Eliza Nellums's "The Bone Cay"

Raised in the Detroit suburbs, Eliza Nellums now lives with her cat in Washington DC.

Her debut novel is All That's Bright and Gone.

Here Nellums dreamcasts an adaptation of her new novel, The Bone Cay:

It's funny, I don't always imagine my characters as actors but for some reason I did have a lot of thoughts about the cast of The Bone Cay. There actually was a movie set in a hurricane a few years back, Crawl, that I actually watched as I was working on revisions to make sure I didn't re-use any important plot points. Crawl is about killer alligators so we managed to avoid much duplication, as it turns out.

There are four main characters in my book: Magda Trudell is our main character, who chooses not to evacuate from a deadly hurricane. She's the 40-year-old caretaker of a historic estate in Key West. For Magda I picture someone like Andie MacDowell or Sela Ward, although they are both older than Magda (on film I assume a middle aged woman would have to be played by someone 50-60 to get the effect!); I think they could both display a resolute character with a lot of passion. The next character is Magda's ex-fiance Bryce Delgado, a Keys native who tries to discourage her from staying. For Bryce, I'd pick Daniel Gonzalo Pino, who I first saw on Cold Case - he frequently plays a detective on cop shows, but maybe he'd like a more romantic part? I don't know, let's ask him. Finally, Hank McGrath and his daughter Emily, both show up later in the storm and become important characters in the second half. For Hank maybe I'd pick Leonardo DiCaprio the way he looks today - not shining young Leo, but older Leo who has seen a few things. Hank is a handyman and charter boat operator and often clashes with Magda on the best way to proceed in the storm. For Emily, who is 15-16, I'd pick Kathryn Love Newton, who I first saw in Supernatural and then in the horror film Freaky. She's great with nuance and it's an important character to get right. C'mon Hollywood, call me babe - I've got lots of ideas!

Visit Eliza Nellums's website.

The Page 69 Test: The Bone Cay.

Q&A with Eliza Nellums.

--Marshal Zeringue