Just For Thought...(2)

I'm curious of your thoughts... One day the mind was wondering, a lot. But I came up with a few thoughts, questions... what ever you would like to call them, for chats with you. I thought it would be neat to have a nice chat with you on different things in and regarding books. I don't think this will become a post for every week, but I have several thoughts here to start some chats. I do hope you will join in and share your thoughts.

Coupons, friend of foe?

Are coupons your friend or foe when it comes to purchasing?  Let me set the scene for you... Beginning of the week and I'm broke already.  Paid the bills, need gas in the car, and saved a few slim dollars to go to lunch with the ladies at work.  And trying to save move for the crap that keeps breaking or need.  I get a 40% or 50% coupon off at the local bookstore.  What do I do?

Now, I think I'm crazy to not take advantage of these insane coupons that are sent from the store.  I absolutely need these books.  I want them.  I'll read them, eventually.  And goodness what if they aren't there when I want them?  Geez, I would have to wait.  And best of all, I'm supporting my favorite authors all the way!  So I rush out with the coupon and buy books.  Just what the store wants me to do.

My excuse.  The things I needed to take care of where taken care of so what if I take the five or ten dollars and spend it.  I have no other vices.  Well, sure I do... shoes, and fun days out doing stuff...

But anyway, coupons they are both to me.  Friend and foe.  They drive me crazy and burn the hole in my pocket to go spend.  I love them!

What about you?  Do they fuel your weakened state with book buying?

Tales from the Archives - Four

Tales from the Archives - Four

By: Pip Ballantine & Tee Morris

Written & Narrated by: Val Griswold-Ford

Format: Podcast, 37:03 minutes

Genre: Fantasy, Steampunk

Series: 4th in Tales of the Archives podcasts, part of A Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences series

Recommendation: Yes. Nice way to meet new characters in this steampunk-ish world particularly if you enjoyed the book; A Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences Novel, Phoenix Rising.  This one has a nice blend of dark magic with the clockwork tower.
Synopsis:
The Sun Never Sets

Agent Isaac Martin receives a note, imploring him to investigate the nearly completed clock tower at the Palace at Westminster. He and his partner, Agent Andrew Kensington, start looking into the construction and uncover unanswered questions concerning this new landmark’s creators.

My Thoughts and Summary:
Agents Eliza and Wellington take us into a sealed case they find.  Yes, one that Director Mr. Sound has sealed for no ones eyes to see.  But Eliza being the lovely character she is brings us right into this one.  And I love the way Eliza and Wellington personalities shine in the beginnings of this pod cast.  Just fun with them.

We find this case taking place in May 1859.  Agent Isaac Martin is the first in the offices of the Ministry and finds an anonymous note on his spotless desk.  The note catches his interest as it's asking him to save the children and stop the new clock tower from chiming.  Finding this isn't a joke from his partner Agent Andrew Kensington, they both go to look through the Clock Tower prior to opening.  Finding the architect Sir Charles Barry there, they get a tour of the tower.  Isaac notices a few parts that seem curious to him and learns of the Architect designer too.  Then does some more digging...

New characters and the tie of old as well.  Both agents Isaac and Andrew are new, but we have the ties we have seen in the Phoenix Rising as well.  We have mention of Director Mr. Sound.  Then we have a brief mention of the House of Usher here in this podcast which bring to mind what all do they really touch in and why.

Val is the writer and narrator for this podcast.  And I have to say I enjoyed the dark magic she had in this story along with the unexpected ending.  Very nicely done.  I even found I wanted to go back and listen to the pod cast again from the beginning.  It was like one of those movies you watch, enjoy, and want to watch again to see if you can piece it together now that you know.  Yeah, that was this pod cast for me.


Would you like to listen to these? For a taste of the characters or in addition to the book... Visit HERE.
There are short stories always added to the listing. So keep checking back!

I listened to this short story for my own enjoyment.

Flash Fiction Friday (9)

Dottie over at Tink's Place have come up with the idea for a Monday Morning Flash Fiction challenge. Each Monday a new picture prompt will be posted and if you choose to participate you post your story on Friday - 350 words, give or take.

I have to thank Blodeuedd at Book Girl of Mur-y-Castell for introducing me to this fun meme. I don't know if I'll be able to keep up with every week, but I'll give it a try from time to time.

The Image this week:

By Melissa

John pauses in the dingy alleyway listening, feeling the air around him.  The haze of magic lingered all around like a dense fog in the darkness.  Once he stepped over the threshold into this dank dark world he knew he'd have to be at his most keen awareness.  This is why he left this world, to live with the mortals and it's just gotten worse with time.  John just shook his head with disgust, this damned case just didn't stop with the magic shyt, getting deeper and deeper in the dark magics as he went.  John's been using more of his magic sense now with this case than he had in high school looking to graduate with honors to get in with the big Mages, years ago now.  Oh yes, he's used small spells and senses to help with cases in the mortal realm that's what made him the top PI.  But now he thought he might be over his head...just a little.

He could feel them at the end of the road, quickly reducing the distance to him.  Looking at the magically inclined glowing sign of Leo's Lair & Bar across the dark street John sighed, wondering how he was going to get there unharmed and knew he had to move now as time was not with him.  Leveling his old comfortable fedora on his head, taking a deep breath willing the first spell to his finger tips, and he started across the street.

Three clicks of his heels was all he got before there was a snap of energy and a flash of green light ten feet from him.  John jumped to the left, crouching, bringing his hands up to release the energy building in his tingling fingers.  The... creature... bared its sharp needle-point teeth and had its cat-like ears pinned back hissing at him.  The mages here take on features of creatures they try to mimic in their ways and attacks, this one had an evil straggly alley cat look to it.

John was just ready to release the magic boiling at his figure tips when he heard something familiar, a yell in his ears, "No! Don't!  You'll feel it full force back."

John trusted the feeling of a friend near and dropped his hands turning to run to the bar.  There stood the tall lean half goblin, half mage he came to see, Sheen.  Sheen waved him over and into the bar they went.

Shaking his head Sheen spoke as if he was telling an old joke, "You sure know how to make an appearance." And chuckled a "ha" out.  "I knew you'd be here, eventually.  Just thought sooner.  Come on, the field I threw up will keep them out for a while.  You're safe here and we'll get you out to a safe zone too.  Go grab a Barking Vampire from the bar and come upstairs to my apartment with your drink.  We'll talk there."

Looking Forward To...(55)

There are so many amazing books already on the shelves and new ones coming out.

For a list of books yet to be released I'm looking to get, you can also look on my right Sidebar at the ever growing list titled Desired Reads - just scroll down. Of course there are tones of other new books to come out that are amazing as well, but these ones are part of series I have already started or for one reason or another caught my eye (and haven't seen much on other blogs yet). But I will highlight one here each week.

(mentioned in order of Release Date then Alphabetical if there are more than one book coming out on the same date.)

Next Book Is...

Hunter

Demons of Oblivion Series

By: Skyla Dawn Cameron

Due Out:  August 30, 2011

So, I loved the first book with Zara and Nathan.  And the world created with the unique twist to vampirism and demons.  Loved it!  And I like the sounds of this second book as well.  It is from the view point of a different character but sounds like another great read by a great new author to me.  Check it out!

And the wonderful thing here, You don't have to have read the first book Bloodlines to read this one!  They are able to stand on their own.  So Go Check it out! :) (although if you ask me I say go look at Bloodlines too! You wont be sorry.)

And if you would like to read my review of the first book: Bloodlines, do so HERE.

And I also have an Interview with Skyla, HERE.

Synopsis from Authors site:

Sometimes natural predators need to be kept in check, and for that, there's Ryann David. Orphaned as an infant and raised at by an exiled branch of the church to become a warrior for God, she and her fellow members of Venatores Daemonum have trained all their lives with only one purpose: destroy all vampires and demons in the mortal realm.

But when Ryann and her team are sent on a mission--to find and capture a vampire who's killed one of their own--she learns that perhaps not all is as it seems. Aligned with an irreverent psychic detective, a pair of vampires, and her own determination to do what’s right, Ryann seeks out the truth as the black and white world she knew turns a murky shade of grey.

--------------------------------

This stand-alone book is set in the Bloodlines universe (5 years later) and features a new cast of characters...as well as a few familiar faces.

Read an Excerpt? CLICK HERE to go to authors site to check it out.

Guest Post & Trailer for Phoenix Rising by Tee Morris

Today I have a wonderful guest post by one of the talented co-authors of the fun steampunk novel A Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences: Phoenix Rising, Tee Morris.  Please welcome Tee as he talks about the workings of making a successful book trailer.  And when you are done, please take a moment to check out the amazing works of the book trailer he created to relate the characters Agent Welly Books and Agent Eliza Braun in A Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences: Phoenix Rising.

Book trailers are nothing new, but the debate with book trailers is one that can really be said about any book promotion: do they work? My friend and NYT bestseller Scott Sigler swears by them. And when you see his trailers from Crown along with trailers toting James Patterson's latest, it’s clear that publishing houses also believe in book trailers. It's an investment of time, of money, and of talent; and it seems that publishers still believe in them.

But what do you do when you don’t have those kind of resources on call?

When you are on a budget, you have to think smart. You want it to look professional without getting in over your head financially. For my co-author. Pip Ballantine, on her first book trailer, it was stock video in the hands of a skilled editor (that would be me!), capturing the mood of her first mass market release release, Geist. With voiceover and the right application of editing, we set out to capture the feel of the book. Several times, Pip was told by readers they had seen the trailer and bought the book as the concept intrigued them.

The challenge for our Phoenix Rising trailer: we had to shoot it from scratch. I had a very tight budget (which is your book advance or as award-winning author Robert J. Sawyer call it, your promotional budget).

The first challenge in shooting a steampunk book trailer isn't what kind of trailer do I shoot, how do I costume it, or even who should I cast. The challenge is where do I shoot it? I had to think about the backdrop. With advancements in green screening and the amazing things amateur fan filmmakers accomplish, anything can be created; but that was a last resort for me. The brief moments of it at The Wall in HBO's Game of Thrones take me out of the story. The liberal use of it in SyFy's Sanctuary is one reason I can’t watch the show. So what do you do? you scout for locations, anywhere and everywhere you go. As I live around a lot of American Civil War battlefields, I was keeping options open; but it was a weekend out of town that introduced me to Staunton, Virginia. This town had gone out of their way to preserve their history, and many of these buildings were either on public property or could be granted access with proper permissions.

I had my location.

Now that I knew where I would be shooting, the question is what would I be shooting. Experience from Geist taught me that while scenes from the book are a dream, your first venture (and possibly your second and third) should be more about the mood of your book. So, what was Phoenix Rising?

• It’s action.
• It’s excitement.
• It’s comedy.

So, through a process called storyboarding, I mapped out how I wanted the trailer to look, enough to give everyone an idea of what I had in mind. I kept things simple, even down to the comic moment at the end. So while nothing in the trailer happens in Phoenix Rising, the trailer is everything Phoenix Rising is. It’s amazing what you can accomplish when you keep it simple.

“Keeping it simple” can also apply to costuming and casting. Think for a moment of how many friends you know that visit Renaissance Festivals on weekends, get into elaborate costumes for Science Fiction conventions, or simply go crazy for Halloween. Chances are, they would love to get dressed up for the camera. If you have a simple trailer with no lines to memorize and moments of action, sometimes that is all that is needed. Consider the earlier mentioned James Patterson trailers: how many of them have dialogue? They don’t. It’s all voiceover and quick moments of action.

Finally, there is the filming itself. Before the first frame is shot, before the word “Action” is called, make it clear to your talent — especially if they have never been on a film set before — that there will be a lot of takes, a lot of waiting, and a lot of time. When you are on the set, it is an all-day affair of patience and persistence. For our trailer, Jett Micheyl and I ran. A lot. We ran up three flights of stairs five times. (That shot was never used.) We ran a quarter of a mile stretch of sidewalk enough to equate to two miles. We shot a lot of footage, and that only helped make the trailer better. And while we worked hard, we did take time out to get food. Sorely needed with all the running we did in the day.

Of course you can shoot hours of footage, but the end result occurs in the editing process. This is where everything comes together, and it is best to make sure you have an editor — be it yourself or a friend you know who edits video — ready to do just that. In this respect, I have an advantage as I am a video podcaster and have the Final Cut Suite to tap into. This does not mean you cannot accomplish a lot of cool things with iMovie or Adobe Premiere Elements, but there were tricks and effects I applied in this trailer that could only happen with professional tools. Again, it goes back to what you want to do and how much time and effort you are willing to invest in a trailer.

But to the original question — do I think the trailer worked? In its first two months online, we garnered over 2000 views. (To give a perspective on that, the Geist trailer didn’t crack 2000 views until after six months of being live on YouTube.) The trailer was syndicated on several websites, and on Facebook it was shared well over 500 times. People were watching it. People were sharing it. To me, that was a sign of the trailer’s success.

Some other things that helped this book trailer:

• Running Time. The trailer is two minutes long. A sweet spot for a trailer is between one and two minutes. Any longer than that, and you risk losing viewers.
• Using voiceovers. While we had titles, we also had a voiceover corresponding with them. Book trailers can sometimes be “title heavy” and when you are working with a visual medium you want your viewers to read as little as possible.
• Using video. As this was a book trailer, we used video with motion and action. Trailers that use still images and set them to motion are very hit and miss, especially if the “motion still” is one image used over and over again. We avoided using still shots and used video, keeping viewers attention.

Would I do it again? With some time and tapping into a few more resources, yes, I would. Heck, I’m already trying to think of “what can we shoot next” for The Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences. However, I have to remember that I need to prioritize. My time must be dedicated to writing first, and when I’m in that creative zone I have little time for anything else.

But will I make the time for an Of Cogs & Corsets trailer?

I’ll have my people call your people. We’ll do lunch.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thank you Tee for this wonderful guest post!  This sounds like it was a load of fun to do, and I love the pictures too!

Now, are you ready to watch the trailer?  Just click play...

Throwback Thursday (19)

Let's talk about those books already on the shelves, yours or the stores.

I have a post for books I'm looking forward to coming out;

Looking Forward To...

But what about all those wonderful books that are ALREADY on the shelves.

Whether it be on your shelf waiting to be read or on the shelves in the stores waiting for you to give it a good home.

So, I thought I would share a book a week that is just waiting for me to travel through it's world.

Now... where do I start? Lets go by Published Date on the books...

This Week:

What drew me to this book you ask?  Well, I started reading Marjorie M. Liu's Hunter Kiss series and loved it.  I loved the whole idea of the tattoos being demons and coming to life at night.  I loved the writing and well the whole setup.   So, I've read all the books that are now out and found out there was a short story about the main character in this anthology.  And as many of you know I LOVE my anthologies too!  So I thought this was a win win book.  Now, I just need to get to reading it.

Goodreads Synopsis:

New York Times bestselling authors Maggie Shayne and Marjorie Liu join two hot talents in an anthology of all-new sexy paranormal romance.

New York Times bestselling authors Maggie Shayne and Marjorie M. Liu, and sizzling newcomers Alyssa Day and Meljean Brook discover the wild instinct in everyone with four all-new stories of feral heat. Fans will get swept away by the passions in the unfathomable depths of Atlantis; they'll follow the shadows that stalk both the living and the undead in a world of vampires and guardian angels; they'll enter the forbidden world of the demon horde and their willing victims; and they'll be privy to the secrets of a beautiful animal-whisperer who's drawn closer to the most suspect of all male animals-man.

Book Blog Chat (14) Stop 1

Jax is in space and in trouble, again. But that is what makes the books fun... right?  lol.

So, we are at our first stop for the chat.  Are you going to join us?  Hope you do! :)

This week the chat is being hosted by Robyn at The Bookoholic Zone.  Click to jump over and join in the fun.

In case you are curious the chat schedule is:

Schedule:

Stop 1 ~ June 9th ~ Page 105, End of Chapter 19

Stop 2 ~ June 16th ~ Page 203, End of Chapter 36

Stop 3 ~ June 23rd ~ End of book