Tag: thriller

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Kayla Perkins Answers 3 Irrelevant Questions

Kayla Perkins

I’ve known Kayla Perkins since my earliest days as a filmmaker. The actress and model started her career at the age of twelve when she appeared on The Simple Life with Paris Hilton and Nicole Ritchie on the E channel. Kayla, who would be crowned Junior Miss Kentucky in 2003, fell in love with TV and film thanks to her experience on The Simple Life, and she’s become a fan favorite on the independent film circuit. Her credits include The Dark Room, A Promise To Alexis, The Killbillies, The Girl, the TV show Nashville, and many more, including a short I produced, The Last Temptation of Fluffy. She is busier than ever today working on projects like The Art Of Killing; Monster On: The Art Of The Craft; The Baton Rouge Serial Killer: Derrick Todd Lee; 12 Till Dawn; Midas Cove; Murder, Murder, Kill, Kill; and The Anniversary.

Kayla dabbles in books as well. We collaborated on a novel, Kayla Perkins is Dead, and she’s writing a wonderful children’s book with her son Kayden. The book is called I’m Kayden and I Have JIA, and it was written by mother and son to help children like Kayden who are dealing with Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis.

Whew, that’s a mouthful.

But, that’s not important right now.

This week, I asked Kayla to answer the 3 Irrelevant Questions. So here we go!

What is your favorite guilty pleasure movie? 

I love all kinds of movies. But one movie that I love and have watched literally over 32 times is called My Fault with Nicole Wallace and Gabriel Guevara. It is based on the book by Mercedes Ron. My Fault is such a great story, and the chemistry that these two actors have is amazing! They did an amazing job. I love romance movies.

If you could spend a day with full access to any animal, what animal would it be? 

There are so many animals that I would love to spend the day with, but if I had to choose, I would pick a tiger. Tigers are the largest cat species. I love cats. I have two named Cinammon and Tabby. They are just like kids. They are super fast. I love that they go after what they want. I think everyone of us should go after what we want in life.

If you could hop in a fast car or private jet and go anywhere in the world for a favorite food, where would you go, and what would you eat? 

This is such a hard question. I love all kinds of food and snacks, but I’m not a big sweets person. If I had to pick one item, though it would be Superman ice cream. Growing up, going on vacation and doing photoshoots for pageants, I would eat Superman ice cream. Everytime I see it on vacation, it brings back memories.

You can learn more about Kayla Perkins and find her social media links at www.kaylaperkins.com

Movies and books featuring Kayla Perkins

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Dead Park Records: Emily’s Bad Day

Many years ago, a friend of mine told me about a friend of hers. His job was to fulfill rider contracts for major recording artists when they came to town to do a concert. Most of the items in the rider had to do with creature comforts, like the meals backstage and the accommodations in the dressing room. You can Google some of these and read what your favorite artist used to demand. Some of them are pretty outrageous.

My friend went on to tell me that her friend often had to fulfill some off-the-book requirements. You know, picking up things you couldn’t ask for in a legal document. That led to a short story that I called The Rider. That in turn led to a screenplay, also called The Rider.

And then, Dead Park Plaza happened.

A year an a half ago, I realized I’d written a Dead Park Plaza story long before I dreamed of the place. That story is now in print as Dead Park Records, the third book in the Dead Park trilogy.

What’s more, a character I introduced in the teaser for the first book, has become one of the focal points of this story. Remember Emily?

This sweet little thing wasn’t even in Dead Park Plaza. But thanks to her involvement with Cale, someone now wants her dead.

I had a ton of fun putting together a series of teasers for Dead Park Records with actress Christina Cannon and Lisa McConnell, who both appeared in the Dead Park Plaza trailer. Watch the short films below, then click here to get your signed copy. 

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From Script to Text: A Tale of Two Stories

A year ago, these two stories were sitting in mothballs. Virtual mothballs, but mothballs nonetheless.

I began writing Girl Most Likely to Kill You around 2004. It was originally titled High School Sweetheart, and it went through multiple drafts. It once made the finals in a screenplay competition. I got a very nice consolation call from the contest runner when it fell short of winning.

Zombies of Oz isn’t quite as old, but it passed through many creative hands on the local indie film scene. It started with me simply sharing an idea as a Facebook post, and it went further when one of those local filmmakers suggested I write it.

A year ago, I decided to turn both of these scripts into novels. They’re short novels, but they received raves from the beta readers who gave them a look. Now both are in print and in my hands, which is just amazing to me.

Right now, I’m offering a special on the website. Order direct, and you can save 20% on your entire order. If you’re a buy local/ buy direct person, you know that’s the best way to support me and other creative artists you like. We get more money, and a major website owner takes less. Plus, I’ll sign them for you, something that big web store can’t offer.

One final note to the story: there’s a third screenplay that will soon be in print as a novel. Not just a novel, but the third part of the Dead Park series. Look for it in November!

Click here to shop now, and don’t forget the coupon code fall.

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A Story 18 Years in the Writing

It’s kind of fitting the events of my new book Girl Most Likely to Kill You take place over twenty years. It took almost that long to get the story into print.

Girl Most Likely to Kill You didn’t start life as a novel, though. It began as a movie idea. Back in the early 2000s, my prime creative goal was to become a film maker or, at the very least, a screenwriter. I’ve still got a file on my laptop with nearly two dozen screenplays in various stages of completion. White Trash. The World According to Dallas. Must Do No Harm. Grade Expectations. Facade. Beachhead.

Girl Most Likely started out under the title of High School Sweetheart. It’s a love story about a guy who wanted to tell his best friend he was in love with her on prom night. The girl vanished on prom night, and he doesn’t hear a word from her for twenty years. When she comes back into his life, he’s a divorced dad with a teenage girl of her own, and all seems to finally be right in his world.

That is, until a conspiracy theorist student in his class warns him: your girlfriend might be the world’s most wanted assassin.

Girl Most Likely is not the first of my screenplays to transition to a novel. That honor belongs to the sci-fi adventure Martian Queen. It won’t be the last either. I have a second that will be released shortly, and a third is about to become the third book in the Dead Park series.

This is one of my all time favorite stories, combining humor, romance, intrigue, and something I’ve always loved but never written much about: spy stuff.

You can pre-order Girl Most Likely to Kill You now on paperback. All pre-orders include a free copy of the ebook version sent to your email address. And if you prefer to shop Amazon, well, you can buy it at this link.