Sunday, March 17, 2024

Rachel Lyon's "Fruit of the Dead"

Rachel Lyon is author of the novels Self-Portrait with Boy—a finalist for the Center for Fiction's 2018 First Novel Prize—and Fruit of the Dead. Lyon's short work has appeared in One Story, The Rumpus, Electric Literature’s Recommended Reading, and elsewhere. She has taught creative writing at various institutions, most recently Bennington College, and lives with her husband and two young children in Western Massachusetts.

About Fruit of the Dead, from the publisher:
Camp counselor Cory Ansel, eighteen and aimless, afraid to face her high-strung single mother in New York, is no longer sure where home is when the father of one of her campers offers an alternative. The CEO of a Fortune 500 pharmaceutical company, Rolo Picazo is middle-aged, divorced, magnetic. He is also intoxicated by Cory. When Rolo proffers a childcare job (and an NDA), Cory quiets an internal warning and allows herself to be ferried to his private island. Plied with luxury and opiates manufactured by his company, she continues to tell herself she’s in charge. Her mother, Emer, head of a teetering agricultural NGO, senses otherwise. With her daughter seemingly vanished, Emer crosses land and sea to heed a cry for help she alone is convinced she hears.
Here Lyon dreamcasts an adaptation of the novel:
There are many young actresses who could play a version of Cory really well. She is described as tall and beautiful, but she also sees herself as awkward and gawky, with a big nose. In my opinion, Maya Hawke would be ideal.

And if Maya Hawke were playing Cory—and I had all the power in the world—I'd obviously have to cast Uma Thurman in the role of Emer.

Rolo Picazo would have to be played by an imposing, sinister, yet incredibly charming middle-aged man. Sometimes I imagine Javier Bardem. Sometimes I imagine James Spader.
Visit Rachel Lyon's website.

The Page 69 Test: Self-Portrait with Boy.

My Book, The Movie: Self-Portrait with Boy.

The Page 69 Test: Fruit of the Dead.

--Marshal Zeringue

Monday, March 11, 2024

Laura McNeal's "The Swan's Nest"

Laura Rhoton McNeal holds an MA in fiction writing from Syracuse University and has worked as a freelance journalist, a crime writer, and a high school English teacher. She is the author of the novels Dark Water, a finalist for the National Book Award, The Practice House, and The Incident on the Bridge. She and her husband, Tom, are the authors of Crooked, Zipped, Crushed, and The Decoding of Lana Morris.

Here McNeal dreamcasts an adaptation of her new novel, The Swan's Nest:
My novel, The Swan’s Nest, is about an impossible thing. A 32-year-old man wrote to a 38-year-old invalid he’d never seen and said he loved her. They corresponded for five months. What happened when they met is still being written about in universities around the world and celebrated in Valentine’s Day cards. The London door through which the man’s eloquent letters were pushed was saved from demolition in 1937 and carried across the Atlantic to Wellesley College. It stands in the college library as a monument to faithful, blind love.

The romance happened in the mid-19th century, before photographs of people began to be common. Elizabeth Barrett, the poet, had a sketch of Robert Browning’s face, but Robert had no likeness of Elizabeth at all. He didn’t know her age or the nature of the illness that kept her confined in her room. And yet, when he wrote his first letter to her, he said he loved her verses with all his heart and he loved her, too. This is the kind of thing that a romantic person (or a maniac) might say, and that’s how Elizabeth treated it—as a fictional notion he must dismiss. As time went on and he persisted, she believed that a little light on her “ghastly face” would be enough to discourage him.

For me, the problem of a movie based in fact, especially historical fiction, is the dilemma of how people and places actually looked. If the heroine was plain or short or disfigured or old, and if they lived in small, dingy rooms, the truth of that ought to be visible, or you’re not telling the same story at all. The one inescapable tyranny, I think, is not race or wealth but beauty. We accept attractive people of every race and class; those we do not find beautiful never get the same treatment.

The two actresses who remind me of Elizabeth Barrett are Bel Powley and Sally Hawkins. Powley, with her enormous eyes and pale skin, looks like the idealized portraits of Elizabeth, in which sympathetic artist friends made Elizabeth's face more symmetrical and her eyes larger. Sally Hawkins has what I think of as Elizabeth’s irrepressible charm, and she resembles the Barrett-Browning photographs from later years. Characters that Sally Hawkins plays tend to overcome everything through sheer will and affection—Elizabeth Barrett had that quality, too. She was by all accounts intensely, almost supernaturally radiant.

If I could choose any director, it would be Jane Campion, who made a ravishing movie about another small poet who died of lung disease: Bright Star, which tells the story of John Keats and Fanny Brawne. I never watch Bright Star (which I watch over and over) without wishing I could go and live inside it.

I doubt that Jeremy Allen White has ever noticed, but he looks a lot like Robert Browning. And wouldn’t it be interesting to see him go from a Chicago sandwich shop to 19th century London?
Visit Laura McNeal's website.

Coffee with a Canine: Laura McNeal & Link.

My Book, The Movie: The Incident on the Bridge.

--Marshal Zeringue

Saturday, March 9, 2024

Melanie Maure's "Sisters of Belfast"

Melanie Maure holds a Master’s in Counselling Psychology and lives in central British Columbia. She is second generation Irish and spends a great deal of time in Ireland, which is an enduring source of inspiration for her work.

Here Maure dreamcasts an adaptation of Sisters of Belfast, her debut novel:
Sisters of Belfast is set mainly in Northern Ireland and partially in Newfoundland, Canada, and has four main characters—a set of twin sisters and two nuns. While there are several other characters, it is easiest to picture who would be cast as Aelish and Izzy, the twins who lose their parents during the Belfast blitz, and the two foremost nuns, Sister Mike and Sister Edel, responsible for their care in the orphanage.

The tricky part of visualizing who would be cast as the twins is being able to see an actor who could portray the girls’ vastly different personalities. Saoirse Ronan is who I had in my mind as I wrote, not only because she is an Irish actor but because she gives such range and depth to her characters. She would be able to fully embody the twins and their turmoil.

Sister Mike is a steady character, but not without her flaws. She represents the ability to have faith while questioning it again and again. She can bend without breaking and see most sides of a situation, yet she is not without blind spots. In my mind, this has always been my favourite actor Olivia Colman. She can portray a character that is easy to love despite their flaws.

Sister Edel is the epitome of dogmatic self-righteousness. She is unbending, and eventually, this rigidity of mind and heart takes hold in her body, leaving her bedridden with rheumatoid arthritis. Like all the other characters, she has a tragedy in her history that is the genesis of her callousness. Emma Thompson could capture the stoicism that hides a deep fear of losing control that lives in Sister Edel.

The one other character who was easy to picture was Leena. I cannot give away her story here, but suffice it to say she epitomizes love, eclipsing the skeptical darkness of Sister Edel. In my mind’s eye, it is clear to see Frances McDormand embodying this most pure character.
Visit Melanie Maure's website.

The Page 69 Test: Sisters of Belfast.

--Marshal Zeringue

Thursday, March 7, 2024

Claire Coughlan's "Where They Lie"

Claire Coughlan has worked as a journalist for many years, most recently for publications such as BookBrunch and the Sunday Independent. She was a recipient of the Words Ireland National Mentoring program, funded by Kildare Arts Service and the Arts Council. Coughlan has an MFA in creative writing from University College Dublin, and she lives in County Kildare with her husband and daughter.

Here Coughlan dreamcasts an adaptation of her new novel, Where They Lie:
Where They Lie, my debut novel, is set in Dublin in 1968, with some parts set in 1943. Ambitious and conflicted young reporter Nicoletta Sarto happens to answer the telephone just before Christmas to the information that human remains have been found in a seaside garden. These bones have already been confirmed as belonging to a missing actress Julia Bridges, who vanished twenty-five years earlier. Julia’s remains have been identified by an engraved wedding ring.

My novel has been described as “atmospheric” and the setting of Dublin is an important part of evoking this atmosphere. Although the 1960s was an exciting time of change across the Irish Sea in London, they weren’t quite swinging in Ireland, due to economic hardship, mass emigration and an ostensibly deeply conservative society. However, scratch beneath the surface, and people weren’t that conservative at all. Irish people have never liked being told what to do! To retain authenticity, I’d ideally cast an Irish actor in the main role of Nicoletta, the eager junior reporter who is trying to escape the confines of her old life. Saoirse Ronan would be fantastic in the lead. She is a chameleon as an actor, and I think has just the right mix of toughness and vulnerability to bring Nicoletta alive.

I would love to see Helena Bonham-Carter as the “infamous” Gloria Fitzpatrick, the backstreet abortionist of the novel. She would no doubt give a convincingly wild vitality to the part of Gloria and her idiosyncrasies.

Sarah Greene, who played Connell’s mother in Normal People, would bring a quiet precision to Nicoletta’s frustrated-by-her-lot-in-life mother, Daniela.

Aidan Turner, of the BBC’s Poldark fame, would make a dashing Barney King, Nicoletta’s colleague in the Irish Sentinel newsroom and on/off love interest.

I think Brendan Gleeson would make a wonderful O’Malley, the kindly, eccentric pathologist.

For Charles Creighton, the owner of Seaview House, where Julia Bridges’ remains are found, I’d love to go against type and cast Friends star David Schwimmer. He’s a brilliant dramatic actor, as he proved in American Crime Story and Band of Brothers; I think he would bring real depth and humanity to the part.

For the two policemen - or Gardaí as we say in Ireland - I see Matt Damon as Garda O’Connor, Nicoletta’s right-thinking, voice of reason within all this mess. Damon has spent time filming in Dublin in recent years shooting The Last Duel, so perhaps he wouldn’t be averse to a return trip! And I’d cast Scrubs star John C McGinley as Inspector Morris. He’d be perfect at playing just the right mix of cynical and misguided.
Follow Claire Coughlan on Instagram.

The Page 69 Test: Where They Lie.

Q&A with Claire Coughlan.

--Marshal Zeringue

Tuesday, March 5, 2024

Wendy Church's "Knife Skills"

Wendy Church is the author of the Jesse O’Hara and Shadows of Chicago Mysteries series. The first book in the Jesse O’Hara series, Murder on the Spanish Seas, was named one of Booklist’s Top Ten Debut Mystery/Thriller novels of 2023, and received a starred review.

Church's newest books are Murder Beyond the Pale, the second Jesse O’Hara mystery, and Knife Skills, the first Shadows of Chicago mystery.

Here Church dreamcasts an adaptation of Knife Skills:
The main protagonist in Knife Skills is Sagarine Pfister, a chef who finds herself at the beginning of the book in a restaurant walk-in freezer, looking at the body of her dead boss, head chef Louis Ferrar. Sagarine is a driven, exceedingly talented woman in her late twenties who’s underemployed because of her family. I imagine her being played in a movie by Rose Leslie, although she’d have to drop her beautiful accent as Sagarine is from Chicago. Another actress who could play her would be Jennifer Lawrence. I know I named JL as being cast as the lead in my previous book with a completely different protagonist, but she’s so skilled at changing her look. Both of these women have a little bit of an edge that I’d want to see in Sagarine.

Sagarine’s best friend and roommate, Maude, I envision being played by Kristen Stewart, as I think she could pull off the smart, nerd/goth look and personality of Maude.

Whoever directed this would need experience with suspense and humor, as well as be comfortable filming in a kitchen, and dealing with food, as that’s a central piece of the book. Maybe Christopher Storer, who directs The Bear, as this book has been compared to the show, partnered with Kathryn Bigelow who did Point Break, to bring in the suspense and action elements.
Visit Wendy Church's website.

The Page 69 Test: Murder on the Spanish Seas.

Q&A with Wendy Church.

My Book, The Movie: Murder on the Spanish Seas.

The Page 69 Test: Murder Beyond the Pale.

The Page 69 Test: Knife Skills.

--Marshal Zeringue

Saturday, March 2, 2024

Angela Crook's "Hurt Mountain"

Angela Crook is a novelist and mother, from Cleveland, Ohio, who loves writing dark thrillers that often involve the exploration of the inner workings of family relationships.

Here she dreamcasts an adaptation of her new novel, Hurt Mountain:
Young girls are disappearing, taken by a sinister figure who lives in the Colorado mountains. A divorced couple who is still dealing with their own tragic loss, rescue a brutalized child from the side of the road and decide to step in to help her find her heal and find her family, no matter the risks to themselves.

If my book was made into a movie, Nicole Ari Parker, would make an excellent lead actress for the main character Olivia.

Zendaya would make for a perfect Olivia.

Chad Michael Murray would be a great Brandon Hall.

Forest Whitaker would be an amazing choice for Farmer Hurt. He would also be a fantastic choice for director. I love what he did with Waiting to Exhale, and I think his more sinister role as Bumpy Johnson in Godfather of Harlem is a great reference for my bad guy and the darkness of the story.
Follow Angela Crook on Facebook, Instagram, and Threads.

--Marshal Zeringue

Wednesday, February 28, 2024

Tammy Greenwood's "The Still Point"

Tammy Greenwood is the acclaimed author of fifteen novels and a four-time winner of the San Diego Book Award. Six of her novels have been Indie Next Picks, including her most recent, The Still Point, an “intimate journey into the exclusive world of ballet” (Mary Kubica) inspired by her own experiences as the mother of a professional dancer. Revolving around the cutthroat hothouse of a California dance school, it is both a love letter to the world of ballet and a challenge to its toxic hierarchies, intense competition, and dark drive towards perfection that pushes girls – and their families – to their physical and emotional extremes. Greenwood and her family split their time between Vermont and San Diego, where she teaches creative writing for The Writer's Center and San Diego Writers, Ink.

Here she dreamcasts an adaptation of The Still Point:
The Still Point, of all my novels, feels the best-suited to a TV series. It follows the lives of three pre-professional ballet dancers and their ambitious mothers over the course of a Nutcracker season, when a visiting instructor, a ballet bad-boy from Paris, comes to direct the production and select one student to return to Paris with him for a scholarship to his company’s academy.

Ever: Carey Mulligan

Mulligan is a little young to play Ever, who is in her forties, but after watching her performance in Maestro, I absolutely believe she could rise to the challenge. Ever is a California native who was raised by hippie parents and now lives in an inherited run-down bungalow on the beach. She is a writer and a grieving mother whose daughter, Bea, is in desperate need of the scholarship.

Lindsay: Amy Adams

I adore Amy Adams, and I love envisioning her tackling the role of Lindsay. Besides having the requisite red hair, I feel like her bubbliness and sense of humor would bring Lindsay to life. Lindsay is a woman whose marriage is crumbling, whose dreams for her daughter are slipping away, and who is on the precipice of both the next decade of her life and major changes. But she’s aso funny and a fiercely loyal friend to Ever. Of course, if Amy Adams is tied up, I think that Melanie Lynskey would also be wonderful.

Josie: Margot Robbie

From everyone’s favorite, Barbie, to a vicious, ambitious, backstabbing stage mom! I think Robbie would delight as Josie, a woman who unapologetically uses men to get what she wants while remaining fiercely independent. Mother to Savvy, she will not stop at anything to get what she believes she and her daughter deserve.

Etienne: Paul Mescal

This is a hard one, but I love Paul Mescal and feel like he’s a brilliant enough actor to tackle the role of the mis-behaving French ballet master who toys with both the girls and their mothers. If he’s too busy, let’s try Jeremy Allen White?

Vivienne: Kristin Scott Thomas

I think Thomas would be perfect to play the matriarch of the ballet conservatory’s family - elegant with an edge.

The Dancers:

There are three main dancers in this story: Bea, Olive, and Savvy. And while there are actresses who could certainly play these girls, I love the idea of using actual dancers to play these parts. There is no shortage of gifted dancers who can also act.
Visit T. Greenwood's website.

My Book, The Movie: Rust and Stardust.

The Page 69 Test: Rust and Stardust.

The Page 69 Test: Keeping Lucy.

My Book, The Movie: Keeping Lucy.

Q&A with T. Greenwood.

The Page 69 Test: Such a Pretty Girl.

--Marshal Zeringue

Monday, February 26, 2024

Valerie Martin's "Mrs. Gulliver"

Valerie Martin is the author of twelve novels, including Trespass, Mary Reilly, Italian Fever, and Property, four collections of short fiction, and a biography of St. Francis of Assisi. She has been awarded a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts and a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship. Her novel Mary Reilly was awarded the Kafka prize, shortlisted for the Prix Femina (France), and made into a motion picture directed by Stephen Frears and starring Julia Roberts and John Malkovitch. Property won Britain's Orange Prize (now called the Women's Prize) in 2003.

Here Martin dreamcasts an adaptation of her new novel, Mrs. Gulliver:
My novel, Mrs. Gulliver takes place largely in a brothel on a tropical island. The characters are lively, and the plot is a bit wacky. It’s a reworking of Romeo and Juliet, with Juliet as a beautiful, blind prostitute. Unlike the original, it has a happy ending.

For the director of the major motion picture, I’d want someone who would be a bit playful with my novel. I’ve long been a fan of Todd Haynes (I’m gratified that everyone is crazy about him this year). My novel takes place in the 50’s, and I know he has a strong sense of this period. He would explore the irony of my heroine’s plight and pay attention to the dark undertones of the tropical island’s un-paradisical political arrangements, such as the thriving drug trade, murders, and routine exploitation of women. The world of his film would be morally complex and a little sad.

But when I imagine a film that has the goofy wit and fast paced, occasionally nonsensical plot of my novel, it’s Paul Thomas Anderson’s Inherent Vice that comes to mind. He would play Mrs. Gulliver for laughs, cool and relentless. No judgements required.

As I write this, I realize how different these two directors are, and how the films they made based on my novel would hardly resemble each other. So, I conclude, the best thing would be for each to make a film at the same time and release them as a package. Mrs. Gulliver and Mrs. Gulliver. Simultaneous screenings coming soon to a theater near you.
Visit Valerie Martin's website.

The Page 69 Test: Mrs. Gulliver.

--Marshal Zeringue

Saturday, February 24, 2024

Suzanne Berne's "The Blue Window"

Suzanne Berne is the author of the novels The Dogs of Littlefield, The Ghost at the Table, A Perfect Arrangement, and A Crime in the Neighborhood, winner of Great Britain’s Orange Prize.

Here she dreamcasts an adaptation of her latest novel, The Blue Window:
What’s most cinematic in The Blue Window is the physical setting: the contrast between a small shadowy cabin, inhabited by a reclusive, emotionally inaccessible old woman, and the wide open, shining expanse of Lake Champlain right outside her windows. So much darkness inside, all that marvelous possibility outside. How to get from one to the other? In many ways, that view tells the whole story.

Judi Dench would be my choice to play Marika, the elderly woman. She’s an actress who knows how to give an impassive stare (Queen Victoria!), and at the same time communicate turbulence behind that stare. Very closed people can seem intimidating, and Dench is wonderful at portraying “toughness,” while hinting at great loneliness.

I’d love to see Laura Linney play Marika’s daughter, Lorna, the therapist who comes to visit for a few days. Linney is remarkably good at conveying awkwardness and insecurity, but a determination to try to behave well, even when behaving well seems next to impossible. For much of the novel, Lorna tries every way she can think of to reach her implacable mother and her unhappy son, who join forces against her, and mostly she’s thwarted. It’s crushing. What kind of therapist can’t get her own mother and son to tell her what’s wrong with them? But Lorna’s frustration and growing resentment is balanced by her dogged sense of sympathy with these two difficult people, who happen to be all the family she has in the world.

As for Adam, the 19-year-old, who has decided to quit using the first person to erase himself after something he did at college, I’d want Dominic Sessa. He was terrific in The Holdovers as a character who is outrageously stricken, angry, and full of self-loathing, but who maintains a funny kind of nobility. That’s how I see Adam. He’s his own worst enemy, but he’s also very smart, and sensitive; he sees other people with surprising clarity. And in his own problematic way, he’s trying to be honorable. He disgraced himself and he wants to atone for it. Unfortunately, he winds up making everyone else atone along with him.

Those are the novel’s main characters, but there’s one more I’d love to cast: Marika’s shy, ungainly, survivalist neighbor, Dennis, who comes over to her cabin for what may be the world’s worst dinner party. Chris Cooper would be the perfect actor to portray Dennis’s painful discomfort with himself and just about everyone else, and yet also his kindness.
Visit Suzanne Berne's website.

The Page 69 Test: The Blue Window.

Q&A with Suzanne Berne.

--Marshal Zeringue

Monday, February 19, 2024

Lisa Black's "The Deepest Kill"

Lisa Black is the New York Times bestselling author of the Gardiner and Renner Novels and the Locard Institute Thrillers featuring Dr. Ellie Carr and Dr. Rachael Davies. As a forensic scientist at the Cuyahoga County Coroner's Office, she analyzed gunshot residue on hands and clothing, hairs, fibers, paint, glass, DNA, blood and many other forms of trace evidence, as well as crime scenes. Now she is a latent print examiner and certified crime analyst for the Cape Coral Police Department in Florida, working mostly with fingerprints and crime scenes. She is a member of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences, the International Association for Identification, and the International Association of Bloodstain Pattern Analysts, and has testified in court as an expert witness over 65 times. Her books have been translated into six languages and she was named finalist for the prestigious Sue Grafton Memorial Award for Perish.

Here Black dreamcasts the latest Locard Institute thriller, The Deepest Kill:
This story is, basically, the Laci Petersen murder if Laci Petersen’s dad was Bill Gates. Software pioneer Martin Post, the third richest man in America, has summoned expert forensic analysts Ellie Carr and Rachael Davies of the renowned Locard Institute. He believes his daughter's recent death was no accident. Was it a kidnapping gone wrong? Could their new defense initiative for the US military have played a part in her death? Martin believes his charmer son-in-law Greg is behind the murder, drawing Ellie and Rachael into the Posts’ increasingly dangerous family dynamic.

My casting of the main characters has not changed since the previous What Harms You.

Former pathologist Dr. Rachael Davies is thirty-eight, divorced, and raising her late sister’s toddler son. She’s given ten years of her life to build the Locard into what it is loves what it has become. My choice for her part would be Gabrielle Union—older than the role but looks too young for it, and way more beautiful than one would expect a scientist to be. But I think she’d be perfect for the intriguing and brilliant Rachael.

Ellie Carr, also a doctor (of forensics), left the FBI to follow her passion for CSI work. This is her first ‘private client’ case with the Locard and she wants to make good—plus, they’re in Naples, Florida where she lived for a while. Casting her is a tough choice…smart and beautiful, but emotionally a bit clueless, lighthearted without being fluffy. I would love Tatiana Maslany.

As for my FBI agents, Michael Tyler would ideally be filled by the man I’ve pictured every time I’ve turned him into a character for the past thirty years: Michael Ironside. We’d have to turn the clock back thirty years to make him right for the role, but I’m sure he wouldn’t mind. And as long as I’m reaching for the stars, I’d love John Leguizamo for agent Luis Alvarez. He has the right combination of strength and humor needed to balance Michael’s seriousness.

Martin Post is a bit nerdy, a bit strange, and a bit scary. Maybe Michael Imperioli, now that he’s gray. But Michael Shannon would fit the bill. He’s always a little intense and scary.

His quiet but stunning wife Dani needs a cool blond along the lines of Rosamund Pike, but Rosamund Pike would never bother with such a small role. Ditto Christina Applegate.

Greg could be played by any terribly handsome young man, but I picture someone like Ian Somerhalder, with that impish face…his smile could be cute and mischievous or callous and terrifying, and you’d never be quite sure which.

In The Deepest Kill, the over-the-top wealth of the Post family would combine with the setting on the banks of the Gulf of Mexico and make one non-stop thrill ride of tension.
Learn more about the book and author at Lisa Black's website.

My Book, The Movie: Unpunished.

My Book, The Movie: Perish.

My Book, The Movie: What Harms You.

--Marshal Zeringue