Wattpad Block Party - Winter Edition III

sallymason1 Presents: Back Stage Pass to War Child

Hi everyone! I'm Sal and you might know me here on Wattpad as SallyMason1. I'm so excited to participate in this Block Party and thanks so much to Kelly Anne for organizing it. For this edition, I decided to share with you a backstage pass to my new story War Child which is the 3rd and final instalment of my War Bride trilogy. Catch an interview with Danielle C who has been casted as Stacy and find out how she has been enjoying her role and what is in store for the readers next.

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Interviewer: Hello Danielle. It's such an honor to have you on the show. How are you doing today?

Danielle: I'm good, Tony. It's great to be here and thanks for inviting me.

Interviewer: So let's dive right in. This is the third book that you've been casted in for this series. When you heard of the initial idea, what were your thoughts?

Danielle: I felt really intrigued. Stacy is a very different character from what I'm used to. She is exceptionally sheltered and gullible to a point where it is almost painful for someone with any type of common sense to relate to her, but that is exactly the reason why she can be so easily radicalized. It's tragic really how people can take advantage of her. Portraying her was a challenge but also fascinating.

Interviewer: Let's back up here for a moment. Can you tell the viewers how Stacy even got into this mess?

Danielle: It all starts out over the internet where Stacy meets this really nice guy called Felipe on a forum. They have been communicating via email and Skype for about a year when the story starts. Stacy is socially awkward, has no friends, and feels alone and ostracized. As a middle child, she also feels misunderstood by her parents and the relationship with her mother is strained. I suppose some of those are common problems a lot of teenagers face. What's different about Stacy is that she is quite comfortable in her "victim" role and her perception of the real world is totally off. She doesn't understand that the world doesn't evolve around her and that there are plenty of people who consider her problems as trivial. Stacy is a very unreliable narrator on top of that and she can come across as self-centred and spoiled, but there is really a heart of gold beating under the bratty surface. There is a lot of growth potential from the start.

Interviewer: You speak very passionate about Stacy. So do you like her as a character?

Danielle: I like her, just like I hate her. Most of the time, you want to shake some sense into her or scream at her to open her eyes, but she is like a train wreck you can't take your eyes off. If you give her a chance, she draws you in since she is so flawed that almost everyone can see a little piece of themselves in her.

Interviewer: So how does she end up in Malaguay?

Danielle: She would have probably never had the guts if her personal circumstances had been different. I don't want to give away spoilers for those readers who haven't read book I, so all I can say is that Stacy experiences something that makes her doubt the pillars of her very existence, mainly the stable marriage of her parents. With her family in shambles, it's too tempting to just run away and forget about her problems for a little while by visiting Felipe. That's when he moves in with a free plane ticket and Stacy tosses all caution aside and takes off to Malaguay.

Interviewer: The warning bells are right there from the start. Why do you think Stacy stays?

Danielle: First it's confusion and uncertainty. Stacy doesn't want to admit failure or call home and confess she made a mistake. Later, she is trapped, and though she doesn't consider herself a prisoner, deep down she knows she can't just leave. Beside that she has barely any money and surrendered her passport, she is in a foreign country with an unfamiliar language and strange customs, she doesn't know anyone except Felipe and has no clue how she could get home. She is totally lost, so the way she copes is to hold on to the notion that Felipe is the perfect boyfriend.