Linda Grimes's "In a Fix," the movie

This weekend's feature at My Book, The Movie: In a Fix by Linda Grimes.

The entry begins:

I suppose most writers have imagined—either with excitement or horror—Hollywood zeroing in on one of their books and splashing it onto the screen. I'm no exception. But I vacillate between thinking it would being the coolest thing ever and being totally terrified at the prospect.

Which way I'm leaning depends on the most recent screen adaptions I've seen. If it's something like The Hunger Games or Holes, or even the sadly short-lived Dresden Files TV series, which I think are excellent translations of print to screen—they all capture the atmosphere of the books very well, in my opinion—then, yeah, I get pretty excited thinking about my characters coming to life in a visual way.

If it's something like The Shining (the Jack Nicholson version) or The Great Gatsby (the Robert Redford version from way back), then the trepidations set in, and I start to feel a bit queasy.

As for how I'd cast In a Fix, given the opportunity … well, I have to admit that I couldn't come up with just one actor for any of the main characters. Nobody I've run across looks exactly how I imagine Ciel, Billy, or Mark. The best I could do is come up with "types."

For Ciel, either Hannah Spearritt or Michelle...[read on]

Learn more about the book and author at Linda Grimes's website.

Writers Read: Linda Grimes.

My Book, The Movie: In a Fix.

--Marshal Zeringue