Kelly Simmons’ "Standing Still"

Kelly Simmons is a former journalist and current novelist/advertising creative director.Here she explores the possibility of some A-list talent adapting her debut novel Standing Still for the big screen:After the hardcover of Standing Still came out, and good reviews started popping up, my L.A. agent called me with what I like to call a “Hollywood review” (i.e. something that sounds great but means nothing.) “Mel Gibson loves it and wants to direct Nicole Kidman in it because she’s looking to star in a juicy psychological thriller after giving birth.” Ooooh! Who needs to be reviewed by T

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Lisa Black's "Takeover"

Lisa Black has worked as a forensic scientist at the Cuyahoga County Coroner’s Office where she analyzed gunshot residue on hands and clothing, hairs, fibers, paint, glass, DNA, blood, and many other forms of trace evidence, and went to crime scenes. She is now a forensic specialist for the city of Cape Coral, Florida, police department, working mostly with fingerprints and crime scenes.Here she shares her thoughts on the cast of a cinematic adaptation of Takeover, the first novel in her series featuring forensic scientist Theresa MacLean:I would love to see this book become a movie, because

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Libby Hellmann's "Easy Innocence"

Libby Fischer Hellmann has edited the acclaimed crime fiction anthology, Chicago Blues, and published over a dozen short stories. Her four novels featuring Chicago video producer and amateur sleuth Ellie Foreman have won numerous awards.Her fifth novel, Easy Innocence, featuring newly-minted PI Georgia Davis, is a spin-off from the Ellie Foreman series. It is a dark, disturbing tale about high school girls and what they are doing when they're not adequately supervised. It came out of Hellmann's experience with her own daughter, and what she imagined as "every mother's nightmare."Here she sug

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J.T. Ellison's Taylor Jackson series

J.T. Ellison is the bestselling author of the critically acclaimed Taylor Jackson series, including All the Pretty Girls, 14, Judas Kiss and the forthcoming Edge of Black. She was recently named “Best Mystery/Thriller Writer of 2008” by the Nashville Scene.Here she shares some casting options, provided by friends and fans, for the two main characters should the series be adapted for the big screen:Contrarian that I am, I don’t like to tell people who I see in the roles of my protagonists, homicide lieutenant Taylor Jackson and FBI profiler Dr. John Baldwin. So I reached out to my friends and

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Fiona Maazel's "Last Last Chance"

Fiona Maazel is a writer and freelance editor. Her work has appeared in Bomb, The Boston Book Review, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, The Mississippi Review, Pierogi Press, Salon.com, Tin House, The Village Voice, and The Yale Review. She was named one of the 5 Best Writers Under 35 by the National Book Foundation.Maazel's novel Last Last Chance was a Time Out New York Best Book of the Year.Here she tags a couple of directors and one candidate for the lead actor's role in a film adaptation of Last Last Chance:Oh, man, whenever I get asked to say something apropos contemporary culture, I despa

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Benjamin Obler's "Javascotia"

Benjamin Obler's debut novel Javascotia is out now in the UK and coming soon to North America.Here he shares his thoughts on the cast of a cinematic adaptation of the novel:The only actor who comes to mind to play Melvin Podgorski is Jon Heder, of Napoleon Dynamite fame. This is maybe taking the requirements to the extreme. Melvin could not be played by someone devastatingly handsome or possessing any measure of natural bravado and swagger. Melvin is an anxious, uncertain, jittery, unconfident, yearning but timid type. He is described on the book jacket and in virtually all the book’s press a

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Jess Riley's "Driving Sideways"

Jess Riley's Driving Sideways is "the story of Leigh Fielding, a twenty-eight year-old kidney transplant recipient who—six years, hundreds of dialysis sessions, and a million bad poems after being diagnosed with Polycystic Kidney Disease—finally feels strong enough to pursue a few lofty goals she’s been mulling for years: find herself, her kidney donor’s family, and the mother that abandoned her over twenty years ago."Here Riley shares her thoughts on casting a film adaptation of the novel:I must confess that I have been procrastinating like crazy on Marshal’s generous invitation to submit a

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Thomas Cobb's "Crazy Heart"

Thomas Cobb is the author of the novels Crazy Heart and Shavetail, and Acts of Contrition, a collection of short stories that won the 2002 George Garrett Fiction Prize.Here he shares some background to the making and casting of the film adaptation of Crazy Heart and his reaction to it:As I write this, they actually have made a film of my novel Crazy Heart after 21 years of various options. I originally pictured an actual country singer in the role of (country singer) Bad Blake. My first thoughts were Willie Nelson, or, even better, Waylon Jennings. Over the years a number of actors pitch

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