Wednesday, October 15, 2014

Minerva Koenig's "Nine Days"

Minerva Koenig is a licensed architect running her own one-woman practice. When not architecting or writing, she likes to sew, read, play chess, do yoga, dance, wrangle cats, and fight the patriarchy. Koenig lives in Austin, Texas.

The publisher's description of her new novel, Nine Days, begins:
She's short, round, and pushing forty, but Julia Kalas is a damned good criminal. For 17 years she renovated historic California buildings as a laundry front for her husband's illegal arms business. Then the Aryan Brotherhood made her a widow, and witness protection shipped her off to the tiny town of Azula, Texas....[read on]
Here Koenig dreamcasts an adaptation of the novel:
I didn't really plan it this way, but when I've thought about actors who could play my characters, the best fits always seem to be the lesser-known and local. This pleases me no end. I'm a sucker for the undiscovered underdogs of the world, having been one myself for so long.

When I learned that I would be doing readings in front of large groups of people -- something that scares the bejesus out of me -- I considered hiring someone to read in character as Julia Kalas (my protagonist). That's how I found local Austin actor Cyndi Williams, whom I think would do really interesting things with the role.

The other day someone mentioned Camryn Manheim in a totally unrelated conversation, and I immediately knew she's who'd I'd cast as Teresa Hallstedt. She's got it all: the height, the size, the gravitas.

Hector Guerra, in my imagination, has always looked like a beefier Rob Trujillo (bass player for Metallica). I doubt Rob would consider changing careers and putting on a couple of pounds, and who knows if he can act, so for Hector I'd go with Vincent McClean. He'd have to rough up a bit for it, but I've seen him do it and know that he can.

John Maines would be played by Ed Hattaway. This is partly nepotism -- I've known Ed since I was in my 20s and love him like a brother -- but he's also a hell of an actor. He'd knock it out of the park.
Visit Minerva Koenig's website.

--Marshal Zeringue