Temping Is Hell
Cathy Yardley
WORST. JOB. EVER.
Kate O'Hara can't wait until this temp assignment is over. The woman who hired her is a psychotic pageant queen, her coworkers are convicts-turned-clerks, and it's so boringly corporate it makes her skin crawl. Even her sexy-as-sin boss, famed billionaire Thomas Kestrel, isn't enticement enough to keep her there. Once she makes enough to pay off her bills, she's out. Or so she thinks...
WHAT THE HELL?
Next thing she knows, she's accidentally signed over her soul. Literally. And she's discovered Thomas's real mission: to kill thirteen bad guys in one year, in order to get his—now his and Kate’s—souls back.
IT'S NOT JUST A JOB. IT'S A MISADVENTURE.
From learning to boost the morale of some paper-pushing demons to navigating her way through blood-red tape, Kate has to work closely with her super-hot supervisor and get her flaky act together, before somebody clocks her out—permanently!
TEMPING IS HELL: The Perfect Cast
by Cathy Yardley
I’ll admit: I don’t always have a perfect “cast” in mind when I start writing. I can mentally picture the characters, sure, but I don’t go so far as to clip images or anything. That is, until this novel.
Temping is Hell is the first book in the Necessary Evil series. It’s about Kate O’Hara, down on her luck temp, who gets a job with Fiendish Enterprises and their sexy CEO, Thomas Kestrel. What starts out as a distasteful job at a “soulless corporation” suddenly becomes dire when she inadvertently signs her soul to save her life – and now needs to spend the next year helping Thomas kill thirteen people, to get back both their souls.
You might read it and have your own thoughts of who would be perfect (I know I usually do when I read – I totally see Charlize Theron as Eve Dallas, for example) but here are my takes on the people inhabiting the strange world of Fiendish Enterprises…
Thomas Kestrel. Think Richard Branson of Virgin Enterprises – but hotter, and Southern. He’s a natural born charmer, a computer genius, and a fiercely independent risk-taker. I automatically saw Matt Bomer from White Collar – although originally, I was thinking Timothy Olyphant from Justified. So probably a mix of the two, sexy drawl and kick-ass competence, with a sophisticated flair. Is it any wonder Kate gets mixed up with him?
Kate O’Hara. I. Love. Her. She’s probably my favorite character, of all the ones I’ve written. She’s branded a screw-up by most of her family because of her inability to conform quietly to pretty much anything. And temper? That red hair’s no lie. She’s geeky, funky, completely irreverent… lacks a verbal filter and generally is fearless. She says what I wish I could say, and stands up for what she believes, despite the consequences. I see her as Felicia Day, from Dr. Horrible’s Sing-a-long Blog, or Amy Adams from Enchanted and Julie & Julia. She’s definitely the type to do the wrong thing for the right reasons.
Yagi. Thomas’s supernatural consultant, bodyguard… and ninja. He’s got a healthy mix of Zen and bad-ass, wrapped in an Armani suit. I see Ken Watanabe, of The Last Samurai and Memoirs of a Geisha, as the ultimate Yagi.
Prue. Kate’s best friend and a supernatural powerhouse in her own right – not that Kate knows this initially – Prue is half black, half Japanese, and no nonsense. In my mind, I see Shanola Hampton, who plays Veronica on Showtime’s brilliant show Shameless, as the perfect Prue.
Nan Temper. Prue’s grandmother. An unstoppable voodoo priestess – and not someone you want to ride along with as she races around in her huge “Oldsmobuick Land Yacht.” Don’t let her peanut-with-dreadlocks body fool you: like Yoda, she can kick the ever-loving crap out of you, before hobbling off with her cane. Who else could play her but the late, great Eartha Kitt?
I’ve got most of my thoughts on casting, as well as some great “demotivational” posters and cards for inspiration, on my Pinterest board for the Necessary Evil series: http://pinterest.com/cathyyardley/character-board-for-the-necessary-evil-series/
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