Nicole Galland's "Stepdog"

Nicole Galland's novels include The Fool's Tale; Revenge of the Rose; Crossed; I, Iago; and Godiva. She is married to actor Billy Meleady and owns Leuco, a dog of splendid qualities.

Here Galland dreamcasts an adaptation of her new novel, Stepdog:

Well naturally, I think my own dog (who inspired the novel) should play the title role of the Stepdog, Cody, even though she�s the wrong breed, because she is the sweetest, gentlest, best-behaved, smartest, most photogenic dog in the world. Not that I�m biased.

The story is a sort of romantic bow-tie between the narrator (an Irish actor/musician), his bride, her dog and her ex. A frequent and very flattering comment I�ve been hearing from folks about Stepdog is that there is something Nick-Hornby-ish in the tone of the book, which thrills me as I�m a big Hornby fan. Since the movie About A Boy is my favorite adaptation of anything in the Hornby canon, I�d opt for its directors, the Weitz brothers, to direct Stepdog.

I�m going to skip commenting on how I would cast the antagonist, since describing his appearance would be a spoiler alert for the reader.

That leaves the male and female leads. In my mind�s eye Sara, the love interest and dog-owner, looks a lot like the French actress Audrey Tautou, but with an energy more like Jennifer Garner�s. Because the premise of Stepdog is autobiographical, this character is �based on� me, and I have a hard time imagining myself on film (part of why I gave up acting).

I blush to disclose that my ideal actor to play Rory is�wait for it� a cartoon character. Walt Disney has an animated version of Robin Hood, and as a child, oh my goodness, I had such a huge crush on the red fox playing Robin Hood. If one could make him Irish instead of English, and replace the archery bow with a fiddle bow�sigh�oh, yeah� that�s my hero!

Visit Nicole Galland's website.

The Page 69 Test: Stepdog.

--Marshal Zeringue