He lay in the ground, dying. He’d given his life so that another may live. A woman…with child. The others wanted to save him. But, it was too late. Even knowing his lifemate was out there, it was too late. He would die. The other world called to him. A shadow world. Evil wanted him. Death wanted. But it was not those things that caused his heart to beat. Something more powerful than death called to Manolito. And so he woke when he should have died.

One of Christine Feehan’s most powerful books has got to be Dark Possession. Every element that she is famous for has arrived in this story with power of its own. Is love truly more powerful than death? Will Manolito be forced to choose between love and death? Between evil and light? Will he be caught between for all eternity? And how will this affect his one true love…his lifemate…MaryAnn?

Dark Possession is the perfect title to this new Dark Series novel. Manolito is possessed by death, by near-turning, by his passion for MaryAnn. This character faces more conflict than any other Carpathian, but in a different way than other Carpathians. He is powerful, he is sensual, yet, he is vulnerable in a way that causes him to be very, very dangerous.

We knew we’d need an actor that could come across as dangerous, brooding, old-world and dead-sexy. Not an easy combination to find. But, we came across an actor/model who had signed up for Christine’s MySpace that looked like he could pull off all of those requirements. David Craigmile is an actor/model with a lot of experience, a lot of charisma and a lot of sexy looks! David has that old-world aura with his brooding, good looks, tall stature, dark eyes and serious demeanor. Of course, that is all for the camera. In real life David still has the good looks and tall stature, but he is extremely down-to-earth and he loves to make people laugh.

David Craigmile as Monolito

Between scenes or between getting from location to location, David spoke of his sister with a gentleness that endeared him to us and some stories that made us break out into laughter. David is the kind of man who finds beauty in every woman and something positive in every experience.

It was interesting to watch him go from being humorous to hearing the call of “Action” by the director and seeing him immediately change. David was sent a few chapters of the book which he read before arriving. He loved the idea of being Manolito. He knew Manolito’s challenges, hardships and love of MaryAnn. He brought that with him and showed it everyone as we worked on each scene.

Our heroine, MaryAnn, has been in a couple of the Dark books already. The foreshadowing of her story was brilliantly executed and now that her own story has come front-and-center it is all that it has promised to be!

MaryAnn & Monolito

MaryAnn is beautiful, brilliant, powerful and holds a secret that will definitely surprise Feehan fans. This character is strong, even though she’s quite the “girly-girl” and is going to go down in Feehan-Character-History as being one of the most beloved of all the female characters. MaryAnn holds a sweetness about her, but there’s never a question that she is a strong woman. She is a perfect blend of “feminism with strength” and “vulnerable without apology”. She’s a complex character with transparency in her motives…well…except for that secret she has. Lol

Finding someone who could come across both sweet and strong would, like the Manolito character, be a challenge. Devon Scott is a petite, beautiful, African American woman who looks so much like the description of MaryAnn that even Christine’s personal assistant, who was the creative consultant during the shoot, was amazed at the similarities!

Devon Scott as MaryAnn

Devon graduated from the University of Louisville in KY. She took stage acting, modeling training among other things. During the shoot she even talked about wanting to be a therapist at one point in her life, which of course was ironic to us because that’s what MaryAnn is. Domini confided later on that she couldn’t believe how similar Devon was to the character of MaryAnn. Well, except for that secret thing, of course.

MaryAnn & Monolito

Without doubt this was the best casting we’ve ever done. The actors was so well suited for the characters, and then, to top it all off, they had an incredible chemistry! David and Devon hit it off right away. They’re both funny and easy going. But, the first time they had to do a romantic scene we knew we had a huge winner on our hands! The two actors had a chemistry that was easy to see on screen.

Though this Book Trailer® will have some special effects in it, there’s little doubt that it will be the couple that steals the show. Because the two had such an incredible on-screen chemistry we really concentrated on seeing them together. There will be a lot of scenes where the two will be together, fighting, running, struggling, and yes…kissing.

MaryAnn & Monolito

Writing the script for the trailer, and for the TV commercial, was challenging. There’s so much to say about this book that would appeal to such a variety of people. There’s the romance element, fantasy, paranormal and action/adventure. Domini Stottsberry, Christine’s assistant and daughter, wanted to give scripting a try. She and Christine talked about some of the things they wanted to see in the video and then I met with Domini and we worked on the script together. We started with the TV commercial and then added to it for the trailer.

We went with a theme of “duality”. This comes from Manolito’s struggle between life and death. This character has so much conflict to deal with that you’re really not sure how he can solve it, or how his resolution will affect the book, and those that come after it.

In order to really give the video a new look and feel, Prosper Media Group, a COS Production Network partner, was called in to do the project. We wanted something different and Kyle Lake definitely has his own style. Kyle did Susan Squires video for One With the Night. He is very creative and we’re all looking forward to seeing what he comes up with for Dark Possession. Mike Miller of Digital Realm (formerly COS/FX) will help work on the visual effects. Domini flew to Kentucky, where the video was being taped, and I attended the shoot as well. Ang and Diane from Christine’s Yahoo Group drove from Ohio just as they did for the Dark Celebration shoot.

The shoot itself was very fun! We started on location in the deep forests of Kentucky. It was a beautiful location where you could imagine panthers, wolves and other predators would live. There was an incredibly old tree out there that was so unique we did one scene in front of it just so people could see it. We needed a creek for a reflection scene with Manolito and there was some dark green foliage that would easily pass as jungle plants that we could have MaryAnn run through.

Then, it was on to the studio in Lexington where Kyle and his crew have a green screen room. A lot of the special effects stuff would be done from there.

The fight scene was choreographed with help from Domini and one of our returning “bad guys” was there to take the hits.

The shoot went very well and we hope to start seeing some of the footage this week. The video will lend to the mystery of MaryAnn, the stuggles of Manolito and a romance that can only be a – Dark Possession.