Fantasy Cast Friday - 'Offside!' by Jamie Tucker Dougan.

It's that time of the week again when authors retreat into fantasy land and imagine what it would be like if their books were to be made into movies/TV dramas. Just who would they cast as those all-important main characters?

Yes, it's Fantasy Cast Friday! And this week I've got my lovely friend and fellow author Jamie Tucker Dougan with me as he picks his dream cast for his latest release 'Offside!'

Read on to find out a little bit more about Jamie, and to see just who his 'Offside!' fantasy cast would be...

Author Bio

Jamie Tucker Dougan is a 40-something indie author and blogger from East Ayrshire in Scotland. He enjoys blogging about random things and writing short stories with an adult romantic theme.

His first short story, Grande Plage, was released in July 2012 and reached number 1 in the Amazon DE Free Download chart in August 2012. It was followed soon after by his second short story, Always Running Away which included the little bonus story, A Bus Journey.

In September 2012, Jamie released The Rubicon Trail, a fictionalisation of a real life adventure in America. It has been a Top 5 best seller in its category.

Jamie is currently working on a series of novellas, the first called Offside! They are about fictional footballer Shane Henderson whose love life becomes as complicated at the offside rule in football. The first part in the series was released just before Christmas 2013 and the second part, called Playing Offside will be released in spring 2014.

Away from writing, Jamie works in a busy car & truck dealership in his home town and is a loving husband to his partner of 22 years and loving dad to his two young sons. He enjoys watching football, motor racing and walking.

Book Blurb - Offside!

Teenage best friends Shane Henderson and Mia Rodrigues had the same dream, to be professional footballers. Mia followed her dream to America. Shane followed his to the football team he supported, Milton Keynes Rangers. And so life took them on different paths, different journeys. But sometimes paths cross... and they did briefly for Shane and Mia... and their teenage friendship became something more. 

Offside! is the first in a series of novellas about Shane's journey along his path. And at times, that path sometimes gets more complicated than the offside rule in football.

Shane Henderson isn't a typical footballer. Nightclubs, casinos, fast cars and faster women are not his style. He prefers the quiet life and cosy nights with the woman he loves. It's a pity that woman doesn't want the same thing.

A secret involving Shane's new wife and his brother isn't all it first appears to be and an explosive confrontation in the last game of the season begins to reveal the real truth about someone Shane thought he knew.

Not everyone plays by the rules!

The Cast

Shane Henderson ~ Every story has a main character. The main character in Offside! is Shane Henderson, a professional footballer in his early 30s. Since his teens, he dreamed of being a footballer, just like his dad, brother and uncle. But his footballing abilities were overlooked by his parents, who had little time for him when he was young.

It’s not until his family move to another country that his abilities are noticed by the father of his new best friend that he begins to follow his dream.

Shane leaves school and gains a place at the footballing academy of his favourite team, Milton Keynes Rangers. Almost a year later, he makes his professional début.

He is not a typical professional footballer though, preferring a quiet life at home rather than fast cars, faster women, nightclubs, race tracks and casinos. So it probably wasn’t a good idea to fall in love and marry a fame hungry, attention seeking ex-Page 3 model.

Over the course of the Offside! Series, revelations will see Shane’s heart and head pulled in different directions and his love-life become more complicated than the offside rule. We also follow bits of his career playing for Milton Keynes Rangers, local rivals Daventry United and back to the club he loves the most.

The visual muse for Shane is Eric Szmanda, best known for playing Greg Sanders in my favourite TV show CSI.

Mia Rodrigues ~ Mia Rodrigues, the pin-up girl of womens’ soccer. Beautiful, talented and a sensible head on her shoulders, so it’s no wonder that away from the football field she is also a successful model, part-time lawyer and owner of a successful entertainment agency.

The only daughter of Brazilian World Cup winner Pepe, football has always been in her blood. Her dream of being a top player came true when she headed for the USA at 18 years old. That was after being spotted by a daily tabloid newspaper and her modelling career taking off. But all she wanted to do back then was play football. Her footballing career was cut short though in her late 20s. So she moved into coaching and eventually management, becoming the first female manager of an MLS team in America. She has her sights set on a bigger league though… The Premiership.

Mia is also Shane Henderson’s best friend, having known each other since their teens. But their relationship goes deeper than just friendship. They have feelings for each other and have, in the past, crossed that line where friendship becomes something else. Will the paths of their lives cross again?

The visual muse and inspiration for Mia is model/actress/entrepreneur/TV presenter Kelly Brook.

Lewis Henderson ~ Every story needs a bad guy. The bad guy in Offside! is Shane’s big brother, Lewis. But is he really the bad guy?

Like Shane, Lewis is also a professional footballer. Nearing the end of a career mostly spent playing in Italy, he moves to Shane’s former club on loan. Always the blue eyed boy to his mother, he has an estranged relationship with his little brother. But in a strange way, he cares for his younger sibling which is why he does something that breaks his brother’s heart.

The visual muse for Lewis is Emmerdale’s lovable rogue Cain Dingle played by Jeff Hordley. Cain is a bad boy but you just can’t help liking that bad boy. Just like Lewis when you realise why he did what he does to his little brother.

April Flowers ~ April Flowers, new wife of Offside!’s main character Shane Henderson. A woman he loves very much but a woman with a secret… a few secrets. The former Page 3 model turned TV sports reporter and lads’ mag pin-up girl is not as sweet and innocent as she appears.

She’s an attention seeking drama queen who loves the limelight. Very much a WAG but not the kind of WAG happy shopping in the best shops and eating in the best restaurants.  She’s the opposite of Shane, who shuns attention and tries to live a quiet life away from the media spotlight. April attracts the media. In Offside! though, she’ll wish she hadn’t.

Revelations that April has been playing “offside” set the scene and as the series progresses, we’ll find that not everybody is playing by the rules and April is not the only character playing “offside”.

The visual muse for April is former Emmerdale star Roxanne Pallet. Like Roxanne’s character was in Emmerdale, April looks sweet and innocent but is also a bit of a man eater and heart breaker.

Sam Black ~ Sam is Shane’s former teammate in Offside! and by the time the story reaches its third part, teammate again. They are also best friends having joined Milton Keynes Rangers’ Youth Academy together. Sam is also Mia Rodrigues’ cousin. But that doesn’t stop Shane often confiding his feelings for Mia in Sam.

Sam also has a big dislike for April, and often tells Shane his opinion of her.

I’ve cast Home & Away star Steve Peacocke who plays Darryl ‘Brax’ Braxton. Not because they are similar characters but because when I wrote the first line in Offside! mentioning Sam, Home & Away was on TV and Brax was on the screen.

Shelby Cooper ~ Shelby only has a minor role in Offside! but in the second part, she has a major part. However, I’m not giving anything away about the second part yet, so you’ll just have to see how major a part she has and how it affects the series.

I’ve cast Person of Interest star Sarah Shahi who plays Agent Shaw (spoiler alert UK viewers) as Shelby for two reasons. One is that Person of Interest is my current favourite TV show. The other is that during breaks from writing ‘Playing Offside’, I binge-watched Person of Interest and because I did, I couldn’t get the lovely Ms Shahi/Agent Shaw out of my head. So she became the visual muse for Shelby.

Other characters from the Offside! Series, some minor and some yet to be introduced...

Dario de Luccio ~ Daventry United manager. 

Another character that has a minor part in Ep1 but a major impact on what’s going on in Ep2.
I’ve cast a real life former footballer as Dario – former Rangers and Blackburn Rovers player Lorenzo Amoruso

Chip Agassi ~ Mia’s race car driving husband. He’ll make his full début in Ep3. 

I’ve cast Coronation Street bad boy Marc Baylis (Rob Donovan) as Chip.

Dale McKechnie ~ Shane’s ex-girlfriend from his schooldays and early part of his career. Mentioned throughout the series but makes her proper début in Ep3. 

I’ve cast another Coronation Street star as Dale – Samia Ghadie who plays Maria Connor.

There are more characters I could cast but the ones I’ve listed here are characters that have visual muses, faces I picture in my mind when I’m writing the Offside! Series.

*

Blog - http://jamietuckerdougan.com/

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/JTDougan

Twitter - @JamieTDougan

Amazon - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Tucker/e/B008QTPYTY

*

Thanks so much for taking part, Jamie, and for such a brilliant Fantasy Cast Friday!

Fantasy Cast Friday is back next week with the fabulous Mandy Baggot, and her dream cast for her new release 'Made in Nashville'. Don't miss it!


Tweet

Meet the Author - Erin Lawless

Have you met Erin Lawless? She's a fellow HarperImpulse author, and the woman behind the bestselling novel The Best Thing I Never Had.

Read on to find out more about Erin, how her writing career got started, how she feels about reviews, and just who she'd invite to her fantasy dinner party... I'll let the lady herself take it from here...

Bio:

I live a happy life full of wonderful friends, in love with a man who buys me books instead of flowers. To mix things up a little, I write books where friends and lovers hit obstacles and (usually) overcome them. When I’m not doing that I read absolutely everything I can get my hands on, spend an inordinate amount of time in pyjamas and run a fun-but-informative blog on British history. 

*

Was it always your intention to find an agent/publisher, or did you ever think about, or indeed go down, the self-publishing route?

I previously self-published an anthology of short stories, so I definitely wasn’t afraid of going down that route when I finished writing The Best Thing I Never Had – but I did yearn for the traditionally published platform! Knowing that I was unlikely to get near a large enough publisher without an agent (another thing that makes HarperImpulse so great!) I sent a couple of querying emails to a handful of literary agents. Each of the agents wanted to read the full work, but each of them came back with the same feedback: that they loved the book, but they “couldn’t see a market for it”. One flat-out suggested I needed to re-write it to make it an erotica! A bit disillusioned, I simply self-published until, not long after, I was picked up by lovely HarperImpulse. And yes, it was hard work not to send print-screens of my Amazon Top 100 Bestselling status to the agents that said I wouldn’t sell…

You’ve just won a few million on the lottery, what’s the first thing you do?

Very boring, but the first thing I would do is buy a house!! My fiancé and I have lived in six rented flats since we moved in together in 2009. We keep being kicked out because the landlords sell the flats, or having to break our tenancies and leave because the landlords won’t do integral repairs like, oh, stopping the toilet from back-surging sewage into the flat! And the soaring cost of private rent means that we have never even had the slightest hope of being able to save for a deposit on a place of our own. We’ve started to talk about ‘owning our own property’ in the same misty-eyed, “it’ll never happen” tones as we’d use saying “when we win the lottery”, so it would definitely have to be the first thing I did. Sigh!

Can you tell us anything about any future projects you’re working on?

I’m currently working on my second romcom for HarperImpulse, with a working title of Indefinite Leave to Remain. It’s the split-POV story of Nadia, a Russian national who has lived in the UK for most of her life but has now found out she may be deported, and Alex, an administrator who works in immigration, is desperately in love with his housemate’s girlfriend, has seriously lost his oomph in life and comes across Nadia’s application form for Indefinite Leave to Remain in the United Kingdom. Now, a romcom based around immigration law might sound a little dry, but trust me, Alex and Nadia’s story is anything but stuffy!

Paperback or ebooks – do you have a preference?

I love paperbacks. I resisted getting a Kindle for the longest time, but by that point I was getting a lot of e-ARCs to read, and trying to do so on a Kindle app on my mobile phone was ruining my eyesight! Now my Kindle is almost surgically attached to my hand, but if I truly enjoy an eBook, I will always get a paperback, and I will always automatically get paperbacks of favourite authors/series. This has allowed me to go down from four to three bookcases in my flat, much to my other half’s relief. My favourite thing about my Kindle is that I can hold it in one hand whilst I cook with the other – multi-tasking to the extreme!

Do you get nervous reading reviews of your books?

I’m really not too bad and I don’t get emotional over bad reviews (unless they are patently rude or unfair!). I think it’s because I’ve reviewed so many books, over so many genres, that I know first-hand that no book can be for everyone, and that even the mood of the reviewer at the time of reading the book can impact on their feelings for it, as well as what they’d read directly before, etc etc. So I am pretty good at not taking bad reviews personally – I’m just thankful they’ve taken the time out of their lives to interact with my work, on any level!

Do you put any of yourself into any of your characters?

People are always saying that they can see themselves – or other people that they know I know – in my characters. I’m sure I – consciously or subconsciously – sneak bits and pieces from all the people in my life, but more often than not the characters are just facets of me (or my aspirations!). I spent quite a long time playing around and shaping characters in my head before I start writing, so even if they had a nub of true life inspiration initially, they’ve moved far away from that by the time the story begins.

You’re having a dinner party, which 4 people – living or dead – would be your ideal guests?

Number one is Anne Boleyn. It’s definitely no secret that I am massively obsessed with her! I’d love to see first-hand what her legendary appeal was. I’m sure she would be queening it (no pun intended) over the entire dinner table. Second would be Karl Pilkington, who I find completely hysterical. Whilst I’m not quite as grumpy as he is, I definitely agree with most of his brilliant life observations: “Who decided it's good to have a six pack? I think it's weird to see your insides through your skin.”

Third I’d go for William Shakespeare. It might be an obvious one, but I have a Masters Degree in Shakespearean Studies, and I’ve always had the feeling that the man himself would find that totally bizarre. I’d inveigle him into reading my thesis on his tragedies before dinner and have him confirm that scholars through the ages – including myself – have been way, way, way overthinking it all! Finally, I’d pick Derren Brown and have him blow everyone’s mind with his ‘non-magic’ Magic Powers! 

*

Thank you so much, Erin, for a fabulous interview! And I have to admit, Derren Brown would probably be one of my ideal dinner party guests, too. If only so I could grill him all night as to how his mind works... 

It's great to see The Best Thing I Never Had doing so well in the Kindle charts, and I hope you have the same deserved success with your next release. Looking forward to it!

*

Have you read The Best Thing I Never Had? Why not? It's only 99p - which is an absolute bargain! You can download your copy from Amazon HERE. But you can also find out where else it's available by checking out the HarperImpulse books page over on their website. 

Follow @michellebetham Tweet

Fantasy Cast Friday - Here's how it works...

Your book is being made into a movie! (Come on... which author hasn't dreamt about this happening? I do it all the time...) And they want you to choose the cast! Yes, you have been given carte blanche to pick the actors you'd like to see bring those characters you so lovingly created to life! Absolutely anyone you like! Anyone! Who in the world do you pick?

Well, that's what Fantasy Cast Friday is all about - it lets you, the author, have a bit of fun and let everyone know who you would pick to play those lead characters you created, in that book you wrote. 

I've already got a few authors lined up to take part in this fun Friday feature, but, just to kick things off and show you what it's all about, I've done my own Fantasy Cast List for my first book released through my publishers, HarperImpulse - The First Christmas Without You...

Jessie Collins has always wanted to visit Lapland.  But this Christmas, more than any other, it’s also a place she feels she really needs to be as she tries to come to terms with a painful event in the past, and a future she really needs to start living.
 
Can a strange young man called Mikku, lights in the sky, and a magical little town in the Arctic Circle really help her find the strength she needs to move on?

The First Christmas Without You – a magical Lapland fairytale…

 
So, who would I choose to play the main characters if this book was made into a movie? Read on to find out...


Jessie

Jessie is a woman in her early 40s, a young widow who's trying hard to come to terms with the loss of her soul mate - her husband. And someone who I think would be perfect for that role is Rachel Weisz. She's about the right age, and I think she could play Jessie beautifully. She might have to try speaking with a bit more of a northern English accent, but I'm sure we could sort that out... 


Mikku 

Jessie meets Mikku - a young Sami man - on her first full day in Lapland. A mysterious man that Jessie feels drawn to almost immediately, he becomes a friend, her guardian angel if you like; someone who helps her through the journey she has to take and the decisions she has to make in order to start living again. And who would I choose to play him? Step forward Alexander Skarsgard! He's Scandinavian (Swedish), looks good, and he was the first name that sprung to mind when I thought about Mikku. I think he'd be perfect...

Zac

Zac is a Scottish ski-instructor living and working in the resort Jessie is visiting. Tall, dark, and handsome (of course!), is he going to be the man to help Jessie put her life back together? And just who would be perfect for the role of this sexy ski-instructor? Hugh Jackman, that's who!

Can he do a convincing Edinburgh accent, though? Who cares. That's something we could work on...

* 

So, there we have it. Those are my choices for Fantasy Cast Friday. Do you get the idea? 

Fancy taking part yourself? Just let me know, and I'll make sure you get your chance to choose your own Fantasy Cast List...

Now, it's back to the writing, and back to the dreaming... ;)



You can download your own copy of The First Christmas Without You HERE from Amazon, but you can also find out details of where else it's available, and check out all the other fabulous books HarperImpulse have to offer by checking out the books page on their website - you can find it HERE! What are you waiting for?

    

Follow @michellebetham Tweet

The marketing machine, social media, and why I'm taking a step back from them both...

Sometimes, as a writer, it's best to take a step back from what you think you should be doing, and concentrate on what you actually feel like doing. So I'm doing just that.

Over the past few months I have been putting enormous pressure on myself in terms of trying to think of clever, new and interesting ways to market my books. Yes, I might have a publisher now, but that doesn't mean I can sit back and think someone else is going to do all the work. Far from it! If anything, having a publisher piles on the pressure even more because, all of a sudden, it's not just yourself you're selling books for. You have to make sure you sell books for them, too. So my job just became twice as difficult and doubly important. 

But in saying that, sometimes, when you try too hard, the sum total of bugger all gets done! You end up dissolving into panic attacks when you see what other authors are doing in terms of getting their names known and their books out there. You spend nights lying awake thinking you'll never be able to match that as the ideas just fail to come. You end up having to watch the Season 5 premiere of Justified twice because you couldn't concentrate fully on Raylan Givens and that hat for the stress of worrying. Actually, maybe that last reason was just a convenient excuse... Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah... and then the panic takes over and everything spirals into something it really isn't. Or something it shouldn't be, anyway. That old marketing nightmare is never going to go away, and as more and more books hit those virtual shelves, the job of making sure your name is known and your book is read becomes harder and harder. But I'm sure that, somehow, I'll think of a way that is achievable to me in terms of promotion and publicity. I can't afford blog tours, and even though I would love a Street Team of my own, I'm not sure I have enough of a backing or a following to build one just yet. So, maybe that's what I need to concentrate on at some point. 

I'm also a bit of a loner, which is why I love writing. I like my own company, with nobody but my characters and me to think about. Sometimes, anyway. Other times I crave a decent conversation with another human being, but on the whole I'm a loner. So, when you suddenly realise that that has to change, too, if you want to succeed as an author, well, that old panic rises up again and you begin to wonder if you're really cut out for all this.

But then I remember that I have actually written bestselling books. Books that have hit the Kindle Top 200 UK chart in their time. And practically every one of my books has hit a bestselling slot in their particular sub-categories, with Striker and Extra Time both regular visitors to the Sports Fiction Top 100. So I can do the easy bit. I can write the books. But, even though I've been writing seriously for over three years now, I still have a lot to learn as far as that marketing machine goes. I'm not a natural salesperson, and I don't suppose many writers are. I love the creating part, the sitting down and involving myself in my characters' lives. I adore that side of things so much I can't even explain. But when it comes to climbing out of that writing bubble I put myself in, I freeze. I become a novice all over again. And that's when the pressure builds and the fun stops.

So, after putting way too much pressure on myself, over Christmas and the first few days of the new year in particular, I've decided to take that step back. I'm going to try and forget about the marketing and the selling and all the ways in which I can be better at that side of things, for now, because trying too hard isn't working. And that includes social media - I'll be giving that a little bit of a break, too. So, if any of my author friends are reading this, I'm not ignoring you this week. If my retweets and Facebook shares are thin on the ground over the next few days, it isn't because I've gone all selfish on you. I'm just taking a little social media break. Just a short one. Because I need to slip back into that writing bubble, remember why I'm doing this in the first place, and enjoy the writing part of this job again. If I lose that, if that disappears, then I always said I wouldn't do this anymore. And I really don't want to stop doing this. This is my life now, it's what drives me forward and keeps me going. It's what I have wanted to do all my life. And I don't want the worry and the pressure of marketing to take this dream away from me. I don't want that side of things to make me hate the writing I love so much. 

I don't want the pressure of marketing to make me feel like this...

So, I've made some new playlists, cranked that music that inspires me so much up to a reasonable volume (I like it loud, but not so much as it rattles the keyboard!), and centred my mind to where it needs to be this week - I'm writing. As much as it can be, the next few days are going to be me and my characters, alone yet together as I spend time with people I know better than anyone. Sound weird to you? I'm a writer. I am weird. I've just watched an episode of Grey's Anatomy where a writer refused an operation on a potentially fatal brain aneurism because she wanted to finish her story first. And I didn't think she was weird! 

Anyway, like I said, sometimes we just need to take a step back, take time to think about our own personal limits. What we, personally, can achieve. What level we can work at, because everyone is different. What works for someone may not work for everyone, and even if it could, we just might not be able to achieve it. For whatever reason.

... when THIS is how I'd rather be feeling!

Sometimes taking a step back can make your thinking that little bit clearer, rather than clouding it with what you think should be happening. Worrying about what isn't happening also stops you from moving forward. But maybe it's because I want this so much that I'm piling the pressure on myself to succeed. Like I said, this is my dream. And I don't want that dream to end.

So, I just need to try and think of something that will make things happen for me, and maybe those ideas will come - I have a few in mind. Maybe, after a week of just letting myself do what I love, maybe after that my head will be clearer and those ideas will start to form. But, let's not forget, if I'd wanted to be a salesperson I would have gone into sales. I wanted to be a writer. And that comes first and foremost. Writing.

Now, I just have to make sure I can keep off Pinterest for a few days, too. I think my Justified board has enough pins on it to be going on with... 


Follow @michellebetham Tweet

My Top Ten TV Characters of 2013...

I know it's the 3rd of January now, and all the "Happy New Years" and what have you have all been said, but, seeing as I've been involved in a three-day-long Grey's Anatomy binge-watching marathon (and I'm still only three-quarters of the way through Season 7), I've not been anywhere near the laptop since Christmas Eve, never mind written a blog post.

So, to mark my first blog post of 2014, let's start as we mean to go on - with a post featuring lots of hot men! Oh yes, nothing changes round here... And I've decided to disguise this excuse to spend a few minutes digging out pictures of some of my favourite male TV stars by calling this post my Top Ten TV characters of 2013! 

Okay, so, in no particular order, here we go... who's first, then...?

1)  Boyd Crowder - Justified (Walton Goggins)

I am so in love with this character! Without Boyd Crowder, Justified wouldn't be what it is, and the fabulous Walton Goggins has got  him just right - a bad boy who has a wonderful way with words, and a voice I could listen to all day. Can't wait for Season 5 of Justified to begin...

2) Ray Donovan (Liev Schreiber)

Only started watching Ray Donovan a couple of weeks ago, but I was hooked after episode one. Love the character, and there's something strangely appealing about the way Liev Schreiber plays him. Couldn't take to his wife in the show, though... Still, I'm looking forward to another series.

3) John Moray - The Paradise (Emun Elliot)

I don't do costume dramas as a rule, but, despite seemingly being the only person on the planet who doesn't watch or even like Downtown Abby, I adore The Paradise. And not just because of Emun Elliot's character. But his portrayal of John Moray is a rather attractive bonus. If the BBC don't give this show a third series I might not be responsible for my actions...

4) Deacon Claybourne - Nashville (Charles Esten)

Give me a man with a guitar singing country music and I'm in heaven - so thank you Deacon Claybourne. You fit the bill perfectly! Waiting patiently for More4 here in the UK to start showing season 2 of Nashville...

5) John Ross Ewing - Dallas (Josh Henderson)

And then give me a man in a stetson and I'm even happier! I've loved Dallas since the early days, and the new Dallas hasn't disappointed me in the slightest. Once again, I'm patiently waiting for the new season to start, and looking forward to more of John Ross. I do love a bad boy...

6) Mr. Selfridge - (Jeremy Piven)

And, from the woman who doesn't do costume dramas, we have another character from a costume drama! I loved Jeremy Piven's portrayal of Harry Selfridge, he just brought the show to life, and again I sit here waiting for the new season, but it's coming soon - apparently. Can you get a move on, please, ITV? 

7) Owen Hunt, Derek Shepherd, Mark Sloan, Alex Karev, Jackson Avery - Grey's Anatomy (Kevin McKidd, Patrick Dempsey, Eric Dane, Justin Chambers, Jesse Williams)

Dr's Sloan, Shepherd and Hunt

Cheating slightly here, I know, but I love them all and if I'd put them all down singly it'd use up most of my list!

Karev and Avery

Seattle's Mercy Grace hospital has one serious overload of hot doctors, in fact, binge-watching Grey's Anatomy could actually be bad for your health... ;) 

 
8) John Reese - Person of Interest (Jim Caviezel)

Not only is this guy extremely easy on the eye, but he also has a voice that is just gorgeous to listen to. And the character of John Reese is so kick-ass good-guy it beggars belief. Brilliant stuff, and I'm looking forward to getting started on Season 3 of Person of Interest as soon as I finish everything else I'm currently binge-watching...

9) Walter White and Jesse Pinkman - Breaking Bad (Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul)

Seriously, do not get me started on how utterly amazing Breaking Bad was. I think most people know I'm just a tad obsessed with this show, and that obsession isn't fading. And what made it so incredible to watch, was the brilliant performances from Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul as Walter White and Jesse Pinkman. Breathtaking, mind-blowing, and truly unforgettable - those words don't even do those characters justice, but that's exactly how Cranston and Paul made them seem. If I had to rate this list in order of brilliance, these guys would come first. Always. If you haven't yet seen Breaking Bad, you are seriously missing out. Seriously. You can keep Downton Abby and Sherlock, give me Walter and Jesse anytime. I still miss these guys and their twisted world so much...

10) Raylan Givens - Justified (Timothy Olyphant)

Yep. This list is definitely in no particular order because, if it was, do you honestly think Raylan Givens would be tenth? I mean, come on, even the name gives me goosebumps! Only discovered Justified a few months back as I looked for something to get me over the post-Breaking Bad blues, and Raylan certainly made sure they were pushed aside slightly. Timothy Olyphant plays this old-school US Marshal with attitude perfectly, and watching him is a joy, and not just because he looks hot in a stetson. Which he does, of course... The character of Raylan is addictive, although, there were times, especially in Season 4, when Boyd kind of took over as my favourite - just for a little while. But I'm so happy I discovered Raylan Givens, and a show that I've fallen in love with. Season 5 can't get here fast enough. And if there isn't a Season 6 I think I might cry...

 
So, there you have it. My Top Ten Favourite TV Characters of 2013. Do you agree/disagree? Do you have your own favourites? 

All I can say is, some of these characters I'm still missing so bad it hurts (I will never get over the end of Breaking Bad... never... that show has ruined me...), and some of them I can't wait to meet again. And I might even discover some new favourites during 2014, you never know... 

Now, seeing as I've re-opened all those post-Breaking Bad wounds, I'm off to YouTube to see what I can find to ease the pain... and while I'm at it I might as well start getting ready for Season 5 of Justified... some clips of Timothy Olyphant being all bad-ass in a stetson, please... 
 


Follow @michellebetham Tweet