Kathy Hepinstall's "Blue Asylum"

Kathy Hepinstall is the author of The House of Gentle Men (a Los Angeles Times bestseller), The Absence of Nectar (a national bestseller), and The Prince of Lost Places. She is an award-winning creative director and advertising writer, whose clients have included top brands in American business.

Here she dreamcasts an adaptation of her new novel, Blue Asylum:

When casting Blue Asylum I'd have to look for some actors and actresses with a bit of an edge. Some thoughts:

Dr. Cowell: The pompous and yet dissatisfied and restless psychiatrist of the insane asylum Stanley Tucci could capture both his arrogance and vulnerability.

Iris: The main character. A slave-holder's wife wrongfully sent to the asylum. It seems like this is a role for an actress with a classic, "old-fashioned" kind of look to her. Someone with dignity, a ferociousness under the surface and a heart. It would be tough to find the right actress, because Iris is only in her mid twenties in the book. I think of some of Hitchcock's blondes. Someone modern might be Natalie Portman? I don't know if I've ever seen her in a movie, so I'm grasping at straws.

Wendell: Dr. Cowell's disaffected twelve year old son. Well, he's just a kid. He's vulnerable like his dad, but he's also a boy. A sweaty, sensitive, lamb-and-lunatic loving boy. Maybe a young Macaulay Culkin, like his role in My Girl. Or the kid from About a Boy.

Mary: Dr. Cowell's mercurial, money-spending, slightly hysterical wife. A younger Kathy Bates comes to mind immediately.

Ambrose: He's got a haunted, but still handsome look. The kind of man a woman wants to marry and cure. Going to reach back to Montgomery Clift.

Visit Kathy Hepinstall's website.

--Marshal Zeringue