Mark Troy's "The Splintered Paddle," the movie

Featured at My Book, The Movie: The Splintered Paddle by Mark Troy.

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I haven't really thought about casting The Splintered Paddle, but some real actors and the characters they've portrayed, as well as some non-actors, have inspired the characters in the book. So this is a great experiment to see how they fit in the story.

The heroine, Ava Rome, is a woman of action and determination. She was tough enough to be an MP in the Army, so she is knowledgeable about guns and personal combat. If the movie were made thirty years ago, Sigourney Weaver as Ellen Ripley in the Alien series would have been ideal for the role of Ava. More than anything else, what attracts me is the set of Sigourney's jaw that says, “I’m going to kill monsters.”

Athletes are my greatest source of inspiration for Ava—Gabby Reese and Misty May-Treanor, for two. But if I could pick anybody, it would be U.S. Olympic goal keeper, Hope Solo. She has the body, the face, and the eyes filled with aggression. Looking in those eyes, you do not want to be a guy who breaks her heart. As a goalie, Hope Solo embodies the attitude that I see in Ava. She’s the last defense when everyone else on the team has been beaten. After she makes the save, she starts the offense. She stands alone for the team while the opposition lines up to take their shots. Also, she’s got the perfect name for a hardboiled PI, after Guy Noir, of course.

Ava has a tough-guy sidekick named Moon Ito. For Moon, I pick...[read on]

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My Book, The Movie: The Splintered Paddle.

--Marshal Zeringue