Melissa Payne's "The Night of Many Endings"

Melissa Payne is the bestselling, award-winning author of The Secrets of Lost Stones and Memories in the Drift. For as long as she can remember, Payne has been telling stories in one form or another—from high school newspaper articles to a graduate thesis to blogging about marriage and motherhood. But she first learned the real importance of storytelling when she worked for a residential and day treatment center for abused and neglected children. There she wrote speeches and letters to raise funds for the children. The truth in those stories was piercing and painful and written to invoke a call to action in the reader: to give, to help, to make a difference. Payne’s love of writing and sharing stories in all forms has endured. She lives in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains with her husband and three children, a friendly mutt, a very loud cat, and the occasional bear.

Here Payne dreamcasts an adaptation of her new novel, The Night of Many Endings:

The Night of Many Endings is told from the perspectives of three characters. There’s Nora, the librarian, who is consumed by her brother’s addiction. Her life revolves around his ups and downs, his successes and failures. Marlene, an elderly woman who makes assumptions about people she doesn’t know and uses her sharp words to push people away. And Lewis, a man experiencing homelessness and addiction, who believes that everyone he loves is better off without him. I loved the challenge of writing all three of these characters, even if at times I struggled to relate to a decision they made or how they treated one another. But it reminded me of what their journeys were all about. We can’t truly understand another person until we learn their story first. The storm, the dark, and being stranded forces each of them to listen and learn from each other. But when the storm ends, will their lives have changed?

Sometimes when I write, I automatically have a picture in my head of who would play a character. After all, while I’m writing, my characters are as real to me as my family and friends. This book was no different and it was fun to pair a famous face with the characters. So here goes. For Nora, I’d cast America Ferrera. I adored her in Ugly Betty and think she would bring the right balance of fierce devotion, internal grief, and loving care for others. For Marlene, I think Jean Smart would be perfect. She’s got just the right sardonic wit and underlying kindness that makes Marlene both unlikeable and loveable. Finally, I’d cast Jeff Bridges as Lewis because he has the perfect grit and the kind of gruff exterior that I envisioned when I wrote him.

Visit Melissa Payne's website.

Coffee with a Canine: Melissa Payne & Max.

Q&A with Melissa Payne.

The Page 69 Test: The Night of Many Endings.

--Marshal Zeringue