It has been a crazy, crazy time…the new semester started, and I love my students. I also finished the screenplay!!! So things will just get crazier as that whole process is thrust into motion…
But even with all that going on, I still have time to strap on a fat suit AND attend a Geek Convention!
Chessylvania, coming soon
When someone asks you to play a part in their film, well, of course you are flattered. When they tell you the character is a dumb, obese, tasteless whore from Staten Island…well, what can I say? I was STILL flattered. And it was a blast. And honestly, my portrayal of this hideous woman, – Agnes – will truly be one of the most disgusting performances of the century…people get Oscars for that, right? Amongst my favorite scenes…eating a salami hoagie and spitting pieces all over the floor….hitting on the Donut delivery guy and then smearing donut across my face…and yes, there is more. But I don’t want to give away too much. But the movie is very funny and cleverly written, so it was worth it. More to follow, but here is a preview:
Hello, sexy!
Hot Danish Artist Thomas Warming in his cameo as the Russian Plumber
This is Allen Brawner, making a cameo...I've known him since I was a kid, and watched him in tons of plays...and he is still one of the funniest and most gifted actors I've ever seen...but I could barely keep a straight face when he said this line to me: "If you give me a dollar, I'll letcha touch my butt."
The movie is by the gifted and slightly deranged (he knows I mean that in a nice way) Roy Schwartz…I’ll update you, and you can check out the website here:
Okay, this may SEEM like a shameless plug…but I can say, without a doubt, my mom is one of the best actresses I’ve ever seen. She helped create this one-woman show about Deborah Franklin, Ben Franklin’s wife. And even if you aren’t a huge fan of history, the story is compelling, funny and really moving. So often the women in history are misrepresented or not represented at all…and often they were just as influential as the men. Deborah was fiery, smart, tough and hilarious…she was the backbone to Ben Franklin…and, in the end, he didn’t treat her so great. But you’ll have to see the play to understand that. But without Deborah, there would have been no Ben as we know him today…the whole story is fascinating.
Anyway, every time I see my mom perform, I’m pretty much blown away. Really gifted actors – those who are born with the ability to take on other characters and give them humanity and emotion – are so rare. And I’m really proud my mom is one of them.
Check out her website! She’s already booking gigs…so maybe you can see her perform!
And P.S… she looks pretty kickass with a rifle! Don’t mess with the Sloan familia!
Another reason to love my neighborhood….just goin’ for a Saturday walk and we find a crazy biker street festival!
And what biker street fest is complete without an altercation with Brooklyn’s finest (P.S. Woulda filmed longer, but Thomas said ‘maybe this isn’t the best time to film’…and I’m glad I listened)
They had some crazy cars…
And motorcycles…
And fashion accessories:
And half-melted ice sculptures:
Some pretty hardcore people:
With beautiful pimped-out bikes:
And of course I wanted a picture, but was a little intimated…not that I let that stop me! When I asked these guys for a pic, I said it was because they look so tough, which they loved. One joked in a really high, girly voice “Tough? But what about my di-ah-beateees?” But then he put his arm around me and told the other guys, “C’mon, she’s alright.” And, hence…FAVORITE NEW PICTURE:
"Reading this book was similar to watching a horror movie through my fingers: it terrified me, but I couldn’t just walk away." -- Cafe Saturday
"This book was interesting. It has language and lots of references to a certain boy's body part, but all in all a good read." -- Dana, Goodreads
"Last Word: When the time comes, grab a copy STAT. This is a book unlike anything you've ever read before."
-- Reading Between The Lines
Praise for High Before Homeroom
"Here's a confession: I like Doug Schaffer more than I ever liked his idol Dean Moriarty, and I had much more fun reading Maya Sloan's High Before Homeroom than I ever had reading its literary progenitor, On the Road."
-Ayelet Waldman, author of Red Hook Road and Bad Mother
“I love this book. Doug Schaffer – sixteen years old and in an almost-constant state of arousal, as only a sixteen-year-old boy can be – is everything you'd hope for in a narrator: disarmingly honest and irreverent and affable and funny – very funny. Maya Sloan is a mad scientist of a novelist, filling her Petri dish with the cells of J. D. Salinger, William Burroughs, and Mark Twain, but ultimately this novel is her own glorious creation: a smart and wholly original take on what it means to yearn, in all its manifestations, in the 21st century.” --John McNally, author of After the Workshop
"Maya Sloan's characters could be deemed purely comic if they weren't so realistic, tender if they weren't so jaded, and heartwarming if their lives weren't so heart-wrenching. All of which makes this a darkly compelling -- possibly controversial -- coming-of-age novel. High Before Homeroom is a wild debut from a brilliant new novelist."
-- Julianna Baggott, author of The Miss America Family and co-author of Which Brings Me to You
No matter how profane it may seem at times, High Before Homeroom, like Youth in Revolt, is ultimately a charming take on one nerd's coming of age. In this assured debut, Maya Sloan clears the gender barrier, giving us the hapless Doug Schaffer, sixteen and obsessed with sex, love and Kerouac.
--Stewart O'Nan, author of Snow Angels and The Speed Queen
"Searing one moment, laugh-out-loud funny the next, Maya Sloan's High Before Homeroom is an honest, surprising, and dazzling debut."
-- Davy Rothbart, FOUND Magazine and This American Life
"Funny, poignant, and profane, this energetic coming-of-age novel about a young outsider who takes a radical path to coolness marks Maya Sloan as an engaging new young novelist to watch."
--Rilla Askew, author of Fire in Beulah and Harpsong, winner of the 2009 Academy Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters
