Chris Marie Green's "Only the Good Die Young"

Chris Marie Green is the author of Only the Good Die Young, the first book in the Jensen Murphy, Ghost for Hire series from Penguin/Roc, which features a fun-loving spirit from the ’80s. She also wrote the urban fantasy Vampire Babylon series from Ace Books as well as The She Code, a “geek lit”/chick lit/new adult hybrid with comic book art work by Billy Martinez of Neko Press Comics.

Here Green dreamcasts an adaptation of Only the Good Die Young:

Only the Good Die Young is about a ghost, Jensen Murphy, who has been caught in a time loop where she’s been experiencing her death over and over again. Unfortunately, since Jensen was murdered, and her death was violent, she’s blocked out the identity of the maniac who ended her life. Enter Amanda Lee Minter, a psychic/medium who pulls her out of this time loop for a good purpose—to help solve a modern killing. In fact, Amanda Lee hopes that Jensen will be able to haunt a confession out of the man who may or may not be guilty, and then they can start solving Jensen’s crime…

When I created Jensen, I had a definite template for her character since I wanted to bring back the crazy grittiness of my favorite ’80s slasher movies. So I used one of the best “final girls” ever—Ginny Field from Friday the 13th, Part II. She was played by a young Amy Steel, who had strawberry blond hair and a down-to-earth, girl-next-door vibe. Today, I think someone like Jane Levy from TV’s Suburgatory could capture Jensen’s essence (if she lightened her hair.

The role of Amanda Lee Minter is key, and I think a makeup-aged Michelle Fairley would be so very ideal. (Yes, I am a huge Game of Thrones fan!) The murder plot casting would be important, too. The main suspect, Gavin Edgett, is a brooding, cryptic man who fascinates Jensen, and he would’ve been perfect for a young Russell Crowe, especially in his L.A. Confidential days. Mark Wahlberg might be really interesting here nowadays. Gavin’s much younger adopted sister, Wendy, would be good for a fifteen-year-old spunky unknown Chinese actress to shine in—the same goes for her adopted Mexican brother, Noah. Their sister Farah would be great for a sultry beauty like Minka Kelly. (Hey, if I could put every Friday Night Lights cast member in this, I would.)

The ghosts would be a dream to cast—everyone from eternally drunk Petty Officer Randy Randall from the 1940’s (Rory Culkin!), to his contemporary, African-American war factory worker Louis (Lennie James) to Twyla, another ghost from the ’80s who is half Cyndi Lauper and half Cure fan—literally (major dream casting—Anna Kendrick). There’s also a spirit called “fake Dean.” Since he’s a maddening cypher to Jensen as he tries to lure her to an alternate part of Boo World called the Star Place, I can’t go into detail about his character, but he sure isn’t human. Yet he is very tempting, adapting the guise of Jensen’s first love on the earthly plane. He was a surfer, a sexy smart guy who left Jensen behind to go to college across the country before she died. I imagined Sons of Anarchy’s Charlie Hunnam in the part since he is pretty much sex on wheels, in my humble opinion.

Visit Chris Marie Green's website, Facebook page, and Twitter perch.

Writers Read: Chris Marie Green.

The Page 69 Test: Only the Good Die Young.

--Marshal Zeringue

Eric Walters' "The Rule of Three"

Eric Walters, a former elementary-school teacher, is a bestselling children’s author in Canada. He is the founder of Creation of Hope, which provides care for orphans in the Makueni district of Kenya, and lives in Mississauga, Ontario.

Here the author dreamcasts an adaptation of his new novel, The Rule of Three:

The Rule of Three is the first in the trilogy about what happens when an air-borne computer virus takes out all the computers in the world. Instantly the entire planet is thrown back hundreds of years. There is no electricity, cars, trucks, airplanes, communications or telecommunications, no pumps for water or machines to produce and deliver food. My main character, Adam, is a high school senior. He is a fairly serious young man who is taking flying lessons because he hopes to follow in his father’s footsteps and become a pilot. His mother is the captain of the local police station and becomes the defacto leader when the community is thrown into chaos.

There is also a retired neighbor, Herb, who claims he worked for the government as a ‘paper pusher’. In reality he was much more – a covert agent of the C.I.A. who has experience in societal breakdown – and the tools, weapons, supplies and mind-set to start to deal with the situation. He provides them with the instrumental means to transform their neighborhood into an armed camp to provide for and defend themselves, while Adam and his mother provide the moral compass to preserve and respect life.

Adam’s mother – the police captain – is a source of calm and quiet despite the fact she is dealing with a world that has gone completely wrong. I see her as being played by Meryl Streep. In part this is simply an admission that that woman could play anything and do it believably. I’d love to just watch her act out the situations I’ve crafted and to have my words come out of her mouth ... well ... that would be amazing.

Herb is so clear in my mind because I’ve already visualized him – Sean Connery. The original James Bond always seemed to be in control. Connery has an air about him that he knows what’s going to happen and he’s the man who will make it happen. Rather than being a senior citizen who sits on his porch and yells at kids to get off his grass, he has the ability to transform himself into what he was/is – a trained killer, a man who can do whatever needs to be done. Does anybody really want to get Sean Connery mad at them? As well he has the force of personality to bend the will of others to his cause. He could convince people of what needed to be done.

Adam is young – sixteen – so is far too young for most established actors. I see him being played by Chandler Riggs of Walking Dead. Not only does he have experience in this sort of big-time ‘end of the world’ story but he would bring to the character a sort of innocence that gives way to having to do what needs to be done – including killing people. I’ve been impressed with his evolution in the series and his skill as an actor. I’d think he’d make a great Adam.

Visit Eric Walters' website and follow him on Twitter.

--Marshal Zeringue

Aram Goudsouzian's "Down to the Crossroads"

Aram Goudsouzian is chair of the history department at the University of Memphis. He earned his B.A. from Colby College and his Ph.D. from Purdue University. He is the author of King of the Court: Bill Russell and the Basketball Revolution, The Hurricane of 1938, and Sidney Poitier: Man, Actor, Icon.

Here Goudsouzian dreamcasts an adaptation of his new book, Down to the Crossroads: Civil Rights, Black Power, and the Meredith March Against Fear:

It never crossed my mind until writing this piece, but Down to the Crossroads would make an amazing movie! Set against the dramatic backdrop of hot Mississippi highways, the march not only changed the course of American history, but also had incredibly uplifting moments, harrowing violence, and strong personalities battling for influence. Hollywood, I await your call.

The march had a cast of thousands, but it most revolves around three central figures: James Meredith, Stokely Carmichael, and Martin Luther King. All are juicy roles.

Meredith was a quirky, almost mystical hero – he had long believed in his special destiny, and after undergoing the extraordinary trial of integrating the University of Mississippi in 1962, he emerged even more unpredictable, individualistic, and complex. He was a deeply conservative man in the service of a great liberal movement. When a gunman wounded him on the second day of his solitary trek from Memphis to Jackson in June of 1966, it sparked a mass civil rights demonstration – both elevating Meredith and frustrating him, since he no longer controlled the march conducted in his name. The role demands the man whom many critics call our most underrated actor, Jeffrey Wright.

Carmichael vaulted into a political celebrity during the march. Born in Trinidad, raised in the Bronx, and educated at Howard, he loved to provoke and hated to compromise. He had just won a controversial election as chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, signaling its evolution into a radical organization. On the march, it was Carmichael who first led the cry for “Black Power!” He crackled with energy – appealing to poor rural blacks along the route, debating his fellow civil rights leaders, and jousting with the press. The role needs an actor of great charisma who can summon deep wells of rage and tender moments of human connection. After his tour de force in 12 Years a Slave, I nominate Chiwetel Ejiofor.

King, naturally, was the “star” of the march, as his presence pulled in everyone from national reporters to local sharecroppers. These three weeks in Mississippi tested him as never before. Again and again, he had to communicate the concrete goals of liberals while expressing the angry discontent of the radicals. He injected people with pride and resolve, but he faced his own bouts of deep self-doubt and genuine fear. The role needs an actor who can project moral righteousness with an undertone of sadness – it’s perfect for “Bunk” from The Wire, Wendell Pierce.

Visit Aram Goudsouzian's website and Facebook page.

The Page 99 Test: Down to the Crossroads.

--Marshal Zeringue

M.L. Brennan's "Iron Night"

M.L. Brennan's first novel, Generation V, was published in 2013 from ROC Books, and is a work of urban fantasy. Its sequel, Iron Night, was published January 7, 2014. The third book in the series is Tainted Blood and will be available in November 2014.

Here Brennan dreamcasts an adaptation of Iron Night:

With one exception, I’ve never been the kind of writer who goes into a project with a cast of actors in mind to represent the characters. My characters tend to be a bit more of a collage of reference points that help me pinpoint attitude and outlook – for example, one of my characters, Suzume Hollis, was formed from one slow-motion strut into battle that I saw Laurie Jupiter (played by Malin Akerman) perform in Watchmen. But when it comes to my book Iron Night, I’ve had the opportunity to work with most of these characters for a while now, so this actually was much easier to do than I had ever expected.

My main character, Fortitude Scott, is the unlikeliest slacker vampire imaginable, a disappointment to his family, who isn’t a tough action hero, but as close to an everyman as possible. To play him I would choose Zachary Levi, who played the fish-out-of-water unwilling spy in Chuck. To play Fort’s older brother Chivalry, definitely Benedict Cumberbatch in Star Trek: Into Darkness fitness level – I think the physical dichotomy between the two would perfectly express all of their underlying differences. Fort’s sociopathic older sister Prudence would be played by Nicole Kidman, who is both the right age for the part and also capable of the right level of inhuman creepiness and coldhearted calculation. The matriarch of this vampire family is Madeline Scott, whose terrifying nature is hidden behind a veneer of dotty old lady, and who else could best capture that than Dame Maggie Smith?

That takes care of my vampires. Fort’s best ally, tormenter, and best friend is the dangerous prankster kitsune Suzume Hollis – this was probably the casting choice that took me the longest, and it’s not perfect, but Rinko Kikuchi (of Pacific Rim and Brothers Bloom) might have the range and physical toughness. This is the second book in my series, and there are some new characters, notably the half-elf Lilah who gets pulled in way over her head as she finds herself torn between family loyalty and justice – that part would be perfect for Kristen Connolly, who could probably just copy and paste her approach to Cabin in the Woods. There’s also a new and dangerous foe in this book, probably one of the creepiest I’ve written, and another character who hides a deadly nature beneath a deceptive façade – Soli would be a perfect character for Sofia Vergara of Modern Family.

That leaves just the humans – Fort’s roommate Gage is only in the book for a chapter until he is horribly murdered (I’m not giving away spoilers, it’s on the back!) but his inherent decency and friendship with Fort is one of the engines behind this book as Fort puts himself in danger to try and get justice for his friend. Gage would only be on screen for fifteen minutes at the most, but who better to play him than Chris Hemsworth (mostly known from Thor, but for Gage I think the best reference is his performance in Cabin in the Woods). And last but not least is the one character who was always based on an actual actor – grizzled private investigator Matt McMahon has doggedly been investigating the deaths of Fort’s foster parents for over a decade, unaware that Fort has been keeping the truth from him for his own safety, and completely in the dark about the things that go bump in the night. Jason Beghe played Mike Royce, Detective Beckett’s training officer, on an episode of Castle, and has always been my model for Matt McMahon.

Visit M.L. Brennan's website, Facebook page, and Twitter perch.

The Page 69 Test: Iron Night.

--Marshal Zeringue

Catherine Tidd's "Confessions of a Mediocre Widow"

Catherine Tidd is the owner of theWiddahood.com and the author of Confessions of a Mediocre Widow.

Here she shares some suggestions for casting an adaptation of her memoir:

I’m not sure if I’ll ever be able to forgive Brad for suddenly leaving me with three children under the age of five, no job, and a mortgage on a house that we bought because he liked the location. Oh, I know it wasn’t his choice. It’s not like I sit around picturing him up on a cloud in a chaise lounge, fruity beverage in hand, waving down to me and saying, “Have fun down there!” But there have been moments of deep darkness—as I figured out the bills, health insurance, and child rearing alone—when I have wondered if he didn’t get the better part of this deal.

I would imagine that casting a movie based on a memoir would be much like the actual writing of the memoir – slightly difficult because you want to stay as true to the people you’re writing about as you possibly can.

But when it comes to casting these roles, it’s less about the look of the actor and more about who can capture the spirit of the actual person. And so here are my picks for my memoir, Confessions of a Mediocre Widow, and a few reasons why I chose these amazing actors.

Brad (Matt Damon): Matt Damon has shown he has the depth to play a caring, but spunky father. He can be funny, carry a line with a twinkle in his eye, and still pull off a brilliant character (my husband was a rocket scientist). Perfect.

Catherine (Ginnifer Goodwin): I chose Ginnifer to play me because I believe that she has an expressive face and could pull of the “deer in the headlights” look, which is how I’ve felt for most of my widowhood. But I also believe she can be funny while delivering an emotional line. Good combo.

Haley (Joey King): She was an adorable girl who has turned into a beautiful teenager, just like my daughter. I believe that she could handle playing the caring, witty person Haley is.

Michael (CJ Adams): Who couldn’t love this kid? I believe he could pull off the quiet, smart, mellow mannerisms of my son – with a few tantrums in there just to let us know that he is actually human.

Sarah (Maggie Elizabeth Jones): SPUNK. That is Sarah. You never know what’s going to come out of her mouth, but you just can’t get mad at that face.

Kristi (Kristin Wiig): Only someone sharp and witty could play my sister. Kristin Wiig could deliver those funny, no nonsense lines without a problem.

Mom (Blythe Danner): Funny and versatile, I could imagine myself (my character) being comforted by Blythe Danner. She would be the perfect person to play how amazing and capable my mother is.

Dad (Tom Selleck): Something that I’ve heard over and over about my dad is that “he has a presence.” He’s funny, handsome, and caring. And he looks just like Tom Selleck (how lucky am I?).

Mike (Kevin James): One of the funniest people I know…this part has to go to a great comedian.

Visit Catherine Tidd's website and Facebook page.

--Marshal Zeringue

Kyle Minor's "Praying Drunk"

Kyle Minor is the author of two collections of stories: In the Devil’s Territory (2008) and Praying Drunk (2014). He is the winner of the 2012 Iowa Review Prize for Short Fiction and the Tara M. Kroger Prize for Short Fiction, one of Random House’s Best New Voices of 2006, and a three-time honoree in the Atlantic Monthly contest. His work has appeared online at Esquire and Tin House, and in print in The Southern Review, The Iowa Review, Best American Mystery Stories 2008, Twentysomething Essays by Twentysomething Writers, Forty Stories: New Voices from Harper Perennial, and Best American Nonrequired Reading 2013.

Here Minor shares his suggestion for the director of an adaptation of Praying Drunk:

One of the conceits at the center of Praying Drunk is that the stories in it are written from a literally realized fundamentalist Christian heaven, which is a dreary place:

The streets are paved with gold and lined with jewels. The sky shines with emeralds, diamonds, and rubies. The buildings are constructed of edifices of greens and reds and the fiercest blue. Nobody needs to sleep or make money, so nobody has to work or make a home. Big G makes us crowns, but all we're supposed to do is throw them at His feet. All the songs are triumphant and resolve to a minor key. It's pretty boring after a while.

The only other thing for most people to do to pass an eternity's worth of time is to drink liquor, blow fire, and pray. The climate is milder than hell, but they get all the movies and the hard drugs. Maybe it would have been better if we all had ended up there. I once spent a century honing a seventy-ton rock into compliant and foldable pages. I bound them with iron. I've written 397 books so far, which is nothing compared to my friend Joyce. There's nothing new in terms of material, so those of us who write stories keep grinding on the same material, in new versions, from new points of view, in new genres, trying to figure out what all that was, back when there was something to risk, when life was for living. When I retold the story about the suicide the last time, I added a robot, but it was a mistake. It wasn't enough: That story needed seventy-three robots, twelve pirates, three Vikings, three zombies, seven murders in polygamist cults, two slow trains to Bangkok, three bejeweled elephants in the court of Catherine the Great, six scarlet-threaded elevators to space, fourteen backlit liquor bars in Amsterdam, five bearded men spinning plates on top of thirty-foot poles in Central Park, four mechanical rabbits, three alarm clocks, two magic tricks, twenty-four test tubes, the Brooklyn Bridge, the London Bridge, the boob doctor's daughter...

So there's really only one writer-director with whom to trust the material -- the stories-within-stories, the stories held up as mirrors one to another, the stories and their sequels, the stories turned inside-out and outside-in, the stories that want us all to live forever and the stories that say enough with the living forever -- and that's Charlie Kaufman, maker of true things, or maybe Charlie Kaufman in collaboration with Michel Gondry or Spike Jonze. It's true I spent ten years writing this book, and I did the best I could do, and I offer it in the hope that it will make the reader feel so much, with the promise that it cost me much more than time to get it on the page, but I have little doubt -- almost zero -- that if Charlie Kaufman made the movie version, it would be better than the book version, because everything Charlie Kaufman makes is better than everything every bookmaker makes, he's undone me so many times, I always come away astonished and surprised, how could I not believe he could do it?

Learn more about Kyle Minor and his work at his website and Facebook page.

Writers Read: Kyle Minor.

--Marshal Zeringue

Allen Steele's "V-S Day"

Allen Steele was born in Nashville, Tennessee, and received his B.A. in Communications from New England College and a Masters Degree in Journalism from the University of Missouri. Before turning to science fiction, he worked as a staff writer for newspapers in Tennessee, Missouri, and Massachusetts, as well as Washington, D.C. His novels include Orbital Decay; Lunar Descent; Clarke County, Space; Labyrinth of Night; Jericho Iteration; The Tranquility Alternative; Oceanspace, and Chronospace. He is a two-time winner of the Hugo Award in the novella category.

Here Steele shares some ideas for an adaptation of his new novel, V-S Day:

It's not hard at all to see V-S Day becoming a movie. In no small way, this book springs from a past attempt to do just that.

One of my first published stories was "Goddard's People," an alternate-history story about what might have happened if the Space Race had occurred during World War II, with Robert H. Goddard and Wernher von Braun as the antagonists. As I explain in a long afterword to the novel, the story was originally intended to be a novel, but for various reasons I decided instead to reduce it to short-fiction length. After it was published in 1991, the story was twice optioned for the movies. The first time, I wrote the screenplay myself, expanding the original story (which took the form of pseudo-journalism) by expanding and dramatizing the major scenes while also adding new ones . The screenplay went through several drafts, but ultimately went nowhere; the producer-director who optioned "Goddard's People" was unable to find studio interest, so in the end it wound up in my file cabinet, where it remained for the next decade or so (the second time the story was optioned, I had nothing to do with the production; this attempt failed as well).

A couple of years ago, while searching my files for something else entirely, I stumbled upon the screenplay, and out of curiosity I pulled it out and re-read it. It was then that I realized that "Goddard's People" really should have been a novel all along. So I used the screenplay as the skeleton for a full-fledged novel, and again expanded it considerably by writing new scenes and including new characters (notably Robert Goddard's wife Esther, who was only briefly mentioned in both story and screenplay). I also had the benefit of more than a decade of new historical research into both Goddard and the Nazi rocket program, and therefore was able to correct some errors which occurred in the previous efforts.

So it's no accident that V-S Day often has a cinematic feel to it. On several occasions, I lifted scenes straight from the screenplay, describing them just as I imagined they would have been filmed. I also had the benefit of being able to draw upon pre-production art done by the noted space artist Ron Miller. The result is a book which almost seems like a novelization of a movie that never was.

Although it's science fiction, I took the approach of treating V-S Day (and before that, the "Goddard's People" screenplay) as if it was a WWII adventure story concerning events that never happened, rather like Alistair MacLean's classic novel The Guns of Navarone and the movie that came from it (or, more recently, Quentin Tarantino's movie Inglorious Basterds). So I imagine a movie of V-S Day would be much the same way. Although I never thought of the historical figures in the novel as anyone but themselves, it's pretty easy to imagine who could play them in the movie: Ben Kingsley as Robert Goddard, Christoph Waltz as Wernher von Braun, and Cameron Diaz as Esther Goddard. I could imagine it being directed by someone who's done this kind of movie in the recent past. Tarantino might be a stretch; on the basis of trailers I've seen for The Monuments Men, I think George Clooney could pull this off.

Not only that, but many scenes could be filmed on location, particularly in Worcester, Massachusetts. City Hall has changed very little in the last 60 years, Union Station has been recently restored, and while researching the book I located Dr. Goddard's former lab in the basement of the Science Building on the Clark University campus (it's now being used as a machine shop). The sportman's club in the novel is closely based on one that actually exists in rural New Hampshire -- I used to live down the road from it many years ago while I was writing "Goddard's People"), and although I haven't visited it myself, I understand that Dr. Goddard's lab in New Mexico still exists and has been preserved as a historic site. The potential for location shooting was taken into consideration during both previous attempts to make a movie from the original story, and it's even better today.

V-S Day would make a great movie. I'd love to see it optioned again. Who knows? Maybe the third time will be the charm.

Learn more about the book and author at Allen Steele's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

Carol Berkin's "Wondrous Beauty"

Carol Berkin, Presidential Professor of History, Emerita at Baruch College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, is the author of A Brilliant Solution: Inventing the American Constitution, First Generations, and Jonathan Sewall.

Here she dreamcasts an adaptation of her new book, Wondrous Beauty: The Life and Adventures of Elizabeth Patterson Bonaparte:

Ah…who has not fantasized about casting the movie version of a book? I have spent many an hour with close friends, sipping Malbec and arguing good-naturedly over who should be cast if some smart producer decides to put Wondrous Beauty on the wide screen. Who should play Betsy Bonaparte, her lily-livered husband Jerome Bonaparte, her oppressive father, her many hapless and scorned suitors, her son and grandsons—and, of course, Napoleon?

For the young Betsy—Jennifer Lawrence? No, somehow not right. Keira Knightley? A good choice, and she should be comfortable in period clothing after all those historical dramas. Natalie Portman—another good choice; she has Betsy’s delicate beauty. Finally, Sarah Michelle Gellar, who I think is underrated as an actress. Whoever takes the challenge, she will have to be able to make a believable transition from naïve young American romantic to sophisticated, fiercely independent, witty and sarcastic expatriot to bitter and isolated old woman.

And for Jerome—egotistical, profligate, but a man who knows how to charm women? Well, what American woman wouldn’t want Ryan Gosling in any movie she can be on-the-set for? Who cares if Jerome was short and dark and Gosling is blond? That’s why the gods invented hair coloring…. On the other hand, Gosling’s fellow Mouseketeer, Justin Timberlake might be able to pull off Jerome’s swarminess. I’d like to see Liev Schreiber as her father—he has the intensity William needs, but my friends prefer Kevin Spacey. For her Russian lover, Viggo Mortensen would be perfect.

And for Napoleon—I am stumped.

Read more about Wondrous Beauty at the publisher's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

Tessa Harris's "The Devil's Breath"

Since leaving Oxford University with a History degree, Tessa Harris has been a journalist and editor, contributing to many national publications such as the Times and the Telegraph.

Here Harris dreamcasts an adaptation of The Devil's Breath, the third novel in her Dr Thomas Silkstone Mystery series.

My Dr Thomas Silkstone mystery series actually started life as a screenplay. The premise was this: a young 18th century anatomist from Philadelphia crosses swords with another (less morally scrupulous) practitioner in London in an action-packed tale based on a true story. The script was optioned but remained languishing in so-called ‘development hell’. Determined that none of my vast research into the period should be wasted, however, I decided to develop my main character. Dr Thomas Silkstone was born. Based on a real-life anatomist by the name of Dr William Shippen Jnr, he was intelligent, handsome, sophisticated, and above all, a voice of reason in an age where old practices and attitudes were clashing with Enlightenment thinking.

I didn’t have an actor in mind to play Thomas, although I’d pictured him so many times. I just couldn’t think of someone sufficiently appealing but moody and suave enough. Until, that is, I saw Twilight in 2008. The first time I set eyes on Robert Pattinson I knew instantly he was my perfect Thomas. Ignoring his vampire tendencies, here was a young man, cool on the outside, yet caring and sensitive on the in.

As for his love interest, Lady Lydia Farrell, there could only ever be one actress. Dark, beautiful, and hiding a terrible secret that makes us see her as a tragic figure, it could only be the fabulous Keira Knightley.

There are other characters who keep reappearing in my series. The portly Oxford coroner, Sir Theodosius Pettigrew, is a bon viveur and a great ally to Thomas. Robbie Coltrane would be my first choice. The role of Dr Williiam Carruthers, Thomas’s blind and benign mentor, would go to an actor whom I’ve personally interviewed for a magazine article, Sir Anthony Hopkins. And as for Thomas’ nemesis and the villain of the piece Sir Montagu Malthus? He’s a domineering lawyer with a Machiavellian streak. I describe him as “a great raven of a man” and I’d give the part to Ciarán Hinds, a great character actor who’s recently appeared Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2, The Woman in Black and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and Game of Thrones on TV.

So, there you have my dream team of actors should any of my novels make it to the screen. A major production company has recently expressed interest in the series and I’m currently adapting The Anatomist’s Apprentice for TV, so who knows? The dream might soon be turning to reality!

Visit Tessa Harris's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

Cora Harrison's "Cross of Vengeance"

Cora Harrison was born in County Cork in Southern Ireland and was educated in Cork city. After graduating from the National University of Ireland with a degree in French & German, she went to London and worked as a Personal Assistant to the Managing Director of the Linguaphone Institute (language teaching through the audio-visual method).

She married and had two children, staying at home with them until they were school age, and then started teaching. She was a teacher for twenty-five years – ten of which were spent as a headteacher. During these years she and her husband bought a small farm of twenty acres (with an Iron Age fort, stone cottage and river), which they used as a holiday cottage until they retired. Inspired by this place, she began writing books after her retirement, starting with the seventeen books in the Drumshee Timeline series, which told the history of Ireland through the lives of the people who lived on the little farm, from Iron Age times right up to the present.

In 2007 she wrote her first book for adults – the first in a series of detective stories which were placed on the nearby area known as the Burren, whose history and landscape form the background to her 'Mara the Brehon' series.

Here Harrison shares some ideas about an adaptation of the series:

The Burren mysteries are set in the mid-west of Ireland bordering on the Atlantic Ocean. There are ten books so far and each feature a murder to be solved by the Judge of the area: in the case of the Burren in the early sixteenth century this was one of the O’Davoren clan, in my books it is the invented woman, Mara O’Davoren, who has qualified as a Brehon and taken over from her father.

But if ever my Burren mysteries were to be filmed then there would be two starring roles.

The first is the landscape of the Burren; that one hundred-square-mile grey limestone plateaux dotted with lakes and spiralling mountains carved out in the Second Ice Age.

On a sunny day the place is a camera man’s dream with the Atlantic light drawing silver streaks from the stone, and exquisite tiny flowers in purples, pinks, cream and yellow from the Alpine and Arctic regions, marking the cracks or grykes of the limestone clints. A backdrop, some would say but I think of this clean, wind-swept environment as forming the character of the people who lived and farmed there and I think of it as an essential factor in the make-up of my principal character, Mara O’Davoren.

The O’Davoren law school existed right into the latter half of the 16th century and its ruins still remain on the edge of the Burren, but Mara, herself, is my own creation. I had read that there was once a female Brehon (a Brehon is a Judge and Investigating Magistrate) who had reproved a young male judge for a bad verdict and had told him that the pimples on his cheeks were the sign that inwardly he knew that he had been unjust. He reversed his judgement and the pimples disappeared. I was so taken by this that I created Mara, aged 37, divorced mother of a daughter, formidable in intellect, but possessing the female skills of ability to negotiate, tact and an instinctive understanding of human nature, attractive with black hair which she pins up behind her head, and dressing in well-fitting gowns – mostly of greens and browns which match the colour of her eyes – large hazel-coloured eyes, set beneath well-marked black brows.

I even found a model for a gown from an archaeological excavation of the area when this dress [photo left], dating from the sixteenth century, just the era that I was writing about, turned up buried deep in a bog in County Clare, not far from my stories are set.

It was perfect for Mara who, I reckoned, would always be careful of her appearance, would feel that she represented the face of justice in the area and had to earn the respect of the people in the kingdom who so willingly obeyed her decrees.

So who would I choose to act the part of Mara? Well, for that I have to go back to an icon of my youth, the film star that I desperately wanted to look like.

If I could have my dream, it would be Audrey Hepburn – I loved everything about her, her eyes, her hair, her movements and best of all, for my character of this attractive young judge who was obeyed and respected by the people of the Burren, Audrey Hepburn always seemed to be very intelligent, full of charisma and possessing a natural dignity – the sort of person that would be obeyed by others. I think that she could do the role very well.

Visit Cora Harrison's website.

--Marshal Zeringue