Just to give this blog a little more regularity, a little more activity, I'm going to pretty much post all of my sketches and ideas here... I'll bounce them off my own blog and see what else comes up.
A quote came to mind from a movie and I simply built on it.
Took me a while to remember that it was from "50 first dates" in a scene where Drew Barrymore tells Adam Sandler
"You have to realize that there is no future with me."
It just popped into my head and sounded like a great place to start. I put together a few sentences, a hypothetical conversation somewhere in the middle of this story, or perhaps towards the beginning, say chapter 5 or 6.
It got pretty interesting, actually.
For the newcomer lover, I finally decided on the name: Juan Paulo Escavedo
even more interesting, I looked up the origin of the surname and found another name I planned to use, Alejandro... the name of Sheila E's uncle
maybe I should push things a step further and make Juan Paulo a musician :-P
nah, I'll leave that for another time, figuring out what he's doing in Rio of all places. I believe he's American or at least Latin American (has a couple generations to his name, so there's nothing that should connect him to the whole illegal immigration thing that's a hot topic these days)...
shoot... it's one thing that this is an album fic, but its another where a lot of the other songs I'm considering to inspire scenes are all from the same artist... just got me thinking about lyrics in "Americano" where the lyrics say "I don't speak your languango... I don't speak your Jesus Christo... don't you try to catch me now... I'm living on the edge of the law"
Juan Paulo, I believe, was very much raised with American values and grew up like anyone else in our country. But he still maintains a little bit of an accent, tiny bit, because maybe his grandparents live in the same house as his family, which might be large... possibly the oldest or youngest of 5 siblings... those are just ideas
Talia is the center of my focus right now. And I got the surname Montez, thinking oddly enough about the character Gabriella Montez from High School Musical... they've nothing in common, I just needed a catchy surname that sounded exotic and it follows within the realm of possibility for Portuguese descent
believe me, I tossed around other famous surnames like Cruz and Hayek, Mendes and Bandereas... all of them sounded cheesy and it would sound contrived... not a lot of people would guess Montez came from anywhere specific
maybe to be safe I'll make it Montes... I'll compare the two in print and see which I like... for once, I would at least like my characters to have last names... usually it's something I completely bypass to save time on the creativity process.
here's the conversation I derived from that first line:
Talia: You need to understand that there is no future with me. In my line of work, everything is business. There's no room for emotions in this game. And that's what this is to a lot of people.
J.P: It wasn't a game to me. It never was. This is real. Deep down, I know you feel the same way too.
Talia: Then you are a fool for falling for my act the way so many others have before you.
Pretty hardcore stuff...
Talia's been in this business a long time. I've surmised since the day she turned 18. Now I believe she's going into her 30's or mid-30's... haven't entirely decided yet.
Like it is with a lot of people, if you're in a certain way of life for a long time and it's all you know, you resist change.
Taking it from my own experiences... I'm risking further exclusion from society for not conforming to [fill the blank]... long story
Why would it be that she refuses to leave this line of work... is it the only thing she has going for her... is it the only thing she knows how to do...
I started digging through my head and gave up with something pretty sick and disturbing.
But I wouldn't say unheard of.
I did a little research and came across a research article on the racy topic I'm attempted to tackle in part with this story: prostitution... and I looked to see if the reason I drafted in my mind came up.
It did...
There were a few other things, most of which involve pimps and abusive relationships... I don't know if I'm necessarily that far into considering that at all... still haven't figured out the relationship with her and Alejandro
financial stuff... and part of this is financially related... more on that later...
to support a drug habit... I don't care if this is in South America, I don't want to involve drugs in this anywhere... certainly not going to make her an addict... and considering my recent (well, the past year) putting my foot down on this issue, it's convenient enough where there's no point in doing it. It's the obvious choice... kinda the same way where a lot of romance novels and movies show sexual content to prove a point
I don't quite know if I want to make Alejandro a messed up character or not... if anything, he'd have a problem holding his liquor... but I haven't an answer in my head...
At one point in the article, I finally came across the go-ahead I need: past history of abuse
It was like a lightbulb went off in my head...
a pretty sensitive topic, almost as much as discussing different elements of the sex trade (where I'm only going through one or two angles)
I've determined the following about Talia's past:
She was homeschooled by her mom her whole life.
Her dad either died or left them when she was at a young age.
Her mom remarried to support their financial situation... they survived mostly on her working double-shifts as a waitress...
Her stepfather is a younger man...
now, supposing... eee... not sure if I'm liking where this is going, but I'll see how it feels...
her mom got knocked up by her boyfriend when she was a teenager or just barely 18...
well, that wouldn't necessarily be outrageous... I was kinda thinking that maybe there was a little bit of an age difference when her mom remarries because she marries a younger guy
This happens, I believe, when Talia's maybe 11... maybe 12...
because when she's 15, the stepfather is in his early 30's...
not a HUGE age gap, but supposing that the marriage happens when he's around 26-27 and her mom is in her mid-30's... so when he's 30-31, she's 38-39
Her mom remarries to help with the financial situation, but something doesn't quite check out. She still has to work long hours every night while the stepfather probably does manual labor for minimum wage.
Because her mom's working a lot, she and her stepfather have this special relationship... things don't get to this point until she's 15... but she trusts him wholly and completely...
you see where this is going...
but there're no red flags about the situation. She trusts him and in fact, he convinces her that he loves her and vice versa... I mean, he's a good looking guy, hence the reason why I made him slightly younger than her mom.
In retrospect, the reason he's doing this is because there's nothing going on sexually between him and the woman he married... so he fulfills whatever needs with the only other available girl in his life...
Then the ultimate kicker...
I haven't figured out how or why yet... but he dies when she turns 18... and her family has NO money to their name. He took it all with him in one shape, form or the other... naturally Talia's pissed, feels very much betrayed by what he did... therefore the reason she feels that she can't trust another man in a relationship because in the end, he turns on her...
And she doesn't find out about this betrayal until his death... no chance for a confrontation or explanation from the horse's mouth...
The homeschooling thing works her situation in a couple ways...
firstly, she's pretty much isolated from other experiences. She doesn't establish any friendships and those that she had had languished over time once her stepfather came into the picture.
secondly, she wasn't given a formal education so she's not suited for any line of work... can't even get into a college because there're no funds to her name... and that's the last thing on her mind...
Yeah, I agree that the idea is sick & twisted... that her sexual experiences came from encounters she had with someone living in her house... and yet that's what she goes on to do...
She decides that it's all about business.
I'm still toying around with the idea that maybe her mom worked at the same place she goes on to work at... and the name itself got her in the door...
the question marks remain about how her stepfather died... and if her mom is still alive...
was there a murder/suicide?
did her mom got insane or have a breakdown after finding out what happened...
did she get incapacited in a scuffle over the situation...
I don't believe that either of them knew about what he did with what little money they had until his untimely death... and I don't believe either of them were responsible for it...
maybe he was a gambler, owed some people a lot of money and ultimately they knocked his block off to call it even...
That sounds a little too much like The Pick-up Artist... where Molly Ringwald would gamble her paychecks for working at the museum to settle her father's debt...
although...
I'm thinking that maybe the gambling thing could work... but for the first couple years, Talia turns to this business to settle the debt... something that these bookies don't seem to mind at all, maybe because they heard things... sick things...
She'd do it until she was 21... the original deal...
then I think part of it becomes a disease that twists in her head...
she's repaid the debt and even got her mom a visa to America... and stayed behind because it's the only thing she knows how to do...
I mean, she's going into her 30's now when the story officially begins... the majority of this will be backstory only... the story sets up with a couple of dance numbers of hers... Alejandro gets introduced here... Juan Paulo and a couple of his friends arrive... perhaps to see the city during Carnivale... still working on that
Then I came up with another pretty sick/cool idea...
That her stepfather used to call her "princess"... that was his petname for her...
of course after finding about the betrayal, she loathes being called that...
at some point during that previous conversation I started, she's gotta blow up at Juan Paulo...
"so you're going to be my knight in shining armor... saving the poor damsel in distress... You're no prince and I will never be anyone's princess!"
something to that effect...
I'm almost thinking there's going to be a point in the story where one of her clients starts to take advantage of her and he's going to come to her rescue... of course she'll be pissed at him, not thanking him for saving her... saying that she didn't need to be saved, etc, etc.
She's very proud and resists changing at every cost... at some point, she's going to start changing her mind... much to the displeasure of Alejandro... who might even believe they're together just because he's a regular "client" of hers that she occasionally sees outside the workplace... heck, she could be an escort too
lol... just thinking about Heather Graham in "The Hangover"
"technically I'm an escort, but stripping's a great way to meet the clients"
I've drawn the line at stripping and provocative dancing.
The backstory will prove useful later on... when I'm trying to sift through her actions and determine if there're within her nature or not... based on this or that, would she do this or that... that sort of thing.
I don't believe that my writing will get any darker than that kind of relationship between people... a teenage girl romantically involved with her stepfather, who's really using her for sex and her family for their money to support his addiction to gambling... lol... I wonder if there're even casinos in Rio
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