Kristine Kathryn Rusch's "The Retrieval Artist"

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Kristine Kathryn Rusch is an award-winning mystery, romance, science fiction, and fantasy writer. She is the only person in the history of the science fiction field to have won a Hugo award for editing and a Hugo award for fiction.

Here she develops some casting ideas for a television series adaptation of her "The Retrieval Artist" series of novels:

I have written a lot of novels, most of which I can see as movies. But only one can I see as a television show.

I’m writing a series of novels called “The Retrieval Artist.” They’re science fiction and mystery. In each book, I try to use a different mystery format — some are police procedurals, some are hard-boiled, some are thrillers. They originated in a short story called, “The Retrieval Artist,” which was nominated for a Hugo. There are five, currently, with the six, The Recovery Man, appearing in September.

I’d love to see this on the SciFi Channel, like the Dresden Files or Battlestar Galactica. Miles Flint is a fallen angel. He’s very pretty, but he has had a hard life and it shows in the planes of his face. Since I’m told I can cast any actor from any time period, let me indulge:

For Miles Flint, I’d like someone like Robert Redford from the Electric Horseman period. Or Brad Pitt from Babel — a beautiful blond guy who has lived enough to taint that beauty.

Noelle DiRicci, his sometimes partner, is a lot more difficult to cast. She’s not pretty, but she’s smart and tough. She’s disillusioned, but she’s starting to realize that she can have power. We need a powerful woman here, but one a little older and a lot more jaded. I’m thinking Marsha Gay Harden.

Then there are the minor characters. Paloma, who has her moments of importance, seems like a wise woman early on. Cicely Tyson would be great.

And Halle Berry is Ki Bowles, the reporter no one likes and yet plays such an important part in the books.

Yes, I know — these are not Sci Fi actors. But let’s talk like a casting director: Let’s cast folks who suggest those actors. A SciFi series ... weekly ... ah, the stuff of dreams.

Kristine Kathryn Rusch has written many novels under various names, including Kristine Grayson for romance, and Kris Nelscott for mystery. Her novels have made the bestseller lists and have been published in 14 countries and 13 different languages.

Her awards range from the Ellery Queen Readers Choice Award to the John W. Campbell Award. She is the only person in the history of the science fiction field to have won a Hugo award for editing and a Hugo award for fiction. Her short work has been reprinted in six Year's Best collections.

In 2001, her story, "Millennium Babies," won the coveted Hugo Award. That year, she also received the Herodotus Award for Best Historical Mystery Novel (for her Kris Nelscott Series) and the Romantic Times Reviewers Choice Award for Best Paranormal Romance (for her novel Utterly Charming, written as Kristine Grayson). In 1999, her story, "Echea," (available at Fictionwise) was nominated for the Locus, Nebula, Hugo, and Sturgeon awards. It won the Homer Award and the Asimov's Reader's Choice Award. In 1999, she also won the Ellery Queen Reader's Choice Award and the Science Fiction Age Reader's Choice Award, making her the first writer to win three different reader's choice awards for three different stories in two different genres in the same year.

Visit Kristine Kathryn Rusch's website.

--Marshal Zeringue