Linda Keir's "The Three Mrs. Wrights"

Linda Keir is the pen name for the writing team of Linda Joffe Hull and Keir Graff.

Here the authors of Drowning with Others and The Swing of Things dreamcast an adaptation of their new novel, The Three Mrs. Wrights:

As coauthors writing under the pen name Linda Keir, our entire process—from idea generation to outlining to drafting—is collaborative. When it comes to characters, we divide and conquer, with each one of us tackling different points of view. Whoever is writing a character decides what he or she looks like and then describes them well enough that we can both visualize age, appearance, and identifying characteristics. So far, we’ve operated on the perhaps mistaken belief that our conversations and descriptive abilities leave us picturing our characters in exactly the same way.

With a few notable exceptions (such as Andi Bloom in Drowning with Others, for whom we jointly chose a photo of a representative brunette) we’ve rarely discussed celebrity counterparts for our characters. Because of this, we thought it would be fun to compare our dream casts for our latest novel, The Three Mrs. Wrights, which is the story of three smart, successful women who discover they’ve been taken in by the very same successful entrepreneur and serial womanizer.

Lark Robinson

Biracial Lark is beautiful, bright, and unconventional. In her mid-twenties and every bit the Millennial, she’s determined to succeed with the board game she has designed for budding girl scientists.

Linda: Definitely Zoe Kravitz or Gugu Mbatha-Raw. They are both exceptionally striking and sexy in the same way I picture Lark to be.

Keir: I never had anybody in mind, but I have to say that Vanessa Hudgens comes closest to the person I imagined.

Jessica Meyers

Jessica is a newly minted pediatric oncologist in her early thirties. She is slim and attractive with long brown hair. She defines herself much more by her intelligence than looks.

Linda: From the very start, I pictured her as looking like Emmy Rossum, known for her roles in the TV show Shameless and the film version of Phantom of the Opera.

Keir: I’m picturing Alison Brie, who I think could perfectly portray the necessary blend of wholesome, down-to-earth, spunky, smart, and just a little bit offbeat.

Holly Wright

In her mid-forties, Holly is patrician, blond, classically attractive, and the mother of three children from grade school through high school. She is a pediatrician by profession with a passion for horses and philanthropy.

Linda: I picture Naomi Watts or Michelle Williams.

Keir: Ding! Ding! Ding! We have a winner—I think Michelle Williams in the present stage of her career would be absolutely perfect!

Jonathan Wright AKA Jack Wright AKA Trip Mitchell

Jonathan Mitchell Wright, MD, physician turned wildly successful med-tech millionaire, is handsome, sexy, and eminently charming. Healthy and fit, with a full head of graying dark hair, he, like his (first) wife, Holly, is in his mid-forties.

Linda: George Clooney is an obvious choice, but I could see Chris Evans or even Patrick Dempsey as Jon.

Keir: Hollywood has any number of handsome, silvering foxes who could play our smooth-talking, sociopathic bad guy, but I’m feeling Ryan Reynolds for this one. That face—charming but potentially hiding secrets . . .

The Verdict

Even though we may have visualized our characters differently, both of us would be more than happy with any of them. We’ll just bookmark this page until the inevitable feature-film sale of The Three Mrs. Wrights. (Well ... fingers crossed!)

Visit the websites of Linda Joffe Hull and Keir Graff.

--Marshal Zeringue