Jenny Milchman's "Ruin Falls"

Jenny Milchman's journey to publication took thirteen years, after which she hit the road for seven months with her family on what Shelf Awareness called "the world's longest book tour." Her debut novel, Cover of Snow, was chosen as an Indie Next and Target Pick, reviewed in the New York Times and San Francisco Journal of Books, won the Mary Higgins Clark award, and is nominated for a Barry. Milchman is also the founder of Take Your Child to a Bookstore Day and chair of International Thriller Writers' Debut Authors Program. Her second novel, Ruin Falls, just came out and she and her family are back on the road.

Here Milchman dreamcasts an adaptation of Ruin Falls:

Here’s the log line for Ruin Falls, the movie:

The hardest part isn’t losing everything you love. It’s getting it back.

This novel centers around Liz Daniels, a woman who at the beginning isn’t very strong. She lets herself be led by her husband…but she’s not going to have her husband around for very long. As soon as she doesn’t, she must become strong on her own. Call it a twist on girl meets boy.

Girl loses boy. Girl must find herself.

Since this movie would be basically carried by Liz, the role will require a very strong female lead. Charlize Theron, perhaps. Or maybe Jennifer Lawrence given a few years? And even though the husband won’t get a lot of screen time, he’s important enough that we need a good actor, one who will make every minute on screen count and not mind how few of them there are. Someone who's not a leading man, but is recognizable, like Hank Azaria, or a character actor who's name I don't remember...because he's a character actor.

Learn more about the book and author at Jenny Milchman's website.

My Book, The Movie: Cover of Snow.

The Page 69 Test: Cover of Snow.

Writers Read: Jenny Milchman.

The Page 69 Test: Ruin Falls.

--Marshal Zeringue