Maya Sloan's "High Before Homeroom"

Maya Sloan has an MFA in Creative Writing from Boston University, as well as a MFA in Fiction Writing from the University of Arkansas. This year her short story about Christian rock groupies was featured in the 25th Anniversary Issue of Boulevard. She has also had stories published in Passages North and Driftwood.

Here she shares some ideas about the cast of an adaptation of her first novel, High Before Homeroom, newly published by Simon & Schuster:

High Before Homeroom is about a sixteen year-old boy in Oklahoma named Doug. He is in love with a girl named Laurilee, but he’s not cool enough for her. She likes bad boys. So he decides to become a crystal meth addict, get sent to rehab, come back with street cred and win her affection.

It’s a weird book.

I’ve been told my writing is cinematic, which doesn’t surprise me. I’ve always loved movies. Small indies, foreign films, big-budget crapfests (especially the kind that involve a hurricane/crater/nuclear catastrophe destroying the world as we know it), Sci-Fi epics especially the post-apocalyptic kind), and, of course, totally unrealistic, weepy chick flicks (especially the kind that feature endearingly neurotic female leads, highlight couture gowns, and end with romantic kissing scenes in the rain/with a historical landmark as a backdrop/in some exotic tropical locale). Not to mention, I’ve been known to see the occasional highly acclaimed Academy Award-approved saga (especially if they require some gorgeous actress to put on forty pounds/some heartthrob A-list movie star to play a character that is mentally-challenged or handicapped/ornate period costumes).

I like all kinds of movies, and I’m not ashamed to admit it. Well...there is one genre I adore that causes me a bit of embarrassment. No, not porn. Even more humiliating than that...

I love movie musicals.

So, with that in mind, here is the cast:

Doug, the lead: John Savage as Claude Bukowski in Hair (1979). He’s from Oklahoma. He’s all sweet, corn-fed innocence until he meets a bunch of hippies in Central Park and learns the merits of kinky sex and LSD.

Laurilee, the bad-girl he adores: Audrey Hepburn in Funny Face (1957). For the dance sequence alone.

Dingo, the nerdy best friend: Rick Moranis in Little Shop of Horrors (1986).

Mitch, the trouble-making drug addict: Jack Wild as The Artful Dodger in Oliver (1968).

Trevor, the All-American brother: Richard Beymer as Tony in West Side Story (1961).

Pops, the unstable, slightly insane meth “cook”: Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins (1964).

Angela, the seemingly innocent Christian youth group devotee with a dark side: Suzanne Cupito as Baby June in Gypsy (1959).

Visit the official High Before Homeroom website and view the video trailer, which has been nominated for Best Big Budget/Big House Trailer by The Moby Awards. There is currently an independent movie in the works.

--Marshal Zeringue