Rebecca Cantrell's "A Trace of Smoke," the TV series

Now showing at My Book, The Movie: A Trace of Smoke by Rebecca Cantrell.

The entry begins:

I have to confess that I have an unfair advantage on this question. When A Trace of Smoke was released, Sara Colleton (the producer of Dexter, The Painted Veil, and Riding in Cars with Boys) became interested in it. She read it, liked it, and presented it to the decision-making VPs at both Showtime and HBO. It took them a few weeks, but they both passed.

In the meantime, I had a lot of time to think about Smoke as a TV series, complete with actors and actresses and set designers and my own theme song. Yup, those were fun weeks. Until they passed and took away my theme song. So now, instead of viewing this experience as a devastating heartbreak, I can view it as chance to have an intelligent answer to this question. Yup, that’s how hard I work on these blogs.

Hannah’s 32-years-old in this first book, so I want someone who can play that age. She needs to be blonde-haired and blue-eyed, a veritable model of Aryan beauty in order to confuse the Nazis as she looks like their ideal woman, but, of course, she is not. She needs to be able to portray great strength and also incredible vulnerability. Plus, she needs to be funny. But she doesn’t have to be able to tap dance, so that’s something, right?

Here’s my short list for Hannah:

• Carice van Houten from...[read on]

Learn more about the book and author at Rebecca Cantrell's website and blog. Watch the video trailer for A Trace of Smoke.

The Page 69 Test: A Trace of Smoke.

My Book, The Movie: A Trace of Smoke.

--Marshal Zeringue