Writer's Blog: Eye Candy Edition

I don't know about you, but I sometimes when I'm reading the description of a character I can't help but picture a face I've seen before.  More often than not I conjure a generic face, but when the opposite happens it's usually an actor, or a face I've seen in a magazine, or more rarely, someone I know in real life.

It's pretty easy to use actors for the hotties.  For example, I'm sure I've mentioned ad nauseum how much I loved the boys of Nightshade, Shay and Ren.  Ren is the sexy alpha male of the Bane pack, and the more I read, the more I saw a specific someone embodying this charismatic hottie.  I give you - and you can thank me later - Rick Malambri:

OOOOOH MY GOD HOW SEXY IS HE?? 

Ahem, 'scuse me.  Now that I've wiped the drool from my keyboard I can continue with the post.  I would LOVE if Rick were actually young enough to play Ren in a movie version of Nightshade.  But then again, how often are actual teenagers cast to play teenagers?  If he got rid of the 5:00 shadow, he might just pull it off.  Still, even Rick's tall-dark-n-sexiness couldn't distract me from how badly Step Up 3 sucked.  Aaaaand it's also kind of gross that he has the same name as my dad. 

Anyhow, I also found familiar faces floating around in my mind when I envisioned the male mc for my own story.  I mentioned a couple posts ago that I have a weakness for dark-haired, light-eyed boys, so it's no shock that my beloved Michael bears the killer combo.  At first, I pictured him looking a lot like a long-time crush of mine, Smallville's Tom Welling:

But since Tom is getting up there in years, eventually the image in my mind began to meld with a more age appropriate face, that of Vampire Diaries Steve McQueen:

Put 'em both together and whaddya got?  One smokin' mc, who's charming to boot.  I hope you'll all love him as much as I do one day!

So I'm curious-- do you ever picture actors or actresses in the roles of main characters?  Create a new face?  Or base them on someone you know? 

Or are you just scrolling back up to look at Rick again?  I know.  You're welcome : )