Author Guest Blog- Babe in the Woods by Jude Hopkins

If My Book Was made Into a Movie...

Harry Styles. That’s the guy who would play Trey, the young, aspiring rock star and playboy, in my upcoming novel, Babe in the Woods, if it were made into a movie.

It sounds like a cliche, I know. Harry is the default hot young heartthrob every writer with a luscious young guy in their book wants for that role. Harry’s got it. And he’s charming, too, which would make him perfect for Trey. My book’s protagonist, Hadley, wants to use Trey as research in a play she’s writing about a woman’s last moment of innocence in a relationship before she crosses the border into the land of dashed illusions. Hadley surmises that Trey, who has several girlfriends in the novel, would be the perfect specimen, what with his looks and charm and body heat that’s always emanating from beneath his leather jacket. But he’s no “himbo”; Trey teaches Hadley a few valuable lessons along the way.

Roxie, Hadley’s L.A. friend, must be played by Ariana DeBose, winner of the Best Supporting Actress Award in 2022 for her role as Anita in West Side Story. Ariana, like Roxie, is very kinetic, always in motion, full of fiery passion that is sometimes misplaced, as in her affair with a married record executive in Hollywood. She could also deliver Roxie’s no-nonsense lines on life and love accented with the appropriate jazz hands and movements such a whirling dervish possesses.

I imagine the talented actor Michael Urie as the perfect Bryce in the ideal movie made from my book. Urie, who has starred in the AppleTV+ series “Shrinking,” as well as the Netflix comedy “Single All the Way,” has both the comedic- and dramatic-acting chops to embody Bryce’s humor and empathy. In my book, Bryce is one of Hadley’s L.A. friends who helps her understand how impossible it is to recapture lost innocence, the subject of a play she’s trying to write.

As for the protagonist Hadley, I’ve narrowed it down to Emma Stone or Zooey Deschannel, with Zooey having a slight edge. I know Emma would be able to capture the complexity of Hadley who’s always ruminating about her love life and her loss of innocence. We’ve seen Emma’s Oscar-winning performance in La La Land. A whole gamut of emotions was on display in her character in that movie, a young woman who wrestles with her love for an aspiring jazz pianist played by Ryan Gosling and her equally relentless need to be an actress. I can see her bringing Hadley to life.

Yet there’s a certain awkwardness and earnestness to Hadley that Zooey might just portray a bit more handily. Hadley is somewhat impulsive, definitively sarcastic, and unapologetically passionate, all qualities Zooey might embody as she has with so many of her other roles, especially aided by those big expressive eyes of hers.

Other roles I have yet to “cast,” notably Neil, Hadley’s trusty friend from childhood, and Brenna, her teaching colleague. There is also Winnie, Hadley’s no-nonsense high school guidance counselor and Hadley’s father (Sam Elliot, maybe?), who plays a pivotal role in her journey toward understanding why she’s fallen for certain guys in her past. I would leave those up to a professional casting director. I would only say my novel offers a variety of opportunities for actors of all ages and talents, proclivities and eccentricities! I just know that it would be a lifelong thrill to sit in a movie theater and see the words “Babe in the Woods based on a novel by Jude Hopkins” come up on the screen. 

I would spill my popcorn for sure.

Babe in the Woods

Jude Hopkins

Genre: Women’s Fiction

Publisher: The Wild Rose Press Inc.

Date of Publication: June 7, 2023

ISBN 978-1-5092-4843-8 

ISBN 978-1-5092-4844-5 

Number of pages: 294

Word Count: 72,321 

Cover Artist:  Tina Lynn Stout

Tagline: Timber! She’s Falling in Love

Book Description: 

It’s September 1995, the first year of the rest of Hadley Todd's life. After living in Los Angeles, Hadley returns to her hometown in rural New York to write and be near her father. 

In addition to looking after him and teaching high school malcontents, Hadley hopes to channel her recent L.A. heartbreak into a play about the last moment of a woman’s innocence. But she seeks inspiration.

Enter Trey Harding, a young, handsome reporter who covers sports at the high school. Trey reminds Hadley of her L.A. ex and is the perfect spark to fire up her imagination. The fact that Trey is an aspiring rock star and she has L.A. record biz connections makes the alliance perfect. She dangles promises of music biz glory while watching his moves. 

But the surprising twist that transpires when the two of them go to Hollywood is not something Hadley prepared for.

Amazon     BN

Excerpt:

There was a knock on the door as Hadley sat down with a bowl of chocolate-chip ice cream. She glanced at the clock: 8 p.m. Sunday night. She’d shot the whole weekend, mostly grading papers and sleeping the day before.

“My God,” she said aloud, remembering Trey’s promise to make good on a date. How could he possibly show up after she’d been so deliberately elusive? She had forgotten the resiliency of some guys.

“Who is it?” she trilled, bouncing a mound of the frozen dessert on her tongue. She cleared her throat and repeated the question, all the while picking up the detritus from the weekend—the pizza box, the ice cream container, the National Enquirer.

“ ‘Tis I, Old Dog Trey,” he yelled through the door. “Ever faithful. We have a meeting, remember?”

She used her fingers to comb her hair and moaned when the mirror reflected a wan, puffy face staring back at her.

“I never confirmed any meeting,” she said through the door. She hurried to straighten the cushions on the couch. “I’ll take a rain check.” Her heart was doing double time.

“C’mon. Please open the door. It’s getting chilly out here.” His voice was deeper than usual.

She brushed the lint off her sweatshirt and zipped up her jeans before opening the door.

Trey was twirling the end of a white stick in his mouth. With a loud slurping sound, he pulled from his mouth a bright red lollipop before sticking out his tongue, which now matched the color of his shirt.  

“Fire your secretary,” he said, tapping his watch. “May I come in?”

She let him in, the shame of her unkempt apartment equaled only by the shame of her own disheveled appearance.

He stood close to her. “I have to say, you are much more attractive without all that make-up.” He talked with the lollipop stuck in his cheek. “Definitely younger.”

It was an approach she remembered from her time with Derek. First you surprise them, then compliment them when they’re at their most vulnerable. She made a mental note.

He walked toward the nearest chair, sat down, but quickly jumped up again, fishing in his pockets. “Where are my manners? Here.” He extended a lollipop, grape flavor, her favorite.

“No thanks.” It wasn’t even on the level of the apple Neil had given her on the first day of school. Besides, what was with men and their semiotics anyway? Perhaps it beat communicating with words. And how in the world would he have known grape was her favorite flavor? Was she that transparent? Was there a grape “type” as opposed to an orange or cherry type? The grape type would be moody and dark. The orange type would be young, perky, sassy. The cherry type? Passionate, desirable. Like him.

Lollipops aside, he was lusciousness itself, the blood-red shirt adding to his angel-faced carnality. His skin glowed, no doubt from a day spent in the autumn sun with a frisky faun. 

About the Author:

Jude Hopkins has published essays in The Los Angeles Times, Medium, the belladonna—and poetry in various journals including Gyroscope Review, Timber Creek Review and California Quarterly. Her first novel, Babe in the Woods, will be published June 7, 2023. She has also taught English and news writing at various universities, including the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford, Arizona State University and St. Bonaventure University in Olean, N.Y. She also worked at Capitol Records in Hollywood for a few halcyon and unforgettable years.

Website:  https://www.judehopkinswriting.net/

Blog: https://www.judehopkinswriting.net/my-blog 

Twitter: https://twitter.com/HeyJudeNotJudy