Debut author Elle Cosimano just released her first novel, Nearly Gone, which is a combination of Fringe meets Bones. She gives us a look at her writing process and creating the interesting and elusive characters in Nearly Gone.
“So when is your book going to be a movie?”
I get this question All The Time. The answer is not anytime soon. But I’m not gonna lie. I have let myself daydream about the possibility from time to time.
When I was writing Nearly Gone, I could picture the characters very clearly in my head. I spent hours collecting images online of models and actors who captured the look or mood of my cast. I pasted them into collages and looked at them while I wrote. If a playlist put me in a character’s headspace, then the dream cast brought me closer to their physical person.
In my mind, Nearly Boswell has always been played by Ellen Page. She’s smart and fearless in a small package. Just as beautiful in jeans and a hoodie as she is in a little black dress. This is the photo I think of when I imagine Nearly.
Reece Whelan, her love interest, could be played by a guy like Chace Crawford. Add a thistle tattoo to one forearm and a couple of eyebrow piercings, darken his hair a bit, then deprive him of sleep for a week, and viola!
Mona Boswell is Nearly’s mother. Mona had Nearly at a very young age, and with the exception of her old soul and a few smoke lines around her eyes, she’s still a young woman. This picture of Jennifer Garner is very similar to the image I have of Mona in my mind.
Nearly’s two best friends are Anh Bui and Jeremy Fowler. Anh would be played by someone innocently beautiful with a peaceful aura about her… someone like Go Ara. While Jeremy Fowler’s youthful face, lanky build and blond hair are captured in this photo of musician, Cody Simpson.
Then we have a few of Nearly’s classmates. Characters like Posie Washington. This brilliant and shy 14 y/o junior is a perfect role for Amandla Stenberg. Teddy Marshall, the sweet boy Nearly tutors in math every week, could be played by a younger Tommy Jessop.
Vince DiMorello reminds me of a modern day Eddie Haskell. All American boy next door on the outside, and pure wicked on the inside. Maybe someone like Brett Davern? His best friend, handsome and tragic TJ Wiles, would be played by someone like Colton Haynes while his uber-popular girlfriend, Emily Reinnert could be played by someone like Greer Grammer.
And let’s not forget our more dangerous and mysterious characters…
And so do I…
To avoid spoilers, I’ll leave my casting call at this. It’s up to you to figure out which actor will play the killer.
‘Nearly Gone’ Synopsis
Nearly Boswell knows how to keep secrets. Living in a DC trailer park, she knows better than to share anything that would make her a target with her classmates. Like her mother’s job as an exotic dancer, her obsession with the personal ads, and especially the emotions she can taste when she brushes against someone’s skin. But when a serial killer goes on a killing spree and starts attacking students, leaving cryptic ads in the newspaper that only Nearly can decipher, she confides in the one person she shouldn’t trust: the new guy at school — a reformed bad boy working undercover for the police, doing surveillance. . . on her.
Nearly might be the one person who can put all the clues together, and if she doesn’t figure it all out soon — she’ll be next.
About Elle Cosimano
Elle Cosimano grew up in the suburbs of Washington, DC, the daughter of a prison warden and an elementary school teacher who rides a Harley. She majored in psychology at St. Mary’s College, Maryland, and set aside a successful real estate career to pursue writing. She lives with her husband and two sons. Nearly Gone is her first novel.