A Life Less Ordinary (52 page)

Here's the result.

With special thanks to:

Seren on LiveJournal
who came up with the fantasy “cast list”, beta'd the drafts, and told me she
loved it even when I felt like this fic had a face only a mother could love.

The actors on my
fantasy “cast list” - none of whom know anything about this book (and threfore
do not endorse anything about it in any way), or me, or that I've used their
pictures and their work as props to help me create the characters in these
pages but to whom I nonetheless owe an enormous amount of gratitude,
especially:

Megan Follows - for
having that air of tough vulnerability that Manny needed to give her shape.

Esai Morales - for
inspiring me to begin writing again with his far-too-short turn on the
television series
Jericho
as Major Edward Beck, and for managing to
steal my heart and my imagination in just seven (!) episodes.

Karl Urban - for being
adorably curmudgeonly and sexy as Dr. McCoy; for giving Bruce Willis a solid
run for his money in RED; and for having eyebrows that are practically
characters in themselves - without you, Zeke would never have been so clear in
my mind!

Bruce Willis - because,
honestly?  Who wouldn't want a Bruce Willis character in their story?  And Max
really didn't have any shape until I realized he was soft-spoken, bald and a
bad ass with a smirk.

and

Robert Downey Jr. - for
being the personification of the phoenix; for being funny as hell; for having
chemistry with literally everyone including the dog - and for having
beautifully vulnerable brown eyes and a sensitivity that gave me the outline
for the perfect match for Rebecca (she can thank me later).

And finally, my
enormous appreciation and love to:

The Barenaked Ladies -
for being Canadian; for having a great sound and great voices and great songs and
especially for “Maroon” which fit Manny's mood (and my own) so perfectly as I
was writing this story.

Jimmy Buffett - for
being the best damn singer of Jimmy Buffett songs there can be - for songs that
have lifted me up, mellowed me out, and sound the way I sometimes feel - I
don't think Manny and Zeke would have had nearly so much fun if it hadn't been
for “Take the Weather With You” and various others songs from various other
records.

---
Victoria Bernadine, December 2012