Irene Fleming's "The Brink of Fame"

It's 1913 in Irene Fleming's new novel, The Brink of Fame, and Emily Daggett Weiss is left stranded and destitute. Film tycoon Carl Laemmle comes to her rescue with a job offer directing a film in Hollywood, provided she can track down and bring back Laemmle’s own missing star actor....Here Fleming shares some suggestions for the dream cast of an adaptation of the novel:I have to mix actors from different eras to get the desired effect. The actress who plays Emily Daggett should have a beautiful speaking voice, which lets out most of the young moderns with their nasal California accents. C

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Elana Johnson's "Possession"

Elana Johnson's debut novel, Possession, is now available from Simon & Schuster.Here she shares some preferences for the cast of an adaptation of Possession:If Possession were made into a film, I’d really like to see David Henrie (Disney’s Wizards of Waverly Place) as Jag Barque. He’s got the whole rebel vibe going on, even though he’s the good guy on Wizards. Give him some gel though, and yeah. He could totally be Jag Barque.For the female lead, Violet Schoenfeld, I honestly have no idea, because I always picture her as a cartoon in my head. Lame, I know!Maybe for Zenn Bower, the calm, c

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Jodi Compton's "Thieves Get Rich, Saints Get Shot"

Jodi Compton is the author of the acclaimed novels Hailey’s War, The 37th Hour, and Sympathy Between Humans.Here she develops some ideas for the cast of an adaptation of her new novel, Thieves Get Rich, Saints Get Shot:Let me start with this: Thieves is a sequel, so if you’re an obsessive reader of “My Book, the Movie”, you might remember that last year I picked two actors for the lead roles of Hailey Cain and Serena Delgadillo. They were Abbie Cornish (Stop-Loss) and, age notwithstanding, Sara Ramirez (Grey’s Anatomy). I say “age notwithstanding” because Hailey, who was 23 at the beginning

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Linda Urbach's "Madame Bovary's Daughter"

Linda Urbach is a published author and screenwriter. Her third novel, Madame Bovary’s Daughter, addresses the question: Whatever happened to the only daughter of the scandalous Madame Bovary, literature’s greatest adulteress and worst mother?Here she develops some ideas for the cast and director of an adaptation of Madame Bovary’s Daughter:Before the first scene is even shot, I have to pay a visit to my bank to deposit the enormous check I’ve received for the movie rights to Madame Bovary’s Daughter. Then I have to make an appointment with my accountant to find out how I can avoid paying taxe

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Brandi Lynn Ryder's "In Malice, Quite Close"

Brandi Lynn Ryder lives in the heart of Napa Valley. In Malice, Quite Close, her first novel, is now out from Viking.Here she explains why it's difficult for her to cast an adaptation of the novel:So, who would you cast in the movie? Oddly enough, this is probably the question I’m asked more than any other. Perhaps, it’s not that odd… We are a visual culture, after all. Like everyone, I love the movies (though I tend to favor films made long before I was born), and I’m great at casting other people’s books. Why is it that I find it impossible to cast my own?It’s not that I don’t think it woul

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Declan Burke's "Absolute Zero Cool"

Declan Burke is the author of Eightball Boogie (2003) and The Big O (2007). He is the editor of Down These Green Streets: Irish Crime Writing in the 21st Century (Liberties Press, 2011), and hosts a website dedicated to Irish crime fiction called Crime Always Pays.Here he lays out his choices for cast and director of an adaptation of his new novel, Absolute Zero Cool:I think it’s fair to say that only George Clooney could pull off the required blend of charm, talent, good looks and mischievous star quality required to play the lead character in Absolute Zero Cool.That’s mainly because the lea

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Ray Banks' "Beast of Burden"

Scotland's Ray Banks has been a double-glazing salesman, a croupier, a dole monkey, and a disgruntled temp. His books include The Big Blind, Saturday's Child, Sucker Punch, and No More Heroes.Here he shares some preferences for cast and director of an adaptation of his latest novel, Beast of Burden:Like Russel McLean, I've always thought of the Cal Innes books as more of a TV series than a movie, and given the parochial nature of the books, I have a feeling that most of the actors I'm about to mention will be unfamiliar to most people. Still, ploughing on...Cal Innes - The "hero" of the serie

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Steve Brewer's "Calabama"

Steve Brewer is the author of more than 20 books, including the recent crime novels The Big Wink, Calabama and Firepower.His first novel, Lonely Street, recently was made into a Hollywood comedy starring Robert Patrick, Jay Mohr and Joe Mantegna.Here Brewer shares his choice for the lead in an adaptation of Calabama:When I heard Ryan Gosling was starring in the film of James Sallis' great crime novel, Drive, I thought: "Well, hell. I wanted him for my movie."Gosling, who was so brilliant in Stay, Blue Valentine and Lars and the Real Girl, would be perfect to play Eric Newlin, the callow slack

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Kathleen George's "Hideout"

Kathleen George, author of police thrillers, was an Edgar finalist for best novel for The Odds. A trade edition of The Odds was released last month.Here she develops some ideas for the cast of an adaptation of her new novel, Hideout:I read the other morning that Tom Cruise is slated to play Lee Child’s 6’5” huge, broad, tough, military, no-nonsense hero, Jack Reacher. After I screwed my head back on, I sat sighing about the possibility of losing characters I love—I mean love—to the screen. It doesn’t happen every time. It happens often. Once they’re changed drastically, are they ev

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Colin Cotterill's "Killed at the Whim of a Hat"

Born in London, Colin Cotterill has worked as teacher in Israel, Australia, the U.S. and Japan before he started training teachers in Thailand. Cotterill and his wife live in a small fishing village on the Gulf of Siam in Southern Thailand. He’s won the Dilys and a CWA Dagger, and has been a finalist for several other awards.Here he shares some ideas about casting the leads in an adaptation of his new novel, Killed at the Whim of a Hat:This blog's editor always lumbers me with this MY BOOK THE MOVIE homework knowing full well I’ve exhausted all the bankable Asian actors in Hollywood. So,

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Carson Morton's "Stealing Mona Lisa"

Carson Morton was born in London, England and moved with his family to the United States when he was eleven. He worked as a professional musician for many years, making an album for United Artists Records with his group Razmataz, and playing with the likes of John Sebastian, Billy Preston, and many others. He is a screenwriter and published playwright, and has worked in television as a consultant and composer.Here he shares some cast preferences for an adaptation of his new novel, Stealing Mona Lisa:Stealing Mona Lisa is set in the colorful and romantic Paris of 1911. I definitely

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John Dalton's "The Inverted Forest"

John Dalton is a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and has been awarded fellowships at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, Massachusetts and the MacDowell Colony in Peterborough, New Hampshire. His first novel, Heaven Lake, won the Barnes and Noble 2004 Discover Award in fiction and the Sue Kaufman Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Heaven Lake was listed as a best book of the year by Publishers Weekly, The Chicago Tribune and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Dalton is a graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop and is currently a member of the English faculty at

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Rebecca Cantrell's "A Game of Lies"

Award-winning author Rebecca Cantrell majored in German, Creative Writing, and History at the Freie Universitaet of Berlin and Carnegie Mellon University. Her Hannah Vogel mystery series set in Berlin in the 1930s includes A Trace of Smoke, A Night of Long Knives, and A Game of Lies.Here she shares some ideas for casting an adaptation of the Hannah Vogel books:When I think of filming the Hannah Vogel books, I picture them as a feature film or a TV mini-series, something very arty and fun, like Wallander or Foyle's War. In my head, the series is sometimes filmed with an American version, so

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Tammy Kaehler's "Dead Man's Switch"

Before trying her hand at fiction, Tammy Kaehler established a career writing marketing materials, feature articles, executive speeches, and technical documentation. A fateful stint in corporate hospitality introduced her to the racing world, which inspired the first Kate Reilly racing mystery. Kaehler works as a technical writer in the Los Angeles area, where she lives with her husband and many cars. Here she suggests some casting--and location--preferences for an adaptation of Dead Man’s Switch, the debut Kate Reilly racing mystery:I couldn’t think of real life people as the character

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Leslie Daniels' "Cleaning Nabokov's House"

Leslie Daniels' stories have appeared in Ploughshares, The Missouri Review, The Florida Review, Gulf Coast, The Santa Monica Review and New Ohio Review. The Shooting Gallery in New York City produced her one-act play. She has been nominated three times for the Pushcart Prize and for the Best of the Associated Writing Programs. From 2005 to 2010, she was the fiction editor for The Green Mountains Review.Here she shares some ideas for casting a big screen adaptation of her debut novel, Cleaning Nabokov's House:AAAhhhh you are asking me to casturbate in public! Yikes. OK, I think that th

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Melanie Benjamin's "The Autobiography Of Mrs. Tom Thumb"

Melanie Benjamin's historical novels are Alice I Have Been and the recently released The Autobiography Of Mrs. Tom Thumb.Here she shares some perspective on the difficulties of adapting the new book for the screen and names one director with the vision to just maybe pull it off:Honestly, I’ve never been able to think of The Autobiography Of Mrs. Tom Thumb in terms of a movie simply because it would be impossible to cast. The kind of dwarfism that General and Mrs. Tom Thumb had is not a kind that is common today; they were miniature people, perfectly formed. Today they would have been given

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Samuel Park's "This Burns My Heart"

Samuel Park is an Assistant Professor of English at Columbia College Chicago. He is a graduate of Stanford and the University of Southern California, where he earned his doctorate in English. He is the author of the novella Shakespeare's Sonnets and the writer-director of the short film of the same name, which was an official selection of numerous domestic and international film festivals.Here he shares some cast preferences for an adaptation of his new novel, This Burns My Heart:A bookseller once told me that she found This Burns My Heart to be very cinematic, and I think that’s

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