Q and A with Barbara

TV RIGHTS:
TV adaptations of Delinsky books
Will any of your books be made into television movies?
One was! Lifetime acquired the rights to A Woman's Place, and produced a movie starring Lorraine Bracco under the title Custody of the Heart. Many other of my books have been optioned for MOWs (Movies of the Week), including Coast Road, Three Wishes, and For My Daughters.

Keep in mind, though, that these are all "options." What is an option? When a production company options a book, it buys the exclusive right to that book for a certain period of time, usually one year. During that period, it decides whether it wants to make the book into a movie, and attempts to sell the idea to a network or cable station. The money it spends basically precludes another production company from buying the book in the interim. I don't have actual figures, but I do know that production companies option many, many more books than they ever intend to make into movies.

The bottom line of that being that while I would love to see one of my books on the screen, I'll believe it when I see it.
Do you write the script?
No, thank you. I'm a novelist, not a script writer. Writing for the screen takes a whole other kind of talent. It also takes time, which means less time for my novels, and my novels are what I love.
Do you have a say about who plays what roles?

I suppose that I could be tough and insert in a screen contract that I have final approval over who plays what roles. But I don't want to do that. The truth is that I watch little television and wouldn't even know the casting pool. I'm far more concerned about the quality of the script. When it came to A Woman's Place, we specifically asked for award-winning writer Marsha Norman. We did get her, and the script was wonderful. I am ashamed to say that I haven't yet watched the movie. Much as I loved the script, it had a new title and focused on only one of the themes of the book. It wasn't really my story anymore, and since I rarely watch TV...