Andrew L. Erdman's "Queen of Vaudeville"

Andrew L. Erdman is the author of Blue Vaudeville: Sex, Morals, and the Mass Marketing of Entertainment, 1895–1915.Here he dreamcasts an adaptation of his new book, Queen of Vaudeville: The Story of Eva Tanguay:In 1952, Twentieth Century-Fox released The I Don’t Care Girl, a movie putatively about the life of Eva Tanguay. Alas (as you can read in my book Queen of Vaudeville: The Story of Eva Tanguay) they didn’t get it much right. It had Mitzi Gaynor and Oscar Levant and lots of flashy sets and Bob Fosse-style choreography. But it ended up really being about a bunch of movie producers on the

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Stephanie Chong's "The Demoness of Waking Dreams"

Stephanie Chong worked as a lawyer at a top-tier Canadian firm and completed five university degrees before landing her dream job: romance novelist. Her degrees include a J.D. and a Ph.D. from the University of Toronto, and a Master’s in Creative Writing from Oxford University.Here she shares some ideas about the cast and film location of an adaptation of her latest novel, The Demoness of Waking Dreams: Luciana Rossetti, Rogue demoness, is the novel’s heroine. The noble daughter of an 18th century silk merchant, she’s as headstrong as she is beautiful. For centuries, she has survived o

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David Rich's "Caravan of Thieves"

David Rich has sold screenplays to most of the major studios, and to production companies in the U.S. and Europe. He wrote the feature film, Renegades, starring Kiefer Sutherland and Lou Diamond Philips, as well as episodes of MacGyver and other shows. He wrote three plays: The Interview, The Rescue, and W.A.R. (Women's Armed Resistance). Forsaking Los Angeles for small town Connecticut, Rich turned his attention to fiction. Caravan of Thieves, his new novel, is the result. Raised in Chicago, he received his B.A. from Tulane, spent one rainy, Withnail-esque year in Wales, and earned

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Andrew Porter's "In Between Days"

Andrew Porter is the author of the story collection The Theory of Light and Matter. A graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, he has received a Pushcart Prize, a James Michener/Copernicus Fellowship, and the Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction. His work has appeared in One Story, The Threepenny Review, and on public radio’s Selected Shorts. Currently, Porter lives in San Antonio, where he is an Associate Professor of English and Director of the Creative Writing Program at Trinity University.Here he shares some ideas for the main characters and director of an adaptation of his new novel,

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Kim Fay's "The Map of Lost Memories"

Born in Seattle and raised throughout Washington State, Kim Fay lived in Vietnam for four years and still travels to Southeast Asia frequently. A former independent bookseller, she is the author of the historical novel The Map of Lost Memories and Communion: A Culinary Journey Through Vietnam, winner of the World Gourmand Cookbook Awards’ Best Asian Cuisine Book in the United States.Here Fay dreamcasts an adaptation of The Map of Lost Memories:When I started writing my novel, I was twenty-nine years old, the same age as my main character, Irene Blum. When I finished, fourteen years later,

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Ellen Booraem's "Small Persons with Wings"

Teen fantasy writer Ellen Booraem lives in coastal Maine with artist Robert Shillady, in a house they built with their own hands. She was an editor for weekly newspapers before quitting her job to write The Unnameables, her first fantasy for young teens.Here Booraem shares some ideas for casting an adaptation of her latest book, Small Persons with Wings:My second middle-grade fantasy, Small Persons with Wings, features a snarky, smart, and weighty girl named Mellie, who discovers that her family has a thousand-year-old relationship with the equally snarky Small Persons with Wings (who hate be

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Flynn Meaney's "The Boy Recession"

Flynn Meaney is an alumna of the University of Notre Dame; she also earned a M.F.A. in the Creative Writing program at Hunter College.Here she dreamcasts an adaptation of her latest novel, The Boy Recession:My second YA novel, The Boy Recession, is narrated by two different characters. Hunter is a laid-back slacker who’s smart and musically talented, but lazy. When writing Hunter, I pictured him with long, shaggy blonde hair and a low-key vibe. I saw a few episodes of the American version of Skins, and Stanley, played by Daniel Flaherty, reminded me of Hunter. But I didn’t realize just how pe

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Enid Shomer's "The Twelve Rooms of the Nile"

A widely published fiction writer and poetry, Enid Shomer is the author of seven books. Her work has been collected in more than fifty anthologies and textbooks, including POETRY: A HarperCollins Pocket Anthology, Best American Poetry, and New Stories from the South: The Year’s Best.Here Shomer shares some suggestions for the lead actors and director of an adaptation of her new novel, The Twelve Rooms of the Nile:Since the protagonists of The Twelve Rooms of the Nile —Florence Nightingale and Gustave Flaubert—are well-known historical figures, I’m sure every reader will have his or her own i

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Michelle Gagnon's "Don't Turn Around"

Michelle Gagnon has been a modern dancer, a dog walker, a bartender, a freelance journalist, a personal trainer, and a model. Her bestselling thrillers for adults have been published in numerous countries and include The Tunnels, Boneyard, The Gatekeeper, and Kidnap & Ransom.Here she shares some ideas for casting an adaptation of Don't Turn Around, her first novel for young adults:I actually had photos of each of my main characters posted alongside their descriptions in Scrivener, which helped dramatically with framing the plot. But some of those were of actors who would be too old to

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Joanne Dobson & Beverle Graves Myers's "Face of the Enemy"

Joanne Dobson is a former English professor, having taught for many years at Fordham University, also at Amherst College and at Tufts University. Beverle Graves Myers made a mid-life career switch from psychiatry to full-time writing. A graduate of the University of Louisville with a BA in History and an MD, she worked at a public mental health clinic before her first Tito Amato novel was published in 2004.Here they dreamcast an adaptation of Face of the Enemy, their first novel in the New York in Wartime mystery series:Face of the Enemy opens just days before the attack on Pearl Harbor

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J.A. London's "Darkness Before Dawn"

J. A. London is the mother-son writing team of Rachel Hawthorne and her son, Alex London. Rachel has written many novels for teens, including the popular Dark Guardian series. Alex, a recent graduate with a degree in Historical Studies, enjoys combining history and fiction to create unique worlds. The Darkness Before Dawn series is their first joint project.Here they share some suggestions for adapting the series for the big screen:As we wrote Darkness Before Dawn, we didn’t have a specific actor in mind for any of the characters. However, we did have a specific look for each character: hagga

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Mischa Hiller's "Shake Off"

Mischa Hiller is a winner of the Commonwealth Writers' Prize in the Best First Book Category for South Asia & Europe. Raised in London, Beirut, and Dar El Salaam, Hiller lives in Cambridge, England.Hiller's acclaimed, first thriller Shake Off has been called "deadly, poignant, and powerful" (The Economist),"Smart and tense and real enough to be scary" (David Morrell), and "A spy thriller of the highest class" (Charles Cumming).Here he dreamcasts an adaptation of the novel:When I was writing the book I had an actor from The Battle of Algiers in my head as the protagonist Michel but sinc

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Steve Hockensmith’s "Cadaver in Chief"

In 2010, Steve Hockensmith clawed his way onto the New York Times bestseller list with a prequel to Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Dawn of the Dreadfuls. He completed the PPZ trilogy the following year with Dreadfully Ever After while also continuing his Edgar-nominated “Holmes on the Range” mystery series.Hockensmith’s latest effort, the horror/mystery/satire Cadaver in Chief, combines the genres he’s known for: Hockensmith describes it as “State of Play with zombies.” He says he knows exactly who should turn it into a film.MemoTo: Bobcat GoldthwaitFrom: Steve HockensmithRe: Call meYou don

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Maryanne O'Hara's "Cascade"

A graduate of Emerson College's MFA program, Maryanne O'Hara was a longtime associate editor at Ploughshares magazine. Her short stories have been published in Five Points, The North American Review, The Crescent Review, and Redbook, as well as the literary anthologies MicroFiction, Brevity & Echo, The Art of Friction, and Flash Fiction: Youth.Here she shares some suggestions for the above-the-line talent for an adaptation of her debut novel, Cascade:I don't usually imagine actors when I’m creating characters but at one point, watching Jake Gyllenhaal during Brokeback Mountain, I thought,

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Moira Crone's "The Not Yet"

Moira Crone is the author of several novels and story collections including What Gets Into Us and A Period of Confinement; her works have appeared in Oxford American, The New Yorker, Image, Mademoiselle, and over forty other journals and twelve anthologies. She has won prizes for her stories and novellas, and in 2009 she was given the Robert Penn Warren Award from the Fellowship of Southern Writers for the entire body of her work.Here Crone dreamcasts an adaptation of her latest novel, The Not Yet:The year is 2121, the place, just outside the United Authority, on the American Continent--- t

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James R. Benn's "Death's Door"

James R. Benn is the author of the Billy Boyle World War II series, historical mysteries set within the Allied High Command during the Second World War. The series began with Billy Boyle, which takes place in England and Norway in 1942. The second, The First Wave, carries on a few months later during the Allied invasion of French Northwest Africa. The third, Blood Alone, continues the story through the Allied invasion of Sicily; and Evil for Evil, the fourth volume, follows Billy Boyle to Northern Ireland where he is sent at the request of the British government to investigate l

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Dennis Drabelle's "The Great American Railroad War"

Dennis Drabelle is author of Mile-High Fever. He has written for multiple publications and is currently a contributing editor and a mysteries editor for The Washington Post Book World. In 1996 he won the National Book Critics Circle’s award for excellence in reviewing. He lives in Washington, D.C.Here he dreamcasts an adaptation of his new book, The Great American Railroad War: How Ambrose Bierce and Frank Norris Took On the Notorious Central Pacific Railroad:For Collis Huntington, I would cast Ed Asner, who has the right gruffness quotient. For Frank Norris, it should be Ryan Gosling, who ha

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