Alyssa Palombo's "The Borgia Confessions"

Alyssa Palombo is a writer living and working in Buffalo, NY. She attended Canisius College in Buffalo, where she majored in English and creative writing with a minor in music. She is a classically trained mezzo-soprano who also dabbles in playing piano. When not writing, Palombo can usually be found reading, hanging out and laughing way too hard at nonsensical inside jokes with friends, traveling (or dreaming of her next travel destination), at a concert, or planning for next Halloween. She is a metalhead and a self-proclaimed French fry connoisseur. She also owns way too many hoodies, pairs of sunglasses, and pajamas, but never enough books.

Palombo's historical novels include The Violinist of Venice, The Most Beautiful Woman in Florence, and The Spellbook of Katrina Van Tassel.

Here the author dreamcasts an adaptation of her new novel, The Borgia Confessions:

I, for one, would love to see The Borgia Confessions on the big screen (or the small screen, should some network or streaming service want to adapt it!) and as such have thought about who I would envision playing some of the characters. There are a lot of characters in this book, so my picks for a few of the main ones are below:

Maddalena Moretti – Sophie Turner

I’m a big Game of Thrones fan, and I loved Sophie Turner’s portrayal of Sansa Stark, and the way she grew the character over the eight seasons of the show. I think for that reason that she would make a great Maddalena, and she definitely looks the part for me!

Cesare Borgia – Francois Arnaud

Okay, so this is cheating, because Francois Arnaud has already played Cesare Borgia – on Showtime’s series The Borgias. But he did such a great job with the role, in my opinion, and so when I was writing The Borgia Confessions I couldn’t picture anyone else as Cesare.

Rodrigo Borgia/Pope Alexander VI – Charles Dance

I thought Jeremy Irons did a great job with this role on Showtime’s The Borgias, and I also think that the late Philip Seymour Hoffman would have made a great Pope Alexander. Otherwise, though, I think Charles Dance would be awesome in this role – between Tywin Lannister on Game of Thrones and Lord Mountbatten on The Crown, he’s good at playing those political power players!

Lucrezia Borgia – Dakota Fanning

Dakota Fanning just looks like Lucrezia Borgia to me, and I also think she’s a great actress – I think she would do some cool things with this role!

Visit Alyssa Palombo's website.

--Marshal Zeringue