Paula Munier's "A Borrowing of Bones"

Paula Munier is the author of the bestselling Plot Perfect, The Writer’s Guide to Beginnings, Writing with Quiet Hands, and Fixing Freddie: A True Story of a Boy, a Mom, and a Very, Very Bad Beagle. She was inspired to write A Borrowing of Bones by the hero working dogs she met through Mission K9 Rescue, her own Newfoundland retriever mix rescue Bear, and a lifelong passion for crime fiction.

Here Munier dreamcasts an adaptation of A Borrowing of Bones:

Someone once said that it takes six real people to create one well-rounded character. Mine are true composites in that way. But when I think of casting them in the movies, I can usually come up with an actress or an actor I think could inhabit my characters with grace and dignity and power.

Mercy Carr, the heroine of my Mercy and Elvis series, is a former Army MP who was wounded in Afghanistan. She’s attractive, but she's also tough physically, mentally, and emotionally. I think an actor like Jessica Chastain or Mireille Enos could play Mercy, as they are both beautiful redheads who manage to play tough characters credibly. They play strong women well, and that's what Mercy is: a strong woman.

Vermont game warden Troy Warner is character who's good looking in that sort of boy-next-door way. He has an open face and a guarded soul. Someone like Scott Eastwood, son of Clint Eastwood, and a good actor in his own right, could play Troy. Captain Thrasher, Troy 's superior officer, is a former Marine and the handsomest man in Vermont (which he considers a sort of curse). I think of him as a cross between Jesse Williams and Idris Elba: a tough guy with a good heart.

As for the dogs: Elvis, the bomb-sniffing Belgian shepherd, was inspired by the military working dogs I met through Mission K9 Rescue. He’s a fierce and worthy companion for Mercy. Susie Bear, the search-and-rescue dog who accompanies Troy Warner on his patrols in the Vermont wilderness, was inspired by our own rescue dog, a Newfoundland-Retriever mix named Bear. He is the happiest dog in the world, and accordingly, Susie Bear is cheerful and hard-working. I don’t know any actor dogs, but they’d have to be as swell as the dogs who inspired my hero dog characters.

Visit Paula Munier's website.

--Marshal Zeringue