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 important part of the process for me because I am a visual learner, and until I can fully see my characters, I can not write them. Even if I’m not successful at first, at least this step allows me to spend several days viewing headshots and film clips of beautiful or interesting people as part of my work, which I find inspiring.

My novel, Hemingway’s Girl, takes place in Key West in 1935, where a half-Cuban young woman goes to work for Ernest Hemingway in order to support her widowed mother and sisters, and to save money for a charter fishing boat business. Soon after she becomes Hemingway’s housekeeper, she finds herself caught between her infatuation with the writer and a WWI veteran and boxer building the Overseas Highway.

Since day one, George Clooney has been my Hemingway. He has a combination of virility, humor, and intensity that would lend him well to the role. He also has an uncanny resemblance to Hemingway when he has a mustache.

My protagonist, Mariella, would be played well by either Camilla Belle or Selena Gomez. Both young women are just stepping into adulthood from more childish rolls in television or film, and would successfully play a feisty girl forced to grow up too fast.

Ryan Gosling would make a perfect Gavin Murray: a thirty-three year old boxer and WWI veteran. Gosling has the youthful face with the intense, haunted eyes that would present just the right blend of dependability, courage, and appeal necessary to compete with Hemingway for Mariella’s attention.

I’m confident that these power players could carry any cast to the Academy Awards. I hope to see you at the movies!

Learn more about the book and author at Erika Robuck's website and blog.

--Marshal Zeringue