Tracey S. Phillips's "Best Kept Secrets"

Tracey S. Phillips is the debut author of Best Kept Secrets, a novel. Playing music and creating art were a way of life while growing up in Indiana. She entered college as a fashion model and musician. But somewhere along the road to fame and fortune, she married her best friend and became the mother of two children, now grown. She lives in Wisconsin with her husband and two dogs. Before publication, the manuscript for Best Kept Secrets won a Hugh Holton Award. Psychological Thriller is her love and female characters drive her stories.

Here Phillips dreamcasts an adaptation of her new novel:

Envisioning Best Kept Secrets as a movie wasn’t difficult at all. In fact, throughout my writing process, I see each scene as it could be on TV or the big screen. I have a very visual imagination. And this might seem strange, but I see my story ideas as a picture first. The feelings—as in how it leaves the reader hanging—come second. Lastly, I write and flesh out the visual characters and scenes and they play out in my mind just like a movie.

Best Kept Secrets is first about Detective Morgan Jewell seeking justice and resolution for the murder of her best friend almost twenty years ago. As she finally begins to remember what happened, we go back in the past with her. Acting as the present-day Morgan, Jennifer Lawrence would be my first choice. She was fabulous as the tormented Katniss Everdeen. Morgan Jewell would come to life with Jennifer playing her role. I’m not in touch with the younger actresses these days. A likely candidate for the younger Morgan Jewell might be Chloe Grace Moretz.

Morgan’s partner and mentor is Donnie James. I see him played by someone like Idris Elba—handsome and middle aged.

Caryn Klein is the other main female character in Best Kept Secrets. Her story weaves around Morgan’s because they are both seeking the same man. Caryn is desperate to find her estranged brother Ekhard, who is also Morgan’s main murder suspect. Dakota Fanning would make a fantastic Caryn because of her work on the Twilight movies—and no Caryn isn’t a vampire—but I loved Dakota’s intensity in those movies. The younger Caryn could easily be played by Dakota’s sister Elle.

Her brother Ekhard is s wiry guy like Jake Gyllenhaal. I wonder what he’d look like with his hair died blond!

Visit Tracey S. Phillips's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

Clay McLeod Chapman's "The Remaking"

Clay McLeod Chapman is the creator of the storytelling session “The Pumpkin Pie Show” and the author of rest area, nothing untoward, and the Tribe trilogy.

He is co-author of the middle grade novel Wendell and Wild, with Nightmare Before Christmas director Henry Selick.

In the world of comics, Chapman’s work includes Lazaretto, Iron Fist: Phantom Limb, and Edge of Spiderverse, among others.

He also writes for the screen, including The Boy (SXSW 2015), Henley (Sundance 2012), and Late Bloomer (Sundance 2005).

Here Chapman dreamcasts one of the leads for an adaptation of his new novel, The Remaking:

What’s funny about The Remaking is… well, it’s a book about movies. Among other things, for sure. Lots of things. But film plays a major part of the story. Particularly horror movies.

Which is all to say, when I was writing the novel, I had a lot of different actresses running around the wilderness of my imagination. I kept thinking of Mia Farrow in Rosemary’s Baby. Jamie Lee Curtis in both Halloween (1978) and Halloween (2018). Linda Blair in The Exorcist. Their on-set experiences and everything that happened to them afterward, positive, negative, or otherwise, is baked into the very genetic fabric of the novel itself…

I had the good fortune to meet Milly Shapiro, who starred in Hereditary, while I started writing the book… so I feel like her presence was a part of the book as well.

One of the main protagonists of the novel is this character named Amber Pendleton. We come upon her when she’s nine, thirty-something, and fifty-something… So I’m cheating a bit, but I’d have to cast Dakota Fanning (circa 2003), Dakota Fanning (circa now), and Jamie Lee Curtis (circa now) to play Amber at the various stages of her life.

Visit Clay McLeod Chapman's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

Marco Rafalà's "How Fires End"

Marco Rafalà is a first-generation Sicilian American novelist, musician, and writer for award-winning tabletop role-playing games. He earned his MFA in Fiction from The New School and is a cocurator of the Guerrilla Lit Reading Series in New York City. Born in Middletown, Connecticut, he now lives in Brooklyn, New York.

About How Fires End, Rafalà's debut novel:

After soldiers vacate the Sicilian hillside town of Melilli in the summer of 1943, the locals celebrate, giving thanks to their patron saint, Sebastian. Amid the revelry, all it takes is one fateful moment for the destiny of nine-year-old Salvatore Vassallo to change forever. When his twin brothers are killed playing with an unexploded mortar shell, Salvatore’s faith is destroyed. As the family unravels, and fear ignites among their neighbors that the Vassallo name is cursed, one tragedy begets another.

Desperate to escape this haunting legacy, Salvatore accepts the help of an Italian soldier with fascist ties who ushers him and his sister, Nella, into a new beginning in America. In Middletown, Connecticut, in the immigrant neighborhood known as Little Melilli, these three struggle to build new lives for themselves. But a dangerous choice to keep their secrets hidden erupts in violence decades later. When Salvatore loses his inquisitive American-born son, David, they all learn too late the price sons pay for their fathers’ wars.

Here Rafalà dreamcasts an adaptation of How Fires End:

In my dreams for a movie adaptation of How Fires End, I often ask myself what would a modern Italian neorealist film look like? Especially one that encompasses a sweeping narrative from Sicily during the tragedy of the Second World War to the despair of the post-war era all the way to the United States and the Italian American immigrant experience in the 1980s. Who could make such a film?

I can think of only one person: Italian film director and screenwriter Giuseppe Tornatore (Cinema Paradiso, Baarìa). Tornatore is a master who can hold in his mind both a romantic notion of Sicily—the beauty of the landscape, its complicated people, and ancient culture—and the harsh realities of what life was like there during and after the Second World War. He can balance the modern while bringing the perfect Italian neorealist feel to the material that I tried to capture in the novel.

In terms of casting, I never thought about that beyond believing that the late James Gandolfini would have been a perfect older Rocco for the scenes set in Middletown, Connecticut, during the 1980s, with his son portraying the younger version of that character. And, in a slight nod to Italian neorealist cinema, the roles for the children and secondary older characters, like Raphael and Pasqualino, should be cast with unknowns.

Visit Marco Rafalà's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

Nancy Richardson Fischer's "The Speed of Falling Objects"

Nancy Richardson Fischer is a graduate of Cornell University, a published author with children’s, teen and adult titles to her credit, including Star Wars titles for Lucas Film and numerous autobiographies for athletes such as Julie Krone, Bela Karolyi and Monica Seles. She lives in the Pacific Northwest.

Here Fischer dreamcasts an adaptation of her new novel, The Speed of Falling Objects:

Ahhhh, what author doesn’t imagine their book as a movie? For me, that comes before I write the first chapter! I see every novel I write unfold first as a movie and can even hear the underlying score.

The Speed of Falling Objects is a very cinematic story—A famous TV survivalist named Cougar, his timid 17-year-old daughter, Danny, and Gus, a teen movie idol, fly to the Amazon to film an episode of Cougar’s show. Their plane crashes in the rainforest leaving some dead, others injured. Who lives, lies, loves… dies? It’s a movie, right??? Please say yes!

So who would play the main characters...

Danger Danielle “Danny” Warren: I imagine Jennifer Lawrence in Winter’s Bone - one of my favorite movies of all time. Since JL is now too old to play 17 (sigh), my dream Danny would be an unknown actress with JL’s incredible acting ability. She’d have to be unafraid of bugs, deadly spiders, venomous snakes and scorpions as this book is set in the Amazon rainforest!

Cougar Warren: My dream Cougar is Bradley Cooper. His phenomenal acting would create a deeply nuanced man who is driven by ego but still somehow redeemable (at least to me). And his blue eyes match Cougar’s.

Gus Price: Ansel Elgort, Theo James, or a talented unknown who doesn’t mind lots of bugs!

Director: Jean-Marc Vallee, Sofia Coppola, Nancy Meyers or Bradley Cooper.

Visit Nancy Richardson Fischer's website.

Writers Read: Nancy Richardson Fischer.

--Marshal Zeringue

Johanna Stoberock's "Pigs"

Johanna Stoberock is the author of the novels Pigs and City of Ghosts. Her short stories and essays have appeared in numerous publications, including Better: Culture & Lit, The Wilson Quarterly, Copper Nickel, Front Porch, and the 2014 Best of the Net Anthology.

Here Stoberock shares her vision for a trailer of an adaptation of Pigs:

Envisioning Pigs as a movie is hard, particularly because, central to the novel, are a herd of giant, magical pigs. How do you put giant pigs on screen without diminishing their fierceness or their magic? I haven’t come up with an answer yet, other than that maybe you just don’t—maybe in a movie the pigs would be a presence that is felt and heard throughout but that is never seen.

Just as I don’t have a clear vision for the pigs, I also don’t have a clear vision for the film as a whole. But I do have an idea for a trailer.

To understand the trailer, you have to know a little bit about the novel’s plot: Pigs follows a group of parentless children who live on an island that serves as the repository for all the world’s trash. They gather it up and feed it to the enormous, insatiable pigs mentioned above. The children have to worry about not getting too close to these creatures for fear that the pigs, in their hungry frenzy, might snap off something like a finger (or worse). So they are pretty scary. But the thing about the island is that it’s not the pigs that the children have to worry about the most. It’s the island’s other human inhabitants—a group of glamorous, bloodthirsty, cruel adults.

When I was writing the novel, I pictured those adults as perverted versions of the characters in Fellini’s La Dolce Vita. They dress like Italian film stars from the early 1960’s (stiletto heels, body-skimming dresses, sharp suits), and, if they were in a film themselves, it wouldn’t seem strange for them to have the soundtrack from La Dolce Vita filling out the background of every single scene they’re in. Part of what’s so scary about these people is the way that the suffering they cause and the suffering they witness doesn’t distract them, even a little bit, from their reckless desire for the good life.

So here’s what I picture for the trailer:

The opening of the book read aloud:

The pigs ate everything. Kitchen scraps. Bitter lettuce from the garden. The stale and sticky contents of lunch boxes kids brought home from school. Toe nail clippings. Hair balls pulled up from the drain. After the pigs were done, there weren’t any teeth left over, not even any metal from cavities filled long ago.

On screen, we see black and white footage from the early 1960’s of film stars dancing, drinking, laughing, glamming it up.

The voiceover ends with:

“Luisa was missing a finger.”

Onscreen, the film-star footage fades and the camera settles on a small child alone on a beach.

It’s just a trailer—a full movie would require a more skilled visual imagination than my own. But that’s the mood I’d want: the ironic juxtaposition of excess and need; the black and white images of desire fulfilled fading into the full color image of a child with nothing.

Visit Johanna Stoberock's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

Deborah Crombie's "A Bitter Feast"

Deborah Crombie is a New York Times bestselling author and a native Texan who has lived in both England and Scotland. She now lives in McKinney, Texas, sharing a house that is more than one hundred years old with her husband, two cats, and two German shepherds.

Here Crombie dreamcasts an adaptation of A Bitter Feast, her 18th Duncan Kincaid/Gemma James novel:

What a fun concept this is, but it’s so hard! Because A Bitter Feast is the latest in a long-running series, I have quite definite ideas about how my main characters look, and that makes it challenging to fit an actor into the part—and of course they all must be British. Also, my recurring cast has expanded to four main characters, but the more the merrier.

Detective Superintendent Duncan Kincaid—Duncan is now in his mid-forties, tall, brown-haired, grey-eyed. He comes from Cheshire, so should have a slightly northern accent. I’d choose Richard Armitage, for the fabulous voice as well as the looks. Or John Simm, because, well, he’s John Simm, and he has the contained quality that I always see in Duncan. I have a soft spot for James McAvoy as well.

Detective Inspector Gemma James—Duncan’s wife, and former partner. I adore Honeysuckle Weeks. She’s a bit older than Gemma is now in the books, but she is so perfect in personality and coloring, and with her wonderful warmth and smile, she would convey Gemma’s essential qualities beautifully. I had dibs on Jodie Whittaker, too, but then she became The Doctor, so I expect she’s tied up for the foreseeable future.

Detective Sergeant Doug Cullen—Duncan’s partner. Ben Whishaw. But blond, with round glasses. He’s wonderfully nerdy and intense, and can play socially awkward.

Detective Sergeant Melody Talbot—Gemma’s partner. Jenna Coleman. She is so perfect for Melody. She’s petite but tough, and could show Melody’s conflicted core.

Visit Deborah Crombie's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

Rachel Eve Moulton's "Tinfoil Butterfly"

Rachel Eve Moulton earned her BA at Antioch College and her MFA in fiction from Emerson College. Her work has appeared in The Beacon Street Review, Bellowing Ark, Chicago Quarterly Review, The Bryant Literary Review, among others.

Here Moulton shares some thoughts on an adaptation of Tinfoil Butterfly, her first novel:

Tinfoil Butterfly began in a playwriting class. We were asked by the professor to pick three characters—images torn from magazines—and write a scene in which they meet. I picked Earl, a little boy in a butterfly mask made from tinfoil; Emma, a woman smoking a cigar with dark makeup around her eyes and long dark hair; and finally, George, a man sitting in a lawn chair that was facing away from the camera. In this early version of the novel, Earl is introducing Emma to a comatose George and asking if perhaps she will help him bury the man. The characters leapt into a sort of evil action that gained its own momentum.

The nature of the assignment meant that the piece was driven by dialogue and enhanced by the glossy images I’d been handed. From that moment on it has been easy to imagine the piece making it to the screen. While I am a huge horror movie fan and would love to see Emma make it to the big screen, I am enthralled by the television out there in 2019. I’d love to see Emma and Earl find a new audience through television, hooking viewers over a longer period.

I won’t name favorite actors for the role, but I’d love to see Emma played by an actress who gets the power and vulnerability of a woman. Think Toni Collette in Hereditary.

Follow Rachel Eve Moulton on Twitter.

Learn about her ten "favorite literary thrillers, the ones that will wake up your brain and your heart."

--Marshal Zeringue

Sasha Dawn's "Panic"

Sasha Dawn teaches writing at community colleges and offers pro bono writing workshops to local schools. She lives in her native northern Illinois, where she collects tap shoes, fabric swatches, and tales of survival, and she harbors a crush on Thomas Jefferson. Her debut novel, Oblivion, was an Illinois Reads selection and one of the New York Public Library's best books for teens.

Here Dawn dreamcasts an adaptation of her new novel, Panic:

I wrote this book as a tribute to my daughter’s struggles and aspirations. Although the story is wholly fictional, all of the teen characters were inspired by her real-life friends, most of whom are actors themselves. I’ve asked for their input here:

I based the main character off my daughter, Madelaine, and up-and-coming musical theater artist currently studying at one of the most prestigious performing arts high schools in the country. I think this should be Madelaine’s breakout role.

As Lainey’s mom, Ella, I’d love to see Blake Lively. We’d have to age her up, but she proved, in Age of Adeline and A Simple Favor that she has emotional range. Wholly underrated. She can make Ella come alive.

Emma Roberts’ no-nonsense presence would enhance Hayley. Emma’s gorgeous, but doesn’t seem to notice, and that’s another bonus.

I’d love to have a sexy Nana on screen for once, so I choose Renee Russo, who is absolutely beautiful and edgy, just like Nana would be.

I’ve always seen Ted as Gerard Way of My Chemical Romance, and my Madelaine agrees. Bohemian. A little hipster. A little off. But very cutting edge. Is Gerard Way interested in acting? Can someone make this happen?

As Jesse (Dad), I’d cast Ryan Reynolds—I’d love to see him and Blake go head-to-head on screen.

Miles Heizer would make a good Brendon—boy-next-door with layers. Great talent in this kid!

Sophia Lillis’ innate beauty and understated power is perfect for McKenna!

Director: Nora Ephron or Lisa Cholodenko.

Visit Sasha Dawn's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

Marina Budhos's "The Long Ride"

Marina Budhos is an author of award-winning fiction and nonfiction. Her novels include Watched, a follow-up to Ask Me No Questions, and takes on surveillance in a post 9/11 era. Set in Queens, NYC, Watched tells the story of Naeem—a teenage boy who thinks he can charm his way through life. One day his mistakes catch up with him and the cops offer him a dark deal. Watched received an Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature YA Honor (APALA) and is an Honor Book for The Walter Award (We Need Diverse Books).

Here Budhos dreamcast one of the lead roles for an adaptation of her newest novel, The Long Ride, which is about three mixed race girls during a 1970s integration struggle:

I could see this as a movie—one of those looking back at the 1970s movies or TV series of kids that are caught in between racially. In a way it’s like the new ABC TV show Mixed-ish (which I’ve seen a clip from, and it’s nice and canny). I’d like mine to have a bit of an edge, because it is a time of tougher racial tension, graffiti on subway cars, triple locks on doors, white flight and more outright muttering and the menace of violence.

As to actors or actresses, the thing is, I’d want the kids to be unknowns anyway; discovered, so they are natural.

As to one of the adult actors, that’s easy: I would love Mahershala Ali to play Jamila’s father. He is one of my absolute favorite actors working today. And he has precisely the stillness and wisdom to play Mr. Clarke—a geologist, an engineer from Barbados; a man who loves his wife, the rest of the world be damned; who moves with elegance and understanding.

Visit Marina Budhos's website.

My Book, The Movie: Watched.

Writers Read: Marina Budhos.

--Marshal Zeringue

Brandi Reeds's "Third Party"

Brandi Reeds is a critically acclaimed author whose novel of psychological suspense, Trespassing, was an Amazon Charts bestseller. She also writes young adult novels under the pseudonym Sasha Dawn, whose Blink garnered an Edgar nomination. Her debut psychological thriller, Oblivion, was chosen as one of the New York Public Library’s Best Books for Teens, recommended by the School Library Journal, endorsed by the American Library Association, and selected by the 2016 Illinois Reading Council as a featured book. Reeds earned her BA in history and English from Northern Illinois University, followed by an MA in writing from Seton Hill University. When not working on her next book, she works as a kitchen design consultant and cabinetry specialist. She’s also an avid traveler, reader, and dance enthusiast. A Chicago native, Reeds currently lives in the northern suburbs with her husband, daughters, and puppies.

In Reeds's new novel, Third Party:

The apparent suicide of a beautiful aspiring law student unites two strangers, connected only by their tangled suspicions: that nothing about Margaux Stritch’s tragic end is what it looks like.

Firefighter Jessica Blythe is courageously making her mark in the male-dominated Chicago Fire Department while navigating a complicated relationship with a detective. A first responder to the crime scene, Jessica has a professional duty to Margaux. Then there’s Kirsten Holloway, a wife and mother pulling herself together after an emotional breakdown. But her husband’s infidelity has left her in a place full of mistrust and fear. Her dreaded curiosity about Margaux’s death has become very personal.

Here the author dreamcasts an adaptation of Third Party:

What an interesting concept! I don’t picture actors in my head when I write, and frankly, this was more difficult than I thought it would be. However…

Kate Beckinsale—a master in innocence and affirmation—would be a perfect for Kirsten. For Kirsten’s husband, Ian, I’d cast Ben Affleck—I would love to see Ben’s The Town meets upper class America. His curt delivery and a hint of over-confidence (think Good Will Hunting: “Retaaaaainer!”) would be an ideal fit for Ian.

As Margaux, I’d love to cast Dakota Fanning—crazy-talented kid with the skill for emotional layers. Enough said.

As Jessica, my female powerhouse, I’d like to see Brie Larson or Scarlett Johansson—we need a little seduction meets superhero here. (Note, I’m told each of these women recently played superheroes. I did not realize that when I cast them…I live under a rock. If it isn’t Deadpool, and it’s a superhero movie, I haven’t seen it.)

I can see Decker as Tom Hardy or Michael B. Jordan. Vastly different guys, but both would bring a don’t-f**k-with-me edge.

Nat Wolff’s clueless meets in charge—of everything—would be a perfect fit for Kirsten’s son, Patrick. Her daughter, Quinn, would be Abigail Breslin, who’s been a star since Nim’s Island. Now, let’s watch her be the voice of reason for an entire generation of her predecessors!

Directed by: Kelly Reichardt.

Visit Brandi Reeds's website.

--Marshal Zeringue