Kelli Stanley's "City of Ghosts"

Kelli Stanley is a critically-acclaimed, multiple award-winning author of crime fiction (novels and short stories). She makes her home in Dashiell Hammett’s San Francisco, a city she loves to write about.

Stanley is best known for the Miranda Corbie series of historical noir novels and short stories set in 1940 San Francisco. The first novel of the series, City of Dragons, introduced Miranda, the unforgettable protagonist Library Journal calls "one of crime’s most arresting heroines.”

City of Dragons won the Macavity Award for Best Historical Novel, and was nominated for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, a Shamus Award, a Bruce Alexander Award and an RT Book Reviews Award, was a Mystery Guild selection of the month, and placed on many “best of the year” lists.

City of Secrets, the sequel to City of Dragons, was released by Thomas Dunne/Minotaur to great critical acclaim, was nominated for a number of awards and won the Golden Nugget for best mystery set in California.

Here Stanley dreamcasts an adaptation of the latest novel in the series, City of Ghosts:

City of Ghosts is really the third part of what is, in effect, a trilogy. By the end of this novel, Miranda Corbie has changed from who she was when we met her in City of Dragons.

Because I write a series—and because a series gives an author the best chance possible to show the age, life, and growth that a person undergoes in the real world (as opposed to the unreal world of “reality” television)—as much as I’d love to see Miranda on the big screen, I think a television series would be an even more suitable venue for her.

Just think—we’re actually in the middle of a television Renaissance, propelled by cable, HBO, Showtime, and those upstart streamer-dreamers at Netflix. Now, If we could only ban vacuous, pampered socialites, pawn shop owners and stage mothers with precocious, singing toddlers …

So let’s talk TV.

My network of choice? I’d lean toward HBO. They’ve got decades of experience at producing drama that pushes the boundaries … just as Miranda pushes the boundaries of literary conventions.

The show runner of my dreams would be Terence Winter, the genius behind Boardwalk Empire (which also features Incubator Babies, at least in the opening credits) and the screenwriter of Wolf of Wall Street. Nic Pizzolatto would also be fantastic, of course—he created True Detective and his literary and academic chops would fit nicely into what I’ve tried to do with Miranda Corbie. I’d like to team them both up with Veena Sud (The Killing), who would provide a needed feminine perspective for the series.

Now, for the actors. Miranda’s tough exterior hides enormous pain, vulnerability and existential self-doubt. She suffers from PTSD; she is nearing 34 and still doesn’t know exactly who she is; she is self-destructive. Her outrage against social injustice and political hypocrisy borders on the obsessive—it is the focus of anger both generalized and personal, and her need to confront and battle it is ultimately far stronger than her cynicism. She is highly intelligent, courageous, audacious, uncompromising, and fiercely honest. Sadly, these descriptors are more commonly used and accepted for male protagonists, a stereotype that Miranda, in character and as a character, tries to explode.

Her use of her own sexuality—the only tool conventional society allows her—her locked-in yearnings to open up, to trust, to reveal her vulnerability—her fight to be both a woman and a human being and to be appreciated for who she is rather than what she is—all of these factors make her an exceedingly complex female protagonist, called by Library Journal “one of crime’s most arresting heroines.”

So who could play Miranda? An exceptionally skilled actress with great intelligence, strength, beauty and vulnerability. Someone adept at playing a role within a role within a role. My choice … Michelle Williams.

Rick, of course, also grows and changes, especially in City of Ghosts. For Rick, I could see James McAvoy, Daniel Gillies or Cam Gigandet.

1940 San Francisco is a good CGI job and a few exteriors away. Chinatown could still be used as a filming location in many places.

I love movies, don’t get me wrong, but my dreams for Miranda are currently set on television. City of Screens, anyone?

Learn more about the novel and author at Kelli Stanley's website.

Coffee with a Canine: Kelli Stanley & Bertie.

The Page 69 Test: City of Dragons.

The Page 69 Test: City of Secrets.

The Page 69 Test: City of Ghosts.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ken Kuhlken's "The Good Know Nothing"

Ken Kuhlken’s stories have appeared in Esquire and dozens of other magazines and anthologies, been honorably mentioned in Best American Short Stories, and earned National Endowment for the Arts Writing Fellowship. His novels have been chosen as an Ernest Hemingway Best First Fiction Book, a Private Eye Writers of America Best First Novel, and a Shamus Awards Best Novel. The novels are Midheaven and the Tom Hickey California Crime series.

Here Kuhlken dreamcasts an adaptation of the new Tom Hickey novel, The Good Know Nothing:

I once tried to get The Loud Adios to Steve Martin, thinking a comic actor in a dramatic role might inspire some interesting complexity. Otherwise, after seven Tom Hickey novels, I haven't assigned the role of Tom to any actor, in part because he keeps aging. In The Biggest Liar in Los Angeles, he's 22. In The Vagabond Virgins, he's 74.

But for Tom's sister Florence, who I sometimes consider the main character of The Good Know Nothing, I would cast a clone of Marion Davies, the actress who was also William Randolph Hearst's long-time beloved mistress. Or a clone Mary Pickford might work, since Tom's mother both works for and is a ringer for Pickford, and Florence, who resembles her mother, could be a double for Marion Davies.

Now that I'm casting, I wonder if Scarlett Johansson might be the answer. She could play all four of those women, two of whom are fairly angelic, another somewhat snooty and conniving, and the fourth deeply wicked.

And Harry Longabaugh, aka Hiram Beebe and the Sundance Kid, of course needs to be played by Robert Redford, who is about the right age.

Visit Ken Kuhlken's website.

Writers Read: Ken Kuhlken.

The Page 69 Test: The Good Know Nothing.

--Marshal Zeringue

Kim Boykin's "Palmetto Moon"

Kim Boykin is the author of The Wisdom of Hair from Berkley, Steal Me, Cowboy and Sweet Home Carolina from Tule, and the newly released Palmetto Moon, also from Berkley.

Here Boykin dreamcasts an adaptation of Palmetto Moon:

I think and write cinematically, so this isn't the first time I've daydreamed about Palmetto Moon, the movie. Vada Hadley is a gorgeous bubble headed blonde on the surface, but underneath all that fluff beats the heart of a very smart and funny Audrey Hepburn. When I see the hero, Frank Darling, in my head, I see an actor many may not know or remember. Big, tall, gorgeous Paul Newman. Please note that Frank is at least six inches taller than Paul, so we're stretching him a bit.

There is a rather unconventional love story between Vada's friends Claire and Reggie.If we're sticking with Hollywood of Yesteryear, I'm going with Joanne Woodward who was wonderful at playing strong women, and, I suspect she was probably one in real life. I can't see Paul Newman married to anything but. As for Reggie, I'd pick Rock Hudson, who was a, big, beautiful, strapping gay man, but had to hide that in real life. I think he'd do Reggie proud.

Keeping it old school, for big, mean old Miss Mamie, I'd choose Shelley Winters. For Vada's hoity-toity parents I'd have to pick Kirk Douglas and Lauren Bacall. One thing is for sure a movie set with all these huge stars wouldn't be boring.

Learn more about the book and author at Kim Boykin's website.

The Page 69 Test: The Wisdom of Hair.

My Book, The Movie: The Wisdom of Hair.

Coffee with a Canine: Kim Boykin & Wylie, Molly and Toby.

Writers Read: Kim Boykin.

The Page 69 Test: Palmetto Moon.

--Marshal Zeringue

Joseph F. Spillane's "Coxsackie: The Life and Death of Prison Reform"

Joseph F. Spillane is an associate professor of history at the University of Florida. He is the author of several books, including Cocaine: From Medical Marvel to Modern Menace in the United States, 1884–1920.

Here Spillane dreamcasts an adaptation of his new book, Coxsackie: The Life and Death of Prison Reform:

Coxsackie tells the story of a “reform” prison built in Depression-era New York State, built to educate young men who were thought to be more promising than adult male felony offenders. Built on a foundation of good intentions, Coxsackie prison quickly foundered on the shoals of violence and racial division. For the thousands of young men who experienced imprisonment there, Coxsackie was an education of the worst kind. The collapse of progressive good intentions is a powerful one, but ultimately a depressing one, and I am not sure that it contains the sort of redemptive element that would make for a mainstream film. Still, one can fantasize…

When thinking about casting a film based on the book, I can’t help but think back to the 1955 film, Blackboard Jungle, directed by Richard Brooks. Brooks adapted the screenplay from Evan Hunter’s 1954 novel of the same name, which Hunter had based on his short time spent teaching English at two vocational high schools in New York City. These were the very places from which the young men that served time at Coxsackie were drawn, and I can’t help but imagine casting the prisoners in similar fashion, using relatively unknown young actors. Oddly enough, just as some of the young actors in Blackboard Jungle went on to fame (Sidney Poitier, Vic Morrow), so too did some of the actual inmates at Coxsackie, the ranks of which included future world middleweight champions Rocky Graziano and Jake LaMotta (Raging Bull), and the actor Charles McGregor.

Coxsackie featured the same kinds of idealistic but overwhelmed teachers that Glenn Ford played so beautifully well in Blackboard Jungle. I can’t help but imagine someone like Adrien Brody to portray a teacher whose reformist ambitions are mixed with the certain world-weariness and resignation that came with life behind bars.

My book begins by describing an unlikely partnership between Austin McCormick, the most influential prison reformer and warden of the New York City Penitentiary, and artist Ben Shahn, the renowned muralist and social realist. Alfred Molina already played Shahn’s contemporary, Diego Rivera, in the film Frida, and I am convinced who could probably play Shahn as well. As for MacCormick, a tough, determined, but slightly built son of a Congregational minister from Maine—well, he could have been played by Alan Ladd (if we were casting this movie in 1946!). Sadly, with Ladd no longer available, we might consider the British actor Martin Freeman. A different look, but he captures that everyman’s intensity, while being sufficiently short.

Finally, Coxsackie also tells the story of Robert Martinson, a leftwing Berkeley activist in the 1950s, a Freedom Rider for civil rights in 1961, and eventually a leading critic of what he perceived to be the excesses of liberalism. A crusader in every instance, Martinson found national celebrity leading the attack on the idea of rehabilitation in the hopes that prisons like Coxsackie would eventually be torn down. Instead, Martinson’s crusade helped lay the groundwork for a more nakedly punitive approach to imprisonment, upon which our present system of mass incarceration is built. Recoiling at the movement he had helped unleash, Martinson eventually took his own life. For the gangly, intense, and ultimately tragic Freedom Rider, I can think of no one better than Sean Penn. Fantasy over!

Visit Joseph Spillane's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

James Howard Kunstler's "A History of the Future"

James Howard Kunstler was born in New York City in 1948. He is the author of numerous novels, including World Made By Hand and The Witch of Hebron, and four nonfiction books, including The Long Emergency. He is a frequent lecturer at colleges and professional organizations across the country. He lives in Saratoga Springs, New York.

Here Kunstler dreamcasts an adaptation of his new novel, A History of the Future:

This book is third in a four-book cycle called collectively the World Made By Hand novels, named after the first of the series. They are all set in a small town in far upstate New York in the years following the economic collapse of the USA. I’ve already made two journeys (2009, 2011) to the top level of HBO with these books — both times I was beaten out by rival books that featured zombies (mine lacked zombies). A central character in all the books is the evangelical minister, Brother Jobe, head honcho of a Jesus cult that has left the “disorders” of the south to settle his 78 “brothers and sisters” in my northern village of Union Grove, New York. Early on, I had imagined Philip Seymour Hoffman in the role, because he was physically right and emotionally very powerful. Ironically, after Hoffman’s death this year, I learned that he was a fan of these books.

Visit James Howard Kunstler's website.

Writers Read: James Howard Kunstler.

The Page 69 Test A History of the Future.

--Marshal Zeringue

Katrina Leno's "The Half Life of Molly Pierce"

Katrina Leno grew up in Connecticut and spent her childhood summers by the shore in Massachusetts, where The Half Life of Molly Pierce, her first novel, takes place. Leno was first published at the age of sixteen in the Connecticut Review and now holds an MFA in creative writing.

Here Leno shares some thoughts about casting an adaptation of The Half Life of Molly Pierce:

This is a hard one because there are so many phenomenal younger actors right now, so instead of naming names, I’m going to be a bit more vague. I’d love to see someone with a larger body type playing Molly. I think all bodies are great and beautiful (small bodies, big bodies, short bodies, tall bodies) but I think we currently have an underrepresentation in media of fuller figured women (and young women). I’d love to see Molly bring some curves to the screen, because skinny women have definitely received their fair share of airtime. I wish we would get over our obsession with size zeros and start showing love to every body type.

Visit Katrina Leno's website.

Writers Read: Katrina Leno.

The Page 69 Test: The Half Life of Molly Pierce.

--Marshal Zeringue

Ellen Cooney's "The Mountaintop School for Dogs and Other Second Chances"

Ellen Cooney is the author of A Private Hotel for Gentle Ladies and other novels. Her stories have appeared in The New Yorker and many literary journals. She has taught writing at MIT, Harvard, and Boston College, and now lives in Maine with her dogs Andy, Skip, and Maxine—who are each, in their own way, rescues.

Here Cooney dreamcasts an adaptation of her new novel, The Mountaintop School for Dogs and Other Second Chances:

My novel takes place at a mountaintop sanctuary for rescued dogs. It has more characters on four legs than on two, so liking dogs is automatically a requirement for anyone who wants to do a movie. It’s about healing abuses of the past, and how people who harm animals are basically scum. The book comes with a sense of humor too, along with a hardcore belief in making connections with each other and “being real.”

My dream director? I’m not thinking along the lines of Eight Below or any other “dog movie.” I’m thinking: Sofia Coppola. So what if there’s nothing in her work (so far) that has animals, and my novel isn’t in another country, or California? She has a style all her own, sensitive and strong at the same time. She takes chances. She’s humane. She’s does amazing things with light and most of all, everything she does has a feel of being genuine. I think she’d do a wonderful job bringing to the screen the story of the main character, Evie, a young woman in recovery from drug addiction who wants to work with abused, rescued dogs.

My dream Evie? Ellen Page of Juno. The other human main character, Mrs. Auberchon, is a fifty-year-old old staffer at the animal sanctuary who “pretends” she’s a stern, awful toughie and no one’s friend. She would be: Frances McDormand.

Visit Ellen Cooney's website.

Read--Coffee with a Canine: Ellen Cooney & Andy, Skip, and Maxine.

--Marshal Zeringue

Jaclyn Moriarty's "The Cracks in the Kingdom"

Jaclyn Moriarty grew up in Sydney, Australia, with 4 sisters, 1 brother, 2 dogs, and 12 chickens. She studied law at the University of Sydney, Yale, and Cambridge, and worked as an entertainment lawyer before she wrote the Ashbury High novels, including The Year of Secret Assignments, The Murder of Bindy Mackenzie, and The Ghosts of Ashbury High.

Here Moriarty dreamcats an adaptation of The Cracks in the Kingdom, the second novel in The Colors of Madeleine series:

There are plenty of characters in The Cracks in the Kingdom so I think there is room for all of my favourite actors. I love Frances McDormand, Rebecca Pidgeon, Lauren Graham, Meryl Streep, Laura Linney and Mark Ruffalo and I think they should all live in the farming town of Bonfire in the Kingdom of Cello. Mark Ruffalo could play Deputy Sheriff Jimmy. I think George Clooney should be the King of Cello. Jennifer Lawrence could be Princess Ko. Matt Damon could be the computer guy downstairs in Cambridge, England. Or he could play anyone he likes. Bradley Cooper and Ryan Gosling are also welcome to any roles they like. I could go on.

Visit Jaclyn Moriarty's website and blog.

The Page 69 Test: The Cracks in the Kingdom.

Writers Read: Jaclyn Moriarty.

--Marshal Zeringue

Laurie Faria Stolarz's "Welcome to the Dark House"

Laurie Faria Stolarz grew up in Salem, MA, attended Merrimack College, and received an MFA in Creative Writing from Emerson College in Boston.

Here she dreamcasts a big screen adaptation of her new novel, Welcome to the Dark House:

When I was writing this book, I was picturing Nina Dobrev from Vampire Diaries. I did this for descriptive purposes - hair, eyes, the shape of her face - and so that when I was writing the dialogue, I could hear her voice in my head, since I know what she sounds like.

As for my book becoming a movie or TV show for real, I’d be happy with any actors the director felt were right for the roles. To be able to see my work come to life on a screen - that would be amazing on its own.

Visit Laurie Stolarz's website.

The Page 69 Test: Welcome to the Dark House.

--Marshal Zeringue

Emily Arsenault's "What Strange Creatures"

Emily Arsenault is the author of The Broken Teaglass, In Search of the Rose Notes, and Miss Me When I'm Gone.

Here she dreamcasts an adaptation of her new novel, What Strange Creatures:

What Strange Creatures is about a woman, Theresa, whose brother is accused of a murder. Theresa is quirky and self-deprecating and loyal. When I considered who I’d have play her, a particular actress came to mind so immediately that I going to ignore the fact that she is probably a little too old for the role now: Joan Cusack. She has just the right balance of intelligence and goofiness. I’m thinking of how entertaining she was in School of Rock. Of course, I’d probably want her to tone down the silliness just a bit for this role, since What Strange Creatures is a murder mystery and of course, consequently, some pretty tragic things happen. Still, I wrote several of Theresa’s amateur sleuthing scenes to be comedically uncomfortable for her, and I think Joan Cusack could convey that kind of humor rather well.

No actor came so immediately to mind for Theresa’s brother, but Jake Gyllenhaal comes closes to how I pictured him. Jeff is more troubled than his sister, and there is often a slight sadness and innocence to Jake Gyllenhaal’s demeanor that would probably work well in the role.

Jeff’s girlfriend Kim—the murder victim—would require an actress that conveyed youthful confidence, but with a bit of mystery—I’m thinking maybe Evan Rachel Wood?

For Theresa’s two potential love interests, let’s throw in Joaquin Phoenix as Nathan and Alexander Skarsgård as Zach. I hadn’t originally conceived of either of those characters as being so hunky as those two actors, but this is a fantasy movie, after all, and I’d like to treat the hapless Theresa (for whom I have great affection—probably more so than any of my previous narrators) to something nice.

And I’d like a cameo as the drive-thru worker when Theresa pauses in her sleuthing to buy a Wendy’s double cheeseburger to share with her dog.

Learn more about the book and author at Emily Arsenault's website.

The Page 69 Test: The Broken Teaglass.

--Marshal Zeringue