Sylvia created? And someone clever to write the song "Tapped That"?

 One of Gideon's hawter dirty-talking to Eva, the sex scene in that unfinished office at the Crossfire, is what leapt to mind when I heard "Closer" for the first time in a while on an online streaming radio station. Where he said - well panted, actually as he was nailing Eva on an office couch I suspect he's already bought for her was -- "I've captured an angel. And I put my greedy hands all over you. I defile you. And you love it." Almost in a sense of wonder as he says so, it comes across when you listen to the audiobook.  Closer taps into a dom/sub dynamic, where one partner hands over control to the other, letting the other go wild. It clicked with me today one of the Captivated By You teasers quotes Sylvia has given us, Gideon saying, "I can do whatever I want to you. You've given me that right. It's the greatest gift I've ever been given."  You get that if you actually listen to the song, the boundaries become clear, with the lyric phrase "You let me ... " repeated over and over.  And as you experience its pounding rock beat, whose tempo brings to mind a dom saying it as he's going at it, you can picture a couple having sheet-clawing sex. Er, for the nightclub scene, make that wall-clawing sex. "Animalistic sex" -- you pegged it and made a pun at the same time. Well played,  Ilurvegc. Perfect for "Primal."  The group Nine Inch Nails recently reunited, and it'd be so cool if the Crossfire producers could tap into its music? Its lead singer, Trent Reznor, has done some serious work with Hollywood studios as a solo artist - he's a composer as well as a songwriter, and he does instrumental stuff as well as lyrics.  He worked on the Oscar-nominated film The Social Network, and he pretty much did the entire film score for the American-made version of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.

 Well, if kah-ray-zee-arse Corrine took the same deceptive approach with Deanna as Corrine had been to mess with Eva's mind, Corrine would have said Gideon had been in her apartment last night (true) and let Deanna make an assumption Gideon had sex with her? Maybe even let Deanna assume Gideon arranged for her to live right around the corner from him, set Corrine up in a lovenest? Tried feeding Deanna bull about how Gideon talks to her every day? That he's had Corrine come to the Crossfire? That's Corrine's usual manipulation M-O, and no matter how agitaged the psych drugs were making her, she probably was still capable of being the coniving little b i t c h. This is the sort of stuff Corrine would love for a reporter to repeat so it would get back to Eva?  If Deanna took the same baiting approach with Corrine that Deanna had with Eva, she would have said Gideon only used Corrine to make Eva jealous enough to choose him over Brett? Tell Deanna how Eva had been kissing Brett after the New York concert several weeks earler, and Gideon caught them? Then point out to Corrine that Gideon went out of his way to get photographed with Corrine twice in the following days? Let Corrine do the math? Then hit Corrine with the Times Square photos taken earlier that night? Say something along the lines of Gideon is so bent on getting Eva back he sought to break-up Eva's evening with Brett?  Questions: did Corrine turn hysterical in front of Deanna? And if so, what possibly could have come out of her mouth then? Because Corrine did go so hysterical Gideon ended up going to check on her again -- and calling Jean-Francois. Gideon told Eva as much later that night. So if Corrine melted down in front of Deanna, what might Deanna do with that info? Because for the first time, Deanna succeeded in getting one of Gideon's women to talk? (Eva refused to discuss Gideon with Deanna, as did Maggie.)

There's a very explicit song, Closer, by Nine Inch Nails, that could be perfect for the nightclub sex scene when Crossfire is adapted for television.  I won't post the full set of lyrics here - they're that raunchy. But part of the chorus says it all, "I want to (  ) you like an animal" -- fits right in with the animal theme at the Primal nightclub, a song made for dirty dancing and, well, ....  Plus there are some lyrics that fit with Gideon being hawt about desecrating his Angel with raw s e x.  You let me violate you, You let me desecrate you You let me p e n e t r a t e you You let me complicate you  Anyone who wants to pull up the song on a music streaming service, like Spotify, two words:  Use headphones or Listen alone  Not a tune you want your kids, roommates, significant others overhearing. Well, maybe significant others.

 I wonder whether one or both of the Lucases has been trying to make Deanna their cat's paw? If you think about the first smear story Deanna was trying to build, that Gideon uses women and is dangerous, it sounds an awful lot like what Terry would have people believe? It's exactly the sort of stuff he tried to convince Eva of that time he caught her in a vulnerable moment in the hospital cafeteria. If Terry managed to sort of brainwash Deanna into that, it would explain her over-the-top reaction to wanting to nail Gideon? If this was the case as Entwined With You opened, is it still the case two weeks later, now that Deanna has had some limited contact with Gideon and Eva? Maybe figured out one or both of the Lucases were trying to use her?

The Waldorf dinner and the event where GidEva's engagement was announced both come up three times when comparing press events and key characters. We know Deanna was at the engagement event. Was she also at the Waldorf dinner? Having seen pictures of GidEva as a couple, and guessing correctly they'd be at that charity fundraiser, she attended? And eavesdropped? Gideon was so focused on micro-managing Corrine, he hadn't even noticed Terry Lucas eating dinner at his table, much less noticed Maggie eavesdropping one table over. I'll bet he wouldn't have even noticed Deanna at all? Â If you think about the things Deanna could have overheard, a lot makes sense later about the approaches Deanna took. Based on things Corrine, Terry Lucas and Maggie said and did in Eva's presence, Deanna could have made certain connections, and it makes sense why she would later ambush all three women? Corrine left Gideon all those years ago because his possessiveness scared her? Plants the "dark side" and violence ideas in Deanna's head? The timing of Corrine learning about the new GidEva relationship and her deciding to come back to New York? The idea Gideon tried to make Corrine jealous enough to come back? The fact Maggie viewed Corrine as the main threat? That Gideon did end up dumping Eva for Corrine? Maggie finally giving up on Gideon? The hope that Maggie might be bitter, and so it was worth trying to cultivate Maggie as a source? Â Most of all, the Terry-Gideon argument. Deanna would have learned Terry Lucas' name and seen that he and Gideon hated one another. This makes sense why Deanna later said to Eva almost the same thing Terry had weeks before: Gideon's money does not give him the right to order Eva around? Also, Deanna may have already known about the affair Gideon and Anne Lucas had? Now she knew where to find Terry? Â I think Deanna filed away everything she learned at the Waldorf dinner about Eva, Corrine and Maggie, and drew her own incorrect conclusions about how each of the three women stood with Gideon? Then sometime soon after, sought out Terry Lucas, maybe at his office? And Terry Lucas poured poison into her mind, like he tried to poison Eva's. Maybe with Deanna, he succeeded, and that's why she's so bent on revenge now? Terry's managed to put the one-night-stand into an evil context, that Gideon is a monster?

I've been thinking about the places where Deanna could have spoken with other characters or at least spied and eavesdropped, gathering crucial information. Looking for patterns trying to figure out what she learned? There are places we readers definitely can place Deanna, because Eva knows about them. Plus, there are some instances where there definitely had been reporters and Gideon present, so Deanna very likely could have been there?  Places we can definitely put Deanna, in order: Society event where Gideon picked her up so he could avoid Anne Lucas. Ambushing Magdalene at work. Golden video premiere Ambushing Corrine at home. The night GidEva's engagement was announced.  Places where there definitely were reporters, and Gideon was there, so it's possible Deanna covered one or more of the three: Advocacy center dinner Waldorf dinner Vodka publicity party  OK, if I've missed any instances, jump in, but here are my counts for instances where Deanna definitely or possibly had the chance to get to other people -- or at the very least, spied on them.  Maggie: two definite, two maybe. The definite: Deanna ambushing Maggie at work, and the night GidEva's engagement was announced. The maybes: advocacy center dinner, Waldorf dinner. Anne Lucas: two definite. The event where Gideon picked up Deanna for a one-night stand, and the engagement announcement. Corrine: one definite, two maybe. Definite: Deanna ambushing Corrine at Corrine's apartment. Maybes: Waldorf dinner, vodka publicity event. Christopher: one definite, one maybe. Definite: the video premiere. Maybe: advocacy center Lizzie: one definite, engagement announcement. Brett: one definite, the video premiere Terry Lucas: one maybe, the Waldorf dinner.

One last thought, well one of those fun fantasies I have .... Gideon insisting he's going to San Diego too - that he, Eva and Cary will fly out there in one of his jets. Then he's going to try to lay down the law with Eva, that he, as the moneyman behind Vidal Records, will deal with Brett, boss to artist. Eva's going to pull the wife card - that she and Gideon are now a business team. He's going to invoke the "honor and obey" part of the traditional wedding vows they took. She'll respond by telling him that doesn't mean he can be a caveman. Then she'll pull the crisis management card -- if Gideon is so insistent on her joining Cross Industries, bringing her talents with her, well she can start using her talents by dealing with the Six-Ninths crisis. Â So there. Sounds kinda fun, doesn't it. Gideon has that nervous tick of running a hand through his hair when stressed, running both hands through his hair when really stressed about Eva. The guy's gonna be pulling his hair out?

Yeah, yeah, all along, Eva's been telling Brett she wants to be just friends, nothing more. Know what -- that'd been Gideon's tune with Corrine, as well. Uh huh. And what did Corrine also see? Gideon and Eva argue the first time Corrine saw them as a couple. Gideon quit spending time with Eva, and him obviously miserable. Gideon spending time with Corrine in front of the press? What's Brett seen? Gideon furious with Eva. Eva miserable, having just been "dumped." Eva walking away from Gideon in Times Square, speding time with Brett in front of the press. Â Poor Brett's been being led on, unconsciously by Eva, because her old insecurities stirred up by the very thought of Corrine. But at least Eva's not calculatedly manipulating him. Gideon, when desperate, played the emotions of Eva and Corrine both, and Gideon is still paying the price. Â Know who Eva needs to see this weekend in San Diego. Dr. Travis. Who can make her figure out it's her insecurities that are causing the Brett problem. Gideon, ahem, had s c r e w e d the obvious answer out of her the night she'd kissed Brett. The good doctor knows her "issues" even better than Gideon, and moreover can be objective. So let Gideon deal with handling Brett and the sex tape goes. Let Eva and Cary shoot hoops with Dr. Travis and get help straightening out the upheaval both of them have gone through since moving to New York.