Love is ON The Air
Love isn’t only in the air, it’s going to be ON the air. The movie based on my book Finding Love in Big Sky has already aired in Canada, but if you live in the United States, you can expect to watch it this spring.
This has been a dream come true for me. The book was actually optioned for film before it released five years ago. Every year, I’d hear, “We plan to film this year.” Every year my hopes dwindled a little more.
Then in March, I was standing in line at Walmart when I got the call from my publisher. “Filming starts in five days.”
It was really happening!
From the beginning, I’d fantasized about dancing in the cowboy ball scene. I asked if this was a possibility, and they said yes. So I went dress shopping. But I was still afraid my movie experience couldn’t possibly live up to my imagination.
My husband and I drove up to the ranch in Montana, where I watched the story I’d simply made up in my brain actually come to life. I met Josh and Paisley, Sam and Charlie. I looked around and knew things that nobody had to tell me. “That’s Josh’s sports car. That horse is named Butch and that one is Sundance. That truck is going to break down because I wanted it to break down!” I mostly got it right. Though they corrected me on one part: “The truck, Big Red, really did breakdown.”
There couldn’t have been a better day for me to be on set. We got to see both kisses, the mentor scene (that made me get teary eyed), and the cowboy ball. The weather was gorgeous and the actors treated me like the VIP.
Right as we got there, Josh and Paisley (aka Jonathan Stoddard and Hedy Nasser) were filming the scene where he gives her a necklace with her ranch’s logo on it. We introduced ourselves and watched in awe as the crew set everything up. Then the cameraman turned and yelled at me. “Angela! Run inside and get the necklace!” I took off running, and I heard him joke with my husband, “She didn’t know we were going to put her to work, did she?”
I went inside the beautiful ranch house and asked around until someone got me the necklace specially designed for the film. It was gorgeous. Unique. A treasure. I wished I could take it home with me, but I didn’t dare ask.
So many other wonderful things happened that day. At the cowboy ball, they filmed me signing up for the silent auction to win a hot air balloon ride, which had been my first official date with my husband. Jim and I recreated the kissing scene where Sam and Charlie cheer from the fence. And Jonathan Stoddard also filmed me (on his phone) making one of those sign videos where I told the story of how a year before I’d been going through chemotherapy, and I encouraged viewers to push through the hard stuff to get to the good stuff.
My husband, Jim, was a little bummed they weren’t filming the mechanic shop scene because he’d brought his jumpsuit just in case they would let him be an extra with his head under the hood of a car. We shared this with the actress who plays Charlie, and she suggested they could add him via a greenscreen. They didn’t, but when we watched the movie, she calls inside her shop to a “Jim.” I messaged her about it, and she said that was her idea in honor of my husband. He was so touched.
On our last day we went out to breakfast at The Western Café, which is also a film location. The whole trip was so magical that even if I get another book made into a movie, I don’t think this experience could ever be beat.
My husband did top off the whole experience with a special birthday gift.
He bought me the necklace from my movie. I may not have the ranch to go with it, but I’m overflowing with love, which is just what I need to create all new romance novels to share.
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