The Bookwhore Diaries: Blog Tour: Meet the “Cast” of Paper Planes Back Home!

Paper Planes Back Home

Published on February 21, 2015
by Tara Frejas
Genre: Contemporary Fiction, Fantasy, Romance

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When Gianna wakes up on a cloud, she is disoriented yet fascinated. She thinks she's only dreaming until she gets a storm of paper planes—"They're thoughts of people who remember," a man on another cloud tells her—each pleading for her not to leave. The man tells her these planes are the key to get out of there, and while she thinks it's hard to believe, she decides everything is worth trying if it meant finding her way back home.

Meet the “Cast” of Paper Planes Back Home

Tara Frejas

Much of my fiction-writing background is rooted in writing fanfiction, which is now referred to as—and I learned this only recently—real person fiction or RPF. Eight years ago, I was writing fiction for the TVXQ fandom and had a relatively easy time, thanks to the five handsome and talented Korean idols I based my characters on. Somehow, having a face to link a fictional character to as I write became the norm, and soon I’d began writing other stories and “casting” other people to be in them. I call them muses.

My first novel, Paper Planes Back Home (PPBH), has four main characters: Gianna, Aaron, Skylar, and Anna. In the book, I credit the four people who inspired these characters, but if you haven’t read it yet, this is the part where I get to tell you who they are.

GIANNA HAN
Jeon Jihyun

My love for Korean actress Jeon Jihyun is huge and it is everywhere. She is my favorite actress and celebrity, and I cast her in every story possible just because. Jihyun is well known for her 2001 blockbuster hit My Sassy Girl, and the highly addictive K-drama My Love From Another Star which aired in 2013. Quite the character, the actress is known to her peers for being a lovely ball of energy and laughter, and to her fans for being an elegant goddess who could turn into a food munching maniac. She is an anomaly in that respect and in many others, and I love her for it.

In PPBH, she is Gianna Han, an art teacher who wakes up in a cloud after a tragic traffic accident. She possesses a kind and generous heart, one that leads her to decisions that prioritize others before herself.

AARON TAYLOR
Aaron Tveit

Aaron Tveit is a musical theatre actor I’ve started fangirling in 2012 after seeing him in the motion picture adaptation of Les Miserables. He has starred in a number of Broadway productions including Next to Normal, Wicked, and Catch Me If You Can, and was part of the USA TV series Graceland, which finished its three-season run last August.

He is Aaron Taylor in PPBH, Gianna’s currently unemployed boyfriend who dreams of being up on stage as a theatre actor someday. Over the years, his confidence and motivation had become anchored on Gianna’s encouraging presence in his life.

THREE LITTLE EXTRAS:

My (crack)ship name for these two is GiAaron.
This is not the first GiAaron thing I wrote. If you look hard enough into my Wattpad account, you’ll find a draft of something in there.
A younger version of themselves have been “casted” in my most recent published work, The “Forget You” Brew, as Kyle and Allison.

SKYLAR LEVIN
Skylar Astin

I hadn’t been aware of Skylar Astin until I saw Pitch Perfect, and I found him really, really cute. Further research led me to learn that like Aaron Tveit, Skylar is also into musical theatre, his first production being Spring Awakening. He is a funny guy who’s into sports like baseball and MMA, and has a dog named Rock. His recent work includes the films 21 And Over and Pitch Perfect 2, and a sitcom called Ground Floor.

Skylar is the lonely soldier in PPBH, Skylar Levin, whom Gianna meets when she arrives in a cloud. Because he has been stuck in the limbo for longer than she has, he becomes his default (but very willing) “guide” to the place and the rules that govern it.

ANNA KERSTEIN
Anna Kendrick

It was Pitch Perfect as well that introduced to me the awesomeness that was Anna Kendrick. She’s bubbly and sassy and gorgeous, and I shipped him and Skylar really hard even after the film was over. Anna’s been really busy doing movies since then, starring in the recent film adaptations of Into The Woods and The Last Five Years. The last movie I’ve seen her in was Pitch Perfect 2, in which there was a severe lack of Jesse and Beca moments . . . which was really, really sad.

In PPBH, she is the dedicated nurse, Anna Kerstein, who goes into a solo mission to find the person SkylarLevin had be writing to before he met his fate and landed in a hospital. Because her deceased boyfriend had been a soldier as well, Anna feels an affiliation with Skylar.

THREE LITTLE EXTRAS:

My ship name for them is SkylAnna.
Unlike GiAaron, I have not written anything with this pairing before Paper Planes Back Home, but I do have a WIP with them in it.
A spin-off drabble featuring this pairing and verse exists in my Wattpad, in a collection called Every Single Cliche.

How about you? Do you “cast” people when you write or read your books? Maybe you can share them in the comments below, and let’s chat!

Thank you so much for taking time to read this guest post of mine. Check out the Paper Planes Back Home Pinterest board too, for a peek at the images I “used” for inspiration as I wrote the book. It’s a nifty tool, and if you’re ever on it, please add me!

Tara Frejas is a cloud-walker who needs caffeine to fuel her travels. By day, she works in project management and events, and she writes down her daydreams at night. She began publishing fiction for public consumption in 2004, posting her pieces on various online channels like fan forums and Blogspot, eventually exploring other avenues like Livejournal, Soomp!, Tumblr, and most recently, Wattpad.

Aside from her obvious love affair with words and persistent muses, Tara is very passionate about being caffeinated, musical theatre, certain genres of music, dancing, dogs, good food, and romancing Norae, her ukelele. She owns a 6-month-old male bunny named Max who sometimes tries to nibble on her writing notes.

Paper Planes Back Home is her first novel.

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