Blog Archives
A Cat-Friendly Book Trailer
While experimenting with GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) we created the following book trailer for Time’s Edge.
Writing in Layers
The first draft of Time’s Illusion is nearing completion. And the next step? You’d think it was editing, right? Nope. It’s layering.
When we write, we look at the first draft as the basic structure of the book. It establishes where the action is, who is present, how the characters move through the story. A bare-bones, action-and-dialogue scenario. A lot of experimenting goes on in our first drafts, a testing of story boundaries and character limits.
Upon this base we add layers. This process fleshes out the details that really bring the tale to life. Descriptions are expanded. Dialogue is enhanced. This is the five-senses phase, when we get to play with color, sound, and sensation. Like a stage production, we decide what our characters will be wearing, we paint the scenery, adjust the lighting. The worlds we have created come alive.
For those who aren’t into play production, think of it as baking a cake. The cake itself is the basic story. The icing holds the story layers together. The fancy flourishes give the tale depth and beauty. When it is complete it is a feast for the eyes. It smells delicious. Your mouth waters in anticipation. The first bite makes you want to take a second bite.
Just like a good book.
We’re Blogging When We Should Be Writing
We saw an interesting post on Twitter last week. An author wrote that he was spending more time promoting his books than writing them.
We know the feeling.
Facebook. Twitter. Blogs. Etc., etc., etc. Get the word out. Plug that book. Get another follower. Create some book trailers. Speak at a library, school, town fair, supermarket, doctor’s waiting room. (Yes, we did.) In short, SPREAD THE WORD.
Why do we spend all this time on promotion? We were asked that question by a student in a school where we recently spoke. Sigh. There are several reasons.
1. The book promotion elves are not taking any new clients.
2. The reading public, amazingly, had never heard of us before our first book came out.
3. Do you know how many books are published each year? (Um, we didn’t either. A quick check produced a figure of over 955,900 according to worldometers. The scary thing was the counter that was recording the number of published books changed every few minutes. Goodness knows what it will be when you are reading this.)
4. The cost of hiring someone to do it for us made us hyperventilate.
Seriously, book promotion is a necessary evil. Evil? Well, perhaps, time-suck would be a better term. Yes, yes, we have read the blogs from authors who tell us we should glory in promotion, look it in the eye, wrestle it into submission. We’ve also seen the posts about making book promotion our friend, lavishing it, loving it for all the good it does for us.
We admire the authors who are gung-ho about promoting their books. We marvel at them, wondering how they do it all, where they get the time. We are secretly convinced some of them have a time machine, or perhaps a Time-Turner just like Hermione in the Harry Potter series. Write a few chapters, turn back time, do some book promotion. Write a few more chapters, turn back time, do some more book promotion.
However, the small, rebellious writer in each of us resents the time spent promoting books. Time spent on promotion is time spent not writing. And writing is what we love to do. Does this mean we are going to stop blogging, tweeting, posting on facebook? No. We’re committed to our writing careers and therefore committed to promoting our books.
But if anyone has a spare Time-Turner they aren’t using, please let us know.
10 Reasons We Love Book Trailers
1. They are fun. Fun to watch, fun to create. (The Highlander Trilogy by Maya Banks)
2. They give novels a visual dimension. It’s a quick peek into the world created by the story. (Give Up the Ghost by Megan Crewe)
3. They give readers another tool to help them decide if they would like to read the book. (Time’s Edge by J.M. Dattilo. Yes. Shameless self-promotion.)
4. They can tell a story in (usually) two minutes or less. (The Hot List by Hilary Homzie. 45 seconds.)
5. They whet the appetite. (Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs)
6. You don’t have to be a professional book trailer designer to create a good trailer. (Demon Hunter by Cynthia Vespia)
7. They make you laugh. ( Super Sad True Love Story by Gary Shteyngart).
8. They can be artistic. (Tell Me a Secret by Holly Cupala)
9. Some are really beautiful. (Beautiful Places by Chad Prosser)
10. They don’t always take themselves too seriously. (Magic Slays by Ilona Andrews)
A Not-to-be-Missed Book Trailer: The Highlander Trilogy
We love book trailers and are constantly delighted by all the creative ones we have seen. Today we want to feature a very funny, very creative trailer for Maya Banks’ Highlander Trilogy. This video was part of Operation Auction, a romance community effort to aid a family hit by tragedy. You can read more about it and find a Donate button here: http://operationauction.wordpress.com/2011/03/11/operation-auction/
5 Good Blogs About Writing
Over the past few years we’ve read some great blogs that offer excellent advice for writers. Here are some that are worth checking out:
1. Creativity? Train Your Brain to Be an Idea-Generating Machine. by Cheryl Craigie
2. Why You Shouldn’t Follow Trends by Nathan Bransford
3. George Orwell’s 5 Rules for Effective Writing by Erin Falconer
4. Writing Exercise: Switching Points of View by Jodi Cleghorn
5. Want Some Advice? Ignore Any Advice by Russell Smith
Our Favorite Time’s Edge Quotes
Shelfari, amazon.com’s “community-powered encyclopedia for book lovers”, has a neat feature; readers and authors can add quotes from books they enjoyed. We had a lot of fun selecting quotes from our novel Time’s Edge. Here are our favorites (in no particular order):
“It’s impossible to walk through solid rock… You have to walk between the molecules that make up the rock.” Nick, the Sarzonian guardian
“Seers. They make everything they say sound like a prophecy.” Jafrey Ral
“What I can do is science, not magic. Magic is just a term for an aspect of science that hasn’t been explained yet.” Michael Blayne
“Within this dimension there are doorways to every place in the galaxy… A misstep in this hall can have serious consequences.” Alrick Zartollis
“If we live through this remind me to buy you a Ratherian beer.” Commander Lucas Joyston
“This place is a cross between a medieval castle and a space station.” Kate Weston
“The robot was my ancestor…just as the amoeba was yours.” Edgar, Michael’s robotic servant
“I’m ready to believe anything from a man who spends three months on a simple probe retrieval and then returns wearing a cat.” Zilla, the commander of Division 9
“You are not the portent. You are the great event.” Rista Jahlan
“Alrick will kill you if you talk, and Michael will kill you if you don’t. Glad I’m not you.” Jafrey
Sneak Peek: Time’s Secret
What would you do if you were on a quest you didn’t like to find an object you didn’t want…
If your wife made a prophecy that hinted you could not succeed…
If an oracle warned that everyone close to you would perish if you failed…
If those closest to you were keeping secrets that affected not only your quest but your very life…
If your life and your destiny were the most closely guarded secrets of all…
Most answers are revealed by Time.
But what do you do when time is running out?
Click here for a sneak peek at the prologue of Time’s Secret, the sequel to Time’s Edge.
J.M. Dattilo 