Charlie Jane Anders's "All the Birds in the Sky"

Charlie Jane Anders is the editor in chief of io9.com and the organizer of the Writers With Drinks reading series. Her stories have appeared in Asimov’s Science Fiction, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Tor.com, Lightspeed, Tin House, ZYZZYVA, and several anthologies. Her novelette “Six Months, Three Days” won a Hugo award.

Here Anders dreamcasts an adaptation of her new novel, All the Birds in the Sky:

I actually suck at figuring out who ought to play characters I thought up in my head. Part of that is because the more time I spend imagining them, the less they look like any particular actor or other real-life person. That said, I would kill to have Jennifer Lawrence play the grown-up Patricia, the witch in my novel. I think Lawrence could bring the mixture of vulnerability and whimsy -- with an edge of anger and resentment -- that keeps Patricia going.

For Laurence, the mad scientist, it would be hard to find an actor with a such a big long chin. But maybe Dylan O'Brien? I mostly want whoever plays Laurence to be able to do "overthinking and nerdy," without too much adorkableness. This is for the grown-up versions of the characters, natch. Mostly I sort of fantasize about going back in time to 1997-ish and kidnapping the young cast of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and forcing them all to play all the characters in my book. Anthony Stewart Head could play a dozen different roles.

Visit Charlie Jane Anders's website.

--Marshal Zeringue