Russel D. McLean's "Mothers of the Disappeared"

Russel D McLean is the author of several novels featuring Dundonian PI J McNee. Born in Fife, McLean studied Philosophy at the University of Dundee before falling into bad company and entering the booktrade. He has been a reviewer, a freelance reader, a roving chair, a bookseller and an ezine editor.

Here McLean dreamcasts an adaptation of his latest novel, Mothers of the Disappeared:

When I first approached this theoretical question around the time of my debut novel, The Good Son, I wasn’t sure who could take on the character of J McNee, the dour Dundonian detective. I’m still not sure, to be honest. I like the idea of a lead who’s not as well known as the others in the cast, although I’ve softened a little on the idea of someone like David Tennant taking the lead. If he dialed back the performance, he might be suitably dark enough to play the character.

I still, after all these years, think that Brian Cox (the actor, not the physicist) would be perfect as David Burns, the aging gangster. Even more so the way this character has developed over four novels.

Actor turned crime novelist John Gordon Sinclair would probably work well as SCDEA agent Sandy Griggs. He has the physical presence and in some ways his own past plays into the role. A good guy turned apparently amoral, he would have a lot to play with this in this role. And given that so many people still think of him in the good guy role from his time in Gregory’s Girl while he has become a far more versatile actor, I think perhaps that could play into the role.

And the allegedly innocent man accused of killing several children? We need someone absolutely versatile making us doubt from moment to moment whether he is innocent or guilty. I wish I knew who that person was, but again wonder if someone unknown might be absolutely perfect: someone who we wouldn’t know whether to believe or not, with no baggage as an actor.

The more I think about it, though, the more I think that the book(s) would make a better TV series than they would movies. There are arcs running through these books that would breathe in the atmosphere of TV better than in the cinema. Yes, I think that’s something I’d love to see.

Visit Russel McLean's website.

The Page 69 Test: The Good Son.

My Book, The Movie: The Lost Sister.

The Page 69 Test: Mothers of the Disappeared.

Writers Read: Russel D. McLean.

--Marshal Zeringue

Mark Alpert's "The Furies"

Mark Alpert is the author of The Furies and three other science thrillers: Final Theory, The Omega Theory and Extinction. He is also a contributing editor at Scientific American.

Here he dreamcasts an adaptation of The Furies:

The Furies is a mash-up of genres. It’s a science thriller about witches. Ariel Fury, the heroine, belongs to an ancient clan that has been steering the course of history for millennia. She has red hair and green eyes, the markers of a genetic mutation that has long made her family a target for mass murder. During the 16th and 17th centuries the witch-hunting mobs in France and Germany and England accused the Furies of being witches and burned nearly all of them at the stake. The few survivors fled to the wilderness of America and spent the next four hundred years living in seclusion. But revolutionary advances in genetic research in the 21st century trigger a civil war among the Furies, threatening to reveal their secrets and wreak havoc across the globe.

The book’s hero, John Rogers, meets Ariel at a bar in Greenwich Village. John is an ex-thug who formerly belonged to a drug gang and is now trying to go straight. He’s delighted when Ariel invites him to a tryst at her hotel, but their lustful encounter is interrupted by a band of rebellious Furies who ambush Ariel and nearly kill her. As John helps the wounded young woman return to her family’s compound in the woods of northern Michigan, he’s caught in the middle of the war among the Furies -- and both sides want him dead.

As I wrote the novel it ran through my mind like a movie, sort of a cross between Harry Potter and The Da Vinci Code. In fact, when I wrote about Ariel I sometimes pictured her as Emma Watson, the actress who played Hermione in the Potter movies. The role of John would be a little more difficult to cast. He has to be a sensitive bruiser, an action hero who can actually act, and ideally the actor would be mixed-race like the character (John had a black father and a white mother). One good candidate would be Wentworth Miller, who starred in the TV show Prison Break several years ago. The villain in The Furies -- a sadistic bastard named Sullivan -- should be played by either Christopher Walken or Willem Dafoe. Both of those guys scare the hell out of me.

Learn more about the book and author at Mark Alpert's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

Pauline Rowson's "Shroud of Evil"

Pauline Rowson is the author of the DI Andy Horton Series and of two stand-alone thrillers.

she dreamcasts an adaptation of Shroud of Evil, the eleventh in the Horton series:

On the wall above my desk are photographs of four men. They look down on me as I write my crime novels featuring the flawed and rugged DI Andy Horton and while two of the men in the photographs are dead and the other two are now too old to play DI Andy Horton in the movies of the series they all have one thing in common not only with each other but with Andy Horton – they have all been heroes.

Heroes have always fascinated me. It probably stems from reading so many thrillers and spy novels as a child. Then I married a hero, well he is to me, a former fire-fighter from Red Watch, Portsmouth, UK, who took many risks and saved many lives. It’s no wonder then that I turned to writing about a hero.

DI Andy Horton has been described as 'an especially good series hero, a likable fellow with plenty of street smarts and the requisite personal baggage - an abrasive supervisor (DCI Lorraine Bliss) and an antagonistic soon to be ex-wife.' Booklist (USA) and recently by a reader on Twitter, ‘He's an enigma, reliable but sometimes unreachable, a little lost, but knows what he wants! My fav. kind of DI.’

Heroes have to have flaws, after all they are human. DI Andy Horton is rugged, a maverick cop who hates paperwork and playing by the book which of course gets him into trouble with his superiors, particularly the ice maiden, DCI Lorraine Bliss, his boss in Portsmouth CID. Horton is prepared to take risks and is fearless in his search for justice. He's been raised in children’s homes after his mother abandoned him as a child when he was ten, which means he has a desperate need to belong, a need that is in some way satisfied by belonging to the family of the police and yet he continually finds himself on the outside. His experiences as a child have taught him never to trust and never to confide. He lives alone on his boat and rides a Harley Davidson.

So who would I get to play DI Andy Horton in the movies if I had casting clout? Every reader sees the character differently so casting the perfect hero is difficult, no it’s impossible. I wouldn’t know where to begin – except that Jason Statham’s name did come up when a producer was keen to develop the series for American television. Statham’s agent was duly approached but Statham had just been signed for another series. Sigh.

So who are the men on the wall, my heroes, who watch me while I write? They are, in no particular order of preference: Humphrey Bogart – think Frank McCloud in Key Largo, Philip Marlowe in The Big Sleep, Rick Leland in Across the Pacific; Cary Grant – think Roger O. Thornhill in North By Northwest; Johnnie in Suspicion; Harrison Ford – think Indiana Jones, Dr Richard Walker in Frantic, Dr Richard Kimble in The Fugitive, John Book in Witness. And then there’s Roger Moore, my favourite James Bond and before that the enigmatic Saint (I loved those novels). None of these men look like DI Andy Horton (not to me anyway) but they have all played heroes and as I pen another crime novel they and the characters they have brought to life on screen from the pen of other writers inspire me and spur me ever onwards.

For more information about Pauline Rowson, visit her website, Twitter perch, and the DI Andy Horton Marine Mystery Facebook page.

Writers Read: Pauline Rowson.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ken Baker's "How I Got Skinny, Famous, and Fell Madly in Love"

Ken Baker is an E! Entertainment Television News Correspondent. He is the author of Fangirl, and his memoir, Man Made: A Memoir of My Body, is the inspiration for the upcoming film The Late Bloomer. He lives (and writes) in Hermosa Beach, California.

Here Baker dreamcasts an adaptation of his new novel, How I Got Skinny, Famous, and Fell Madly in Love:

Reflecting the lack of roles for plus-sized actresses in Hollywood, it’s next to impossible to draft much of a list of known actresses who could play Emery Jackson, the outspoken and obese teen narrator of my new novel, How I Got Skinny, Famous and Fell Madly in Love. Although the incredibly funny and talented Rebel Wilson is too old to play Emery, she would have been great, say, nearly ten years ago. So, given Hollywood’s lackluster stable of actresses who approximate Emery’s general age and physical appearance, I defer to Plan B: An actress who could play Emery who also is willing to add weight like others have, such as Charlize Theron in Monster and, to a lesser extent, Renée Zellweger in Bridget Jones’s Diary.

That actress is Miley Cyrus. Why? Well, Miley, whom I have interviewed many times over the years, is funny, brash, intelligent, and, as proved on Hannah Montana, she can deliver a snarky comedic line and also be dramatic and emotive. She is such a talented and charismatic musical performer, however, that Miley often has been under-rated and under-apprecaited as an actress. But playing Emery – after a physician-supervised weight gain, of course – would be a great fit for her, and the kind of body-transformation role that wins actresses Oscars!

Visit Ken Baker's website, Facebook page, and Twitter perch.

Writers Read: Ken Baker.

The Page 69 Test: How I Got Skinny, Famous, and Fell Madly in Love.

--Marshal Zeringue

Brian Doyle's "The Plover"

Brian Doyle edits Portland Magazine at the University of Portland, in Oregon. He is the author of over one dozen books, including six collections of essays, two nonfiction books, two collections of “proems,” the short story collection Bin Laden’s Bald Spot, the novella Cat’s Foot, and the novel Mink River. He is also the editor of several anthologies, most recently Ho`olaule`a, a collection of writing about the Pacific islands.

Here Doyle dreamcasts an adaptation of his latest novel, The Plover:

Hmm. This is a puzzler, for on the boat that is the central stage of The Plover there is:

· an ostensibly testy but not really captain, age 29 or 30, a strong guy but not huge, you know? I’d say Brad Pitt but he might be too handsome. A young Rod Taylor or Ward Bond would be great, but there I am showing my age. Chris Pine?

· his best friend, a long skinny sinewy guy with a long ponytail and long braided goatee -- a face-ponytail. One of those guys made out of steel wire. I need a lean guy about 6’ 3” here. Will wait for screen tests, or look at pro basketball rosters.

· His disabled mute daughter age 9 who is the hero of the book. I need a kid here who your heart opens and shivers and leaps and breaks every time the camera hits her. Sigh: screen test, I guess. Can’t be just adorable. Has to be wild and holy.

· An enormous woman with a crewcut and serious muscles. Queen Latifah maybe if she can hit the gym and muscle up and get a crewcut and not make me laugh every time she speaks.

· A herring gull who is no kidding a huge part of the cast. Screen test.

· An albatross. Could be male or female. I have a friend in Hawaii who knows a lot of albatrosses and I am pretty sure we can get a non-union one.

· A big cheerful brilliant Polynesian guy. Will look at Tongan and Samoan actors first here. Manti Te’o?

· A lean gentle brave young guy probably from Kazakhstan. Screen test.

· An evil guy from Mexico. Tempted to go with Danny Trejo here just for the extraordinary map of that face.

· Two wood rats. Any number of jokes come to mind here but I had better stop.

Learn more about The Plover.

My Book, The Movie: Doyle's Bin Laden’s Bald Spot.

The Page 69 Test: Mink River.

Writers Read: Brian Doyle.

--Marshal Zeringue

Daryl Gregory's "Afterparty"

Daryl Gregory was the 2009 winner of IAFA William L. Crawford Fantasy Award for his first novel Pandemonium. His second novel, The Devil's Alphabet, was nominated for the Philip K. Dick Award and was named one of the best books of 2009 by Publishers Weekly. His short fiction has appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine, and The Year’s Best SF.

Here Gregory dreamcasts an adaptation of his new novel, Afterparty:

I don’t usually have anyone famous in mind while I’m writing… but Lyda Rose, the hard-drinking and technically insane protagonist of Afterparty, was written with this woman in mind. That’s Lucinda Williams. I have no idea if she can act. But I know she could play Lyda. Lemmee explain.

Lyda’s an ex-neuroscientist. Ten years before, she overdosed on a drug she helped create. In small doses, Numinous gives that feeling of grace, of being in touch with some higher power. But OD, and it can install a permanent hallucination of a deity in your brain.

Now, ten years later, an underground church is making Numinous again, and Lyda has to shut them down. Her only companions are Ollie, a neuroatypical escapee from a psych ward, and Lyda’s own personal Jesus, the white-coated angel named Dr. Gloria.

I know Lucinda could play her, because she’s smart, and she knows hard living, and she understands the way the numinous can sneak up on you in the stuttering neon of a late-night bar. She’s a poet, with a voice is like molasses on hot pavement. And all the time I was writing the novel, I kept hearing her voice, and especially this song.

Thank you for “Drunken Angel,” Lucinda. Will you be in my movie?

Visit Daryl Gregory's website and blog.

--Marshal Zeringue

Mike Harvkey's "In the Course of Human Events"

Mike Harvkey was born and raised in rural Missouri. He is a graduate fellow of Columbia University's Creative Writing MFA Program, a winner of Zoetrope All-Story Magazine's short fiction contest, and a black belt in Kyokushin karate. His short stories have been published in Mississippi Review, Alaska Quarterly Review, Zoetrope All-Story Magazine, and other publications. He has been a contributing writer to The Believer, NYLON, NYLON Guys, Trunk, Backstage, Publishers Weekly, and The L.

Here Harvkey dreamcasts an adaptation of his new novel, In the Course of Human Events:

The only character in my novel who ever brought an actor to mind as I wrote was Jay Smalls, my novel's frightening patriarch and a character the author Aaron Gwyn (Wynne's War) called "a villain that would haunt Tyler Durden's dreams." Gwyn wasn't kidding; I had a dream about Jay. And in it, he looked an awful lot like John Hawkes. Hawkes's frightening "Teardrop" in Winter's Bone felt to me like a warm-up for Jay Smalls. Hawkes has a wide range, but on one side of it is some mean-spirited stuff.

He showed the opposite edge of that range in The Sessions, costarring with Helen Hunt. Hunt, aging gracefully unlike so many American actresses, has always been naturally sympathetic. But she's never been more interesting than she now, at 50. With Hawkes she had real chemistry and showed how fearless she can be if given the chance. All of this makes her a good choice for Jay's wife Jan, my book's most sympathetic character. My director of choice has been stocking his movies lately with yesterday's stars who few others bother with anymore, so I think he'd go for the this casting call.

But the story belongs to Clyde Twitty, a typical Midwestern guy. Decent, kind, caring. But the fallout from the economic collapse has saddled him with an anger that has no outlet. Beaten down by life and the broken promise of the American Dream, Clyde is numb when we meet him. Under Jay's brutal tutelage, however, Clyde gains confidence and, in time, adopts his teacher's extremist views. If the transformation weren't so troubling, you could almost say Clyde blossoms. I think Dean DeHaan, whose career is on fire, is a great fit for Clyde. DeHaan is 27 but looks 18 and has a fragile, almost sickly innocence that masks a sinister shadow. The casting director of this summer's Spiderman film saw it, picking DeHaan to play the villain. When Spidey's done with him he'll play one of cinema's biggest legends--James Dean--in Life.

My director of choice? Lars von Trier, naturally. Von Trier and my novel actually have an awful lot in common, and it's not just an obsession with the martyr complex. It's a fascination with America--its mythology, its standing in the world, and its promise. Since Dancer in the Dark, von Trier has set most of his films in the U.S. In Manderlay he took on our country's fraught relationship to race, a subject that also informs my book. Dancer in the Dark was about violence, justice, and the far-reaching power of the state, subjects I've also taken on. Von Trier is an outsider, a megalomaniac, a provocateur. He shoots beautifully, his films are audacious and visceral, he's naughty, and he gets fine performances. Best of all, with few overseers telling him what he can't do, von Trier could turn in a 3- or even 4-hour cut of In the Course of Human Events, which would make me delirious. The more I think about it the more certain I am: Lars von Trier is the right lunatic for the job.

Learn more about the book and author at Mike Harvkey's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

M.L. Rowland's "Zero-Degree Murder"

A former search and rescue worker for over a decade, M.L. Rowland lives at the foot of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains in south-central Colorado.

Here she dreamcasts an adaptation of her new novel, Zero-Degree Murder:

Zero-Degree Murder is the first in a series of Search and Rescue mysteries featuring Gracie Kinkaid.

As a volunteer on Timber Creek Search and Rescue (SAR) in the mountains of southern California, Gracie routinely risks her life for total strangers. In Zero-Degree Murder, she’s called out on a search for hikers, members of a movie cast and crew, missing in a local wilderness area. The mission quickly goes from routine to deadly when her teammate, Steve, disappears with the radio, the only link to the outside world, and an early-season blizzard sets in. Gracie has to use all of her expertise to keep herself and mega-movie star, Rob Christian, alive not only against the elements, but against a “truly creepy” killer who’s stalking them.

A lot of people have told me this book would make a terrific movie. Taking place in the beautiful southern California mountains within the unique, relatively unknown world of Search and Rescue, it has some great characters and a lot of action with a little romance and an avalanche thrown in.

In her mid-thirties, Gracie is feisty, smart, emotionally skittish and socially inept with everyone but the guys on the SAR team. She’s a loner, estranged from her family. An EMT, she’s physically strong, experienced and skilled in the field of Search and Rescue. Her comfort zone is the down and dirty. “She [buys] Patagonia and North Face from sale racks and outlet malls, not Hermès and Dolce & Gabbana from boutiques in Paris or Milan. She [is] beer and take-out pizza, not French wine and whatever-the-French-[eat]. “ Gracie is beautiful in her own way, not by typical Hollywood standards (“...who the hell [wears ] makeup on a search?”). Because she’s so multifaceted, it was tricky identifying the right actress to play her. I finally decided Rose Byrne and Mamie Gummer fit the bill.

With SAR Team Commander, Ralph Hunter, in his low forties, still waters run very deep. An Army veteran “who’s seen the worst life has to offer,” he’s tough, capable, knowledgeable. He sneaks cigarettes in the SAR Command Post and his blood pressure is too high. In the six years since the death of his wife from breast cancer, Gracie has never seen him smile. He’s Gracie’s best friend and secretly in love with her. Edward Norton and Mark Ruffalo are at the top of my list to play Ralph.

Hunky British actor, Rob Christian, is an international star a couple of years younger than Gracie. Normally he trusts no one outside of his own family. But within 24 hours of meeting Gracie, he finds he’s telling her things he hasn’t told his best mate. Not the pampered poodle Gracie expected him to be, Rob turns out to be down-to-earth and a genuinely nice guy. Rupert Friend and Dan Stephens are both perfect to play Rob.

With quirky townspeople, Gracie’s SAR teammates, and various flatlanders who need rescuing after getting themselves lost, injured or otherwise stuck in the mountains, there’s a host of other fun roles to fill.

The setting of Zero-Degree Murder is itself a character. “Imposing, forbidding, the mountain’s austere beauty beckon[s] unsuspecting hikers and mountaineers into its ice chutes and rocky canyons, every year claiming lives of men and women alike for its own. “ Several mountainous locations in Colorado, northern New Mexico or southern California would serve the remote, rugged setting well.

In the past, these types of stories were prohibitively expensive, nearly impossible to get produced. Thankfully now, with computer-generated imagery, anything is possible.

So let’s go for it!

Visit M.L. Rowland's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

David Kaiser's "No End Save Victory"

David Kaiser has taught history at Harvard, Carnegie Mellon, the Naval War College, and Williams College. His books include The Road to Dallas: The Assassination of John F. Kennedy.

Here Kaiser dreamcasts an adaptation of his latest book, No End Save Victory: How FDR Led the Nation into War:

No End Save Victory is influenced by the generational approach to American history pioneered in the 1990s by William Strauss and Neil Howe. As I explain at some length in the text, most of the leadership of Roosevelt's administration--including the President himself--belonged to the Missionary generation, born approximately 1863-1883--the generation born in the wake of the Civil War, just as Boomers were born in the wake of the Second World War. They generally had a tall, stern bearing, a way with words, and a dedication to principles around which they ordered both their own lives and the life of the nation. Strauss and Howe's generational types show up very clearly in movies, and indeed, for many years I taught a course called Generations in Film exploring the last eight decades. Most of the actors I cast also came from the Missionary generation and would have done a wonderful job playing these characters. Lionel Barrymore also had the necessary mixture of gravitas and humor to play FDR himself.

Casting for No End Save Victory:

Franklin D. Roosevelt —  Lionel Barrymore

Secretary of War Henry M. Stimson —  Walter Huston

Admiral Harold Stark, Chief of Naval Operations —  Spencer Tracy

General George C. Marshall —  Samuel S. Hinds*

Secretary of State Cordell Hull —  Lewis Stone

Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox —  Guy Kibbee

Harry Hopkins —  Paul Muni

Missy LeHand —  Jean Arthur

Sumner Welles —  William Powell

Ambassador Lord Halifax —  Ronald Coleman

Eleanor Roosevelt —  May Robson

William Hastie —  Paul Robeson

Winston Churchill —  Charles Laughton

Ambassador Admiral Nomura —  Sessue Hayakawa

Sidney Hillman —  Edward G. Robinson

*George Bailey's father. He looks quite a bit like him.

Visit David Kaiser's blog, and read more about No End Save Victory at the Basic Books website.

--Marshal Zeringue

Yvette Manessis Corporon's "When The Cypress Whispers"

Yvette Manessis Corporon is an Emmy Award-winning writer, producer, and author. She is currently a senior producer with the syndicated entertainment news show Extra. In addition to her Emmy Award, Yvette has received a Silurian Award for Excellence in Journalism, and the New York City Comptroller and City Council's Award for Greek Heritage and Culture. She is married to award-winning photojournalist David Corporon.

Here Corporon dreamcasts an adaptation of When the Cypress Whispers, her debut novel:

If they made a movie of When The Cypress Whispers I think hands down, Olympia Dukakis would make the perfect Yia-yia, the wise Greek grandmother. A Greek American herself, Olympia embodies all of the warmth, sass and spirit of Yia-yia. I’d love to sit with her over an afternoon cup of kafe and have her read my Greek coffee cup. Even if she didn’t know what she was doing, I’m sure she’d make it up and it would all be magical and perfect and spot on – just like her accent.

As for Daphne, our hardworking, confused, trapped between two cultures single mom, I think Rachel Weisz would be amazing. She’s so beautiful and ethereal, and I mean come on, that girl can act. I’d love to see her tackle the Greek dancing scene; I bet she would dance beautifully.

As for Yianni, the sexy and complicated fisherman - there’s only one choice for me, Alec Baldwin. Besides being a brilliant actor - as well as devilishly handsome, I have my own selfish reasons for wanting Alec on board. Alec’s wife Hilaria is one of my dearest friends and I am desperate to get the Baldwins to come to Greece with me. It would be the ultimate working vacation for our families. Just think of the possibilities, we’d film the movie by day, hang out in tavernas and Greek dance by night and my kids would help babysit baby Carmen. Sounds like the ultimate working vacation to me.

Learn more about the book and author at Yvette Corporon's website.

Writers Read: Yvette Manessis Corporon.

--Marshal Zeringue