Adam Christopher's "Hang Wire"

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Adam Christopher is a New Zealand-born writer, now living in the UK.

His new books are Hang Wire and, coming soon, The Burning Dark.

Here Christopher dreamcasts an adaptation of Hang Wire:

I must admit, I tend to cast my novels pretty early in the writing process, if not during the outline. Usually it’s without conscious choice – as I start to flesh out a character and their story, someone pops into my head. When this happens, it’s usually a perfect fit. It doesn’t always work like this, of course, but I quite like it when it does. When it comes to writing, it becomes easier for me to “see” the action and transcribe it to the page.

It’s perhaps odd then that when it comes to visualizing the characters for, say, a book cover, I’m less confident. I personally don’t like covers that feature an exact representation of the characters within – the amazing thing about writing is that every single person who reads your book will imagine it in a completely different way. This also includes the characters, and I even reflect this in the text: while some people love detailed physical descriptions, I tend to shy away from anything more than a general summary, because I feel anything more is up to the reader. Whether or not a character has a bushy beard is generally irrelevant to the story – unless it informs their character in some way, or there is an important beard-related plot point later. In Hang Wire, a couple of characters do have detailed descriptions, because they’re important – the appearance of Bob, for example, is an integral part of his character. Like Joel. Ted, on the other hand, doesn’t really require much, despite him being the core of the story.

I cast most of the character in Hang Wire pretty early on:

Lucas Bryant as Ted, whose birthday dinner in San Francisco’s famous Chinatown is interrupted by an exploding fortune.

Kirsten Dunst as Alison, Ted’s girlfriend and fellow blogger who gets tangled in the plans of the Hang Wire Killer.

Walton Goggins as Joel Duvall, a 19th century wanderer who discovers something strange in the middle of an Oklahoma wasteland and finds himself dragged across the United States over the next 150 years.

Josh Holloway as Bob, the bare-chested, blonde-haired Adonis who teaches ballroom dancing to tourists down on the beach.

Grace Park as Benny, the young blogger whose family history has a rather complex and ancient secret.

John Goodman as Jack Newhaven, would-be antique dealer who falls under Joel’s spell.

Now that cast would make a pretty great movie!

Visit Adam Christopher's website, blog, Facebook page, and Twitter perch.

The Page 69 Test: Hang Wire.

--Marshal Zeringue