Maxine Kenneth's "Spy in a Little Black Dress"

Maxine Kenneth is the writing team of Maxine Schnall and Kenneth Salikof. Their new novel is Spy in a Little Black Dress.Here Maxine Schnall shares some suggestions for cast and director of an adaption of the novel:When we first started writing Paris to Die For, the debut novel in our Jackie Kennedy (Jacqueline Bouvier) spy series, Anne Hathaway was the person I had fixed in my mind for the lead in a movie based on the book. Not only did she resemble Jackie physically, but she projected that same self-possession and adventurous spirit hiding beneath a “good girl” exterior. Our sub-agent for

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Corey Redekop's "Husk"

Corey Redekop has been many things: actor, waiter, disc jockey, cameraman, editor, lawyer (almost), and now the fabled trifecta of publicist/librarian/author. His debut novel, Shelf Monkey, is either a work of insane genius or an intolerable left-wing screed, depending on which review you read. Stunningly handsome, supremely talented, superbly gifted at hyperbole, Redekop abides in Fredericton, New Brunswick.Here the author shares some ideas for casting an adaptation of his latest novel, Husk:I hate to specify certain body types of actors, as I really don’t like casting based on appearance. B

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Yona Zeldis McDonough's "A Wedding in Great Neck"

Yona Zeldis McDonough is the author of the novels A Wedding in Great Neck, Breaking the Bank, In Dahlia's Wake, and The Four Temperaments, as well as nineteen books for children. She is also the editor of two essay collections and is the Fiction Editor at Lilith magazine. Her award-winning short fiction, articles, and essays have been published in anthologies and in numerous national magazines and newspapers. She lives in Brooklyn, NY, with her husband, two children and three very yappy Pomeranians.Here she dreamcasts an adaptation of A Wedding in Great Neck:I think my new novel A Wedding

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Stephen R. Bown's "The Last Viking"

Stephen R. Bown is the author of several critically acclaimed, award-winning books on the history of exploration, science, and ideas. His latest book, The Last Viking: The Life of Roald Amundsen, covers the incredible exploits of the famous Norwegian explorer who was the first to reach the South Pole on skis and dog sled, the first to sail the Northwest Passage, and the first to fly over the North Pole.Here he shares some observations about adapting The Last Viking for the big screen:People often say to me "That story is incredible - why doesn't someone make a documentary or a movie about it.

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Michelle Cooper's "The FitzOsbornes at War"

Michelle Cooper's novels include The Rage of Sheep and The Montmaray Journals trilogy.Here she dreamcasts an adaptation of her latest novel, The FitzOsbornes at War:The FitzOsbornes at War is the final novel in the Montmaray Journals trilogy. The royal family of Montmaray fled their remote island kingdom in 1937 when the Nazis attacked. But now that war has come to England and the rest of the world – nowhere is safe.When I began writing this series, I envisaged Prince Toby, the charming but indolent heir to the Montmaravian throne, as a young Jude Law. I now have a few readers who are convinc

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Amanda Bennett's "The Cost of Hope"

Amanda Bennett's books include In Memoriam (1997, with Terence B. Foley), The Man Who Stayed Behind (1993, with Sidney Rittenberg), The Death of the Organization Man (1990), and the recently released memoir, The Cost of Hope.Here Bennett shares some suggestions for casting an adaptation of The Cost of Hope:The most important characters to cast in The Cost of Hope are Terence, and me. The book is the story of our stormy relationship, and what we became, and especially what his illness brought to our lives. It’s about how the two of us met in a China so long ago the capital was still called

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Dan Josefson's "That’s Not a Feeling"

Dan Josefson has an MFA from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and lives in Brooklyn. He has received a Fulbright research grant and a Schaeffer Award from the International Institute of Modern Letters.Here he dreamcasts That’s Not a Feeling, his first novel:That’s Not a Feeling is set on the grounds of a strange, therapeutic boarding school named Roaring Orchards, where things are slowly coming apart at the seams. There are lots and lots of characters, but I’ll try to cast only the most important of them.The narrator, Benjamin, is a bit of a cipher: he observes, and reports, and quietly

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Simon Read's "Human Game"

Simon Read was an award-winning journalist before he became a nonfiction author.  His books include In the Dark and War of Words.Here he shares some suggestions for cast and director of an adaptation of his latest book, Human Game: The True Story of the 'Great Escape' Murders and the Hunt for the Gestapo Gunmen:Naturally, my opinion is biased, but I think Human Game would make an interesting film in that the book is a non-fiction follow up to the events depicted in the 1963 Steve McQueen classic The Great Escape. The movie, of course, ends with fifty of the recaptured POWs being gu

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Pauls Toutonghi's "Evel Knievel Days"

Pauls Toutonghi is a first-generation American. He has been awarded a Pushcart Prize, and his writing has appeared in Sports Illustrated, Zoetrope, One Story, and the Boston Review.His first novel, Red Weather, came out from Random House in 2006. It was translated into Latvian and German — and received good reviews in periodicals across the country, including The New York Times, The Seattle Times, The Chicago Tribune, and The San Francisco Chronicle.Here Toutonghi dreamcasts an adaptation of his latest novel, Evel Knievel Days:The idea that your book could be made into a film is worrisome. Wh

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Joanna Nadin's "Paradise"

Joanna Nadin is a bestselling British author of middle grade, teen and YA fiction, a speechwriter, and a former Special Advisor to the Prime Minister.Here she shares her ideas for the casting and director for an adaptation of her latest YA novel, Paradise:I spent way too many hours watching teen movies, and more still stealing actors to people the worlds I’m creating, and yet Paradise was one of the first in which the heroine – Billie Paradise – wasn’t written with Thora Birch, or Julia Stiles on pause and rewind in my head. I spent a long time looking for my Billie, the girl who inherits a

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Jayne Amelia Larson's "Driving the Saudis"

Jayne Amelia Larson is an actress and independent film producer based in Los Angeles, and has also been an occasional chauffeur between gigs. She has degrees from Cornell University and from Harvard University’s American Repertory Theatre Institute. Her one-woman show, Driving the Saudis, has been performed in Memphis, Ithaca, Boston, Roanoke, and Vienna (Austria), and won Best Solo Show at the 2010 New York Fringe Festival.Here she shares some ideas for casting an adaptation of her new book, Driving the Saudis: A Chauffeur's Tale of the World's Richest Princesses (plus their servants, nannie

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Kevin Mattson's "Just Plain Dick"

Kevin Mattson is Connor Study Professor of Contemporary History at Ohio University and serves as a faculty associate of the Contemporary History Institute. His work explores the broad intersections between ideas and politics in 20th century America. He is author of numerous books, including "What the Heck Are You Up To, Mr. President?": Jimmy Carter, America's "Malaise," and the Speech that Should Have Changed the Country.Here Mattson dreamcasts an adaptation of his latest book, Just Plain Dick: Richard Nixon's Checkers Speech and the "Rocking, Socking" Election of 1952:My tastes run t

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Sharon Fiffer's "Lucky Stuff"

Sharon Fiffer is the author of eight Jane Wheel mysteries, including the recently released Lucky Stuff, published by St. Martin’s Minotaur.Here the author shares some casting suggestions for an adaptation of the series:Begging your indulgence, I’d like to cast my book as a television series rather than a movie. Why? Isn’t a feature film the Holy Grail, the place where stories are elevated to iconic status? Well, maybe before television got so very, very good—and before everyone realized how much we liked stories to unfold over time. Besides, Jane Wheel and her crew are junkers, scavengers,

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Robyn Arianrhod's "Seduced by Logic"

Robyn Arianrhod is an Honorary Research Associate in the School of Mathematical Sciences at Monash University. She is the author of Einstein's Heroes.Here Arianrhod shares some ideas for casting a cinematic adaptation of her new book, Seduced by Logic: Émilie Du Châtelet, Mary Somerville and the Newtonian Revolution:Seduced by Logic blends biography, history and science in a story that covers two centuries of scientific history. So I guess there are two movies here, one for each of the book’s two heroines: Émilie, marquise du Châtelet, the wonderfully outrageous French aristocrat, mathematici

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Janice Law's "Fires of London"

Janice Law is an acclaimed author of mystery fiction. The Watergate scandal inspired her to write her first novel, The Big Payoff (1977), which introduced Anna Peters, a street-smart young woman who blackmails her boss, a corrupt oil executive. The novel was a success, winning an Edgar nomination, and Law went on to write eight more in the series, including Death Under Par (1980) and Cross-Check (1997).After Death Under Par, Law set aside the character for several years to write historical mysteries The Countess (1989) and All the King’s Ladies (1986). After concluding the Peters series, s

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Shelley Freydont's "Foul Play at the Fair"

Shelley Freydont is the author of the Katie McDonald and Lindy Haggerty mystery series, and the Liv Montgomery, Celebration Bay Festival Mysteries.Here she shares some suggestions for casting a big-screen adaptation of her new novel Foul Play at the Fair, the first Celebration Bay Festival mystery:I have colleagues who always imagine their books’ characters as movie or television actors. I’ve never been able to do that. When I do try to think of the perfect casting, I always seem to default to the actors of the thirties and forties. Even when they were scruffy or silly there was somethin

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Erika Robuck's "Hemingway’s Girl"

Erika Robuck was born and raised in Annapolis, Maryland. Inspired by the cobblestones, old churches, Georgian homes, and mingling of past and present from the Eastern Shore, to the Annapolis City Dock, to the Baltimore Harbor, her passion for history is well nourished.Her first novel, Receive Me Falling, is a best books awards finalist in historical fiction from USA Book News. Her second novel, Hemingway’s Girl, was published last month by NAL/Penguin.Here Robuck dreamcasts an adaptation of Hemingway’s Girl:Before I write a word of any novel, I spend several days casting it. This is a very im

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Michael Kardos’s "The Three-Day Affair"

Michael Kardos’s debut thriller The Three-Day Affair has received starred reviews from Library Journal, Kirkus Reviews, and Publishers Weekly, which named it one of the best books of the fall. He’s originally from New Jersey and currently co-directs the creative writing program at Mississippi State University.Here Kardos shares some ideas for the lead actors and director of an adaptation of The Three-Day Affair:It all hinges on the recording-studio owner. It’s a small role, a few moments of levity in an otherwise very intense story, and just right for an actor needing a comeback—John Travo

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D.E. Johnson's "Detroit Breakdown"

D. E. Johnson, a graduate of Central Michigan University, is a history buff who has been writing fiction since childhood. He comes by his interest in automotive history through his grandfather, who was the vice president of Checker Motors. Johnson's books include The Detroit Electric Scheme and Motor City Shakedown.Here he shares some ideas for the above-the-line talent to adapt his latest novel Detroit Breakdown, and its predecessors, for the big (or small) screen:“Everybody” asks me when my books are going to be made into movies. I write in a very cinematic style, and I think my reade

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