Yes, Bob, money and market often make the decisions — a disconnect between “art” and marketing.

Kristina, I don’t usually have actors in mind when I read, either…which has made me wonder how I envision characters when I read. I don’t think I see set facial features. I have a general idea of what a character looks like, but nothing specific. I rarely see a movie before I read the book, but once that happens, my mind tends to see the actor from the movie as the book character.

I don’t often “cast” the books I write or read, but I just read THE WATERS by fellow Michigan author Bonnie Jo Campbell and I found the witchy matriarch to be so unmistakably evoking Kathy Bates she is exactly whom I pictured the whole time

Joe, I’m thinking it’s a little of both. If an actor REALLY doesn’t work with your memory of the book, it can be jarring!

Joe, I think most authors have images of their characters in their minds as they write, and you can’t help but “cast” your book as you go along. (It’s a guilty pleasure.) I’d love to see what a casting director had in mind for my characters!