Dream Cast: From The Desk of Buster Heywood

I have always, always known who would play Buster Heywood if anyone ever decided he should grace a screen.  I know that it is a reader's prerogative to picture the characters for themselves: one reader of a very early draft of In the Cards once told me my redheaded main character had black hair in her mind.   Who was I to stop her from seeing him that way?   However, author K.M. Weiland recently shared her own dream cast for her upcoming novel, "Storming" (you can see it here), and inspired me to share the cast of "From the Desk..." with you all.    

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The star of the show, Mr. Heywood himself, has always been inextricably linked with character actor James Urbaniak... and I have been brave enough to tell him so.

James, if I ever win the lottery, be prepared: I'm going to offer to pay you to do the audiobook.

​Buster's artistic older sister, Dee Heywood, is based on a close friend of mine who rarely takes no for an answer.  This isn't her, of course ... but she bares a striking resemblance to Sophie Aldred in her days in the late 80s as companion Ace on Doctor Who.  

​Buster's smooth-talking boss, Loren Jarvon, was another who needed zero thought when it came to casting.   I had actually created him years prior, when I was trying to fill out the town with side characters, and I'd been taken by Jude Law's performance in Road to Perdition as a charismatic yet dangerous photographer.  When Buster showed up with a story to tell, I knew just who he'd have to grapple with.

From the moment he arrives on the page, Daniel Preston Woolrich has undeniable power to him, a social force that cannot be reckoned with, even though it's clear he shouldn't have it.  I wanted an actor who could pull off that power and still inject the right amount of sleaze.  When I saw this picture of Robert Downey Jr., I knew I had a winner, and as a bonus, horrible plaid suits became an integral part of Daniel's character.

Clearly, there are several more characters in From the Desk of Buster Heywood, and I'd love to share them all with you ... but that would make for a very lengthy blog post, indeed.   If you're curious, I've created a Pinterest board for the book.   Currently, it only has photos of the dream cast, but I have pictures I've taken for location reference, and other tidbits that I'll be adding to the board soon enough.  You can check it out here ... and I hope to see you again next week!