Meera Lester's "The Murder of a Queen Bee"

Meera Lester is the author of nearly two dozen nonfiction books and the proprietress of the real Henny Penny Farmette, located in the San Francisco Bay area. Raising chickens and honeybees, she draws on her life at her farmette as the basis of her Henny Penny Farmette mysteries.

Here Lester dreamcasts an adaptation of her second Henny Penny Farmette mystery, The Murder of a Queen Bee:

At the start of one of my mysteries, I create an “incident board.” This board contains the names of my story’s characters, their relationship to the victim, and columns for motivation, opportunity, and means to commit murder. On the board, I tape magazine photos of my sleuth, the victim, and the suspects. The English actress Honeysuckle Weeks her Foyle’s War role as Samantha (Sam) Stewart embodies many of my 37-year-old sleuth Abigail Mackenzie’s Abby’s features, qualities, and vulnerabilities. Like Weeks, Abby looks younger than she is. She has shoulder-length reddish-gold curls, a dusting of freckles over her nose, and the capable hands of a farm woman—efficient at kneading bread, cutting capped cells of wax on a frame of honey, or taking down a perp with Judo moves she learned as a cop back in the day. Like Weeks, Abby projects a blend of being forthright and inquisitive while also demonstrating a quiet vulnerability (especially in the romantic arena). On personal issues, she remains intensely private.

The actress Katherine Heigl could easily portray Officer Katerina Petrovsky, Abby’s former cop partner and best friend in Las Flores, California. A career-ending injury to Abby’s right thumb (her shooting hand) also ended her ability to play the violin (a private joy). In The Murder of a Queen Bee (like A Beeline to Murder, the first book in the series), Abby works at carving out a new life as the owner of a rundown farmette. She ekes out a living growing and selling her heirloom vegetables and fruits, keeping chickens and bees, and harvesting lavender honey. And occasionally, she’ll take some part-time investigative work with the local DA’s office. It’s Kat who isn’t afraid to speak up about Abby’s “money pit” or the ticking of Abby’s biological clock. Because she knows Abby wants to “nest.” Heigl has done sassy and empathetic aspects of characters in her various roles and she looks a lot like Kat. Bryan Cranston would fill the boots of the enigmatic Chief of Police Bob Allen. Few people can understand the chief. Abby compares him to an onion--multi-layered with a small, insecure boy at the center.

Murder is the necessary critical situation that launches each of my mysteries. I write them cinematically—that is visually descriptive and patterned as an emotional roller-coaster. Abby working through the ensuing investigation dictates how the story unfolds. Add in an entertaining coterie of friends, a generous helping of charm, a dash of small town flavor, the twist of a second or third murder, and a satisfying ending and you get escape fiction that’s a fun read.

Visit Meera Lester's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

Alexandra Chasin's "Assassin of Youth"

Alexandra Chasin is associate professor of literary studies at Eugene Lang College, the New School. She is the author of several books of fiction and nonfiction.

Here she dreamcasts an adaptation of her new book, Assassin of Youth: A Kaleidoscopic History of Harry J. Anslinger's War on Drugs:

To play Anslinger, there has never been any question in my mind: Woody Harrelson actually looks like Harry J. Anslinger, and with his pro-pot politics, he would be perfect.

Harry J. Anslinger was commissioner of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics from its founding in 1930 until his retirement in 1962. He was like the J. Edgar Hoover of drugs, but without the personality. Anslinger was a consummate bureaucrat, surviving both Republican and Democratic administrations. He passed federal legislation criminalizing marijuana, and supported harsh penalties (including compound penalties for repeat offenders), and mandatory minimum sentencing. And he had a particular genius for propaganda, forging indelible connections between certain drugs and certain racial and immigrant groups. In other words, he started the war on drugs, long before Nixon’s declaration in the 1960s and the Rockefeller Drug Laws of 1973.

But before all that, Harry grew up in Altoona, the sixth of nine children born to a couple who had immigrated from Switzerland just a few years earlier. Altoona was a company town, the headquarters of the mechanical shops of the Pennsylvania Railroad, and Anslinger worked his way up through the PRR, learning the ways of the ascendant corporation (the PRR was the largest private corporation in the world at the time) before taking those lessons with him into government service.

So, he was a rigid, doctrinaire Midwesterner who could make the trains run on time. Though friends describe him as having a sense of humor, there is not much funny about his contributions to the mass incarceration system, which so disproportionally damages African-American and Latino men, their families, and communities, that it looks like that’s what the war on drugs is for.

Visit Alexandra Chasin's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

William C. Dietz's "Into the Guns"

New York Times bestselling author William C. Dietz has published more than fifty novels some of which have been translated into German, French, Russian, Korean and Japanese. Dietz also wrote the script for the Legion of the Damned game (i-Phone, i-Touch, & i-Pad) based on his book of the same name--and co-wrote SONY's Resistance: Burning Skies game for the PS Vita.

He grew up in the Seattle area, spent time with the Navy and Marine Corps as a medic, graduated from the University of Washington, lived in Africa for half a year, and has traveled to six continents. He has been employed as a surgical technician, college instructor, news writer, television producer and Director of Public Relations and Marketing for an international telephone company.

Dietz is a member of the Writer’s Guild and the International Association of Media Tie-In Writers. He and his wife live near Gig Harbor in Washington State where they enjoy traveling, kayaking, and reading books.

Here Dietz dreamcasts an adaptation of his new novel, Into the Guns:

On May Day, 2018, sixty meteors entered Earth’s atmosphere and exploded around the globe with a force greater than a nuclear blast. Earthquakes and tsunamis followed. Then China attacked Europe, Asia, and the United States in the belief the disaster was an act of war.

Washington D.C. was a casualty of the meteor onslaught that decimated the nation’s leadership and left the surviving elements of the armed forces to try and restore order as American society fell apart. As refugees across America band together and engage in open warfare with the military over scarce resources, a select group of individuals representing the surviving corporate structure makes a power play to rebuild the country in a free market image as The New Confederacy.

Into The Guns has two main characters, a young army officer named Robin Macintyre (Mac), and Secretary of Energy Samuel T. Sloan, who is elevated to the presidency after Washington D.C. takes a direct hit from one of the meteors.

My choice for an actress to play Mac is Kristen Stewart, who has a long list of screen credits, and a demonstrated ability to play action roles. In my opinion there is a great hard/soft aspect to Stewart’s persona which would be perfect for the role of Robin Macintyre.

And for the role of Samuel T. Sloan I would choose actor Chris Pine, who has a proven ability to handle action roles (three Star Trek movies plus Shadow Recruit) and is the right age for the part. There, I’m ready to go! Hold on… The phone’s ringing. Could that be Hollywood>

Visit William C. Dietz's website, Facebook page, and Twitter perch.

The Page 69 Test: Into the Guns.

--Marshal Zeringue

Lis Wiehl's "The Candidate"

Lis Wiehl, author of The Candidate: A Newsmaker Novel is the New York Times bestselling author of over a dozen novels. She is a Harvard Law School graduate and has served as a federal prosecutor in the state of Washington and as a tenured faculty member at The University Washington School of Law. She is currently a popular legal analyst and commentator for the Fox News Channel.

Here Wiehl dreamcasts an adaptation of The Candidate:

In the movie of The Candidate, there are two actresses who I think would do an amazing job playing Erica Sparks. The first is Mila Kunis. Erica is blonde and blue-eyed and Mila is a brunette with dark eyes, but she shares a lot of other traits with Erica. I recently saw her in Bad Moms and thought she was dynamic, smart, sexy, funny and fearless. I also think she has real movie star presence. I could imagine her tearing up the screen as Erica. Mila, are you listening?

My other choice would be Emma Stone, who I think is absolutely captivating. She radiates intelligence and warmth with a hint of vulnerability and neurosis lurking just below the surface. Erica is a conflicted woman with a dark past, and I think Emma could capture this perfectly. I think she’s one of the most gifted actresses working today. Not only she is believable, you can’t take your eyes off her. Emma, call me anytime.

As for Erica’s fiancé, Greg Underwood, I’d love to see Ryan Gosling in the role. Not because he’s a terrific actor, which he is, but because I’d get to meet him and make a total fool of myself. Seriously, I think he’s a major talent with star quality, and would be believable as a former war photographer who has moved into producing television news. He also has incredible on-screen chemistry with Emma Stone -- and, yes, he’s a drop-dead dreamboat. My crush aside, I could also see Mark Ruffalo or Toby Maguire as Greg.

Visit Lis Wiehl's website, and connect with her on Facebook and Twitter.

--Marshal Zeringue

Colin Gigl's "The Ferryman Institute"

In Colin Gigl's debut novel, The Ferryman Institute--

Ferryman Charlie Dawson saves dead people—somebody has to convince them to move on to the afterlife, after all. Having never failed a single assignment, he's acquired a reputation for success that’s as legendary as it is unwanted. It turns out that serving as a Ferryman is causing Charlie to slowly lose his mind. Deemed too valuable by the Ferryman Institute to be let go and too stubborn to just give up in his own right, Charlie’s pretty much abandoned all hope of escaping his grim existence. Or he had, anyway, until he saved Alice Spiegel.

Here Gigl dreamcasts an adaptation of The Ferryman Institute:

Oh, boy -- straight into the dream zone with this one, eh? This is going to be total flight-of-fancy stuff, but here goes.

Director: Spielberg for me. He handles whimsy and fantastical stories as well as more grounded ones, and since The Ferryman Institute is a bit of both, I think it'd be right in his wheelhouse.

For Charlie, I've always had a soft-spot for Chris Pratt. I think he has a wonderful balance of comedy and earnestness that I believe are Charlie's core tenants. Nathan Fillion would be great for those same reasons.

Alice is tougher as I feel like the current crop of leading ladies is inordinately talented. Jennifer Lawrence, Emma Stone, Emma Watson... I think all of them would bring a fascinating take on Alice to the table. As a character, she has a dry, morbid view of life burying a little glimmer of hope she's holding on to, and I could see all those actresses bringing that out on screen.

Visit Colin Gigl's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

Catherine A. Honeyman's "The Orderly Entrepreneur"

Catherine A. Honeyman is Visiting Scholar at the Duke Center for International Development and Managing Director of Ishya Consulting. Here she shares her idea for casting an adaptation of the book:

Picture an aerial shot of Kigali's rolling green hills after the genocide, panning down to a dirt road covered in a layer of orange dust. An adolescent boy takes a passenger on his motorcycle and collects the fare. Down the road, another boy sells grilled corn from a curbside stool. A girl hawks telephone airtime to passersby. A young man carries a bundle of chickens who seem passively resigned to their fate. Another boy hoists a cardboard box aloft, packed full of tissues and sweets for sale.

Pocketing their earnings, these young Rwandans set off to buy pens and notebooks, pay school fees, and shrug on their uniforms, joining thousands of other Rwandan schoolchildren on the trek to school.

Flash forward and we see government offices where new policies are being discussed, plans to create a generation of more entrepreneurial Rwandan youth. Curriculum developers debate the definitions students will need to memorize, the regulations they will need to master, in a new Rwanda with a progressive vision of orderly development. A Rwanda in which the street-side lemonade stand wouldn’t be an iconic image of youthful business initiative—it would be disorderly conduct, plain and simple.
So begins The Orderly Entrepreneur when I imagine it as a movie, following these young people through their efforts to earn school fees so they can get a better job one day, and following policy-makers and teachers through their efforts to teach a well-regulated form of self-reliance.

I would cast the whole team from Africa United—that ingenious little film about a journey to see the World Cup—to tell this story. Roger Nsengiyumva, Eriya Ndayambaje, Sherrie Silver, Sanyu Joanita Kintu, and Yves Dusenge would be perfect for portraying Rwanda’s ordinary and extraordinary young people who don’t go to school to learn entrepreneurship—they are entrepreneurs just in order to go to school.

Visit Catherine Honeyman's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

David O. Stewart's "The Babe Ruth Deception"

David O. Stewart is the author of several works of history, including Madison’s Gift: Five Partnerships That Built America, which have been awarded the Washington Writing Award and the Society of the Cincinnati History Prize. His Fraser and Cook mystery novels are The Lincoln Deception, The Wilson Deception, and the newly released The Babe Ruth Deception.

Here Stewart dreamcasts an adaptation of The Babe Ruth Deception:

Since this is the third book in my Jamie Fraser/Speed Cook series of historical mysteries, I’m already on record that William Hurt is a natural for Dr. Fraser and Denzel Washington would kill in the juicy Speed Cook role as a washed-up ballplayer with an attitude.

But what about the Babe? In two major movies featuring the Babe, he was portrayed wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong. William Bendix in The Babe Ruth Story was clueless and unathletic, while John Goodman in The Babe was obese and twenty years too old.

In The Babe Ruth Deception, Babe is 25 years old, a prime physical specimen, arguably the finest athlete to play baseball for a couple of generations. No more fat, dopey actors playing the Babe.

In his younger days, Joe Don Baker would have been a great Babe Ruth – large and powerful, with a broad face that could be intimidating or charming. But Joe Don’s eighty years old.

My best candidate today is Chris Pratt, who was brilliant in the TV sitcom Parks and Recreation. Pratt actually portrayed a first baseman in Moneyball. He’s got the size and the physicality (he was a high school wrestler) and the acting chops to capture the Babe’s unique mixture of naivete, gusto, and street smarts.

We can’t forget the bad guys. For underworld gambling kingpin Arnold Rothstein – the man who fixed the 1919 World Series – we couldn’t do better than Michael Stuhlbarg, who portrayed Rothstein on the HBO Series Boardwalk Empire. If Stuhlbarg can’t face another turn in the role, Kevin Spacey can play anything, even Keyser Soze.

Finally, what to do about Abe Attell, Rothstein’s right-hand man, former flyweight champion of the world? He needs to be small but scary. Where’s Joe Pesci when you need him most? Maybe Giovanni Ribisi. With an edge.

Learn more about the book and author at David O. Stewart's website and blog.

My Book, The Movie: The Wilson Deception.

The Page 69 Test: The Wilson Deception.

--Marshal Zeringue

Michelle Brafman's "Bertrand Court"

Michelle Brafman is the author of Washing the Dead. Her short fiction and essays have appeared in The Washington Post, Tablet, The Los Angeles Review of Books, Slate, Lilith Magazine, the minnesota review, and elsewhere. She teaches fiction writing at the Johns Hopkins University MA in Writing Program and lives in Maryland with her husband and two children.

Here Brafman dreamcasts an adaptation of her new novel, Bertrand Court:

Of course, I’d be thrilled to see Bertrand Court made into a movie, but I’d be equally happy to for Netflix or Amazon to morph these linked stories into something delicious and binge-worthy. Think of a series with the tension and emotional complexity of The Americans and the premise of Knots Landing or Melrose Place, where all of the characters are connected via a common space, in this case a suburban Washington, DC cul-de-sac.

Bertrand Court will only work as an ensemble series with a large cast, so I’ll tackle the bigger parts first. I’ll start with Hannah, the volatile, hormonally challenged, emerging matriarch of the Solonsky family. Lizzy Caplan would make a heck of a Hannah Solonsky because they share a strength and crazy intensity that ripples beneath their perfect diction and birdlike frames. Hannah’s husband Danny calls for an actor with Paul Rudd’s stock good looks, affability, and ever-present sense of irony. Sandra Bullock could easily play Amy Solonsky, Hannah’s artsy sister, the self-proclaimed family fuck-up who in fact holds the tightest grip on reality. I’d cast Paul Giamatti as Eric Solonsky, Hannah and Amy’s genetically pudgy, unconventionally brilliant brother who marries Maggie Stramm, the ex-cheerleader who would never have given him a second glance in high school. The insufferable Maggie (played by Julie Bowen) marries Eric to bug her mother and prove that she’s neither anti-Semitic nor shallow. Truly, she’s not. The unapologetically exuberant Amanda Peet could play Hannah’s best friend, Becca Coopersmith, a seeker who throws herself into pole dancing and women’s drum circles. She’s wed to the dreamy and devoted Adam Kornfeld who might have contracted gonorrhea from one of the many characters who sleeps with Phil Scott, the Bertrand Court Lothario and sexy ugly photographer who can tap souls, but only through his viewfinder (played by a young David Caruso). As for Adam, who does dreamy, devoted, and unlucky better than Mark Ruffalo? He’ll be thrilled to learn that he’s in.

Visit Michelle Brafman's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

Don Bruns's "Casting Bones"

Don Bruns is an award-winning novelist, songwriter, musician and advertising executive who lives in South Florida. He is the author of five Mick Sever Caribbean mysteries, and seven Lesser and Moore mysteries.

Here Bruns dreamcasts the lead for an adaptation of his new novel, Casting Bones, the first book in a new series:

The protagonist in Casting Bones is Quentin Archer. Q is a homicide detective who is forced out of the Detroit Police force. His wife has been murdered, and the baggage he carries is sizable. Drawing a high-profile murder of a judge as one of his first assignments he finds himself under immense pressure to solve the murder in record time. He is helped by a young, attractive voodoo queen.

The actor I had in mind to play the detective is John Krasinski who had a starting role in TV’s The Office. I find him to be a very talented actor who has been grossly underutilized. Krasinski plays sarcasm well, has a warmth that draws viewers to his character and I detect the sadness and empathy that would be important to the character. If anyone knows him…send him a copy of Casting Bones!

Learn more about the book and author at Don Bruns' website.

--Marshal Zeringue

Caroline Leavitt's "Cruel Beautiful World"

Caroline Leavitt is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of Is This Tomorrow, Pictures of You, Girls In Trouble, and other books.

Here Leavitt dreamcasts an adaptation of her new novel, Cruel Beautiful World:

When I start to write a novel, I always tape up photos of people I think would be the characters. Mostly I use ordinary photos, from Humans of New York, usually. While I was writing Cruel Beautiful World, set in the 60s and the 70s, I thought of one actress for Lucy, the wild young 17-year-old who runs off with her older English teacher to a supposed back-to-the-land paradise which turns into a nightmare, I put up a shot of actress Julie Garner (Julie, I hope you are listening!) because she has the exact right vulnerability and impulsiveness. And she looks like a child of the sixties! For Iris, who thinks her life is over when she turns 80, and instead, she finds something extraordinary, I want Ellen Burstyn because how could I possibly not want her? And for Charlotte, who is forever trying to fix things and messing up, Emmy Rossum, who has that frenetic kind of determination and also looks like she could easily be 1960’d up!

And of course, I want to play a waitress in the film. I have always wanted to roll my eyes and say, “You want fries or don’t you?”

Learn more about the book and author at Caroline Leavitt's website and blog.

The Page 69 Test: Pictures of You.

My Book, the Movie: Pictures of You.

The Page 69 Test: Is This Tomorrow.

My Book, The Movie: Is This Tomorrow.

--Marshal Zeringue