Jodi Compton's "Hailey's War," the movie

Now showing at My Book, The Movie: Hailey's War by Jodi Compton.

The entry begins:

On my website and in bookstore discussions about Hailey’s War, I’ve made a lot of the fact that no major character in this book is over the age of 24. The story grew out of the circumstances in which it was written -- I was living in a college town called San Luis Obispo, which is dominated by young people, and I was surrounded by their culture, music and slang.

Unfortunately, the downside of a book with such young characters is that it’s hard to mentally cast the film. Although I enjoy youth movies, it’s been a while since I’ve seen any, which means I’m likely overlooking some gifted young actors in addressing this question. So, here’s how I’m going to handle this problem. You’ve heard of colorblind casting? This is going to be "age-blind" casting: I’m going to pick actors I think have the right qualities and not worry about the DOB -- mostly I’m using these choices to emphasize the qualities I hope a casting director would look for in filling these roles.

My protagonist, Hailey Cain, is a Texan-born ex-West Pointer: not dewy, not gamine, not pixie-ish. Not a laeta, as Hailey herself would say (laeta being her term for a certain kind of L.A. girl, from the very flexible Latin word that can mean happy, fortunate, fertile or silly). For this part, I favor...[read on]

Read the opening pages of Hailey’s War and more at Jodi Compton's website.

Writers Read: Jodi Compton.

The Page 69 Test: Hailey's War.

My Book, The Movie: Hailey's War.

--Marshal Zeringue