Tag Archive for: Book Trailer

So a Man Walks Into a Bar…

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Or
Look, it’s My New Short Story!
by
Bethany Maines

I have a theory that short stories are like jokes.  There’s the set-up that establishes
location and characters. A man walks into a bar with a duck on his head.  Then
there’s the action that moves the plot forward. The bartender says,
“Sorry, we don’t serve monkey’s in here.” And the man says, “It’s a duck.”  And
then there’s the ending. The bartender says, “I was talking to the
duck.”  There’s always more that can be added to the joke, such as
why the man had a duck on his head to begin with or who won the fight after the
ending, but the joke doesn’t really need it.  And there’s the challenge to the author – to figure out what
is the right amount of information and what is just an explanation of the why
the man is wearing a duck hat.
Tomorrow, I’ll be releasing my first e-short story,
Supporting the Girls, (available from Amazon, ibook, Barnes & Noble, and Vook) so you will be able to judge for yourselves whether or
not I selected the correct information. Supporting the Girls is a new adventure for Nikki Lanier and her covert
team of Carrie Mae make-up ladies. 
(If you haven’t read my novels Bulletproof Mascara and Compact With the Devil, you may need to understand that Carrie Mae is a
make-up corporation, specializing in at-home sales and make-up parties, that
also happens to run an organization of female operatives that help women
everywhere.)

And I may have gotten a little carried away while I was working
on my story because I also made a video. 
But when you have a “great idea for a movie” (you have to say that part
like Jean Claude VanDamme), you know a videographer, and you’re friends with an
entire karate school of awesome people, suddenly an action movie doesn’t sound
like such a far-fetched venture.  Head over to youtube to check it out!
It’s possible of course that my joke isn’t that good, or
that possibly the joke is on me, but tomorrow you will have the opportunity to
judge for yourselves and I’m hoping I hear laughter.  But… um… you did read that part about how I’m friend with an
entire karate school, right?  Let’s
just say, I’d better hear laughter. 
Leave a comment to below for a chance to win a free copy of Supportingthe Girls!

Home from Epicon and Video for No Sanctuary

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It was certainly a whirlwind time!

We left home early Wednesday a.m. headed for Las Vegas. It’s about a 6 hour drive through the mountains and then the desert. First stop, my sis’s. As usual, we had a great time gabbing.

Thursday afternoon hubby and I headed for Henderson NV, more or less a suburb of Vegas. Our destination, Epicon which was being held in the Montelongo Resort. What a glorious setting–like an Italian village overlooking Lake Las Vegas. Our room had a balcony–which we never used, because it was chilly most of the time.

Right as we stepped in the hotel lobby we saw two friends from the last Epicon who let us know what was happening and where. After unloading our stuff we returned to the lobby where we met lots more of our friends from earlier conferences. Lee Emory, Treble Heart Press publisher, was there and the three of us decided we should have dinner together–in an Italian restaurant of course!

The conference started with an Epic business meeting and breakfast. I did a class on writing a mystery series right at 9 a.m. From then on I was free for the day and took advantage of all the rest of the seminars. That evening hubby and I tried out an Irish pub.

Saturday morning I joined some other authors to present information to three young writers. That was great! Epic always has a New Voices contest for young people. In the afternoon there was a publisher’s panel.

That evening was the wonderful Awards banquet–always great. Dan Reitz, publisher of Mundania Press, m.c.’d. The women looked terrific in their dressy clothes and some of the men even had on tuxedos–one Scotch publisher wore his kilt. I was the presenter for the Mystery category–fun because it’s done like the Academy Awards.

Sunday morning was a great breakfast, lots of networking and of course, finally goodbye. We headed back to my sister’s for the rest of the day and to spend the night.

Came home to piles of mail and email–rather daunting to go through.

Did have this new video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_du3UtWAYXw for No Sanctuary.

Marilyn

Jane’s First Book Trailer

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The Stiletto Gang is pleased to welcome as our guest blogger, Jane Cleland. She is the author of the Josie Prescott Antiques Mysteries (St. Martin’s Minotaur). Her latest book, Antiques to Die For, debuts this month. Jane is also President of the New York chapter of Mystery Writers of America. Welcome Jane!

For the first time, I created a book trailer to celebrate my new book, Antiques to Die For. You can view it at http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=janecleland.

It was quite an experience creating it.

I worked with a terrific independent film maker named Kat. http://www.spygirlpix.com/ Kat taught me the process: strategy, script, casting, setting, shoot. Sounds easy, right? Hardly.

The strategy was pretty straight ahead because I knew what I wanted. I had a clear vision—strategically, I wanted to both show what the book was about and what the experience of reading would feel like. I wanted to provide enough information to intrigue readers of traditional mysteries while creating a strong sense of place and atmosphere.

Here’s what the book is about:

After setting up shop as an antiques appraiser, Josie Prescott’s life has not gone according to plan: business is booming and she has good friends and a promising romance—but dead bodies keep crossing her path. And now, a friend is killed just hours after confiding a secret to Josie, leaving a bereaved sister who reminds Josie of herself when her mother died.

It turns out that the victim had other secrets, too: a mysterious treasure she told her sister she was leaving behind—and a secret admirer who now seems to be turning his creepy attention to Josie. Can you imagine what it would be like to be a 12-year old orphan whose sister is murdered? Can you imagine what it would be like if your sister told you that you owned a treasure—a priceless antique—but you don’t know what it is or where it is?

Set on the beautiful and rugged New Hampshire coastline, Antiques to Die For is filled with antiques lore and complex plot twists. In the end, using her knowledge of antiques, Josie finds the valuable treasure—and solves the crime. And in doing so, she gives a young girl hope.

At first, when thinking of the trailer, I focused almost exclusively on the young girl, but that took me off on the wrong track. Certainly, the girl, she’s a little blonde pixie named Paige, by the way, is a central character in the book. But Antiques to Die For is a Josie Prescott Antiques Mystery—and that means the trailer should focus primarily on Josie’s world—antiques, not a single character.

Casting was something else all together. I wanted to hire a girl to play Paige, but only her rear view would be seen. I wanted viewers to fill in their own ideas about what Paige looked like.

Kat ran ads on Craig’s list, and we were flooded with blonde ambition. One girl, or rather, her mother, wrote that her daughter was fourteen, but could play twelve. Another wrote that her daughter was ten, but could play twelve. We had two mothers who wanted to fly their daughters to New York to audition. Enough said. We picked a lovely 12-year old local girl named Shannon.

Perhaps the greatest challenge was finding a New York City shoreline location that looked even remotely like Rocky Point, the New Hampshire shoreline community where the Josie Prescott Antiques Mysteries are set. Leave it to Kat! We did. When you view the trailer, keep in mind that you’re looking at a New York City beach. Pretty incredible, isn’t it?

In the end, I couldn’t be happier with the finished product. It expresses exactly what I wanted to express. A excerpt of the book is available in text or audio on my website, http://www.janecleland.net/. I love to hear your thoughts about book trailers—and the Josie Prescott Antiques Mysteries, too.

Jane Cleland