Attention blog readers!
My fellow Deb and the author of the excellent YA novel Breathing, Cheryl Renee Herbsman, is looking for some help for her current work-in-progress. She’d like to hear from teens who’ve struggled with depression and would be willing to fill out a short questionnaire.
If you’d consider helping her with her research, please send her an e-mail to find out more. And feel free to pass this on to others you think might be able to contribute.
Thanks!
Okay, I’ve given in! I’m trying out this Twitter thing. Plan on sharing quotes from GIVE UP THE GHOST and possibly WIPs, notes on what I’m reading, interesting links, and book news. If you want to follow, I can be found here:
And if you want to recommend your favorite tweeters to follow, please share!
March 1995 (Megan is 14)
I like to have close friends, ones who I can really talk to, but at the same time, I feel myself holding back. I don’t want to share myself with people and I’m becoming very personal. I contradict myself.
It is funny in a way, that although I try to not brag or get too full of myself, at the same time I want people to think I’m good at stuff. For example, it made me tremendously annoyed that my English teacher assumed I wasn’t very good at drawing.
There are some times that I like, but I don’t like at the same time. For instance, yogurt. I like it, but when I think of having it, I remember that it is sour and often decide not to. Another is pea soup. Perhaps I like it because I don’t.
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An Introduction to Flashbacks
The Flashback Cast
The Flashback Timeline
I’ve just updated the Reader Secrets pages on my site to include all the stories received so far. More than 50! I’m incredibly impressed by the honesty there, and by how creative you’ve been–many have sent in images to go with their stories, one person send an audio file, and one sent not one but two videos to go with the story (see the bottom of the first page).*
Check them out! You might find some eerily similar to your own experiences, and others providing another side of the story. And of course, keep sending them in! The giveaway will be open for another ten days.
*If you want to submit an audio or video file, but don’t want it linked to your account at a site like YouTube, you can simply e-mail the file directly to me and I’ll host it. The secrets mailbox can hold files up to 300MB; if yours is larger, let me know and we’ll figure something out.
I just started watching the TV show True Blood (my dad will be happy–he’s been telling me to check it out for almost a year now 
), which of course I know is based on a series of books by Charlene Harris. I haven’t read any of the books, but it was interesting to find out, poking around online, that the creators made a few rather major changes when writing the show. Particularly with the character Tara.
Right now, Tara is probably my favorite character. (Though Lafayette and Sookie herself provide some pretty tough competition.) She is made of awesome. It’s hard for me to imagine the story presented in a way where she is so peripheral she doesn’t even turn up until the second book! But technically, I guess, that’s the more “authentic” version, since it’s the version that came first. Of course, TV show and movie creators are always taking liberties when they adapt books. Sometimes for good reason (not everything that works on the page also works on the screen; condensing is almost always necessary), sometimes for reasons it is hard to perceive (I’ve been hearing a lot of grumbling from Harry Potter fans about bits of the book left out while other, seemingly irrelevant bits, were added in).
As book fans, how do you feel about adaptations? Are you happy as long as it tells a good story, regardless of how true to the book(s) it stays? Are there certain sorts of changes that particularly bother you–or, on the other hand, that you particularly like to see? What do you look for when you see a book you enjoyed made into film or TV?
One of the things I wanted to do with GIVE UP THE GHOST was present a different way of looking at the “I can see ghosts” special power. In most of the books I’ve read with a character who can communicate with ghosts, the character is scared of them or sees them as a hassle, and wishes they didn’t have that ability. But it seemed to me there could actually be a lot of benefits to having a talent like that. So I wrote my ghost book with a character who likes what she can do.
(Granted, Cass didn’t always enjoy seeing and hearing ghosts, but it didn’t take too long for her to figure out there were some up-sides to it.)
So I wonder, what other supernatural “problems” might not really be so problematic? Or not-supernatural “problems”, for that matter. Is there anything you usually see presented in a negative light in books, that you think might actually be kind of cool/useful?
And on the flipside, is there anything that’s usually presented as a good thing that you think would be way more trouble than it’s worth?
I know at least a few of you have asked to receive a review copy of GIVE UP THE GHOST and didn’t receive one. As I’ve mentioned, the publisher only has so many to give up. I only wish I could get one to all of you.
But wait! Maybe I can. I’ve entered GHOST in the One ARC Tours (I’ll actually be giving more than one ARC to be handed around), and anyone from the US can sign up! (Sorry international folks, if I find another way for you I’ll let you know.) The full rules are here; basically you just have to be willing to read it quickly after you get it and then mail it on. And there are lots of other great books on tour there, too! So check it out. 
January 19, 1994 (Megan is 13)
X wanted to ask D if he liked me. I didn’t want her to because he would think I liked him. She did anyway and I didn’t find out ’til Friday.
X and I went up before school started to see [our teacher]. We were waiting for her near the gym. D had a basketball practice. (This was Friday.) He walked out to get a drink. On his way back he touched the sleeve of my shirt and said Hey (or Hi) Sexy. I didn’t know what he said at first and X was laughing so hard. I figured it out and we both laughed.
X told me then and I think he was teasing me because he thinks I like him. X thinks I do too and she keeps trying to prove it.
–
An Introduction to Flashbacks
The Flashback Cast
The Flashback Timeline
Okay, so this isn’t about books, but it is about words and how things are written, which is good enough, right?
In the last couple months there’s been an ad campaign war of sorts between two major Canadian companies. Both are claiming to offer a service for less than the competitor, and both are clearly targeting the other. The difference is in how.
When I first saw this ad, and the TV ads that go with it, I thought it was kind of cute. The reference to the competitor is quite sly (the competitor’s logo is blue).
A couple weeks later, these ads started showing up, and my jaw dropped. Calling out the competition by name! Really classy. 
Companies calling out their competition is nothing new–I grew up with Duracell vs. Energizer commercials. But to me, how it’s done has a pretty big effect on how I feel about the ad. And ads that go out of their way to name their competition… just seems like poor taste to me. I’m actually less likely to buy a product or service if I see a company turning to those sort of tactics.
(Actually, I could see this coming up with book promotion, too… To me there’s a pretty big difference between saying something like, “No sparkly vampires here!” and something like, “My book is way better than Twilight!”)
What about the rest of you? Does it bother you when a company (or whatever) targets another in their promotional efforts? If it’s subtle? Overt? Or do you figure anything goes in advertising?
First off, thanks to everyone who’s already entered the Spill Your Secrets Giveaway and shared your stories!
Second, as promised, I’m going to talk a little today about the making of the GIVE UP THE GHOST book trailer, in case it’s helpful to anyone planning at some point to make a trailer of their own.
I can’t say that any of this is the best way to make a book trailer, of course, it’s just what happened to work for me.
1. Concept and script.
Before I started doing anything on the computer, I sat down and figured out how I wanted the trailer to “pitch” the book. What elements did I want to focus on? How could they best be presented? I decided to structure it by first setting up my main character’s unique situation (she prefers ghosts over the living), and then to introduce the main conflict (guy needs her help).
Then I wrote out a script for the trailer. It went through a few edits as I trimmed it down (I think it’s best to have as little text as possible in a trailer–stick to the most important stuff–so you don’t risk confusing or overloading the viewer with details) and adjusting wording. This is what it looked like in the end:
Cass prefers the company of the dead
over that of the living.
for good reasons…
1. Unlike her classmates, the dead don’t judge her.
2. Unlike her mom, they’re always there for her.
3. Unlike her best friend, they’d never betray her.
4. Using the secrets they share, she’ll never be that vulnerable again.
But when golden boy Tim
asks her to contact his recently deceased mother
there’s one very good reason to let him in…
She’s the only one who can help him.
And Tim needs help more desperately than anyone suspects.
To set things right, Cass will have to face the one thing she’s still scared of…
living.
The first line and the bits about Tim come more or less directly from the jacket flap copy. I set up Cass’s “reasons” as a list because that’s something she does here and there in the novel, and I hoped to show a bit of her voice.
2. Imagery
Once I had my script, I figured out what image(s) I wanted to show to go with each line. Then I headed over to StockXpert, my favorite royalty-free stock photography site, to find them.
The hardest part was the characters. After much searching, I was lucky to find a few pictures of one girl who was a great fit for Cass, so that she could stay consistent throughout the trailer. The two images of Tim are actually different people, but since he’s covering his face in the second one I felt I could get away with it–I just tried to match the hair as closely as possible.
I also had to do a little photo manipulation to get a couple of images I couldn’t just find. The opening picture with Cass and a ghostly friend and the picture of a ghost whispering in her ear I created myself using two photos merged together, adding various effects to make the one figure appear ghostly.
3. Video
I created the trailer itself in Adobe Flash, mostly because I’d used it before and so had a little familiarity, and because my husband makes Flash games so I knew he’d be able to help me out if I needed it.
First I just put in all my images and text in the correct order, and tested it until I’d figured out what seemed like an appropriate about of time for each to remain on the screen. My aim was for the trailer to be not much more than a minute long. (I find trailers that are much longer start to lose my interest.) Then I added effects to make the images more active. I had them zoom in and out, fade in and out, and pan in various directions.
As I went, I noticed places where I felt the trailer dragged. Originally certain bits had no image, just a simple black background. That seemed boring, so I found a video clip of smoke that I liked which provided a little atmosphere without distracting from the text. I also broke up one “scene” into two, adding an extra photo.
4. Music
I knew, based on my script, that I wanted the music I picked to do certain things. I wanted it to swell in the second half of the trailer, and to have an abrupt stop to go with the last bit of text. I also had in mind a certain mood and feel, and wanted a steady, somewhat fast tempo.
First I listened to a bunch of songs I couldn’t have used anyway, from my CD collection, to focus my ideas of what I was looking for so it’d be easier to recognize when I found it. Then I went searching on royalty free music sites. It look a lot of testing songs out, but I finally found a piece that was both the perfect length and everything else I needed at Shockwave-Sound, which I checked out thanks to a recommendation from fellow Deb Pam Bachorz. (Pam has her own awesome post on making book trailers which is well worth checking out!)
Once I had my song, I had to edit the video to fit. Some parts got a little longer, some a little shorter, matching up the appearance of text and the image transitions to the beat and changes in the music.
5. All done!
Once the trailer was “finished”, I shared it with some friends and with my publisher, and made a few tweaks based on their suggestions. And then, of course, it was uploading time!
If you’re considering making a trailer of your own, and you have any questions, feel free to ask.
