Sara Grant's "Dark Parties"

Sara Grant was born and raised in Washington, Indiana, a small town in the Midwestern United States. She graduated from Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana, with degrees in journalism and psychology, and later she earned a master’s degree in creative and life writing Goldsmiths College, University of London.Grant is senior commissioning editor for Working Partners, a London-based company creating series fiction for children. She has worked on ten different series and edited more than 75 books.Here she shares some suggestions about who should star in an adaptation of Dark Parties, her f

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David O. Stewart's "American Emperor"

David O. Stewart's books include the highly acclaimed The Summer of 1787, the bestselling account of the writing of the Constitution, and Impeached: The Trial of President Andrew Johnson and the Fight for Lincoln's Legacy. He has practiced law in Washington, D.C., for more than a quarter of a century, defending accused criminals and challenging government actions as unconstitutional. Stewart has argued appeals all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court and was law clerk to Justice Lewis Powell of that Court.Here Stewart suggests some actors who might play the lead roles in an adaptation of

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J.T. Ellison's "Where All the Dead Lie"

J.T. Ellison is the international award-winning author of the critically acclaimed Taylor Jackson novels, multiple short stories, and has been published in over twenty countries.Here Ellison shares some ideas about who should star in an adaptation of the latest Taylor Jackson book, Where All the Dead Lie:For years, I’ve been trying not to answer this question. I’ve put it out there for my readers to comment on, not wanting to influence that psychic connection people have with fictional characters. I’ve always felt that if I tell you what Taylor Jackson looks like to me, it may alter your r

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Brian Doyle's "Bin Laden’s Bald Spot"

Brian Doyle is the editor of Portland Magazine at the University of Portland, in Oregon—the best university magazine in America, according to Newsweek, and “the best spiritual magazine in the country,” according to Annie Dillard.He is the author of five collections of essays, two nonfiction books (The Grail, about a year in an Oregon vineyard, and The Wet Engine, about the “muddles & musics of the heart”), two collections of short prose, and the sprawling novel Mink River, which Publishers Weekly called a “original, postmodern, shimmering tapestry of smalltown life.”Doyle's new book is Bi

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Dean Crawford's "Covenant"

Dean Crawford worked as a graphic designer before he left the industry to pursue his lifelong dream of writing full-time. An aviation and motorcycle enthusiast, he lives with his family in Surrey, England.Here he suggests a couple of actors who might play the lead in an adaptation of his new book, Covenant:Funnily enough, a copy of my debut novel Covenant is in Los Angeles at the moment! Although I did not write the novel with a film in mind, as the movie would have to look very different from the book, many readers have told me that it would make a great film.I’m a die-hard Harrison Ford

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Doug Magee's "Darkness All Around"

Doug Magee has been a photojournalist, screenplay writer, children's book author, death penalty activist, film producer and director, war protestor, college football player, amateur musician, and the basis of the Aidan Quinn character in Meryl Streep's Music of the Heart.Here he shares some ideas for casting an adaptation of his new novel, Darkness All Around:There are three principal roles in Darkness All Around. Sean Collins is a man who disappeared from his home town eleven years earlier and has returned claiming he killed a woman while blacked out before he left. I did a book tra

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C. K. Kelly Martin's "My Beating Teenage Heart"

C. K. Kelly Martin's books include I Know It's Over, One Lonely Degree, and The Lighter Side of Life and Death.Here she shares some ideas about who should direct and star in an adaptation of her new novel, My Beating Teenage Heart:Director/writer Andrea Arnold was so fearless and emotionally authentic with Fish Tank that she’d be at the top of my list to direct a film version of My Beating Teenage Heart, the story of a dead girl who begins to remember the story of her own life as she tries to help the grief-racked 17 year old boy she finds her consciousness attached to.Here’s a rundown of my

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Carol Snow's "What Came First"

Carol Snow is the American author of two teen novels and five books that are classified as “women’s fiction” (though men secure enough to tote around candy-colored books have been known to enjoy them, as well). Her latest, What Came First, is an Amazon UK Editors’ Pick and was described by Westways magazine as “funny, insightful, and heartbreaking.”Here Snow shares some ideas for casting an adaptation of What Came First:The premise:A single mom, longing to give her son a sibling, sets out to find the sperm donor she used nine years earlier, only to turn the lives of two other women upside do

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Robert Douglas-Fairhurst's "Becoming Dickens"

Robert Douglas-Fairhurst is Fellow and Tutor in English, Magdalen College, Oxford.His media work includes writing arts features and reviews for the Daily Telegraph, contributing to UK and US radio and television programs, and acting as the historical advisor on recent BBC adaptations of Jane Eyre (2006) and Emma (2009).Here Douglas-Fairhurst suggests a director and some actors for an adaptation of his new book, Becoming Dickens: The Invention of a Novelist:  In some ways this book was inspired by the 1998 movie Sliding Doors, which showed two versions of the same life going down divergin

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Denise Gigante's "The Keats Brothers"

Denise Gigante is Professor of English at Stanford University.About her new book, The Keats Brothers: The Life of John and George:John and George Keats—Man of Genius and Man of Power, to use John’s words—embodied sibling forms of the phenomenon we call Romanticism. George’s 1818 move to the western frontier of the United States, an imaginative leap across four thousand miles onto the tabula rasa of the American dream, created in John an abysm of alienation and loneliness that would inspire the poet’s most plangent and sublime poetry.... In most accounts of John’s life, George plays a small ro

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Mark de Castrique's "The Sandburg Connection"

A native of North Carolina, Mark de Castrique writes mysteries primarily set in the Appalachian mountains. He is an award-winning film and video producer whose work has been broadcast on PBS, HBO, and network-affiliate stations as well as the author of the Sam Blackman mystery series, the Buryin’ Barry series, and two mysteries for young adults. He lives in Charlotte, North Carolina.Here he shares some ideas for casting an adaptation of his new novel, The Sandburg Connection:The Sam Blackman novels feature a former military criminal investigation warrant officer who lost a leg in I

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Jean-Vincent Blanchard's "Éminence"

Jean-Vincent Blanchard is Associate Professor of French Studies at Swarthmore College, Pennsylvania. Born in Canada and raised in Europe, he earned his Ph.D. from Yale University in 1997. He is a specialist on pre-revolutionary France, with particular emphasis on the seventeenth century, and has published on a broad range of subjects in politics, history, religion, philosophy, and the arts.Here he shares the context for an adaptation of Éminence: Cardinal Richelieu and the Rise of France, his first book in English, and some suggestions for the cast:Chief Minister to King Louis XIII, Car

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Ann Hite's "Ghost On Black Mountain"

Ann Hite has published more than sixty stories in publications such as: Literary House Review Anthology, Espresso Fiction, Skyline Magazine, Plum Biscuit, Moonwort Review, Foliate Oak, and Spillway Review.Here she shares some casting suggestions for a big screen adaptation of her new novel, Ghost On Black Mountain:Ghost On Black Mountain is a novel set in the North Carolina Mountains with ghosts, murder, and secrets, lots of secrets. The story is told by five women whose lives are inextricably bound because of one decision made during the Depression-era. I’ve given the movie a lot of thought.

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Dave Zeltserman's "A Killer's Essence"

Dave Zeltserman was born in Boston and educated at the University of Colorado. A former software engineer, he is the author of nine horror and crime novels including Outsourced and Pariah.Here he shares some ideas for casting the major roles in an adaptation of his new novel, A Killer's Essence:Last month I signed a film deal for A Killer's Essence, and these are my thoughts on the casting and in no way reflect what the film company might be planning. In fact, I'm going to cheat with a couple of the actresses by picking them at a specific age.Stan Green : Jeffrey Dean MorganBambi : a 25

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Lisa Black's "Defensive Wounds"

Lisa Black is a real-life CSI and latent print examiner, and her character, Theresa MacLean, holds her old job at the coroner’s office in Cleveland, Ohio. Defensive Wounds is her fourth outing and involves a serial killer working at a defense attorney’s convention at the same hotel at which Theresa’s daughter has a summer job and has met a young man who may prove to be extraordinarily dangerous.Here’s what she says about casting Defensive Wounds:My first choice for Theresa has always been Julianne Moore. Beautiful without it being distracting and a little more intelligent than those around he

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Brenda Novak's "Inside"

Brenda Novak is the national bestselling author of over three dozen books.Here she shares some ideas for casting an adaptation of Inside, the first book of the Bulletproof Series:If Hollywood were to make one of my books into a movie, Inside would be the story I’d love to see portrayed on the big screen--and yet Virgil’s character would be, by far, the most difficult to cast. So much of the story hinges on finding someone who can be believably seasoned and “hard” (seeing as Virgil’s an ex-convict) yet noble, vulnerable and wounded beyond his control at the same time.At first, Vin Diesel (The

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