So when they turn my YA novel into a movie, I know exactly who I want to play the lead role. It’s my friend, uber-talented actress/singer/musician, Chelsea Nye. All of my characters play instruments and some sing, so Chelsea is perfect for any of the roles. If anyone out there is interested in optioning my books right now, and casting her, you should know that she’s a real actress, pro and all, and has a NY agent and everything. I’m not trying to get my second cousin once removed who does community theatre a lead role in a movie or anything. Give me credit! I am sometimes realistic! By the way, she is the model for the cover of this book. Ain’t she beautiful?

Now I know that it’s a long shot getting your book turned into a movie, especially when you know…you don’t actually have a published book out yet.. 🙂 But the truth is, you’ve thought about it too, so I can admit that I have. Actually, what brings this up is that after reading ELLA ENCHANTED a couple of weeks ago, I got the movie on DVD yesterday. It was pretty interesting because it was as if someone had written a one sentence premise and a few character descriptions and handed that to Gail Carson Levine and also to a screenwriter and then said, “Okay, each of you take this one sentence and character descriptions and turn it into a book/screenplay.” And they each went off on their own journey, both coming up with something unique and fabulous, but not really very similar.

It wasn’t like when a bad movie is made of a good book. It was a good movie made of a good book, but entirely different! I have been contemplating what that must be like for the writer. On one hand, you wrote the book the way you wanted the story told and readers loved it, so you know it worked. On the other hand, there is your character, come to life! And the movie that is purporting to be your baby, is well done, just not what you wrote. I have always thought that if your book was made into a terrible movie, all you could really do is say, “Well, everyone knows the book is always better than the movie anyway, and now I’ll just go cash this big fat check.” But in this case, it must feel a bit different.

By the way, can I just say I LOVE Anne Hathaway? The director referred to her as a young Lucille Ball, and while I wouldn’t have thought of that myself, I think it’s a perfect comparison. She is beauty beyond words and so funny and unbelievably talented. Almost as talented as Chelsea!