Helen Benedict's "The Soldier's House"

Helen Benedict, a British-American professor of journalism at Columbia University, is the author of nine novels, six books of nonfiction, and a play.

Here she dreamcasts an adaptation of her new novel, The Soldier's House:

I've always imagined The Soldier's House as a play or a movie, set, as it is, in a house and community in upstate New York, with flashbacks to Iraq. The three main characters in the novel are Naema, an Iraqi widow; Khalil, her husband, who appears in flashbacks before he is killed; and Jimmy, an American soldier.

Even though Riz Ahmed isn't Iraqi, or even an Arab, he would be a perfect Khalil: handsome, charismatic, deeply kind and yet determined. I would also love to see the Irish actor Paul Macal play Jimmy Donnell, if he can do a good American accent. But most important of all would be who play Naema. My choice is the Moroccan actor, Oumaima Barid, whose beauty, intelligence and intensity match those of Naema.

But there is one more principal character, too: Tariq, Naema's little one-legged son, who is full of life, curiosity and bravado. I have no idea who could play him, but all suggestions welcome.

Visit Helen Benedict's website.

My Book, The Movie: Sand Queen.

The Page 69 Test: Sand Queen.

The Page 69 Test: Wolf Season.

Q&A with Helen Benedict.

The Page 69 Test: The Good Deed.

--Marshal Zeringue

Garrett Curbow's "Whispers of Ink and Starlight"

Garrett Curbow is the author of Whispers of Ink and Starlight and the Daughter of Light trilogy, which was short-listed for the Publishers Weekly Selfies Award. He lives in Savannah, Georgia.

Here Curbow dreamcasts an adaptation of Whispers of Ink and Starlight:

We have made it to the future and Whispers of Ink and Starlight is being adapted into a film! Yay! In this fictitious reality, I, the author, get total executive control over who will direct this adaptation and which actors will star in it.

Whispers of Ink and Starlight is a coming-of-age, literary romance with a heavy dash of magical realism. It follows Nelle, a young woman written into life, and her relationship with James, a young man from a small town in Georgia, as they juggle the independence of adulthood and Nelle’s magical drawbacks.

For the director, I would hire Greta Gerwig. Coming off the tails of Barbie (2023), Little Women (2019), and the upcoming The Chronicles of Narnia adaptation, I want her directorial vision more than anyone else’s. Whispers of Ink and Starlight is a dangerous novel to adapt because it travels fluidly between genres. If someone tries to make a romantic drama out of it, or if they ignore the romance in favor of the magic system, they will lose the heart of the book.

It’s important to hire a director that has illustrated in the past that they can execute a unique, singular vision. Barbie is a perfect example of this. While tonally different from Whispers of Ink and Starlight, if any other writer or director had tried to make Barbie, they would have failed. Gerwig is skilled at balancing writing that contradicts visuals, and does so in a style that makes both elements shine together. I trust her to understand the breath and life of this book, and to translate it from page to screen.

There are three main roles that I want to discuss. The first two, James and Nelle, are arguably the most important and, therefore, the most difficult to cast.

For Nelle, I would cast Mckenna Grace. She is a talented actor who has been working since she was a child, and as a young adult now, she would be the right age to play Nelle. More than any other actors in this age group, I think she would be able to pull off Nelle’s fire, her strength, and her thirst for life.

James is harder for me to cast. Ideally, I would find a time traveling device, go back to 2004, and hire a young Milo Ventimiglia, the actor who played Jess in Gilmore Girls. He has the perfect look for James, and he would bring a layer to the character that would be exciting to see on-screen. In reality, I would love to cast an unknown actor to play James.

The third role is Wallace Quill, Nelle’s father. For this role, I would cast none other than Penn Badgley (Dan from Gossip Girl, Joe Goldberg from You). No one else could switch between Quill’s bone-chilling stare and charismatic smile in the blink of an eye like him.

Now that we have a director and our lead actors locked down, I can’t wait for the world to see my book, the movie.

Visit Garrett Curbow's website.

Q&A with Garrett Curbow.

Writers Read: Garrett Curbow.

The Page 69 Test: Whispers of Ink and Starlight.

--Marshal Zeringue

Diana Awad's "As Far as She Knew"

Diana Awad is an Arab American who grew up all over the world as the daughter of a United States Foreign Service Officer. After college, she became a local television journalist and often covered stories about violent crimes and mysterious disappearances. She eventually decided to write her own stories with unexpected endings. Awad also writes historical romance as Diana Quincy and historical mystery as D. M. Quincy. She is now happily settled in Virginia but still gets the itch to explore far-off places. When she’s not bent over her laptop, Awad reads, devours streaming thriller series, and plots her next travel adventure.

Here the author dreamcasts an adaptation of her new novel, As Far as She Knew:

I didn’t have any particular actors in mind when I wrote As Far as She Knew but would love to dreamcast my novel. Because representation absolutely matters, I’d want the majority of Arab American characters in the novel to be played by actors of Arab descent. Unfortunately, there are so few Arab Americans working in American TV and film that it would be difficult to come up with a comprehensive list, but I do have some thoughts.

A younger version of the Palestinian-American actor Waleed Zuaiter would be perfect in the role of Ali, husband of the lead character, Amira. Ali dies off page in the first scene but features prominently in flashbacks throughout the novel. Zuaiter, who I last saw in the miniseries The Girlfriend with Robin Wright, could effectively capture Ali’s quiet strength, kindness and empathy. 

For Ayla, Amira and Ali’s college-age daughter, I’d turn to Josie Totah, an actress best known to me for her role in The Buccaneers. I think Totah, who is of Palestinian and Lebanese descent, could portray the character’s outward grit and strength, as well as her inner emotional turmoil. 

Alia Shawkat, an American actress of Iraqi descent, would be perfect for the role of Lulu, Amira’s thirtysomething, straight talking, former wild child younger sister. Skawkat has embodied some of those qualities in shows like Arrested Development and Severance. 

I also have an idea of who would do a masterful job directing a movie or miniseries version of As Far as She Knew, and that is Cherien Dabis, an acclaimed Palestinian- American actress and director who excels in Arab American storytelling. Her multi- generational Palestinian family drama, All That’s Left of You, was shortlisted for an Academy Award for best international feature. Dabis has also directed episodes of Only Murders in the Building, so she knows her way around producing compelling shows with mystery elements.

Mostly though, since As Far as She Knew is published by Mindy’s Book Studio, it would be a dream if Mindy Kaling wanted to develop this project for the screen. With her writing and producing talents, my novel could not be in more capable hands.

Visit Diana Awad's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pamela Steele's "In The Fields of Fatherless Children"

Pamela Steele holds an MFA in Poetry from Spalding University. Her books include Paper Bird: Poems and Greasewood Creek. She has been awarded residencies and fellowships by the Djerassi Resident Artists Program in Woodside, California; the Hindman Settlement School Oak Ledge, in Knott County, Kentucky; the Jentel Artist Residency in Banner, Wyoming; and Fishtrap’s Gathering of Writers in Joseph, Oregon. She lives on a ranch in the high desert of Eastern Oregon.

Here Steele dreamcasts an adaptation of her new novel, In the Fields of Fatherless Children:

June, sixteen and pregnant, lives with her mother and stepfather in the Appalachian mountains in the Vietnam Era. When her baby girl is born, Isom, her stepfather steals it and June sets off on a journey to find her.

The abundance of the novel's strong female characters calls for a female director. Greta Gerwig is my choice, hands down. She's amazing, especially with her direction of Lady Bird.

In the Fields of Fatherless Children is a polyphonic novel told in third person and the first person voices of Bethel and Granny, the main character’s mother and grandmother.

June, the main character, is seventeen, resourceful and resilient, but suffering a quiet rage.

June’s physical appearance harkens to her Scots-Irish-Cherokee ancestors. Sadie Sink, of Stranger Things, is 23 but looks seventeen and I have no trouble seeing her standing up to Isom, her step-father, or searching a flooded holler or scavenging for food and tools.

Tom, June’s older brother, is protective and tender and doesn’t want to spend his life digging coal. As I wrote the novel, Tom seemed dangerously fragile at times. Alas, Eddie Redmayne, perfect for the part, is too old. Youthful Ian Belcher (26) of Lost in Space can be trusted to portray Tom’s complexities.

Bethel, June’s mother, is hard-working, highly religious and a witness to Isom’s cruelties. I’ve imagined her to be lush, with a round, youthful face. Merritt Wever (46), of Nurse Jackie, will fit the bill.

June’s step-father, Isom, suffers from black lung disease. He’s stubborn, overbearing and not above doing people dirty. Recently, I watched James McAvoy (47), a favorite since Atonement, in the 2021 film My Son and marveled at his telegraphing of emotion using only the slightest movement of an eyebrow. As an experiment, every other actor in My Son except McAvoy worked from a script. He nailed it and would do a fine job of playing mercurial Isom.

While drafting the novel, I imagined Sol, the antagonist, being played by John Hawkes (66). I fell in love with Hawkes in Winter’s Bone. As Ree’s uncle Teardrop, he conveys a sense of justice and family loyalty. He’d be right at home in my novel.

The part of Ellis calls for a boy of eighteen with dark features. My lack of awareness about new, young actors sent me to IMDB. Liam Woodrum (22) of Geek Girl, seems fitting. Like Ellis, he emits a vulnerable and brooding vibe.

June Diane Raphael (47) of The Morning Show, is a natural for the role of Beauty. She’s lovely and elegant and grounded. Sorry, Amy Adams. You had your chance and blew it on that other movie.

I’ve paired Amy Lou Wood (32), exquisite in The White Lotus, who deserves higher visibility in a screenplay, and Lewis Pullman (33), of Thunderbolts to portray Rena, June’s older sister and Walk, her husband.

Granny Carrie is the local midwife, historian and advocate for women’s reproductive health. She’s progressive and empathetic. Jane Alexander (86), known for her role in Kramer vs. Kramer, is perfect to play Carrie, who won’t stop her work until she loses her command over the natural order of things.

Lastly, we cast Granny, the loving ghost who wants desperately to help June. Granny is pragmatic and wise, a caretaker of the cultural knowledge of the Southern Appalachian mountains. For this reason, I’ve chosen Amy Madigan (76), recent Oscar winner for her role in the terrifying film Weapons. I can’t wait to hear my native dialect in her mischievous, scritchy- scratchy voice.

One last thought: like my friend Willie Edward Taylor Carver Jr., previously featured on this blog, I feel that Walton Goggins is a must-have for any film peopled by Appalachian characters. I’ve loved him since I saw him in the role of Boyd Crowder in Justified. His Boyd reminded me so much of elder men I knew in childhood, who seemed slightly dangerous, but had a good heart in them. I’ll start working on a part just for Walton right away.

Follow Pamela Steele on Facebook, Instagram, and Threads.

--Marshal Zeringue

Rebecca Morrison's "The Blue Dress"

Rebecca Morrison is a lawyer and writer. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, TODAY, NBC News, Salon, HuffPost, and Newsweek, among others. She was born in Iran, and now lives in the Washington DC area with her husband and two kids.

Here Morrison shares some ideas for the above the line talent for an adaptation of The Blue Dress, her debut novel:

I didn’t have any actors in mind when I was writing The Blue Dress, but if it were ever made into a film, I would hope they cast Iranian-American actors. The story is based on my life and follows a 13-year-old Iranian girl who comes to America. She has a deep yearning to belong, a crush on a boy, and is navigating a complicated and heartbreaking relationship with her mother, who pushes her to lose weight. There's an actress in the new reboot of Scrubs, Layla Mohammadi, who’d be wonderful as the mother in my story. The mom is a complex character that we judge harshly at first, but then empathise and maybe even root for at the end.

And this might sound a little crazy, but I’d want Jacob Tierney, the director of Heated Rivalry to do the movie. I love the way he handles the tension of a crush. When you’re thirteen, those feelings are enormous. I think he would do such a beautiful job capturing Yasmin’s experiences, some of which are so dark, painful, and full of shame. Even though that show was made for adults, so much of it is about emotional intensity. And that fits so well with the feelings of adolescence, the angst, the longing, the rivalries, the pain, the feeling that everything matters so much. He could bring Yasmin’s experience to life: her first serious conflict with her mom, first time she hurts her body with her eating disorder, first time being vilified for her ethnicity, her first crush and nemesis, all the big emotional stakes of trying to figure out who she is in a new world.

Visit Rebecca Morrison's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

Albertine Clarke's "The Body Builders"

Albertine Clarke received an MFA in fiction from the University of Florida and studied English Literature at the University of Edinburgh where she won the Lewis Edwards Memorial prize for creative writing. Raised in London, she now lives in Brooklyn, NY.

Here Clarke dreamcasts an adaptation of The Body Builders, her debut novel:

The Body Builders follows an alienated young woman, Ada, who believes her body has been replaced with an identical synthetic copy. Her relationship with Atticus, an older, married man, and the breakdown of her relationship with her mother, are the triggers which send her spiralling out of reality and into a self-directed dream-space designed especially for her.

I watch a lot of movies, and I wrote the book with cinematography always in the back of my mind. Even before I started writing I knew who I would want to direct it: Yorgos Lanthimos, with his uncanny ability to walk the line between tragedy and farce. Yorgos, if you’re reading, I’m waiting for you.

So, if Yorgos is our director, who would play Ada? Emma Stone, Yorgos’s longtime collaborator, wouldn’t be quite right. Ada is cold and detached, tormented by her feelings of unreality, the lack of connection between her and the world around her. I imagine somebody somewhat stormy and androgynous. Emma D’Arcy, who I recently saw in Alexander Zeldin’s play The Other Place, would be ideal.

In the first part of the novel, Ada spends time primarily with her cousin Francesca, and her friend and occasional love interest Patrick. Francesca is manic, performative, sexually chaotic – everything that Ada’s not. Sydney Sweeney, with her talent for playing women who are desperate to be wanted, seems like a good fit, but could she nail the British accent? Patrick is robust, attractive, grounded. He is the connection between Ada and the world around her, even if ultimately he fails to reach her. Leo Woodall has the right type of charisma, or Daniel Kalyuua.

Ada’s mother and father are the other two major characters in the first half. Arnold Schwarzneggar unquestionably is the father, who is a body builder with German heritage (making him Austrian felt too on-the-nose). I watched Pumping Iron more than once while I was writing the novel. Ada’s mother would be played by whoever Yorgos felt was best.

In the second part of the novel, things get weirder. Ada moves from the “real world” to The Facility, a supernatural environment where her thoughts and feelings manifest externally. The Facility is ruled over by Don, an extraterrestrial being wearing the face of a middle-aged man, dressed in a doctor’s white coat. Who walks the line between unsettling and strangely comforting? Tramell Tillman, or Jon Hamm.

Finally, there’s Atticus, charismatic, sensitive, slippery, attractive in a way that is not immediately obvious. He’s also the only American character, heralding from Los Angeles. There are many men who could play this role, but for me, it could only be Al Pacino in his Michael Mann-directed era of Heat or The Insider. Since those days are long past, I would settle for Bradley Cooper or Matthew McConaughey, both icons of American masculinity who both look like they occasionally dip into Russian literature.

Follow Albertine Clarke on Instagram.

Q&A with Albertine Clarke.

--Marshal Zeringue

Megan Jauregui Eccles's "Sing the Night"

Megan Jauregui Eccles lives in the foothills of San Diego and is a writer, poet, and professor at John Paul the Great Catholic University. Her gothic fantasy novel, Sing the Night, explores the ambition and grief of being an artist. When she’s not writing or rehoming rattlesnakes, she plays Dungeons and Dragons with her husband and six kids. She holds an MFA in Fiction from UCR—Palm Desert.

Here Eccles shares some thoughts on the artist who may be best suited to adapt her new novel for the big screen:

Since Sing the Night is a Phantom of the Opera inspired gothic fantasy, the obvious choice, the only choice is the great Guillermo del Toro. He is the king of atmosphere, of gothic symbolism, of nuance. I have been inspired by his use of color for metaphor and have integrated that into my own work. I also find his casting to be thoughtful and would defer to him on all of that, hoping that he would highlight lesser-known actors and actresses.

One aspect of Sing the Night that makes it interesting for adaptation is the music. I have some of the motifs for magic in my mind but would not want to stand in the way of a composer with a vision. I love adaptation that captures the spirit of the work, not necessarily relying on direct source material. I am a firm believer that for the literature, the book will always be the same and a great screenwriter and director can transport an adaptation into a new and engaging form of art.

Guillermo del Toro, call me.

Visit Megan Jauregui Eccles's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

Willie Edward Taylor Carver, Jr.'s "Tore All to Pieces"

Willie Edward Taylor Carver, Jr. is an advocate, educator, author, and Kentucky Teacher of the Year. His work is focused on advocating for LGBTQ+ rights and creating inclusive spaces for students, especially within the context of Appalachia. He is the author of Tore All to Pieces, a fragmented novel about a small town in Appalachia and the interconnectedness of our identities, as well as Gay Poems for Red States, a bestselling collection of narrative poetry about his childhood growing up queer in Appalachia.

Here Carver dreamcasts an adaptation of Tore All to Pieces:

Tore All to Pieces is a fragmented novel set in the imaginary town of Mosely, Kentucky. It has no single main character. And I’ll be damned if the first name out of my mouth for the film adaptation isn’t a sophisticated French twink: Timothée Chalamet.

My first casting thought goes to Patrick, and it’s obvious to me I’d choose that Call Me by Your Name pretty boy. Patrick is young, queer, opening up, full of vibrato and hope. He thinks he’s beautiful, despite being conditioned to believe otherwise, and finally realizes he is worth something. Chalamet shows us passion for life in Call Me by Your Name, and he most recently proved to us all in Marty Supreme that he can get into the head of a character and find human DNA in conversational dialogue. I imagine him under a railroad bridge, pulse flying as trains shake the world like thunder. I can see his swaggering, drunken 3:00 a.m. calls for affirmation, swimming nude in a lake surrounded by hills and trees.

There are a lot of older women in Tore All to Pieces because I want to center people whose stories don’t get told. One of my favorites is a lunchroom cook named Wanda. She is no-nonsense, hard-working, and longs to be needed on her terms. Hollywood rarely builds movies around women who look like Wanda—so I went in a different direction from the bespectacled owl of a woman I imagine. I choose Kathy Bates. She isn’t how I picture Wanda, but she has the strength and love for other women this role needs. She can remake Wanda in a new form—with the transformative energy she gave us in Fried Green Tomatoes and the stoic endurance of Dolores Claiborne. Bates will translate the unspoken dignity. She could show you her soul while stirring up gravy.

If we’re honest, I don’t know how many American actors could pull off an eastern Kentucky accent. Luckily, Helena Bonham Carter isn’t American. I’d love to see her play Joyce, the Sunday School teacher. It doesn’t seem obvious, because Joyce would need to be played as earnest, devout, even sanctimonious. But inside is the constant threat of unraveling, one she avoids. Helena Bonham Carter has a gift for portraying women who are composed on the surface and volcanic underneath. She brought such tension to Princess Margaret in The Crown, and such frothing madness to so many other roles. She could find the unarticulated, but ever-present tick inside Joyce—in small glances, in airy movements, in muscles tightening.

The last one would be the most fun. I’d have to get Walton Goggins to play Jamie, my hair-brushing, drug-dealing character who is a savior of sorts. Jamie is a country femme and rolls hard, and Goggins could do that with his eyes closed. I mean, Vice Principals? The Righteous Gemstones? This is his bread and butter. He knows these men and he plays them with a flamboyant dignity. On top of the fun, he’s deadly serious when he needs to be. He just has this way of making you love every character even at their worst. Jamie is, at times, at his worst. But he deserves love, too.

The only hiccup is that we’d need to see Jamie played as a teenager, too. Whether they use computers, makeup, or get a teenage actor is something I won’t sweat. I wrote the book—my work is done. I’ll leave the aging tricks to the director. I just want Goggins in the role—and whatever they decide, he’s going to make it sing. In the right accent.

Visit Willie Edward Taylor Carver, Jr.'s website.

Q&A with Willie Edward Taylor Carver, Jr.

--Marshal Zeringue

Jennifer Murphy's “The Ghost Women”

Jennifer Murphy holds an MFA in painting from the University of Denver and an MFA in creative writing from the University of Washington. She is the recipient of the 2013 Loren D. Milliman Fellowship for creative writing and was a contributor at the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference from 2008 through 2012. Her first novel, I Love You More, won the Nancy Pearl Award for fiction. Her second novel, Scarlet in Blue, was a Michigan Notable Book.

Her recently released novel, The Ghost Women, follows a series of deaths at a mysterious art academy in the woods, a deck of ancient tarot cards, and a centuries-old secret. On a hot August morning in 1972, the body of Abel Montague, a student at St. Luke’s Institute of the Arts, is found hanging from a tree in the forest. His body has been positioned into the exact pose illustrated on the Hanged Man tarot card found in his pocket. When Detective Lola Germany arrives at St. Luke’s, she believes they are dealing with a ritualistic murder. When more students are found dead, each body arranged like a tarot card, Lola realizes she is trapped in a web of power and ambition that spans centuries.

Here Murphy dreamcasts an adaptation of The Ghost Women:

I often consider directors while I’m writing a novel. For me, the director shapes a movie’s entire ambiance and tone. In contrast, I rarely dreamcast characters. I have a picture of each character in my mind before I start writing. I suppose you could say that I write a novel inside out. I know the characters, the setting and the general story itself before I create the actual plot. In this way, the characters I’ve imagined walk into a place that is fully formed and, in this story at least, feels like it has been there for centuries. So for this exercise, I specifically considered directors that could build an eerie, dark, and forested landscape, complete with rituals and magic, that includes a secret art academy located in an ancient monastery and centers on a series of student murders. And I searched for actors that fit the images of the characters I imagined in my mind.

Director

Given the current caliber of TV mini-series, I considered how The Ghost Women might be adapted into either a movie or a mini-series. If a movie, Guillermo del Toro, is the perfect fit for director. Known for his mastery of dark, atmospheric Gothic fairy tales, del Toro would excel at creating a deep, scary, emotional, and mystical world while also capturing a sense of fairy tale magic. His ability to blend beauty with decay fits the story’s ghostly ambiance. Additionally, del Toro has a personal history with tarot cards, having learned to read them from his mother as a child. He uses tarot symbolism to inform the visual design and narrative structure of his films. He also authored the forward and oversaw design of his own tarot deck called Tarot del Toro.

While I believe del Toro could also direct a fine mini-series, there are a few other directors whose artistic approaches I admire and believe could capture TGW’s world.

These include Cary Joji Fukunaga (True Detective Season 1), Karyn Kusama (Yellowjackets), and Ryan Murphy (American Horror Story: Coven)

Actors

These actors come closest to matching the look, feel, and attitude of the characters I created in my mind:

Lola Germany (Waverly Island’s lead detective, previously danced for the New York City Ballet) – Elisabeth Moss

The Weird Sisters (a group of students that engage in witchery):

Pearl Calhoun – Emma Laird

Karla Gardyn – Anya Taylor-Joy

Esme Li – Lana Condor

Hazel Donovan – Sadie Sink

Abel Montague (the first victim, but present through flashbacks) – Harris Dickinson

Colin (Lola’s sidekick) – George MacKay

Alice Landry (the art academy dean) – Ana de Armas

Monty Montague (Abel’s father and the school founder) – Cillian Murphy

Visit Jennifer Murphy's website.

Q&A with Jennifer Murphy.

--Marshal Zeringue

Lyla Lane's "The Best Little Motel in Texas"

Sonia Hartl (AKA Lyla Lane) is the author of YA, romance, and cozy mysteries. Her books have received starred reviews from BookPage and Booklist, and earned nominations for the Georgia Peach Book Award, YALSA’s Quick Picks for Reluctant Readers, Bank Street College of Education’s Best Children’s Books of the Year, ALA’s Rise: A Feminist Book Project List, and ALA’s Rainbow Booklist, and was named an Amazon Editors’ Pick for Best Young Adult. When she’s not writing she enjoys board games with her family, attempting to keep her garden alive, or looking up craft projects she’ll never get around to completing on Pinterest.

Here Hartl/Lane dreamcasts an adaptation of her new novel, The Best Little Motel in Texas:

Since I got the inspiration for The Best Little Motel in Texas from the Dolly Parton/Burt Reynolds movie The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, I would absolutely want Colin Higgins to direct if he were still alive. He was bold and unafraid of taking chances, and I think my book would be the right kind of bonkers to appeal to him.

Since my book is about a reserved 30-year-old librarian inheriting a brothel for senior sex workers and trying to solve a murder that happened at her place of business, I’d want to cast someone known for more prim and proper roles for my main character, Cordelia. Probably Emily Blunt because I think she plays that role so well.

For the chicks, the 60-year-old sex workers, I’d cast Dolly Parton (obviously) as Daisy for her sweet and bubbly personality. Jennifer Coolidge as Arline, the quiet one who knows the floor plans of buildings she absolutely shouldn’t have access to and who drops killer one-liners, because she would nail the comedic timing. And if she were still alive, I’d want Bea Arthur as my resident dominatrix, Belinda Sue, because who else could pull off that kind of a role better?

Visit Lyla Lane's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

Isabel Booth's "Then He Was Gone"

Isabel Booth is the pen name of Karen Jewell, a former trial attorney and now a writer. She holds an undergraduate degree in English, a Master’s in Business Administration, and a Juris Doctorate degree. When she’s not writing she loves to read, travel, and cook dinner for friends. She lives in Houston, Texas, with her husband.

Here Booth dreamcasts an adaptation of her new novel, Then He Was Gone:

In Then He Was Gone, six-year-old Henry English goes missing at the end of a family hike in Rocky Mountain National Park. Park ranger Hollis Monroe, a well-worn, gritty, former Montana sheriff, leads the search for Henry and teams up with a local detective to investigate the possibility that he was kidnapped. Monroe is the only character in the book for which I had an actor in mind while writing it: Robert Taylor, who played the role of Walt Longmire, sheriff of Absaroka County, Wyoming, in the series Longmire. He was brilliant in the show: an old-time lawman in the present day, good at his job, and wise in his ways. He would be my first choice for Monroe.

I would love to see Kate Winslet in the role of Elizabeth English, Henry’s mom. There were so many layers to her performance as small-town cop Mare Sheehan in Mare of Easttown. It would be wonderful to see what she would do with Elizabeth’s relentless focus on finding her son and the grief of losing him.

Alexis LaDay is Elizabeth’s best friend and Henry’s godmother – a hard-driving corporate lawyer, cigarette-smoking former beauty queen, going through life with a swagger and a deep love for the English family. Kelly Reilly would be perfect. She was masterful as Beth Dutton in Yellowstone.

Eddie Marsh is an odious ex-con, obsessed with Elizabeth English for her part in sending him to prison, and relishing her pain in the disappearance of her son. I would pick Gary Oldman for that role. As Jackson Lamb in Slow Horses, he looks like Eddie Marsh to me.

Paul English, Henry’s dad, is complicated. He’s a poet, a loving father, but a bit of a jerk. I’d like to see Sebastian Stan as Paul.

I leave it to the director to round out my dream cast with adorable, precocious boys to play Henry and his older brother Nick.

Visit Isabel Booth's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ahmad Saber's "Ramin Abbas Has MAJOR Questions"

Ahmad Saber is a young adult author who grew up on an all-girls college campus next to a massive fort in Pakistan. He now lives in Canada, and loves Broadway (favorite show = Phantom), travel (favorite place = 4-way tie between NYC, Seoul, Paris, and Melbourne), and Taylor Swift (favorite album = folklore) He's also a self-professed Chocolate Chip Cookie Connoisseur and has crowned New York's Culture Espresso’s as the best in the world.

Ramin Abbas has MAJOR Questions is his debut novel and is based in part on his own lived experience, exploring the inherent challenges of being queer and Muslim, and the struggle to reconcile faith with sexuality.

Saber is also a medical doctor specializing in rheumatology.

Here he dreamcasts an adaptation of Ramin Abbas has MAJOR Questions:

This is an incredibly fun exercise! I haven’t thought about my book as a movie before this, so I didn’t have any particular actors and actresses in mind when writing the story. Secondly, my book’s character cast is mostly male and basically all South Asian/Desi, so this exercise is a bit tougher due to the relative paucity of brown people of color in Hollywood. Add to that the challenge of casting teenagers, and you have a mammoth task ahead.

That being said, I do have a few names in mind as below.

But first, a quick synopsis of the book for context: Ramin Abbas Has MAJOR Questions tells the story of Ramin Abbas, a closeted gay senior at Hikma High, an all-Muslim school in Toronto. All he wants to do is be a devout Muslim and delay the “gay problem” until he makes it to college in New York City. But when it’s discovered that his grad portfolio is missing mandatory physical activity hours, the principal decides there’s only one solution: Ramin must join the soccer team. Except there’s a problem. Fahad, the captain of the soccer team, is way too hot and Ramin’s crush on him refuses to die. Which is just about the worst thing that could’ve happened because Ramin really does not want to enter a love triangle with Allah and a boy. Leaving Ramin with one of many major questions that may be impossible to answer: stay loyal to Allah, or take a shot at first love?

Okay, now to the dream cast!

Director: Kabir Akhtar. As the key director on Never Have I Ever, and as a person of color himself, Kabir would likely capture the heart and the humor of the story the best.

Production Studio: Without a doubt, See-Saw films (with the wisdom of Euros Lyn shared with Kabir!) I loved what they did with Season 1 of Heartstopper.

Ramin Abbas (titular protagonist): I couldn’t come up with anyone existing - I really think this one would have to be an open casting call! (And I know our Ramin would just walk in one day)

Fahad Khan (“Captain Handsome” from the soccer team): Anirudh Pisharody (“Des” in Never Have I Ever) - he captures the “dreamy Desi jock” look immaculately

Ramin’s Mom: Zarna Garg (A Nice Indian Boy) - she could bring the clueless Desi parent vibe in a humorous way

Mr. Jamal (Hikma High Principal): Raymond Ablack - I think he would capture the sarcastic side of the character very well

Layla Luscious (Muslim drag queen): The one and only, Priyanka! (Mark Suknanan)

Zayn (Ramin’s little brother): Moosa Mostafa (“Eugene” in Wednesday)

Omar Saleh (Ramin’s soccer friend): Zac Kara (Doin’ It, Grand Army)

Assim Qureshi (Le Méchant): Karan Soni (A Nice Indian Boy, Deadpool) - this one is purely out of fun because I’d love to see Karan Soni in a villainous role! I know he has the bad guy side hidden in there somewhere. Can’t be all innocence.

Visit Ahmad Saber's website.

The Page 69 Test: Ramin Abbas Has MAJOR Questions.

--Marshal Zeringue

Caitlin Rother's "Hooked"

Caitlin Rother has written or co-authored 16 books, ranging from true crime to thrillers and memoir. A New York Times-bestselling author and investigative journalist, Rother worked nearly 20 years for daily newspapers. Writing books full-time since 2006, she draws from decades of watchdog reporting on topics from addiction to suicide, mental illness, murder, government, political corruption and the criminal justice system. A popular speaker, she has appeared more than 250 times on TV, radio, and podcasts as a crime expert. After teaching writing workshops for more than 10 years, she now coaches a limited number of authors. In her spare time, she enjoys ocean swimming, and sings and plays keyboards with In the Lounge, a jazzy, bluesy trio.

Here Rother dreamcasts an adaptation of her new novel, Hooked:

I started writing Hooked almost 20 years ago, when I was younger, and so were the actors and actresses that could be cast to play my two lead characters--investigative reporter Katrina Chopin and surfing homicide detective Ken Goode.

The book opens with the two characters meeting at a bar in La Jolla, being immediately drawn to each other not just because they are both attractive, but because they start talking about trauma and tragedy they both share from their past. Goode gets called away to respond to a death scene before Katrina gets a chance to tell him she's a reporter, so when he sees her again the next morning after the news conference, he is disappointed to find out that she is a reporter covering his suspicious death case, because now it means they can't date. It also means that they will be competing professionally to solve the case from either side of a very bright line that separates reporters and their sources. So when I write my first drafts of this book, I would have cast Ryan Gosling as Ken Goode, because he's good at playing smart and sarcastic, and he's tall and athletic, and he was even cast as Ken in Barbie many years after I thought about him for this part in my movie. So apparently others saw him that way too. However, I think he's a bit too old now to play this character, who is 37, so the closest I could come is Glen Powell, for all the same reasons. Although he usually stars in rom-coms, and doesn't play brooding characters, perhaps he could stretch a little. If not, I'm open to suggestions. Bottom line, he's got to be smart and witty and sexy.

I would also suggest Natalie Portman to play Katrina Chopin, because she, too, is good at playing smart, tough, and sarcastic, because I think she's probably both of those in real life. Plus, she's very pretty. She's been cast as a reporter in several roles already, so again, Hollywood agrees with me. On a side note, I see myself in some of her characters, so I actually had suggested casting her to play me recently when we were discussing a dramatized limited series based on another one of my books, Death on Ocean Boulevard (which was optioned by Untitled Entertainment at the time), in which I would have possibly appeared as a character.

Visit Caitlin Rother's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

Marina Evans's "The Cheerleader"

Marina Evans is a former Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader who graduated from Southern Methodist University with degrees in English Literature and Creative Writing. During her time with the Cowboys, she cheered under her maiden name/nickname, Rena Morelli. She lives in Arizona now but thinks about her days in short-shorts often. Death of a Cheerleader (UK title) and The Cheerleader (U.S. title) is her debut thriller.

Here Evans dreamcasts an adaptation of the new novel:

Every author dreams of what a “movie” cast for her book would look like, so this is so much fun! First off, The Cheerleader is a campy, splashy whodunit about fame, ambition, and a gameday murder. We meet Jentry Rae Randall in the prologue—the cheer captain of the Dallas Lonestars who is brutally killed in the locker room moments after she dances on the field. She is blonde, gorgeous, spunky, and positive, and I’m picturing Michelle Randolph of Landman fame for the part.

Then, in the book we have Royce Holt, the upcoming quarterback for the Lonestars. He’s fit, charming, and driven, so I think Austin Butler would be amazing. Then there is Nikki Keegan, an ambitious documentarian who conducts her own under-the-radar investigation of the murder. However, on the side, she is also collecting footage for an unauthorized true crime series. She’s no nonsense, natural, and smart, and I believe Riley Keough would be sensational in this role. Finally, we have our second female protagonist, Shaunette Simmons. She’s a rookie Dallas Lonestars Cheerleader who was best friends with the deceased cheer captain before their horrendous falling out. Jenna Ortega or Rachel Zegler would fit the part perfectly.

As far as a director, I would love to have Greta Gerwig of Barbie fame! She is tuned into the goal of female empowerment, and she’s also an advocate for the struggles of being front-and-center in the digital age. I can always dream!

Visit Marina Evans's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

Verlin Darrow's "The Brighter the Light, the Darker the Shadow"

Verlin Darrow is a psychotherapist who lives with his psychotherapist wife in the woods near the Monterey Bay in northern California. They diagnose each other as necessary. Darrow is a former professional volleyball player (in Italy), unsuccessful country-western singer/songwriter, import store owner, and assistant guru in a small, benign spiritual organization.

Here he dreamcasts an adaptation of his new novel, The Brighter the Light, the Darker the Shadow:

Since the protagonist of The Brighter the Light, the Darker the Shadow—Kade Tobin—is the leader of a spiritual community who may or may not have a sketchy background, casting would be challenging. On the one hand, an actor would need to have enough gravitas to make it believable that seekers would follow him and respect his teachings. On the other hand, he’d need to be able to at least hint that there was more to him than just the beneficent guy he seems to be at first. In other words, the part would call for someone who could project complexity—be a bit of a mystery in and of himself. After all, this is a story of murder, and everyone’s a suspect.

I suppose a classically trained English actor well-versed in an American accent would work. Forgetting ages, I’m thinking of people like Anthony Hopkins, Jeremy Irons, Patrick Stewart, and Peter O’Toole. Each of their voices has a commanding or self- assured element, and I respect their abilities to play diverse roles.

The detective who works with Kade—Bill Cullen—could be played by a number of people, including Walton Goggins, Colin Farrell, Vincent D’Onofrio, or Jon Tenney (he was on The Closer, and usually isn’t the main character in films. I picked him because we grew up four houses apart and he has a generic look to him.) I wouldn’t want the detective role played in a distracting, powerhouse fashion, so the actor would need to rein in his performance. Cullen is a slow and steady guy who’s easy to underestimate.

The prosecutor in the extended trail scenes could be played by Rhea Seehorn. It’s easy to settle on just one choice with this one. She portrayed just the right proportions of competence, vulnerability, and showmanship in Better Call Saul.

I’m not sure about the defense attorney. Like Detective Cullen, he’s not impressive at first, but he turns out to be an excellent trial lawyer. We only know him as a member of Kade’s flock for most of the book, complicating the casting. Who could appear to be both spiritual-minded and good at arguing? Beats me.

In The Brighter the Light, the Darker the Shadow, a lot of quirky community members are questioned as suspects. Some examples: an illegal Basque immigrant, an African-American former Buddhist nun, a fugitive hiding out as the community’s chef, and the prosecutor’s daughter. Of course, the details about these folks aren’t known at the outset. I can picture the faces of various character actors who would be right for many of these characters, but I don’t know their names or how to find out.

Visit Verlin Darrow's website.

Writers Read: Verlin Darrow (May 2023).

My Book, The Movie: Murder for Liar.

The Page 69 Test: Murder for Liar.

The Page 69 Test: The Not Quite Enlightened Sleuth.

Writers Read: Verlin Darrow (April 2024).

My Book, The Movie: The Not Quite Enlightened Sleuth.

--Marshal Zeringue

Sherry Rankin's "The Dark Below"

Sherry Rankin grew up in New Jersey where she became an early and avid reader of mystery fiction. She earned undergraduate and graduate degrees in English and currently lives in Abilene, Texas where she has taught writing and literature at a local university for twenty years.

Her novel, Strange Fire, was shortlisted for the 2017 Daniel Goldsmith First Novel Prize and won the 2017 CWA Debut Dagger Award.

Her debut thriller, The Killing Plains, was published by Thomas & Mercer as a super lead title in February 2025.

Here Rankin dreamcasts an adaptation of her new novel, The Dark Below:

The Dark Below is set in a small West Texas town on the northern rim of the Concho Valley—an austere landscape of scrub and cattle, scattered with abandoned Cold War infrastructure and the kinds of memories that never quite stay buried. The body of Chase Loudermilk, a student at the local community college, is discovered in a derelict, flooded missile silo on his family’s property. His death appears to be a suicide, but Teddy Drummond, his criminology professor, is unconvinced.

A former detective with a complicated home life, Teddy quit the force five years ago after a hostage negotiation ended in tragedy. Since then, she’s tried to live quietly—to be a good mother to her two children, to maintain an uneasy truce with her ex-husband, and to avoid the ethical and emotional quagmires she once navigated daily. But she also misses the excitement and sense of purpose police work once gave her.

Chase’s death doesn’t sit right with Teddy, and she allows herself to be drawn into an investigation that forces her to confront old guilt and divided loyalties—and to work alongside the woman who hates her most.

Teddy carries her own deep reservoir of personal grief, which she keeps carefully contained, throwing herself into work at the expense of her relationships. She has sharp professional instincts but feels profoundly uncertain as a mother and a friend. My dream casting for Teddy would be Emily Blunt. She has a rare ability to project intelligence and resolve without hardness, and she excels at conveying inner conflict through stillness and restraint. She could play Teddy as I imagine her—weary, capable, and quietly relentless.

Opposite her is Raina Bragg, Teddy’s former best friend turned bitter adversary. I can easily imagine her played by Kim Dickens—someone who can embody toughness, resentment, and the need to assert authority over a woman she both distrusts and feels eclipsed by, while still carrying a deep undercurrent of moral outrage and private grief.

I’d love to see Paul Dano as Pastor Mark McKissick, and Thomasin McKenzie as Teddy’s strong-willed daughter, Julia. Aaron Eckhart would be a perfect fit for Alan, Teddy’s ex-husband—a man who prides himself on being the “reasonable” parent. And Gary Oldman would do a masterful job as Teddy’s manipulative and alcoholic father, Milton.

Lorraine Toussaint would be ideal in the role of Berna Robles, the town veterinarian and Teddy’s mentor and confidante. She carries authority and restraint effortlessly, and could depict Berna as someone with a deep interior life who rarely feels the need to explain herself. Finally, I’d love to see Teddy’s love interest, Rick Castillo, played by Michael Peña, who could bring a strong, quiet decency to the role.

Visit Sherry Rankin's website.

My Book, The Movie: The Killing Plains.

The Page 69 Test: The Killing Plains.

Q&A with Sherry Rankin.

--Marshal Zeringue

Megan Chance's "The Vermilion Sea"

Megan Chance is the critically acclaimed, award-winning author of more than twenty novels, including Glamorous Notions, A Dangerous Education, A Splendid Ruin, Bone River, and An Inconvenient Wife. She and her husband live in the Pacific Northwest.

Here Chance dreamcasts an adaptation of her new novel, The Vermilion Sea:

The Vermilion Sea was lot of fun to write. It’s not only historical fiction, but it’s also got a bit of paranormal and some horror thrown in for good measure. Given that it all takes place on a specimen-collecting luxury cruise on the Gulf of California, and there’s nowhere for the guests or the scientists to go once things begin to go horribly wrong, it’s a locked-door story as well.

Since we’re dealing with the realms of the fantastic here, and weird creatures and big weird atmosphere energy, for a director, I’m going to pick Guillermo del Toro, though honestly it would have been fun to see what Alfred Hitchcock would have done with the tension in the book as well.

When I was writing, I had distinct actors in mind. For the main female protagonist, marine biologist Billie McKennan, I pictured British actor Emily Beecham, who starred in the Netflix series 1899 (RIP 1899. I loved you with my whole heart). For the character of James Holloway, the rich benefactor and owner of the cruise ship Eurybia, I pictured Dan Stevens. For his wife, Victorine Coustan Holloway, Blake Lively. For the maid, Maud, who is in tune with all things creepy on the ship, I cast Courtney Eaton, who plays the teen Lottie on the series Yellowjackets, and who has a pretty creepy mien of her own. And for Billie’s ex-husband, Roland Ely, I had in mind Luke Pasqualino, from the BBC’s The Musketeers, but with shorter hair. For James Holloway’s best friend, Oliver, honestly, I had no one particular in mind. Readers (and moviegoers) can fill that role however they imagine.

The Gulf of California would be a wonderful and strange place to set a movie. It would be fun to see this book become one.

Visit Megan Chance's website.

My Book, The Movie: A Splendid Ruin.

The Page 69 Test: A Splendid Ruin.

Q&A with Megan Chance.

The Page 69 Test: A Dangerous Education.

My Book, The Movie: A Dangerous Education.

Writers Read: Megan Chance (February 2023).

Writers Read: Megan Chance (January 2025).

My Book, The Movie: Glamorous Notions.

The Page 69 Test: Glamorous Notions.

--Marshal Zeringue

Laura Jensen Walker's "The Alphabet Sleuths"

Bestselling, award-winning author Laura Jensen Walker is the Agatha and Lefty-nominated author of more than 20 books including Murder Most Sweet, Hope, Faith & a Corpse, and Death of a Flying Nightingale.

A rabid Anglophile since being stationed at an RAF base with the USAF in her twenties, Walker lives in Northern California with her Renaissance-man husband and two rescue terriers, where she drinks tea and dreams of England.

Here the author dreamcasts an adaptation of her new novel, The Alphabet Sleuths:

“Claire Reynolds hadn’t planned to kill a man that day, but stuff happens.”

In the opening of my mystery featuring four women of a certain age, you meet main character Claire, the C-member of the self-proclaimed Alphabet Girls: Atsuko, Barbara, Claire, and Daphne. When Claire accidentally kills a man who was strangling retired cop Daphne, the gal pals must get rid of the body—a member of the local crime family—without anyone knowing. Especially the police. After Claire discovers another dead body in their California retirement community, the Alphabet Girls become the Alphabet Sleuths to track down the killer.

While writing this story about four women in a retirement community, naturally, TV’s The Golden Girls came to mind. Widowed Claire in her innocence and naïveté, reminded me of Rose, played so wonderfully by Betty White. Except Claire has a silver pixie cut ala Jamie Lee Curtis.

But Jamie Lee is such a badass I’d cast her in the role of retired cop Daphne.

Claire, I see more as a cross between Annie Potts and Mary Steenburgen.

Barbara, the tucked and plucked beautiful blonde beauty queen and retired actress (and the oldest member of the Alphabet Girls) is Jane Fonda all the way.

That leaves the A-member of the group, Atsuko Kimura. An older Michelle Yeoh would be perfect as Atsuko.

I’m a huge old movie buff, so if I was casting this movie during Hollywood’s Golden Years, these are the actresses I’d pick:

Atsuko – Anna May Wong

Barbara – Lana Turner

Claire – toss-up between Irene Dunne and Greer Garson

Daphne – Barbara Stanwyck or Joan Crawford

Visit Laura Jensen Walker's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

Will Shindler's "The Bone Queen"

Will Shindler has spent most of his career working as a broadcast journalist for the BBC. He also spent nearly a decade working on a number of British television dramas, working for both the BBC Drama Series Department, and Talkback Thames Television as a writer and script editor. He has been writing novels since 2020, including the five-book critically acclaimed DI Alex Finn series: The Burning Men, The Killing Choice, The Hunting Ground, The Blood Line, and The Cold Case. He currently combines reading news bulletins for BBC Radio London with his novel writing and has previously worked as a presenter for ITV West, a reporter for BBC Radio Five Live, and as one of the stadium presenters at the 2012 London Olympics. He lives in London.

Here Shindler dreamcasts an adaptation of his new novel, The Bone Queen:

Before I wrote The Bone Queen, all of my novels were police procedurals. I’d always tried to make them as realistic and gritty as possible, so for this book I deliberately set out to do something different. I wanted to write in a new style, to experiment with a different kind of prose and a looser, more atmospheric form of storytelling. Hopefully the hills of Athelsea Island are a little more evocative than the streets of south London, and the line between reality and fantasy a little more blurred. For that reason, when I think about directors, I’m drawn to perhaps someone like Alfonso Cuarón or Guillermo del Toro - which should give you a sense of the tone I’m aiming for!

The story follows Jenna, a recovering alcoholic, as she searches for her runaway teenage daughter, Chloe. The clues she uncovers suggest Chloe may have travelled to the fictional island of Athelsea (with sincere apologies to the Scilly Islands, which I’ve geographically displaced just off the coast of Cornwall). Jenna is accompanied by her glamorous younger sister, Hattie, who is carrying a significant secret of her own.

With my previous books, I’ve never really given much thought to casting. It’s not that I object to the idea, but I find that once you start picturing specific actors, the characters can lose some of their individuality - something I like to preserve while I’m writing. For the purposes of this exercise, though, The Bone Queen has three major female roles which would require some heavyweight casting….

I briefly considered widening the net and casting non-British actors - Sadie Sink as Chloe, for example, was a tempting idea - but in the end I’ve limited myself to a trio of Brits.

For Jenna, I’d want someone who can combine toughness with real vulnerability, so my choice would be the mighty Suranne Jones. For readers outside the UK who might not be familiar with her work, there’s plenty to discover, but I’d particularly recommend the 2009 drama Unforgiven.

There are no shortage of strong contenders for Chloe, Jenna’s teenage daughter, who becomes obsessed with the legend of the Bone Queen. My pick - provided she’d be willing to dye her hair bright pink - would be Florence Hunt, who played Hyacinth in Netflix’s Bridgerton.

And finally, as Jenna’s younger, unflappable sister Hattie, I’d cast Aimee Lou Wood, best known for Sex Education and countless roles since.

So that’s my dream director and dream cast. My only request is that they invite the writer along for the first day of principal photography!

Follow Will Shindler on Facebook, Instagram, and Threads.

--Marshal Zeringue

Mara Williams's "The Epicenter of Forever"

Mara Williams drafted her first novel in third grade on a spiral notebook—a love story about a golden retriever and the stray dog who admired her from beyond the picket fence. Now she writes about strong, messy women finding their way in the world. Williams is the author of The Truth Is in the Detours and The Epicenter of Forever. When not writing or reading, she can be found enjoying California’s beaches, redwoods, and trails with her husband, three kids, and disobedient dog.

Here Williams dreamcasts an adaptation of The Epicenter of Forever:

I don’t begin my drafting process by fan-casting my characters, so it’s always a struggle to develop a cast once the book is written. The characters feel like real, specific people, and it’s easy to eliminate every option due to one slight dissimilarity or another. However, I do visualize the landscape, scenes, and action in my head, often using mood boards along the way to help capture the aesthetics. This book was easier to cast than some of my others, and I’m afraid I won’t be able to envision anyone else as these characters now that I’ve cast it.

Summary: The Epicenter of Forever is about a woman who returns to the scene of her greatest loss to convince her ailing, estranged mother to come home and seek treatment—but instead falls for a man whose identity is anchored to the place that broke her. It’s about romantic and familial love and about healing all the wounds that hold us back.

Scene: Springtime in Grand Trees, California, a fictional town nestled in the Sierra Nevadas with a mountain lake, a summer camp property, and several groves of Giant Sequoias.

Eden Hawthorne (thirty-something former ballerina turned nonprofit fundraiser): It would be a dream to see Rachel Brosnahan in this role. Her comedic timing is incredible, and she has pitch-perfect chemistry with her co-stars and could really sell a love story.

Caleb Connell (thirty-something single dad and jack of all trades): I see Brandon Sklenar as Caleb. He is an impeccable face cast based on physical description and does the best romantic smolder out there.

Cassie Moreno: (thirty-something marketing executive): America Ferrera would play the loyal and unfiltered best friend so well.

Nicolette Hawthorne: (Eden’s mom, sixty-something painter): I would love to see Andie MacDowell in this role. Her elegance and reserve would be just the right fit. She and Rachel Brosnahan would make a dynamic mom/daughter pairing.

Abby Connell (Caleb’s teen daughter): McKenna Grace has the necessary spunk to play the precocious teen.

Len Hawthorne: (Eden’s dad, sixty-something literature professor): Richard Gere would be my dream cast for this role. He has such a literature-professor vibe, with his white hair and glasses, and would play the role of Eden’s soft-spoken dad so well.

Visit Mara Williams's website.

Q&A with Mara Williams.

The Page 69 Test: The Truth Is in the Detours.

My Book, The Movie: The Truth Is in the Detours.

Writers Read: Mara Williams (August 2025).

--Marshal Zeringue

Robert Dugoni's "Her Cold Justice"

Robert Dugoni is a critically acclaimed New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post and #1 Amazon bestselling author, reaching over 9 million readers worldwide. He is best known for his Tracy Crosswhite police series set in Seattle. He is also the author of the Charles Jenkins espionage series, the David Sloane legal thriller series, and several stand-alone novels including The 7th Canon, Damage Control, The World Played Chess, and Her Deadly Game. His novel The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell received Suspense Magazine’s 2018 Book of the Year, and Dugoni’s narration won an AudioFile Earphones Award. The Washington Post named his nonfiction exposé The Cyanide Canary a Best Book of the Year.

Dugoni's new novel is Her Cold Justice, the first Keera Duggan title.

Here the author dreamcasts an adaptation of the new novel:

I actually had two actresses in mind to play Keera Duggan when I wrote the first book. Caitriona Balfe, who is Irish-born and is great at playing actors torn between family loyalty and personal demons, both of which are in this series in spades. The other is Claire Foy who often plays smart characters with complicated lives. She also looks like how I imagined Keera Duggan.

I would love to see Idris Elba play JP. His English accent would be perfect, he is the right age and he is brilliant.

And for Patsy Duggan I thought of Albert Finney when I wrote the book, but alas he is gone. Then I saw Brendan Gleeson in an Irish movie and thought, perfect. The two others who would be fantastic are Ray Winstone or Kenneth Cranham. Gleeson and Winston have the physiques to be former boxers, as Patsy was when he was younger. All of them have that burning interior which Patsy displays in the courtroom. Smart and tough as nails.

Visit Robert Dugoni's website and Facebook page.

The Page 69 Test: Wrongful Death.

The Page 69 Test: Bodily Harm.

My Book, The Movie: Bodily Harm.

The Page 69 Test: Murder One.

My Book, The Movie: Murder One.

My Book, The Movie: The Eighth Sister.

The Page 69 Test: The Eighth Sister.

My Book, The Movie: A Cold Trail.

The Page 69 Test: A Cold Trail.

The Page 69 Test: The Last Agent.

My Book, The Movie: The Last Agent.

Q&A with Robert Dugoni.

The Page 69 Test: In Her Tracks.

Writers Read: Robert Dugoni (March 2024).

The Page 69 Test: A Killing on the Hill.

My Book, The Movie: A Killing on the Hill.

The Page 69 Test: Beyond Reasonable Doubt.

My Book, The Movie: Beyond Reasonable Doubt.

Writers Read: Robert Dugoni (October 2024).

--Marshal Zeringue

Laura Carney's "My Father's List"

A writer and magazine copy editor in New York, Laura Carney has been published by the Washington Post, the Associated Press, The Hill, Runner’s World, Good Housekeeping, The Fix, Upworthy, Maria Shriver’s The Sunday Paper, and other places. She has worked as a copy editor in national magazines—primarily women’s—for twenty years, including Vanity Fair, GQ, People, and Good Housekeeping.

Here Carney dreamcasts an adaptation of her memoir, My Father's List: How Living My Dad's Dreams Set Me Free:

My memoir My Father's List: How Living My Dad's Dreams Set Me Free has been optioned for TV and we're still having conversations about it. But when the notion that it might be a movie first came into play, I envisioned Brie Larson playing the role of the newlywed journalist at midlife who lives out the 54 unrealized dreams of her late free-spirited father, who died at the hands of a distracted driver when she was 25. I felt she had the right zaniness, athleticism and depth for the part, and she strikes me as nerdy and intellectual in real life. She also has a certain innocence about her.

As for who might play my dad, I've often felt Jim Carrey would be the right choice, as far as matching my dad's energy. Appearance-wise, someone like Kyle Chandler would be a good fit.

I'm not sure which director I'd like to see do the movie version, but maybe Greta Gerwig?

Oh, and I think Amy Poehler to play my mom and Bill Hader would be a good choice for my husband (though he's expressed he'd prefer Justin Timberlake....because of his amazing dance moves).

Visit Laura Carney's website.

The Page 99 Test: My Father's List.

--Marshal Zeringue

Andromeda Romano-Lax's "What Boys Learn"

Born in Chicago and now a resident of Vancouver Island, Canada, Andromeda Romano-Lax worked as a freelance journalist and travel writer before turning to fiction. Her first novel, The Spanish Bow, was translated into eleven languages and chosen as a New York Times Editors’ Choice, BookSense pick, and one of Library Journal’s Best Books of the Year. Her next four novels, The Detour, Behave (an Amazon Book of the Month), Plum Rains (winner of the Sunburst Award), and Annie and the Wolves (a Booklist Top 10 Historical Fiction Book of the Year) reflect her diverse interest in the arts, history, science, and technology, as well as her love of travel and her time spent living abroad. Starting with The Deepest Lake (a Barnes & Noble Monthly Pick and Amazon Book of the Month) and continuing with her new novel, What Boys Learn, Romano-Lax has swerved into the world of suspense fiction, although she continues to write historical and speculative fiction as well.

Here the author dreamcasts an adaptation of What Boys Learn:

To play Abby, my single mother character worried about whether her teenage son was involved in the deaths of two schoolmates, I nominate Elizabeth Olsen (Eternity, WandaVision, Avengers, Love & Death). Abby is struggling, stressed-out, and hopefully sympathetic. She also has a brother in prison and secrets in her past. Ideally, the reader will understand most of her choices yet still wonder if they know the whole story. Olsen manages to pack emotional nuances into every performance. She can be charming, sly, sincere, solemn, or murderous. If she won’t play Abby, I am willing to keep writing characters until we hit upon one that excites her. (Kidding, but I really do love Olsen.)

To play Benjamin, I need a young actor who hold his cards close to his chest—an actor who can seem troubled, duplicitous, nonconformist, intelligent, and either guilty or non-guilty. The Stranger Things actors are getting older but I still think one of the youngest, Noah Schnapp, who played Will Byers, could pull it off. If not him, someone like him—better yet if he’s a complete unknown.

Visit Andromeda Romano-Lax's website.

The Page 69 Test: The Spanish Bow.

The Page 69 Test: The Detour.

Writers Read: Andromeda Romano-Lax (February 2012).

The Page 69 Test: What Boys Learn.

Writers Read: Andromeda Romano-Lax.

--Marshal Zeringue

Kelli Stanley's "The Reckoning"

A critically-acclaimed, bestselling author of crime fiction, Kelli Stanley is the author of the award-winning Miranda Corbie historical noir series (City of Dragons, City of Secrets, City of Ghosts, City of Sharks), featuring "one of crime's most arresting heroines" (Library Journal), private investigator Miranda Corbie, and set in 1940 San Francisco.

Stanley also writes an award-winning, highly-praised series set in Roman Britain (Nox Dormienda; The Curse-Maker).

Here the author dreamcasts an adaptation of her newest novel, The Reckoning, a first-in-series mystery-thriller set in Northern California's "Emerald Triangle" in 1985:

With the exception of Miranda Corbie, I generally don’t think about actors while I’m writing—I dream-cast after the book is through! Miranda was an exception because she looked like Rita Hayworth, so obviously only the woman who played Gilda could play Miranda—at least in my head.

So now that The Reckoning is out in the world, I’ve been ruminating on an imaginary movie. There are a lot of talented young actors out there, right now, and of course I’d love to see this book—a very suspenseful, slow-burning thriller about a young woman with severe PTSD who is on the run from the FBI and stumbles into a crime scene and a hunt for a serial killer—actually adapted (I envision something like Shetland except it’s Humboldt County, CA, not the northernmost islands of Great Britain). But for this dream cast, I’m going to dream all the way—and think about who would have played Renata Drake and the main characters in The Reckoning in 1985, the year the story is set!

The story is centered around Renata: a seriously traumatized, 25-year-old young defense attorney who lost her sister to a murderer who couldn’t be prosecuted. Renata wrestles with the anguish and the anger, and, under treatment for her PTSD, writes a fantasy-revenge journal on how, exactly, she would execute her sister’s murderer.

And then she wakes up on a concrete floor staring at his corpse.

She assumes, after an interview, that the FBI are going to figure out that she’s responsible, so she runs to the opposite end of the country and lands in Garberville, California … a tiny town in the heart of the redwoods that is facing its own harrowing crime: a serial killer of young girls. To make matters even more tense, a federal and state paramilitary taskforce surrounds the area, focusing on uprooting every cannabis plant in the Emerald Triangle.

Renata is both vulnerable and resilient, strong and sensitive, unsure, self-doubting and resolute. She’s a complex character in a highly complex situation … so, who in 1985 had the acting chops and was the right age to play her?

Linda Hamilton can certainly portray “tough.” But the heartbreak and survivor’s guilt of trauma and loss? I’m not so sure. On the flip side, Sean Young excelled at unbalanced, off-kilter characters, but could she emote the kind of grit and determination that Renata does? Debra Winger, certainly a brilliant actress, registers as a little too country, a little too Midwest. Renata is from Chicago and grew up in a very urban environment.

So, who’s my pick? One of the two greatest actresses of their generation: Michelle Pfeiffer or Julianne Moore. Michelle would need to darken her blondeness to play Renata—the character is a brunette in contrast with her sister Josie, who was a blonde. And overall, I think Michelle would be the best in the part, because that mixture of vulnerability and strength, of self-doubt and determination to survive, shines through some of her best roles, including Susie Diamond in The Fabulous Baker Boys.

Other parts are a bit easier … for Mike, the newspaper man, I’d go with Kurt Russell. For Eve, the librarian, only Christine Lahti would do. And for the young Martha, I’d pick a very young Winona Ryder (again, with a hair color change). Ian could be Rob Lowe, Chris, maybe Mickey Rourke. The director? Curtis Hanson (LA Confidential).

I’d love to hear reader feedback about these choices … please stay in touch and let me know what you think of the dream cast when you’re done with the book!

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--Marshal Zeringue