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A Hollywood Obsession
I blame Lisa.
Okay, maybe I should explain that comment a bit. Lisa and I (Jen) write together as Ashleigh Raine. We’ve been best friends since we met in eighth grade. Over the course of twenty-odd years of friendship, we’ve corrupted each other in many different ways. And I blame Lisa for my Hollywood obsession.
My earliest Hollywood-related memory comes from before I knew Lisa, I think I was in kindergarten at the time. There was a game show holding open auditions for young children. I don’t remember all the details of the audition process, other than I was supposed to describe something to an adult and they were supposed to guess what it was. I must not have done very well because I wasn’t chosen to be a participant in the game.
Fast forward seven or eight years. My family moved from Southern California to Central/Northern California. I met Lisa the first week of eighth grade. We had a lot in common—honors classes, band—and since we were considered the “good” kids, we were allowed more freedom than many other kids. Of course, we used that freedom to sit around and talk about boys. Eighth grade was the only time we went to school together—but that one year cemented our friendship.
Since Lisa and I didn’t go to school together, we ended up spending weekends at each other’s houses and hours on the phone with each other. My first time at Lisa’s house, she introduced me to the movie The Lost Boys. An obsession was born. Hot boys, vampires, fantastic music. I was hooked. And then I went in Lisa’s bedroom…a teenage girl’s dream! There were photos of the boys from the movie all over her walls! Cutouts from magazines of the Coreys, Jason Patric, Kiefer Sutherland…and others who weren’t in the movie, including Johnny Depp. I never wanted to leave her room. And, since I’m a competitive sort, I had to do the same thing. Soon, my walls were covered with photos from Bop and Teen Beat and Tiger Beat and all those other teenie bopper magazines. Lisa and I would stay up late on the phone sharing the latest gossip we’d just read about our favorite celebs. Oh, what those two teenage girls would’ve done to have the internet!
And our obsession continued to grow. But we wanted more. We wanted to be a part of the Hollywood stories, we daydreamed that Johnny Depp from 21 Jumpstreet would ask us to the prom. So we started creating fanfic stories, before we knew what fanfic even was. But even that got boring after awhile, so Lisa and I began creating our own stories, moving outside the realm of fanfic and into our own world, a world where we were both still the heroines, and we had plenty of men to hold our interest. This is where our Talisman Bay series, releasing starting in 2008 from Samhain Publishing, began.
Now jump forward to the post teenage years. Lisa and I are still BFFs. We both—at different times—moved to Southern California. After college, I interned at a production company and worked on several movie sets before deciding to start a family and choosing to become a work-at-home mom. Lisa became a background actor, an “extra”, and we still shared Hollywood gossip—but this time we often learned it firsthand. Those stories and characters we’d created as teenagers still haunted both of us. And new stories, based on our experiences in Hollywood, began to beat at our collective brain (Lisa and I decided years ago we share a brain—something has to explain how we finish each other’s sentences.) In 2002, we began writing together with a goal of getting published, and we saw three books release in 2003.
I still blame Lisa for my Hollywood obsession. But honestly, I wouldn’t want life to have turned out any other way.
LISA: “Go ahead and blame me, but I still think it was all the hot men and boys in those teeny-bopper mags that started the whole thing. If they hadn’t been so hot, I wouldn’t have torn out the pages and put them on my walls and ceiling! It’s all their fault!”
Jen & Lisa
writing as Ashleigh Raine
www.ashleighraine.com
Holy S$%^ YOU MET JAMES MARSTERS????? He is like the only celebruty I fantasize about! I even bought the jeans he wore when abducted by Riley and company JUST so I could say “I was in Spike’s pants” AND bought the puppet in his likeness so I could say I cuddled with Spike. I am so super jealous right now I can’t fully express it…LOL
Where were you and is he as nice as everyone else who has met him says he is?
Sweet baby Jesus, I am JEALOUS of that picture. He looks hot!
Nice picture. I guess I’m probably the only person in the universe who doesn’t know who it is though. He looks like a young Billy Idol.
LOL, Barbara. Yes, Lisa and I met James Marsters about five and a half years ago. He was performing in Santa Monica, a few days before the musical episode of BTVS aired. We got an advance treat of Spike’s song, Rest in Peace, plus some other songs James liked to sing. After the show, James went outside and met personally with each and every one of his fans. I’ve met a ton of people in Hollywood and he is definitely one of the nicest, most sincere and genuinely sweet male celebrities I’ve ever met. I’m jealous of you being in his pants though. ;)
Angie, he was soooo hot. When he pulled Lisa and I close to lean against those gorgeous cheekbones, I think my heart skipped a few beats. And he gives really good hugs. sigh
Nell, James Marsters is best known for his role as the bad boy vampire Spike from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I miss that show. sob
That man is HOT!!!! Do I ever miss that show. pout And the mention of those magazines brings back memories of plastering posters on my wall too. I remember being jealous that my friends could paper their whole rooms in them, but my mother confined me to one wall only. LOL
Only one wall, Sydney? That’s heartbreaking. Doesn’t your mother know the trauma she caused you with only one wall allowance? LOL!
Boy, you two lead interesting lives. :-)
Cool picture!
Wow, great picture.
You know, Spike was my favorite character on that show. I didn’t watch it on TV, but after the series was over my wife revealed a love of BTVS, so I started getting her the seasons on DVD for various special occasions. I got to watching them with her and became hooked.
I liked Spike better than Angel because he had that “I just don’t give a rat’s arse” attitude, where Angel was always so morose and broody.
Plus, you know, the platinum blonde thing. :) What was it they called him? Captain Clorox? I don’t remember.
Classic!
Captain Peroxide!
LOL, David, I love that nickname for Spike. And I’m in total agreement with you, Spike is much cooler than Angel, although my reasoning differs from yours. Spike chose to change his evil ways for Buffy, he worked past his demon side to be the man he believed she deserved. In that, I think Spike is a much stronger hero. When Angel vamps out, he’s pure evil and tortures Buffy. Spike, pure souless vampire, falls in love and becomes a better man for Buffy. That’s love.
Of course, I love me some Angel too. After rewatching all seven seasons of Buffy, I’m now rewatching all five seasons of Angel.
Buffy marathon at my house! We’ll all act out the musical, too. ;)
Yeah, I liked that, too. The odd part was poor Spike went through all that (and he went through a lot) so he could be a better man for the Buffster. In the last few episodes of Season 7, he was the only one who stood up for her. Even Xander and Willow pretty much abandoned her in favor of Faith.
Not Spike, though. He stuck up for her, went to find her, tried to pick her up when she was down, and in the end, even died for her (well, mostly for her). Yet she still didn’t love him. Not really. She still loved Angel. The morose, angsty, baggage-laden guy who left her in Sunnydale in the first place. Go figure.
I guess you can’t force yourself to love someone, but I was disappointed. Spike earned it, imo.
Maybe I’m romanticizing it too much, but I like to think Buffy did love Spike by the end of the series. I don’t think it was forever love—at least not yet—but I think in those last few hours they spent together, it hit Buffy just what a true hero Spike had become.
But maybe that’s just my romantic heart wanting that satisfaction. :)
OK, I can live with that. ;-) Makes for a better end to the series, methinks.