Dexter star Michael C. Hall will adapt Matthew Specktor‘s novel American Dream Machine as a Showtime TV series.

Read a free sample of the novel at this link. Dexter showrunner Scott Buck has also joined the project and Specktor will write the screenplay. Tin House published the novel in April. Here’s more about the deal, from the publisher’s release:

 Michael C. Hall will serve as executive producer and is eyeing a role in the series. The project is set in Hollywood in the 1970s and centers on the titular talent agency. American Dream Machine is a sweeping narrative about fathers and sons, the movie business, and the sundry sea changes that have shaped Hollywood, and by extension, American life.

Here are some literary events to jump-start your week. To get your event posted on our calendar, visit our Facebook Your Literary Event page. Please post your event at least one week prior to its date.

Celebrated horror writer R.L. Stine will be talking about his adult novel, Red Rain, at Barnes & Noble Upper East Side. Hear him on Monday, October 22nd starting 7 p.m. (New York, NY)

Dexter actor Michael C. Hall and The Wisdom of Psychopaths author Kevin Dutton will discuss what makes psychopaths happy at the Rubin Museum of Art. Check it out on Wednesday, October 24th starting 7 p.m. (New York, NY)

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The Literary Death Match reading series will shoot a television pilot on October 9 at the Largo at the Coronet in Los Angeles, creating two shows that the popular reading series can pitch to TV networks.

Would you watch the Literary Death Match on television? The organizers hope to raise $10,000 for the pilot on Kickstarter. In exchange for pledges, you can get tickets to the show and digital downloads of the TV pilots. Check it out:

The live show — a double-feature (two, full 40-minute shows) starring top literary, Hollywood and comedy talent — will be filmed by a top cinematographer, then edited into a pair of pitchable TV pilots. The pilot will star  Michael C. Hall (Dexter; Six Feet Under),  Susan Orlean (The Orchid Thief; Rin Tin Tin), the musician Moby (Play; Destroyed), comedian/author Jenny Slate (SNL; author of Marcel the Shell with Shoes On), host Todd Zuniga (LDM creator, and a LA Times “Face to Watch” for 2012), author Ben Loory (author of Stories for the Nighttime and Some for the Day) and many, many more TBA. (Via HuffPost Books)