Nancy Thayer's "Summer Light on Nantucket"

Nancy Thayer is the author of 35 novels, including Summer Love, Family Reunion, A Nantucket Christmas, and The Hot Flash Club. Her books are about families, friendship, and the beautiful island of Nantucket where she’s lived for 39 years with her husband Charley Walters and their spoiled cat Callie. Sometimes they invite their thousands of grandchildren to visit. She loves libraries, bookstores, and zoom parties.

Thayer's novels have appeared on the New York Times best-seller lists, in Redbook, Good Housekeeping, and Cosmo UK, and are translated into many languages.

Her novel Let It Snow was made into a Hallmark Christmas movie entitled Nantucket Noel in 2021.

A Fellow at the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference in 1983, she was awarded the RT 2015 Career Achievement Award for Mainstream Fiction.

Here Thayer dreamcasts an adaptation of her new novel, Summer Light on Nantucket:

Blythe Benedict, 45, is on Nantucket with her four children, her ex-mother-in-law, her ex-husband, his new girlfriend, and two new really attractive boyfriends.

Kate Hudson would be perfect to play Blythe. She’s the same age, immediately likeable, and she loves to have fun.

Colin Farrell would be her Irish boyfriend, and James Norton would be her American boyfriend even though he isn’t American or even forty yet, because, well, look at the man.

Visit Nancy Thayer's website.

The Page 69 Test: Summer House.

The Page 69 Test: Beachcombers.

My Book, The Movie: Beachcombers.

Writers Read: Nancy Thayer (May 2015).

My Book, The Movie: The Guest Cottage.

The Page 69 Test: The Guest Cottage.

The Page 69 Test: Summer Love.

Writers Read: Nancy Thayer.

--Marshal Zeringue

Alice Henderson's "The Vanishing Kind"

In addition to being a writer, Alice Henderson is a dedicated wildlife researcher, geographic information systems specialist, and bioacoustician. She documents wildlife on specialized recording equipment, checks remote cameras, creates maps, and undertakes wildlife surveys to determine what species are present on preserves, while ensuring there are no signs of poaching. She’s surveyed for the presence of grizzlies, wolves, wolverines, jaguars, endangered bats, and more.

Here Henderson dreamcasts an adaptation of her latest Alex Carter mystery thriller, The Vanishing Kind:

In The Vanishing Kind, wildlife biologist Alex Carter encounters rugged New Mexico terrain, threatening intruders, and mysteries surrounding an archaeological dig, all in search of elusive jaguars.

In addition to being about the importance of wildlife and habitat conservation, my books are suspenseful action thrillers. Chase scenes, blizzards, sandstorms, literal cliffhangers, and dangerous confrontations fill the pages. So I'd want an action director to tackle The Vanishing Kind, like Justin Lin, who directed some great entries into the Fast & Furious series, or Chad Stahelski, who directs the John Wick films, or the Russo Brothers, who directed some of the really action-packed, suspenseful Marvel movies.

As for actors, my wildlife biologist lead character is a smart adventurer. She knows the martial art Jeet Kune Do and how to survive in the wild. Scarlett Johansson would be perfect. She's phenomenal in action roles and can also take on moving, emotional scenes.

My recurring character Casey MacCrae is a daring, Scottish helicopter pilot who has taken on dangerous criminals in the past in his mission to set wrong to right. He's a bit haunted, mysterious, and unpredictable. Gerard Butler or James McAvoy would be great choices to play Casey because both actors are fantastic in action scenes and both are capable of expressing great depth and emotion on screen.

One main character in the novel is Dr. Enrique Espinoza, a kind, jovial, light-hearted archaeologist who is threatened by hostile vigilantes. He and his team are excavating the gravesite of a 16th century conquistador. Michael Peña would be an excellent choice for Espinoza because Peña is terrific with roles involving humor and action, as he was in Ant-Man.

The main baddie in The Vanishing Kind is the head of the group of anti-immigrant vigilantes who terrorize a town in New Mexico, harass the nearby archaeology team, and threaten Alex Carter's work conserving jaguars. A federally-listed, critically endangered species, jaguars struggle to cross obstructions along the U.S./Mexico border. Jaguars need to be able to disperse in order to find mates, sources of food, and new habitat. But the vigilantes want a single, impenetrable wall across the entire border. Walton Goggins would be a great choice for this role. He's fabulous with dangerous, unpredictable, and extreme roles full of vitriol, as we see with his roles like in Justified.

Visit Alice Henderson's website.

The Page 69 Test: The Vanishing Kind.

--Marshal Zeringue

Charles B. Fancher's "Red Clay"

Charles B. Fancher is a writer and editor, and a former senior corporate communications executive for The Philadelphia Inquirer, Philadelphia Daily News, and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. He also worked as a journalist for The Philadelphia Inquirer, the Detroit Free Press, and WSM-TV, as well as a publicist for the ABC Television Network. Fancher was previously a member of the School of Communications faculty at Howard University and the adjunct faculty at Temple University. He lives in Pennsylvania's Pocono Mountains.

Here Fancher dreamcasts an adaptation of his new novel, Red Clay:

Red Clay is a multigenerational family saga told through the shared memories of Adelaide “Addie” Parker, an elderly white woman when readers meet her, and Eileen Parker, a Black college student still in her teens. Although they share a surname and roots in the same southern Alabama town, the two women have never met until a cold winter day in 1943, when Addie shows up after the funeral of Felix H. Parker, Eileen’s grandfather, and announces: “A lifetime ago, my family owned yours.”

It is the beginning of a conversation in which the story of Felix, an enslaved boy on the plantation owned by Addie’s family when the Civil War ends, unfolds against the backdrop of Reconstruction and eventually the arrival of the Jim Crow era. Neither Addie nor Eileen knows the full story—one of many twists and turns and secrets within secrets—but together they weave a rich tapestry of societal change and racial animus that continues to reverberate through contemporary American life.

Through it all, Felix, an unwitting eight-year-old pawn in a scheme by the plantation owner to save face and fortune—perseveres to achieve success for himself and for his family. By the time he dies, in his late eighties in 1943, Felix has faced hard times and good times and has emerged as a man of substance, tempered by all he has experienced.

Red Clay has many distinctive characters, but the principal ones (with the dream castings in parentheses) are:

--Felix Parker, an enslaved boy who matures into a respected carpenter and Black community leader after Emancipation (as an adult, Michael B. Jordan)

--Plessant Parker, Felix’s father and valet to the Road’s End plantation owner (Idris Elba)

--Elmira Parker, Felix’s mother and big-house cook (Viola Davis)

--Zilpha Parker, Felix’s wife (as a young woman, Zendaya; as an older woman, Halle Berry)

--John Robert Parker, owner of Road’s End plantation (George Clooney)

--Marie Louise Parker, wife of John Robert (Emma Stone)

--Addie Parker, youngest child of John Robert and Marie Louise (as a young woman, Florence Pugh; as an old woman, Sissy Spacek or Linda Purl)

--Claude Parker, middle child of John Robert and Marie Louise (as a young man, Paul Mescal; as a mature man, Brad Pitt or Chris Pine)

--Jean Louis Parker, eldest child of John Robert and Marie Louise (Timothée Chalamet)

--Jimmy Flowers, Felix’s best friend (as an adult, David Oyelowo)

The Felix Parker, Jimmy Flowers, and Addie Parker characters have significant roles as children, but rather than suggest specific individuals, I would hope that a casting director would see all three as requiring actors who appear youthful, but whose skills would enable them to convey a loss of innocence at young ages.

Visit Charles B. Fancher's website.

The Page 69 Test: Red Clay.

Q&A with Charles B. Fancher.

--Marshal Zeringue

Robert Inman's "Villages"

Novelist, screenwriter and playwright Robert Inman is a native of Elba, Alabama where he began his writing career in junior high school with his hometown weekly newspaper. He left a 31-year career in television journalism in 1996 to devote full time to creative writing.

Here Inman dreamcasts the leads for an adaptation of his new novel, Villages:

Would my new novel Villages make a good movie? You bet. I’ve worked for years as a screenwriter, and I believe this story has all the ingredients for film – authentic characters, a compelling plotline, conflict, love, courage and hope. Am I being immodest? Why not.

Now, who to play the lead – a young war veteran, wounded in body in spirit, trying to come to grips with the traumatic experience that has turned his life upside down. My vote is for Timothée Chalamet. I’ve been following his career since the beginning, and I admire his innate ability to inhabit complex characters and bring them relatably to life. I point especially to his role in Beautiful Boy as a youth struggling with addiction, and his most recent turn as Bob Dylan in A Complete Unknown. He’s the real deal.

The other key character in Villages is a small-town doctor who has been my veteran’s friend and mentor for all of his young life. Here, I give the nod to Bill Pullman. Bill was in my first movie, a Hallmark Hall of Fame adaptation of my novel Home Fires Burning. He was just getting started, but he already had all the great acting chops. At the beginning of the filming in Georgia, the cast and director and I sat down for a table reading of my script. There was a wrenching scene involving Bill’s character, and he read the part with such incredible depth of emotion that he had all the rest of us teary-eyed. I’d love to see him portray my doctor the same way.

I love movies. I love writing for movies, especially adapting my own work. It’s telling the story but using the special language and perception of film. I could do Villages in a heartbeat.

Visit Robert Inman's website.

The Page 69 Test: Villages.

--Marshal Zeringue

Lincoln Mitchell's "Three Years Our Mayor"

Lincoln Mitchell is an instructor in the School of International and Public Affairs and the political science department at Columbia University. He has written numerous books, scholarly articles, and opinion columns on American politics, foreign policy, the history and politics of San Francisco, and baseball. In addition to his academic interests, Mitchell has worked in domestic political campaigns and on foreign policy projects in dozens of countries, particularly in the former Soviet Union. Mitchell earned his BA from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and his PhD from Columbia University. He lives in New York and San Francisco.

Mitchell's new book is Three Years Our Mayor: George Moscone and the Making of Modern San Francisco.

Here the author dreamcasts the lead for an adaptation of Three Years Our Mayor:

I do not have a deep knowledge of film or of actors, so rather than try to cast my whole book, Three Years Our Mayor: George Moscone and the Making of Modern San Francisco, I will focus simply on who would play the lead role, that of George Moscone. When thinking about who might play Moscone in a film version of my biography of him two things come to mind.

First, Moscone has been played on film before. In the 2008 biopic of Harvey Milk titled simply Milk, Moscone was paid played by Victor Garber. Garber is a fine actor, but in that film Moscone was peripheral to the story, so could be played by a character actor. Howeer, for a movie about Moscone, Garber is not the right guy.

Second, the question of who might play George Moscone is fun to answer because he could, and should, be played by a real movie star. Moscone had a career, and life, that calls for star treatment. He was a young man from modest background who was became All-City basketball player in high school and went on to a successful career in politics, was a bit of womanizer and, according to many who knew him, had movie star looks and charisma. Additionally, his life ended in horrific but nonetheless cinematic circumstances.

Moscone died when I was a child and although I remember the day he died and how upset many, but not everybody, I knew was, I never met the man, so it is tough for me to have a real sense of what movie star should portray him on film. However, it happened that while I was mulling over this question, I had the opportunity to have breakfast with a friend who is a bit older than me and knew Moscone quite well, having worked with him for many years. We talked about it and he agreed that a real movie star should play Moscone.

Based on our conversation and my own limited knowledge of film, for the movie of George Moscone's life, I would cast Brad Pitt in the leading role. Pitt is a good-looking leading man type and can pull off the kind of grace, athleticism, charisma and complexity that Moscone had. I had briefly entertained the idea of Jason Segal as well. The role would be a more serious than many of Segal’s role, but I think he has the versatility to play Moscone. He is also a handsome guy with a friendly and casual air about him that would help. Additionally, Segal is Jewish, and there is a long tradition of Jews and Italian Americans portraying each other in film.

On balance, either Pitt or Segal would be fine, but filling out the rest of the cast is beyond my ken.

Visit Lincoln Mitchell's website.

The Page 99 Test: San Francisco Year Zero.

The Page 99 Test: The Giants and Their City.

The Page 99 Test: Three Years Our Mayor.

Writers Read: Lincoln A. Mitchell.

--Marshal Zeringue

Leslie Karst’s "Waters of Destruction"

Originally from Southern California, Leslie Karst moved north to attend UC Santa Cruz (home of the Fighting Banana Slugs), and after graduation, parlayed her degree in English literature into employment waiting tables and singing in a new wave rock and roll band. Exciting though this life was, she eventually decided she was ready for a “real” job, and ended up at Stanford Law School.

For the next twenty years Karst worked as the research and appellate attorney for Santa Cruz’s largest civil law firm. During this time, she discovered a passion for food and cooking, and so once more returned to school—this time to earn a degree in Culinary Arts.

Now retired from the law, Karst spends her time cooking, singing alto in the local community chorus, gardening, cycling, and of course writing. She and her wife and their Jack Russell mix, Ziggy, split their time between Santa Cruz and Hilo, Hawai'i.

Here Karst dreamcasts an adaptation of her new novel, Waters of Destruction:

Valerie Corbin and her wife Kristen are a longtime couple in their early sixties who’ve recently retired to the Big Island of Hawai‘i from Los Angeles, where Valerie worked as a caterer for the film and TV industry and Kristen as a union carpenter.

Val and Kristen bicker some—as old married couples will do—but they have a loving and comfortable relationship. Until, that is, Valerie becomes obsessed with solving the murder of the bartender she’s recently replaced at the Speckled Gecko in Hilo, whose body has just been pulled from the treacherous Wailuku River (which translates as “waters of destruction”). Although Kristen is initially supportive of her wife’s efforts, she soon tires of her singular focus—and eventually begins to worry for Valerie’s safety as she digs deeper into the case.

My pick for who would play Valerie were Waters of Destruction to be made into a movie would be Annette Bening. In particular, the Annette Bening as she appeared in the marvelous film The American President (also starring her husband, Warren Beatty). She’s feisty and has a wry sense of humor, but also shows a vulnerability that’s necessary for Valerie’s character. Although at 5’ 7” Bening is a bit too tall for the shorter Valerie, her looks otherwise match those of my character, who has dark, now- graying hair and an olive complexion she’s inherited from her grandparents in Marseilles, France.

As for Kristen, I’d be thrilled to see Jody Foster in the role. Her tough demeanor and snarky sense of humor would fit Val’s wife to a T, and I could totally see her as the know-it-all (but generous and supportive) Kristen. Yes, Jody’s far too short to play the tall and lanky Kristen—too bad Jody and Annette’s heights aren’t reversed!—but hey, that could no doubt be fixed with CGI. Look what they did with the hobbits in The Lord of the Rings.

Oh, and speaking of generous-and-loving-meets-snarky-sense-of-humor, how fun would it to be to score Nancy Meyers as director and Aaron Sorkin as screenwriter for Waters of Destruction?

I can dream, right?

Visit Leslie Karst’s website.

Coffee with a Canine: Leslie Karst & Ziggy.

My Book, The Movie: The Fragrance of Death.

Q&A with Leslie Karst.

The Page 69 Test: Waters of Destruction.

--Marshal Zeringue

Bryan Gruley's "Bitterfrost"

Bryan Gruley is the Edgar-nominated author of six novels – Purgatory Bay, Bleak Harbor, the Starvation Lake Trilogy, and his most recent, Bitterfrost - and one award-winning work of nonfiction. A lifelong journalist, he shared in The Wall Street Journal's Pulitzer Prize for coverage of the September 11 terrorist attacks. He lives in northern lower Michigan with his wife, Pamela, where he can be found playing hockey, singing in his band, or spending time with his children and grandchildren.

Here Gruley dreamcasts an adaptation of Bitterfrost:

Wouldn’t it be great if Bitterfrost were made into a movie? I’d be famous and rich and everyone would want to buy my books. Alas, I might also be dead because of how long it typically takes to get a book made into a movie.

But, please, bring it on!

Bitterfrost tells the tale of Jimmy Baker, a former minor-league hockey player who quit the game on the spot after he almost killed an opponent during a fight. Thirteen years later, he is the Zamboni driver for an elite amateur hockey team in the little northern Michigan town of Bitterfrost—and the prime suspect in a brutal double murder.

I don’t imagine actors as my fictional characters when I’m writing. But when someone asks who I might have play so-and-so, ideas jump to mind. I actually think Bitterfrost would work as well if not better as an episodic television series along the lines of The Night Of, Fargo, Slow Horses, or Mare of Easttown. I love those shows, which have influenced my writing, particularly my efforts to make every written scene as cinematic as possible. So, for Bitterfrost …

The actors:

Timothy Olyphant as Jimmy Baker. My wife, Pam, and I both fell in love with Olyphant’s portrayal of Raylan Givens in the TV series Justified. He can play tough and he can play vulnerable, exactly what’s needed for Jimmy’s flawed but likeable character. (Pam wondered if maybe Olyphant is “too pretty” to play Jimmy Baker; I told her viewers like pretty.)

Aimee Ffion-Edwards as Jimmy’s defense attorney, Devyn Payne. I’ve admired Ffion-Edwards’s work as Shirley Dander in Slow Horses. But mainly, I think she looks as I imagine Devyn to look. Her character also is tough with an acerbic sense of humor, like Devyn as well.

Jeff Daniels as Garth Klimmek, the detective who investigates Jimmy’s case. I’ve always liked watching Daniels, especially in Purple Rose of Cairo, The Newsroom, and A Man in Full. He, too, looks like what I imagine Klimmek to look like, and his versatility is beyond question. He’s also a Michigan native and resident, and would probably understand Klimmek, the classic Upper Midwestern guy who wants to follow the rules but may find that he cannot. Daniels also directed a Michigan-based movie, Escanaba in Da Moonlight.

Director/Showrunner:

Simone Stock, a Canadian director/screenwriter, read Bitterfrost and loved it. She has directed award- winning films and could make my novel into a fine TV series or movie. It might have to be set in Canada, but that’s going to be our 51 st  state anyway, so perfect.

Noah Hawley, showrunner of the Fargo TV series, would be great. Fargo encapsulated the cold, bleak feel of the town of Bitterfrost, and I admire Hawley’s appreciation of complex characters.

Brad Ingelsby, showrunner of Mare of Easttown. I just plain loved this series for its grit and layered characters. It seems like Inglesby would appreciate the town and the inhabitants of Bitterfrost.

Where do I sign?

Learn more about the book and author at Bryan Gruley's website.

The Page 69 Test: Starvation Lake.

The Page 69 Test: The Hanging Tree.

The Page 69 Test: Bleak Harbor.

The Page 69 Test: Purgatory Bay.

The Page 69 Test: Bitterfrost.

Q&A with Bryan Gruley.

--Marshal Zeringue

Douglas Corleone's "Falls to Pieces"

Douglas Corleone is the international bestselling author of Gone Cold, Payoff, and Robert Ludlum’s The Janson Equation, as well as the acclaimed Kevin Corvelli novels, the Simon Fisk international thrillers, and the stand-alone courtroom drama The Rough Cut. Corleone’s debut novel, One Man’s Paradise, won the 2009 Minotaur Books/Mystery Writers of America First Crime Novel Award and was a finalist for the 2011 Shamus Award for Best First Novel. A former New York City criminal defense attorney, Corleone now resides in Honolulu, where he is currently at work on his next novel.

Here Corleone dreamcasts an adaptation of his new novel, Falls to Pieces:

It’s hard to believe it’s been a decade since I wrote my last piece for “My Book, the Movie.” Of all the prompts on all the sites I’ve written for, this is my favorite. Why? Because we authors only write novels in the hopes that they’ll be adapted into screenplays, cast with megastars, and made into award-winning films. I’m kidding, of course. But the allure of Hollywood is undeniable. My storytelling skills come chiefly from movies and, let’s face it, not all of our friends read. (Even when we dedicate the book to them!)

Getting down to casting Falls to Pieces: For my main characters, Kati and Zoe, I needed a mother-daughter team, yet my mind went straight to sisters Vera and Taissa Farmiga (ca. 2014 in keeping with the character’s ages).

Kati’s lawyer Noah Walker was always Owen Wilson. But Matthew McConaughey is also acceptable!

My favorite character in the book is Mac, who’d be played by Jonathan Banks, famous for his role as Mike Ehrmantraut in Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul.

Graham, meanwhile, needs to be played by Woody Harrelson.

Learn more about the book and author at Douglas Corleone's website.

The Page 69 Test: Good as Gone.

My Book, The Movie: Payoff.

The Page 69 Test: Gone Cold.

My Book, The Movie: Gone Cold.

Writers Read: Douglas Corleone (August 2015).

The Page 69 Test: Falls to Pieces.

Writers Read: Douglas Corleone.

--Marshal Zeringue