CRIME ON MY MIND

My book, the TV series!

Getting published is the dream. Well, dream number one. Then come the thoughts of TV and movie rights. As a writing tool, you may even find it helpful to visualize an actor when describing your character. I'm sure the lure of screen rights has crossed every writer's mind and why not? It's written into contracts. And, there's a strong legacy of fictional crime fighters who have made the leap from printed page to small screen.

Howard Engel's wonderful private eye, Benny Cooperman was probably the first. And, Saul Rubinek made the ideal Benny -- he has that chopped egg sandwich look about him. He appeared in The Suicide Murders and Murder Sees the Light on TV, although he's also been the voice of Benny on two CBC Radio adaptations, also written by Engel.

When the award-winning Joanne Kilbourn series, by Gail Bowen, became made-for-TV movies, it was the talented and glam Wendy Crewson who nabbed the starring role. Although not my idea of Joanne, I loved the movies and I'm sure she drew in many viewers who then went on to actually read the wonderful series.

Toronto at the turn-of-the century (that would be the previous turn), also hit the TV screen, as a series, with Peter Outerbridge to be the first to play Detective Murdoch. Maureen Jennings' popular series is still going strong and can be found on many channels these days.

And when talking books-to-TV, who doesn't remember John Thaw as Colin Dexter's dour Inspector Morse. The Brits have a long tradition of crime fiction-TV investigators -- Dalgleish, Dalziel and Frost, to name a few.

Speaking as Erika Chase, my choice for Lizzie Turner, the female sleuth in my book is Amy Jo Johnson.

So, who would play the lead in the TV version of your book?


Linda Wiken/Erika Chase