Category Archives: Blog
Chelsea Cain’s Casting Call
The news this week is that the FX Channel has optioned a TV pilot based on the thriller novels by Portland’s own Chelsea Cain.
Portland’s own Storm Large, portraying arguably the best-known character created by a Portland author … ever. This is a match made in heaven. Or in the secret laboratory of an evil genius. Whichever.
Which, of course, will lead to speculation about casting. In a series like this, casting will be all-important.
I’m a huge fan of Chelsea’s novels (and Chelsea’s journalism, and Chelsea in general). But unlike most readers I speak to, I don’t believe Gretchen Lowell – the psychotic serial killer – stands at the heart of the narrative. Archie Sheridan, the tortured and troubled cop, and Susan Ward, the neurotic young journalist, do.
So while the rest of fandom begins the inevitable bantering about who gets to play the psychosexual mastermind, Gretchen, I’ll be most keenly interested in who gets the roles of Archie and Susan.
Of course, someone already has played the role of Gretchen – at least, on Chelsea’s webpage. Singer, songwriter Storm Large brought an unsettling intensity to the photo shoot. Then again, I’ve met Storm and she’d bring an unsettling intensity to eating Cheerios. Just saying.
Any suggestions, folks?
FX Raises Cain
“Hello, Ms. Cain? It’s Hollywood on Line 2.”
Portland’s own Chelsea Cain just got the news that the FX television channel has optioned her series of novels for a series! The news broke yesterday.
Chelsea is the author of the creepy and excellent thrillers HEART SICK, SWEETHEART and EVIL AT HEART, among others. The books star flawed and tortured detective Archie Sheridan and neurotic young journalist Susan Ward, facing off against Gretchen Lowell, therapist turned psychosexual mastermind serial killer.
The books are absolute must-reads for anyone who wants to be kept up at night with books that you cannot put down. And they’re also perfectly cinematic. My question to Hollywood: What took you so long?
The pilot has not been picked up yet, so the whole project isn’t quite a done deal. But Chelsea’s books would fit in nicely with FX’s current lineup of edgy, well-written dramas, such as JUSTIFIED.
Chelsea is my fellow Minotaur writer, so this is good news for the family. Nicely done, CC! I’ll make the popcorn.
Stroby is (heisted) money in the bank
Wallace Stroby has knocked another hardboiled tale out do the park with KINGS OF MIDNIGHT.
Crissa Stone, whom Kirkus Reviews gushed is “crime fiction’s best bad girl ever,” returns for another great novel, a follow-up to COLD SHOT TO THE HEART.
Stroby threads that most difficult of writing needles: the sequel that matches the original in intensity.
KINGS OF MIDNIGHT is an awfully well-written thriller.
http://www.wallacestroby.com/kingsofmidnight.html
