Camille Griep's "New Charity Blues"

Camille Griep lives just north of Seattle with her partner, Adam, and their dog Dutch(ess). Born in Billings, Montana, she moved to Southern California to attend Claremont McKenna College, graduating with a dual degree in Biology and Literature.

She has since sold short fiction and creative nonfiction to dozens of online and print magazines. She is the editor of Easy Street and is a senior editor at The Lascaux Review. Letters to Zell is her first novel.

Here Griep dreamcasts an adaptation of her new novel, New Charity Blues:

I have always been guilty of daydreaming and writing with a cinematic ribbon running through my mind. In keeping, I’d love to share my (unlimited budget) casting via the opening montage for the film version of New Charity Blues.

The movie begins with images of a dark and ruined City. Ex-ballerina Syd, played by Julia Goldani Telles (an actress and dancer from the criminally short-lived series Bunheads fame), is climbing a dilapidated staircase. As the music slowly gets louder, she discovers young Mina, played by Kylie Rogers (of The Whispers), trapped while searching for Buster (played by a black and white American Bulldog to be cast by a nice trainer somewhere) who is emerges from a dark corner of the room. When the camera returns to the corner, the frame goes black.

Over a slower portion of the theme music, the scenery brightens into a sunset. Cas Willis, played by Chloe Grace Moretz (Kick-Ass, If I Stay), is on horseback, loping over the green hillsides of New Charity alongside her twin, Len, played by Lucas Hedges (The Slap). Homeward bound, they are shown into the barn by their brother Troy, played by Chord Overstreet (of Glee fame). Cas looks down the hill, into the distance, to a cloud of dust: the chaos erupting at the old Turner Ranch.

When the dust clears, montage music still swelling, we are back in the city, where Syd delivers the injured Mina to Doc, played by Nick Nolte (Cape Fear), before joining Agnes, played by Kelly Bishop (Dirty Dancing), for a dinner of canned tuna and corn. Rain pelts the windows as they eat in silence. Syd scratches one of Agnes’ many cats’ ears before bending over to light a candle and the scene goes blurry.

Another candle comes into focus, this time in the middle of a dinner table, New Charity’s lush green scenery out the window. Cas, Len, and Troy sit with the rest of their family: Governor Willis, played by Neal McDonough (Minority Report); Mama Willis, played by Kim Cattrall (Sex and the City); and Perry, played by Anton Yelchin (Charlie Parker), as well as the vile Bishop, played by Thomas Haden Church (Sideways).

As the opening credit music again begins to fade, the camera pans away from the dinner table, out the window, and down the grassy hillside to the Turner Ranch where the earlier chaos has now died down. Deacon Pious Turner, played by Jim Carter (Downton Abbey), sobs into the shoulder of Sheriff Jayne, played by Kristen Johnson (3rd Rock). The lens zooms out over the silver horse sculpted gates sealing the wall of New Charity where a camp of Survivors including Nelle, played by Uzo Aduba (Orange is the New Black); Mangold, played by Daniel Sunjata (Rescue Me); and Linsey, played by Robbie Coltrane (Harry Potter).

Now that we’ve been introduced to the major characters of New Charity Blues, we can settle in with our popcorn and watch the rest together.

Visit Camille Griep's website.

Coffee with a Canine: Camille Griep and Dutchess Marie Siefker-Griep.

The Page 69 Test: Letters to Zell.

The Page 69 Test: New Charity Blues.

--Marshal Zeringue

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