By Hallie Ephron

Years ago, if you’d told me I was going to write a novel (“Never Tell a Lie”) that would be turned into a movie (“And Baby Will Fall”) for the Lifetime Movie Network, I’d have said, “No way.” I’m not a writer. Sure, I come from a Hollywood family with parents who were screenwriters (“Carousel,” “The Desk Set”), and all three of my sisters have written novels and screenplays. But I was always “the one who didn’t write.”

I was well into my forties when I gave in to my genes and started writing fiction. As I wrote “Never Tell a Lie,” I envisioned every scene cinematically. My camera was the narrator, Ivy Rose, a young woman who is days away from giving birth. I tried to channel the feelings of vulnerability I’d had when I was pregnant with my first child. Like Ivy, I’d had a career and suddenly I was at home, a stranger in my own neighborhood, as I waited for the baby to “drop.” Like her, I had endless nightmares that something would go wrong.

Ivy Rose (played by Anastasia Griffith) has even more to be worried about. She’s had a series of miscarriages, so she knows how easily things can go wrong. She depends utterly on her husband, David (played by Brendan Fehr), for emotional support. Melinda White (played by Clea Duvall) threatens to upset their dream when she shows up at their yard sale and literally disappears inside their house.

Ivy, David and Melinda went to high school together. I knew kids just like each of them. David was one of the popular kids — star quarterback and an all-around good guy who still takes his good looks and talent for granted. Ivy wasn’t popular or unpopular; she just had her own circle of friends and got along. If she’d been active in the drama club, she’d have painted scenery, not starred in the plays. Melinda was in a class by herself. She was overweight, odd-looking, painfully awkward and isolated — the perfect victim.

Seeing my characters brought to life on the screen was incredible. Even though I’d envisioned Ivy with long black hair, Anastasia Griffith absolutely captures her every-woman-ness, her vulnerability, her spunk and smarts. She’s never a victim, even though life keeps dealing her curveballs. Brendan Fehr is pitch-perfect bewildered as the situation drives him into a protective crouch. Even though he’s caught in a net of lies, he’s just as I envisioned, a fundamentally decent man who adores his wife.

And Melinda. I realized that she’d be the hardest character to play, because she’s so complicated. She’s a victim, and yet she’s not. Melinda was most transformed in the film adaptation, and Clea Duvall is brilliant — I won’t say more for fear of giving away the plot twists.

People have asked me if I’d write another book featuring Ivy Rose. My answer is always an emphatic “No!” I put her through the wringer. A few years later, I see Ivy and David still married. They’d have two kids. She’d be a working mom. His landscape business would be thriving. They’d be living the American dream — but the blind trust they once shared would be gone, and they’d know better than to take any of their good fortune for granted.