Mariah Fredericks's "The Girl in the Green Dress"

Mariah Fredericks was born, raised, and still lives in New York City. She graduated from Vassar College with a degree in history. She is the author of the Jane Prescott mystery series, which has twice been nominated for the Mary Higgins Clark Award, as well as several YA novels. The Lindbergh Nanny, her first standalone novel, was nominated for the Agatha and Anthony Awards.

Here Fredericks dreamcasts the lead for an adaptation of her new novel, The Girl in the Green Dress:

Who should play Zelda Fitzgerald?

I am reliably informed that no one in Hollywood wants to make period movies these days. So the chances of someone playing Zelda Fitzgerald as she’s depicted in The Girl in the Green Dress, are slim to none. But let’s take a page from Zelda’s book and not let boring reality stand in our way.

A surprising number of actresses have played Zelda, from Natasha Richardson to Christina Ricci. Richardson was a feminine, fluttery Zelda. Ricci more pert than provocative, although she only got one season and might have evolved. (It’s usually a mistake to make a famously dark actress blonde. Edgy deadpan is Ricci’s hallmark and I kept waiting for her to cut David Hoflin’s fratboy Scott to pieces with the raise of an eyebrow.) There are reportedly several Zeldas in the works: Jennifer Lawrence, Keira Knightley, Scarlett Johansson.

Before I knew much about Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald, I would have said she was easy to cast. Find a flapper type, a little manic, a little pixie, throw in a Southern accent and you’re there. Pretty and sexy, of course. But the real Zelda wasn’t obviously pretty. Her voice seems to change over time. Her first letters to Scott are by extravagant and blase. Her articles for McCall’s witty, mischievous, serious about not taking things seriously. I felt I heard her adult voice for the first time in the therapy sessions as she cuts through Scott’s nonsense. One feels she has spent a lot of time with men impressed by their own eloquence, and she’s fed up.

My Zelda is 20, just married and taking her first steps into the world’s consciousness. She was a star in her hometown: rule breaking, fearless, and with illegal levels of baby-of-the family charm. I took my cue for her voice from those McCall’s articles. Also from contemporaries’ observation that her conversation could be hard to follow. Most of all, I took Scott’s reference to her courage and “flaming self-respect” as a baseline.

To me, the ideal Zelda has a touch of the tomboy. She was brave and athletic and just as there’s a touch of the feminine in Scott’s appearance, there’s a touch of the masculine in hers. Jennifer Lawrence has that. She also has Zelda’s broad, full cheeked face. She is from Kentucky, which is not Alabama, but it’s better than New York or California. Part of Zelda’s allure was her southerness, which was exoticized and eroticized by Scott’s friends. Images of Lawrence at the Reaping in The Hunger Games come the closest to a celluloid match for Zelda at 20—and argue she would be a persuasive Zelda at any age.

Alison Pill is a startlingly successful Zelda in just a few short scenes in Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris, partly because she is allowed wit and charisma. Tom Hiddleston’s Scott is in awe of her and that feels right. I’d love to see what Florence Pugh would do with a good Zelda script. But any time I had to conjure full Zelda, my imagination went to the woman who has disgracefully never played her: Jessica Lange. The minute she wrapped on Frances, someone should have been putting a Zelda project together. She is from Minnesota, but if you’ve seen Blue Sky, for which she won her Best Actress Oscar, you know she can play Southern and bi-polar. She can be both fully herself and a woman who inspires worship. A woman who might put you through hell—but you’d never leave because you know after her, heaven would be…well, boring.

Visit Mariah Fredericks's website.

My Book, The Movie: The Girl in the Park.

The Page 69 Test: A Death of No Importance.

My Book, The Movie: Death of an American Beauty.

The Page 69 Test: Death of an American Beauty.

Q&A with Mariah Fredericks.

The Page 69 Test: The Lindbergh Nanny.

--Marshal Zeringue

Jerome Charyn's "Maria La Divina"

Jerome Charyn is the author of more than fifty works of fiction and nonfiction, including Maria La Divina; Ravage & Son; Sergeant Salinger; Cesare: A Novel of War-Torn Berlin; In the Shadow of King Saul: Essays on Silence and Song; Jerzy: A Novel; and A Loaded Gun: Emily Dickinson for the 21st Century. Among other honors, his work has been longlisted for the Mark Twain American Voice in Literature Award and PEN Award for Biography, shortlisted for the Phi Beta Kappa Christian Gauss Award, and selected as a finalist for the Firecracker Award and PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Film Culture at the American University of Paris, Charyn has also been named a Commander of Arts and Letters by the French Minister of Culture and received a Guggenheim Fellowship and the Rosenthal Family Foundation Award for Fiction from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He lives in Manhattan.

Here Charyn dreamcasts an adaptation of Maria La Divina:

I’ve had one of my books turned into a movie and it was not a great experience. I handed over my crime novel The Good Policeman to a showrunner and lost all my power. The film played in Europe but not in the United States and frankly, I was at peace with that outcome.

But with my Maria La Divina film I would not make the same mistakes. I want my Maria to sing, to act, to be a strong powerful woman worthy of the name Greatest Diva of All Time.

So, the first star I want my producers to talk to is – The Lady herself, Lady Gaga. I’ve watched every film she’s made and every performance I could get to. Lady Gaga is everything Maria was in her prime – the greatest singer, a talented actress, an exotic beauty and fashion icon, with a genius understanding of her times.

Lady Gaga is the Maria Callas of the 21st Century.

Maria gave it all up for love, for the love of Aristotle Onassis, a strange sort of superman who tossed her aside and lived to regret it. Both of their lives came to an end when their affair did – although neither one knew it then.

I worry about the casting of Onassis. He certainly did not look like the magician he was, in business and – it seems – in the bedroom. I think Anthony Quinn would be the perfect choice to play Ari. Manly and charismatic, Quinn would be able to portray the love of Maria’s life beautifully (and much more accurately than the actor chosen to play him in the recent failed feature film, Maria.)

The last and perhaps most difficult casting decision must be Maria’s husband, mentor and shaman, Giovanni Battista Meneghini. Among his family of ten brothers, one of them a general, Meneghini had the only success on the world stage as the Svengali who helped make Maria Callas an international celebrity and the greatest opera diva of her time. He loved her, worshiped her, pushed and championed her, supported her and followed her around like a puppy, all the while grifting most of her money.

I believe Oliver Platt would have the talent to bring Meneghini to life onscreen - and with his casting, my film is complete.

As for the film’s branding and poster – I, who have built my life on words, dream of an artist who would create magic from the letters of MARIA’s name, which contain the two things she loved more than her own life – ARIA and ARI – her own unique monolith.

Visit Jerome Charyn's website.

The Page 69 Test: Under the Eye of God.

My Book, The Movie: Big Red.

Q&A with Jerome Charyn.

The Page 69 Test: Ravage & Son.

Writers Read: Jerome Charyn (August 2023).

--Marshal Zeringue

Alma Katsu's "Fiend"

Alma Katsu's novels include Red London, The Fervor, Red Widow, and The Deep. Prior to the publication of her first novel, she had a thirty-five-year long career as a senior intelligence analyst for several U.S. agencies, including the CIA and NSA, as well as RAND. Katsu is a graduate of the master's writing program at the Johns Hopkins University and received her bachelor's degree from Brandeis University. She lives in West Virginia with her husband and is a contributing reviewer for the Washington Post.

Here Katsu shares some ideas for the cast in an adaptation of her new novel, Fiend:

In the case of Fiend, this isn’t a hypothetical. We optioned Fiend for a TV series shortly after we buttoned up the final version of the manuscript, literally days after the Los Angeles wildfires. As an aside, when my film agent said we were going to go on submission, I thought she must be crazy but she was right. There was a lot of interest and despite everything going on in Hollywood at the time, we got a great offer.

There are four main characters in the novel. First is Zef, the father and patriarch of the Berisha family, one of the wealthiest and most powerful dynasties in the world. The Berishas are known for being ruthless, but they’re also dogged by rumors that they’ve benefitted from an ancient power that’s somehow been gifted to them. They call it “the family blessing,” a power that sees things fall in their favor and that their enemies are punished. I could see Oscar Isaac as Zef: handsome but hard and ruthless. He’s got the strong facial characteristics needed for this character: the piercing eyes, strong jaw, prominent nose.

Even though there are multiple narrators, Maris is ostensibly the book’s protagonist. She’s the middle of Zef’s three children. She thinks she’s the obvious choice to take over as head of the family and the business empire, but since the Berisha empire is patriarchal and has been for a thousand years, that role belongs to her older brother Dardan.

Maris adores her father and wants nothing more than to win his approval. Ironically, she’s the only one that takes after Zef, with his ethnic features. The Berishas have selectively bred themselves to a Western ideal and Maris’s sister and brother both take after their mother, a former model. Maris is short and stockier, with wiry hair and an olive complexion. Alia Shawkat would be my choice for Maris, with her unconventional beauty and obvious intelligence.

Dardan is the reluctant heir. While he had been a spoiled brat as a child, as he’s been drawn into the company and made privy to the family secrets, he’s been sort of scared straight. He understands that he will be taking on a tremendous burden for the family, one that’s going to damn him for eternity. He takes after his mother: tall, handsome, more European looking than Zef and Maris, more god-like than merely attractive. A tragic figure. I don’t have an actor in mind but it could be a breakout role for a handsome unknown.

The last major character is Nora, the youngest child. She’s the wild one, the one that wants nothing to do with the family business, who not-so-secretly wishes they would stop being so ruthless and greedy (a most un-Berisha-like quality). I had Elizabeth Debicki in my head as I wrote the character. Nora, like Dardan, takes after Olga: tall, slender, classically beautiful. But she’s also a bit subversive and unconventional, which keeps her family off balance.

I suppose there is a fifth major character and that’s the Protector—if it really exists. You really have to read to book to find out more. I’ve had a conversation already with the studio about how the Protector will be portrayed and I think there’s a number of ways you could go. But there’s only one way in the book, and I can’t wait to see readers’ reaction to it.

Visit Alma Katsu's website.

The Page 69 Test: The Taker.

My Book, The Movie: The Hunger.

The Page 69 Test: The Hunger.

Writers Read: Alma Katsu (March 2020).

The Page 69 Test: The Deep.

The Page 69 Test: Red Widow.

Q&A with Alma Katsu.

The Page 69 Test: The Fervor.

Writers Read: Alma Katsu (April 2022).

My Book, The Movie: Red London.

The Page 69 Test: Red London.

The Page 69 Test: Fiend.

--Marshal Zeringue

Peter Colt's "Cold Island"

Peter Colt is a 1996 graduate of the University of Rhode Island with a BA in Political Science. Colt was a 24-year veteran of the Army Reserve with deployments to Kosovo and Iraq as an Army Civil Affairs officer. He is currently a police officer in Providence, Rhode Island. He is married to his long suffering wife with whom he is raising two sons.

He enjoys, kayaking and camping and tries to get on the local rivers and ponds as often as he reasonably can. Colt is also an avid cook, a hobby which manages to find its way into his novels. He is a proud member of both the Mystery Writers of America and The Pawtuxet Athletic Club.

He is the author of the Tommy Kelly mysteries, Cold Island (2025). He also wrote the Andy Roark series of books, The Off-Islander (2019) and Back Bay Blues (2020) and Death at Fort Devens (2022), The Ambassador (2023), The Judge (2024) and The Banker (2025). He has also published short stories in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine.

Here Colt dreamcasts an adaptation of Cold Island:

I have to confess something dear readers. This concept is brilliant because since the first movie was made, every author pictures their book as a movie. I don't care what you write, how you write, we all do.

My novel Cold Island, returns to my roots, both literally and literary. My first novel The Off Islander was set on Nantucket Island and I lived there until I was 13. Even after I moved away I went back regularly until my father passed away in 2014. I mention all of this because I not only picture actors but also a director for the book to movie sequence.

Cold Island is set on Nantucket Island, in both 1981 and 2016. When I was writing the book I was concerned about casting two characters, Massachusetts State Police Detective Tommy Kelly and Nantucket Police Detective Jo Harris. There are lots of other characters but those were the two that carry the story. There is a roughly ten year age difference between them.

My first choice to play MSP Detective Tommy Kelly is Ben Affleck. He is also the person whom I would want to direct the movie as well. My protagonist Tommy Kelly is a lifelong resident of Massachusetts. He is fit and complex. Ben Affleck is a solid actor but would have a huge advantage in that none of the regional nuance would have to be explained to him. He knows it because he's lived it. And for the Boston/Massachusetts accent which a lot of actors get wrong, or worse overdo, he would nail it because, again, he's lived it.

That is also what would make him an excellent choice to direct. Affleck has proven through his film Argo and his excellent interpretation of Dennis Lehane's Gone Baby Gone, that he is as good a director as he is an actor. I won't lie, I love the thought of reading a headline or marquis that reads; "Directed by and Starring Ben Affleck."

The ever excellent former Mad Man, John Hamm would be a strong choice to play Tommy Kelly. Hamm is a versatile actor, whose greatest strength, in my opinion, is the fact that his performances are understated. He delivers every nuance, every emotion, without ever overdoing it. That is what made his portrayal of Don Draper in Mad Men brilliant. It was believable because it wasn't over acted. John Hamm could deliver all of Tommy Kelly's complexity without over delivering.

I have a very clear picture of Nantucket Police Detective Jo Harris in my mind. She's petite. She's competent. She has dark hair and while she's not naive or a kid, she's not yet jaded by police work. In my mind it takes a very special actress to deliver her to the screen without turning her into a cliche. For me, that actress is Mila Kunis. I think she is an actress who is wasted in romcon's and can deliver a solid, layered, character study.

Visit Peter Colt's website.

My Book, The Movie: Back Bay Blues.

The Page 69 Test: Back Bay Blues.

Q&A with Peter Colt.

The Page 69 Test: Death at Fort Devens.

My Book, The Movie: Death at Fort Devens.

Writers Read: Peter Colt (June 2022).

My Book, The Movie: The Ambassador.

The Page 69 Test: The Ambassador.

The Page 69 Test: The Judge.

My Book, The Movie: The Judge.

Writers Read: Peter Colt (May 2024).

Writers Read: Peter Colt (March 2025).

My Book, The Movie: The Banker.

The Page 69 Test: The Banker.

The Page 69 Test: Cold Island.

Writers Read: Peter Colt.

--Marshal Zeringue

Kitty Zeldis's "One of Them"

Kitty Zeldis is the pseudonym for a novelist and non-fiction writer of books for adults and children. She is the author of Not Our Kind and The Dressmakers of Prospect Heights. She lives with her family in Brooklyn, NY.

Zeldis's new novel, One of Them, is "a story of secrets, friendship, and betrayal about two young women at Vassar in the years after World War II, a powerful and moving tale of prejudice and pride that echoes the cultural and social issues of today."

Here Zeldis dreamcasts an adaptation of One of Them:

For Sophie, I can see Anne Hathaway. Sophie is an artist. She’s charming, passionate and extremely smart; she’s also selfish, dramatic and an often indifferent mother to Delia. These are not attractive qualities but what is attractive is her single-mindedness, something every artist needs to pursue her path. Hathaway is someone whose career I’ve followed and so I believe she has the range to play this role—she’d have the charisma but also the dark notes.

Anya Taylor-Joy would fill the role of Anne Bishop well. There’s a sense that she’s very tightly wound and working hard to maintain control; since Anne has put herself in the unenviable position of pretending to be someone she is not, she too is keeping a tight rein on her actions and emotions. Taylor-Joy’s brittleness could reflect this tension and I’d love to see her play the part.

My last pick is Saoirse Ronan for the part of Delia. I love, love, love Ronan and think she is a brilliant actress. Her strong and unapologetic sense of herself would convey these traits of Delia’s perfectly. Delia is her own person, not particularly troubled by or even really concerned with other people’s opinions of her and Ronan could bring that to the screen.

My Book, The Movie: Not Our Kind.

Writers Read: Kitty Zeldis (December 2018).

Coffee with a Canine: Kitty Zeldis & Dottie.

The Page 69 Test: Not Our Kind.

The Page 69 Test: The Dressmakers of Prospect Heights.

--Marshal Zeringue

Beth Morrey's "Isabella's Not Dead"

Beth Morrey‘s work has been published in the Cambridge and Oxford May Anthologies and shortlisted for the Grazia Orange First Chapter competition. Her novels include The Love Story of Missy Carmichael and Delphine Jones Takes a Chance.

Here Morrey shares some thoughts on an adaptation of her new novel, Isabella's Not Dead:

OK, well, I haven’t really thought about it, but I guess there is a dream scenario where I get a call from Netflix out the blue – can I fly to New York at a moment’s notice to meet a director? The director would be Greta Gerwig – I’m fairly sure she made both Lady Bird and Little Women for me personally. She would also adapt the screenplay of Isabella’s Not Dead because she picked it up in a kooky book store in Greenwich Village and fell in love with it. We’d have coffee in some arty café on the Upper East Side and get on like a house on fire – can I be some sort of consultant on the show? Like, wafting around set, advising?

The casting director would also be me, and I would meet lots of people I admire for expensive dinners, and gush over them before selecting the following stellar cast: The main character of Gwen (who is me) would be played by Tina Fey. I have been devoted to her for years and love everything she does. I recently watched The Four Seasons, which has similar vibes to Isabella’s Not Dead. It’s the same life stage, similar humor and a bit of travel, so the tie-in works nicely. Maybe I can also be in the next series of The Four Seasons, or at least stay in the hotels with them while they’re making it. After that, Tina and I become best friends and I will be very busy working on other projects with her and hanging out, but I would still manage to cast someone incredibly glamorous to play the elusive Isabella. Perhaps Kristin Scott-Thomas, who has the right slightly brittle elegance.

Morag, Gwen’s mad mother-in-law, would be played by a national treasure with comedy chops – someone like Lily Tomlin, Catherine O’Hara or Bette Midler. They could have a lot of fun with the character, who is a very strong flavor. Gwen’s husband Angus would be played by someone looming, mild, but with the ability to be quite annoying – maybe Vince Vaughn? Gwen’s friend Min might prove an interesting challenge – she is deaf and, ideally, I’d cast a deaf actress in the role. It could be an opportunity to audition a great new talent, but I’d be looking for the style and energy of Maggie Q, who I recently saw in Ballard – an excellent series. For the rest of Gwen’s hockey team chums, I’d recruit various actresses from Saturday Night Live who I ardently admire – Kate McKinnon, Maya Rudolph, Amy Poehler. The whole thing somehow ends with me as a guest host of SNL doing a hilarious skit with Ayo Edebiri and Paul Rudd. Then we have a massive party and I get to tell Jennifer Aniston that I like her hair.

The hangover the next day is not much fun but I stir myself for a New York Times feature on middle-aged British writers who are taking the US by storm. Mario Testino photographs me in Central Park flanked by two enormous poodles, and Taffy Brodesser-Akner congratulates me on social media. Oh, and obviously the film of Isabella’s Not Dead wins a million awards and I get to go to the Oscars dressed by Valentino and squired by Paul Rudd, my new boyfriend.

But, you know, I haven’t really thought about it.

Visit Beth Morrey's website.

Coffee with a Canine: Beth Morrey & Polly.

The Page 69 Test: The Love Story of Missy Carmichael.

My Book, The Movie: The Love Story of Missy Carmichael.

Q&A with Beth Morrey.

The Page 69 Test: Delphine Jones Takes a Chance.

My Book, The Movie: Delphine Jones Takes a Chance.

Writers Read: Beth Morrey (April 2022).

Writers Read: Beth Morrey (August 2025).

--Marshal Zeringue

Kathleen Barber's "Both Things Are True"

Kathleen Barber is the author of Truth Be Told (2017, originally published as Are You Sleeping), which was adapted into a series on AppleTV+ by Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine media company, and Follow Me (2020). A graduate of the University of Illinois and Northwestern University School of Law, she now lives in Washington, DC, with her husband and children.

Here Barber dreamcasts an adaptation of her new novel, Both Things Are True:

I dreamcast on vibes rather than strictly on how well an actor physically resembles my character. So when I think about who I would cast to play Vanessa, the yoga influencer and hopeless romantic at the center of Both Things Are True, I imagine a cross between Sarah Jones, who played Tracy Stevens in For All Mankind, and Suki Waterhouse. Both have the energy and pluck that I envision for Vanessa.

For Sam, Vanessa's love interest, I feel like it's cliché to dreamcast Andrew Garfield in a romantic comedy, but he's the closest to Sam's vibe.

And then for Jack, Vanessa's ex-fiancé who flees the country under fraud allegations, I'd cast Glen Powell, largely on the based on the smarmy character he played on Scream Queens.

Visit Kathleen Barber's website.

The Page 69 Test: Follow Me.

Writers Read: Kathleen Barber (March 2020).

12 Yoga Questions with Kathleen Barber.

The Page 69 Test: Both Things Are True.

--Marshal Zeringue

Peter Rosch's "What The Dead Can Do"

Peter Rosch is the author of multiple dark fictions born from the various addictions he chased while living in New York City as an award-winning writer and creative director. He’s many years sober now but remains an addict’s addict. What the Dead Can Do is his debut novel.

Rosch grew up in the Southwest, lived in New York for nearly 20 years, and now resides midway between Austin and San Antonio in Wimberley, TX where he works as an author, freelance creative director and copywriter in advertising, and most importantly, full-time dad.

Here the author shares his suggestion for the director of an adaptation of What the Dead Can Do:

In many ways, What The Dead Can Do is a possession story. A unique one, but as a film, it’s a safe bet that it would pop up in the “Viewers Also Watched” section on Netflix underneath The Conjuring or The Exorcist and other possession films. Of course, like those, it’s much more, too.

What The Dead Can Do is the story of a recently deceased mother, grieving for the child she left behind after a plane crash, who seeks out a way to possess the living to kill that still-living child and reunite her family in the afterlife. Dark stuff. Heady stuff. Taboo stuff, maybe. But if I did what I think I’ve done with the story, it and the film adaptation will not be inaccessible to a broader audience. It was important to me to write this paranormal thriller in a way that would appeal to a wide array of people. Even now, as I wander the country promoting the book, I’ve referred to it from time to time as a paranormal family drama or a gateway book to horror. It’s a story that’s terrifying in a way similar to Poltergeist, which scared many of all walks and ages.

To achieve the right balance of horror, hope, and even humor, I had a handful of films on my mind as I penned the manuscript: 1982’s Poltergeist (story by Steven Spielberg) because it was so accessible as an instrument of horror. And because at 10, I saw it, and the family felt authentic and grounded to me. Still do. 2018’s Hereditary, directed by Ari Aster, was so very disturbing, and there is an obvious darkness to a story about a mother who is trying to kill her child. 2018’s The Wind, directed by Emma Tammi, because of the fear it evoked within the vast, unpopulated expanse of the New Mexico desert. There are many liminal spaces in What The Dead Can Do, and what Emma achieved with something earthly but similar was utterly brilliant. I also had Beetlejuice on my mind because, like my story, it has rules that the dead must adhere to in an afterlife that, like my own, was unlike any portrayed prior. And finally, and most importantly, 2015’s The Invitation, directed by Karyn Kusama, written by Phil Hay and Matt Manfredi.

If I were given the opportunity to pick any director, it’d be Karyn Kusama. And, if she were busy, I’d pick Sara Dunlop out of the UK (because we are good friends and she is brilliant in her own right and would absolutely kill this as a feature film). That said, for me, there is no slow- burn horror film quite like The Invitation. The acting is superb, the editing is superb, and the vibe is nearly unmatched, in my opinion. You go into the film knowing very well that something is askew, and you can’t quite ever put your finger on it. At times, you may even wonder if it’s a horror film at all—and then, wham! It knocks you over the head and leaves you there to think about the horror you’ve participated in so dutifully. There is a lot more action up front in What The Dead Can Do than in The Invitation. But I know that Karyn would kill that, too. (See Aeon Flux or Jennifer’s Body). The feature film version of my novel in her hands would grab viewers and not let them go, teetering them on the edge of an uncomfortable personal madness that wouldn’t soon go away, even after the floor beneath them has been violently dropped.

Visit Peter Rosch's website and follow him on Facebook, BlueSky, Instagram, and Threads.

Q&A with Peter Rosch.

--Marshal Zeringue

Nolan Chase's "A Lonesome Place for Murder"

Nolan Chase lives and works in the Pacific Northwest.

A Lonesome Place for Murder is his second book featuring Ethan Brand.

Here Chase dreamcasts an adaptation of the new novel:

A Lonesome Place for Murder is about cross-border smuggling in a small Washington town, and how family secrets come back to haunt the town’s new chief of police.

Chief Ethan Brand stumbles on an abandoned smuggling tunnel, with a body lying inside. The dead man is somehow connected to Ethan’s childhood friend Tyler Rash. What was Tyler doing in the tunnel, and who wanted to killed him? Ethan and his senior investigator, Brenda Lee Page, have to find answers before the killer finds them.

This is a more personal story for Ethan Brand, and it’s also a story about brothers.

Ethan is confident but slightly reckless, and new to the job of chief. A young Kris Kristofferson would be a good choice to play Ethan. Kristofferson’s performances in Cisco Pike, Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, and Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore show that combination of affable confidence and vulnerability.

For Brenda Lee Page, I’d chose Tyne Daly. She’s most famous from Cagney & Lacey, and I think she’s Dirty Harry’s best partner in The Enforcer.

In keeping with the Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid theme, James Coburn would be good casting for Tyler Rash, who’s older and more dangerous than Ethan.

Visit Nolan Chase's website.

Writers Read: Nolan Chase.

The Page 69 Test: A Lonesome Place for Dying.

My Book, The Movie: A Lonesome Place for Dying.

--Marshal Zeringue

D.W. Gillespie's "Grin"

Born and raised in Middle Tennessee, D.W. Gillespie has been daydreaming for as long as he can remember. His first short story was in second grade, and it involved (unsurprisingly) monsters wreaking havoc on some unsuspecting victim. Some things never change, and now Gillespie writes a healthy mixture of horror, sci-fi, and supernatural fiction.

He began writing seriously in 2002, and after winning the MacDougal Award for his short story "The Home", he's since been published many times in print and online. His body of work includes a dozen novels and dozens of short stories, including the novels Still Dark, The Toy Thief, and One by One. In recent years, he’s moved into middle grade horror, and his new novels include Give Me Something Good to Eat and Grin.

Here Gillespie shares some casting ideas for the adult lead in an adaptation of Grin:

Like a lot of authors, I do find it helpful, and even fun, to picture the characters as actors. It really helps to click some of those fine details into place as I write.

For Grin, I’ll admit that I don’t have a great choice for the main character Danny, just because I don’t know a ton of actors in that age group. He’s an anxious but brave early teenager who’s obsessed with video games, so I could see some of the Stranger Things crew fitting that description before they aged out of it.

The more interesting choice to consider in my mind is his Uncle Bill. Bill is…technically an adult. He runs a massive retro arcade called Pixel-works, and he (illegally) lives in a trailer in the parking lot. He’s both a big sweetheart and almost shockingly irresponsible at times, which makes for a fun mix. He also happens to be massively tall and strong, easily able to muscle around heavy arcade cabinets on his own.

Mild spoilers, but later in the story, he gets taken over by a much more malevolent personality, so we’d need an actor who can embody both the goofy boyishness along with pure, gleeful evil.

In short, he’s a fun character, and I can think of two wildly different actors that could bring him to life. My first choice would be Eric Wareheim. The name might not jump out at you, but you’ve probably seen him here and there, especially if you watched any Adult Swim. He’s half of the comedy pair of Tim and Eric, and he also just happens to be 6’7” tall. He’s got the good-natured, innocent side of Bill without even trying, but I think it would be fun to watch him be menacing as well.

My second pick might sound even stranger at first, but picture Chris Hemsworth in Avengers Endgame, AKA Thor in his Big Lebowski phase. He’s still big and imposing, but he’s also got the comedy chops to make the movie fun. Plus, if you don’t think he can do menacing, you should really check out his wonderfully unhinged performance in Furiosa.

Visit D. W. Gillespie's website.

--Marshal Zeringue