I’m not entirely sure this is a good idea–after all, it bombed the first time we tried it–but nothing ventured, nothing gained. So I hereby open The Official and Bona Fide Bell Mountain Movie Contest.

Suppose we were suddenly in possession of $200 million and wanted to make a movie based on yours truly’s Bell Mountain books. And suppose you could have anyone you wanted, living or dead, to play the various characters and to direct the movie. Whom would you hire? Whom would you cast?

So that’s the contest: cast the movie. Simply list four characters in the novels with the names of the actors you’d like to see playing those characters; or you can nominate a director. Example: Helki the Rod: Danny DeVito; Ellayne: Bette Davis; Lord Reesh: Stan Laurel; Directed by: Ross Perot. (I have purposely illustrated this example with choices that no one in his right mind would ever make.)

Enter as many times as you like. Entries will be judged–subjectively, I admit–by me, influenced by other readers’ reactions to the suggestions. The contest will run until The Temptation is published, and an autographed copy of it will go to the winner. I’ll extend the contest if more time is needed.

Problem: If you haven’t read any of these books, you’ll be hard-put to compete in this contest. Ridiculously Simple Solution: Read ’em. At least read one, and you’re in business. There are hundreds of characters in these books by now, and you’ve only got to come up with four. How easy can it get?

Last time, a lot of people seemed to enjoy reading about this contest… but we only got three actual entries. I got just as many for a “name that tent caterpillar” contest that wasn’t even real, I didn’t even have a tent caterpillar.

So I’ll give this a week or two and see how it goes. If it doesn’t go, we’ll have to think of something else.