Charlotte

Liese O'Halloran Schwarz grew up in Washington, DC after an early childhood overseas. She attended Harvard University and then medical school at University of Virginia. While in medical school, she won the Henfield/Transatlantic Review Prize and also published her first novel, Near Canaan. She specialized in emergency medicine and like most doctors, she can thoroughly ruin dinner parties with tales of medical believe-it-or-not. But she won't do that, because she knows how hard you worked to make a nice meal. Here she dreamcasts an adaptation of The Possible World , her second novel: The Possible World is set in Rhode Island, and there is a significant historical aspect to the story, so a close adaptation would be constrained with regard to casting. A looser adaptation (a different setting, for example) would open up some roles with regard to type. I think I would learn a lot about my story and characters if they were set free in that way, but for a strict adaptation, set in R

Danielle Girard is the author of Chasing Darkness , The Rookie Club series, and Exhume and Excise , featuring San Francisco medical examiner Dr. Annabelle Schwartzman. Girard’s books have won the Barry Award and the RT Reviewers’ Choice Award, and two of her titles have been optioned for movies. A graduate of Cornell University, Girard received her MFA at Queens University in Charlotte, North Carolina. She, her husband, and their two children split their time between San Francisco and the Northern Rockies. Here Girard dreamcasts an adaptation of her new novel, Expose : I don’t know any writer who hasn’t toyed with the “perfect cast” for his or her novel. I’m certainly among the masses. And some days when the words don’t come, I’m on the IMD b website for much much longer than I should be, going back and forth between Idris Elba and Michael B Jordan to play Inspector Hal Harris. Medical Examiner Annabelle Schwartzman is a little tougher as most actresses are simply gorgeous and I thi

Amber Brock teaches British literature at an all-girls’ school in Atlanta. She holds an MA from the University of Georgia and lives in Smyrna with her husband, also an English teacher, and their three rescue dogs. Her new novel, Lady Be Good , is set in the world of the mischievous, status-obsessed daughter of a hotel magnate and the 1950s electric nightlife of three iconic cities: New York, Miami, and Havana. Here Brock dreamcats an adaptation of Lady Be Good : This is a particularly easy exercise for me, since I tend to use actors and actresses as “models” for my characters. I’m careful to avoid letting the people I know inspire my work, so using famous figures is a foolproof way to do that. If Lady Be Good were a movie, this would be the cast: Kitty Tessler: Emma Stone. She does cool and mischievous better than anyone. Hen Bancroft (the best friend): Mamie Gummer. Her classic, upper-class look is perfect for Hen. Max Zillman (the love interest): Jake Johnson. He’s snarky and hands

Gwen Florio grew up in a 250-year-old brick farmhouse on a wildlife refuge in Delaware and now lives in Montana. Currently the city editor for the Missoulian , Florio has reported on the Columbine High School shooting and from conflict zones such as Afghanistan, Iraq, and Somalia. In 2013, Montana , her first novel in the Lola Wicks detective series, won the High Plains Book Award and the Pinckley Prize for debut crime fiction. Here Florio dreamcasts an adaptation of her latest novel, Silent Hearts : Such fun to think about this. One of the things I’d wish most for Silent Hearts : The Movie is that a film about Muslim characters will actually feature Muslim actors – Ayesha Omar or Nazanin Boniadi for Farida, say, or Azita Ghanizada as Khurshid. Fawad Khan would make an appropriately handsome Gul (it’s possible I watched several YouTube clips just to be sure). As for my Americans, some of Leonardo DiCaprio’s roles feature the hard, controlling persona I imagine Martin to have. And, wh

Danielle Banas , a Pittsburgh native, earned a degree in communication from Robert Morris University. After years spent dreaming up characters instead of paying attention in class, Banas joined the storytelling platform Wattpad, where her work has received millions of views online. When she isn’t writing, she can be found loudly singing show tunes, spouting off Walt Disney World trivia, and snuggling with her puppy . Here she dreamcasts an adaptation of ​ The Supervillain and Me , her debut novel: When I write I always imagine the scene playing out as if it were part of a movie, however, I don’t picture specific actors as my characters until either very late in the first draft or until the first draft has been completed. I flip-flopped between many actors while I was writing and editing The Supervillain and Me , but finally I settled on Lili Reinhart for my main character, Abby. I love watching her play Betty Cooper on Riverdale , and she definitely has the right look for Abby. The ver

Susan McBride is the USA Today bestselling author of the Debutante Dropout Mysteries and the River Road Mysteries. The debut of her Jo Larsen series, Walk Into Silence , was a #1 Kindle bestseller in the US and the UK, and #3 in Australia. Here McBride dreamcasts an adaptation of the second Jo Larsen novel, Walk A Crooked Line : Oh, how I would love to see Jo Larsen come to life! She’s the protagonist of both Walk A Crooked Line and Walk Into Silence , my police procedurals that tiptoe on the dark side. Jo is kind of a mystery herself, and, as I peel back the layers of her family history, I can see several actresses who could walk in her shoes. When I first wrote Walk Into Silence , I envisioned Jennifer Beals, the actress from Flashdance , who’s physically pretty much the perfect Jo. The only drawback is Ms. Beals is a little older than I am, and, for that reason, perhaps too seasoned to play Jo Larsen now, since Jo is in her mid-thirties. Still, I think she could pull it off. Age

Tiffany Brownlee was born in San Diego, California, and, as with many authors, her love for reading and writing began at an early age. Because her father was in the Navy, she and her family moved around far more often than she would have liked (she went to five elementary schools–not kidding!), but despite the many moves, her love of education, books, and writing remained. Her family’s final move brought her to New Orleans, Louisiana, where she went on to study for and earn her B.S. in Psychology at Xavier University of Louisiana. Immediately after graduation, Brownlee began work as a Teacher’s Assistant while also pursuing a teaching certification from The University of Holy Cross. Juggling both school and work as a full-time teacher’s assistant was a little hectic for her, but she still managed to squeeze in some time to read and work on a YA novel idea that she’d thought up while rereading Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights (one of her favorite classics). That idea eventually became

Prentis Rollins has over twenty-five years of experience working as a writer and artist in the comics industry. Here he dreamcasts an adaptation of The Furnace , his debut full-length graphic novel: When I was writing the script for The Furnace , I was picturing Nick Nolte as the protagonist Walton Honderich—in fact, for a while I was planning to basically draw Honderich as Nolte. Nolte (I’m thinking of Nolte at about 45 years of age here) is handsome, affable, masculine—but I always found him able to project a sense of helpless, floundering desperation really well (just watch 15 or so minutes of Cape Fear if in doubt). And that’s Walton Honderich. I ended up designing Honderich without referring to Nolte, precisely because I wanted the character to not be so handsome—I wanted him to appear to be a squishy, bespectacled middle-aged nebbish (he’s a physicist wracked with guilt over his youthful involvement with a nefarious government scheme to house prisoners in a really horrible

Derek Milman has worked as a playwright, screenwriter, film school teacher, DJ, and underground humor magazine publisher. A classically trained actor, he has performed on stages across the country and appeared in numerous TV shows, commercials, and films. Here Milman dreamcasts an adaptation of his newly released first novel, Scream All Night : So this is actually something happening with Scream All Night , and I can't discuss specifics just yet, but I write without ever seeing faces or actors. And I'm grateful for that, so I can focus on their inner lives. That said, I did see a film called Hereditary with some friends, and everyone agreed the boy in that movie, played by Alex Wolff, would be a great Dario; he has the right intensity and the brooding dark looks, and the right edge to his humor and his speech. The same could be said of Timotheé Chalamet, after we all saw Call Me By Your Name --but everyone immediately wanted this kid to play the lead in the adaptation of thei

Sibel Hodge is the author of the number-one bestsellers Look Behind You , Untouchable and Duplicity . Her books have sold over a million copies in the UK, USA, Australia, France, Canada and Germany. Here Hodge dreamcasts an adaptation of her new novel, Into the Darkness : When I'm writing a novel I see the scene playing out in my head exactly like a movie so I always have a visual of my characters. Of course, I'd love every book of mine to star the fantastic Tom Hardy if they were ever made into films, and for Into the Darkness , I think he would play an amazing Mitchell, ex-SAS operative who is searching for his missing goddaughter. He may be a little young for the role, though, so as a second I'd choose Ray Winston. It's a gritty British thriller so they would both be perfect. For Mitchell's opposite, Detective Sergeant Carter, who is a maverick and someone very disillusioned with the police force, I'd choose Gerard Butler. He's kick-ass enough to follow

Sheena Kamal was born in the Caribbean and immigrated to Canada as a child. She holds an HBA in political science from the University of Toronto, and was awarded a TD Canada Trust scholarship for community leadership and activism around the issue of homelessness. The Lost Ones / Eyes Like Mine is her debut novel. The sequel It All Falls Down has just been released. Prior to writing novels, Kamal worked as a crime and investigative journalism researcher for the film and television industry--among other rather unsavoury professions. Here Kamal shares some thoughts on casting the lead roles in an adaptation of It All Falls Down : I don't write to actors, but sometimes it's fun to let my mind wander in that direction. Every now and then I get asked who I would cast as my main character, Nora Watts. The truth is, I don't know who could play Nora. I would absolutely love for an intrepid producer to take a chance on an indigenous actor for this part--and there are a few n

Rob Hart is the author of the Ash McKenna series which wraps up this month with Potter’s Field . Other entries include: New Yorked , which was nominated for an Anthony Award for Best First Novel, as well as City of Rose , South Village , and The Woman from Prague . He also co-wrote Scott Free with James Patterson. Here Hart dreamcasts the lead in an adaptation of the series: Swear to truth, I have never really considered who would play Ash. I’m going to say Adam Driver. He looks like he can hold his own in a brawl, and I think he’s a fantastic, interesting actor. He can find that balance between stoicism and heart and vulnerability that I think is important to Ash. He’s a little old for it—he’s in his mid-30s and Ash is in his mid-20s, but that’s not a deal breaker for me. Or, if you want to make things interesting, race-flip it and cast Lakeith Stanfield. I’m not precious about Ash being a white guy. And Stanfield is just excellent in everything he does. I have no real thoughts on d