Linda Grimes's "In a Fix"

Linda Grimes is a former English teacher and ex-actress now channeling her love of words and drama into writing. She grew up in Texas and currently resides in northern Virginia with her husband.

Here she shares some ideas for a big screen adaptation of her new novel, In a Fix:

I suppose most writers have imagined—either with excitement or horror—Hollywood zeroing in on one of their books and splashing it onto the screen. I'm no exception. But I vacillate between thinking it would being the coolest thing ever and being totally terrified at the prospect.

Which way I'm leaning depends on the most recent screen adaptions I've seen. If it's something like The Hunger Games or Holes, or even the sadly short-lived Dresden Files TV series, which I think are excellent translations of print to screen—they all capture the atmosphere of the books very well, in my opinion—then, yeah, I get pretty excited thinking about my characters coming to life in a visual way.

If it's something like The Shining (the Jack Nicholson version) or The Great Gatsby (the Robert Redford version from way back), then the trepidations set in, and I start to feel a bit queasy.

As for how I'd cast In a Fix, given the opportunity … well, I have to admit that I couldn't come up with just one actor for any of the main characters. Nobody I've run across looks exactly how I imagine Ciel, Billy, or Mark. The best I could do is come up with "types."

For Ciel, either Hannah Spearritt or Michelle Williams might do, though they're both a bit older than Ciel. Still, they capture the essence of my mc, and I think either of them could rock the role if they had to.

Billy, the charming scoundrel, might be played by Callum Blue (from Dead Like Me, another sadly short-lived series), Matt Bomer (of White Collar fame), or even Ian Somerhalder (the bad-boy vamp from The Vampire Diaries). Though I suspect they're all a bit too busy to consider it.

I've always seen Mark, the badass CIA agent Ciel has been crushing on for years, as a young Steve McQueen type. Or, if being alive is essential, I suppose Charlie Hunnam (from Sons of Anarchy) could handle the role. If he doesn't mind keeping a short haircut, that is.

But if I'm ever lucky enough to have my book optioned for film or TV, I'm sure a casting director will have his or her own ideas, so I'm trying not to worry over-much about it. I'll just jump off that bridge when I get to it.

Learn more about the book and author at Linda Grimes's website.

Writers Read: Linda Grimes.

--Marshal Zeringue