What's up?

There has been so much up since August 20th, and it is a bit surreal that I haven't posted to this blog since then. Part of the problem may simply be that I am always sharing "small things" about what is going on in life over on the Camp Fae facebook page, or my main web site, or even the Basil Sprig MySpace page. There are a lot of small things going on.

First of all I did have a successful summer visiting several book stores and meeting fairy lovers at FaerieWorlds in Eugene Oregon. I had a successful autumn working on the sequel to The Triskaidek. I'm almost done with it now, and expect to finish the first complete draft by the end of the year. I've made a lot of friends with literary and artistic interests. I've been encouraged to make a short film using characters from The Triskaidek and I'm hard at work filming that right now, and entering the film editing stages. I've been getting some great reviews from various places, but not very many accumulating all in one place quite yet. I'm hoping to get more reviews on Amazon.com since that's the primary source for the book. You CAN order a copy of it at any bookstore, but it will not be printed up and sitting in any book stores anytime in the near future. Amazon.com is the largest bookstore in the world, and since that's where it is available, that's where I'm focusing my efforts.

But I've actually had my greatest success at small, out of the way, book stores. Most authors won't visit them, and I don't mind - a sale is a sale: one more happy reader. In fact, I'd have to say I LOVE SMALL BOOKSTORES! You guys have been great to me!

I suggest checking out my facebook page if you want the very latest information on everything. I've now got my own "proper" page address on facebook: http://www.facebook.com/CampFae

Cheers!
Basil

Review by US Review of Books

The Triskaidek review by "The U.S. Review or Books" was published today:

See: The Review...

I really hated this review when I got my advanced copy of it. Sure, they say nice things like "Sprig weaves the magical and real worlds together, leaping from discussions of diamonds as conduits for time travel to the computer search engine fgoogle that mixes human and fairy knowledge, in an entertaining way..." but they also make the annoying statement "Although more careful editing would have focused the plot elements and improved the pacing, The Triskaidek is a fun-filled adventure for tweens and young teens."

I shall avoid sweeping statements about the attention span or intelligence level of the reviewer. Obviously I didn't like their suggestion that the book wasn't carefully edited. Perhaps it wasn't carefully read? These book review companies like The US Review of books seem to churn out book reviews like a factory.

Anyway, enjoy the review, but more importantly, enjoy the book!

13asil

Faerieworlds

Here's a little camp Fae update for you. First off, Basil Sprig and his entourage have been at a little booth set up as the Camp Fae Store at Faerieworlds in Eugene Oregon.

Basil had no idea what to expect and has never opened a "store" in a festival booth before. It has been a lot of fun. We've sold a bunch of books. Most importantly we've made some new fans, who have already read the book in the couple of days since the festival started.

Basil is posting photos live each day straight from the fairy-grounds to Facebook.

Here's a link to the Camp Fae Facebook page so you can check it all out:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/CampFae/178027152410

Here's some more photos of the Camp Fae Store at Faerieworlds. Check out the facebook page for live photos throughout the day of Basil and other fairies who have gathered from throughout the world in all their amazing costumes, plus a few fairy tales to go with the pix.

Camp Fae Video Recap and News

In celebration of two months since publication, plus an excellent review, here's a recap of all three of the Camp Fae videos (and below that some news).



Too Much Magic





Mischief





Betrayal



NEWS FROM CAMP FAE
Basil has been working hard to get ready for Oregon. In just two weeks we will be taking the show on the road, for two author bookstore appearances, a possible book reading, and three days at FaereWorlds festival near Eugene, where he will be featuring the Camp Fae Store with some Camp Fae Souvenirs, autographed copies of The Triskaidek, and some awesome fairy jewelery of Holly Brees Berenstain. Check out the Camp Fae Facebook page and click on the events tab to see the schedule for events.

Meanwhile, next week Basil will be attending the Pacific Northwest Writers Conference where he will be networking with fellow writers and readers, and more importantly publishers and producers agents and publicists. The idea is to promote and learn how to better promote The Triskaidek, along with book two in the Camp Fae series, and pique interest in making a film or underwriting mass publication of The Triskaidek.

According to Basil: "It is really a win-win situation redolent with possibilities. If I can't pick up a big publisher, I continue to make more money per copy of the book, but if I can, I end my making more money by massive distribution and marketing."

Contest. Did we say anything about a contest? This one is easy. Basil is giving away one free copy of The Triskaidek to the NEXT PERSON who becomes a fan of the Camp Fae Facebook page. What are you waiting for: Click now and follow the instructions:

Camp Fae Facebook page

Perhaps one of the most exciting things is that The Triskaidek got a great review from the independent book reviewer ForeWord Clarion Reviews. Check out the quotes on the Camp Fae facebook page, and Happy Reading / Happy Writing everyone!

Writing from the Brink

The last time I "really" worked on book two in the Camp Fae series was back in February. After I finished Book One, The Triskaidek, I started plowing my way forward into book two. I got numerous characters developed, several sub-plots mapped out, numerous twists and turns, invented several more magical purposes of various elemental objects, and got much of the main plot worked out. Then I wrote the first 60+ pages of the book, tentatively titled "Pixie Wars."

To give you a few secrets, as mere teasers, I can tell you about several new things coming in book two. For one pixies (obviously) will be an important new group of characters, dragons will be another, we are going international for the first time, with faeries from at least one foreign country visiting Camp Fae, and we are going interplanetary for the first time, with a couple of brief scenes that takes place on the moon of one of the other planets in our solar system. We will also be encountering the game of Turtle Snap in this book, a game I described on my Facebook page about 9 months ago, before I was even finished with book one. (There was no place to fit it in book one, but it fits in nicely in book two helping me advance the plot, and helping me advance the setting when it comes to technology which is going to become increasingly important in the future books.)

Fortunately, I believe I can tell you all of that without really introducing any spoilers. Next I can tell you that Alley is going to be discovering more about her family: who is she? Who are her real parents? Why is it that she has so much more magical power than many other fairies? But, alas, right now I can only hint at the fact that these things are coming in book two.

The good news, exciting news, great news, really, is that I've finally started working really hard on book two, after taking a break since February. I haven't been idle these past several months. Many of you know I've been making videos which has been great fun, but has also helped me to design my fairy characters more substantially, since I've had real kids and real costumes and real elemental substances to play with. I've been working on creating my own little fairy pavilion, which will be my booth at FaerieWorlds festival later this month in Eugene, but the fairy pavilion is sitting in my back yard right now, and what better place for me to sit and write, no?

I've also been doing a lot of social networking with my fans and potential fans, kids of all ages (including the supposedly "grown up" type) and that has helped me get in touch with some of the more personal, even emotional, triggers of my target audience. In a word, we are going to be advancing the romantic and tragic aspects of the story too as we move forward.

What I'm aiming at here is plot-driven fiction, but with characters that are real, ring true, and "understand" what my target audience is going through. Think something half-way between 39 Clues, the Twilight Series, and the Harry Potter books.

Well, last week I had a major break-through in terms of how I was going to intertwine the more romantic and emotional aspects of the story with the plot, and I've got some great ideas. Today was the first day I really had time to sit down and work on rewriting the first 60 pages, and writing several more. I'm looking forward to more of this as the summer moves along. I feel as if I'm now on the brink of something great, something new, something yet undiscovered and unexplored, but finally starting to get fully mapped out. It's going to be great fun as I leap off this edge and soar forward across the treetops, and hopefully into your dreams.

See you there.

Basil

Contest(s) and News

Riv Re is having an exciting contest where she's giving away excess YA Book swag. Check out Riv's contest here: http://fantasticfantasyfan.blogspot.com/2010/06/nineteen-followers-plus-one-brother.html

Meanwhile...

According to Twig, International Fairy Day never ends. I guess I will have to keep giving away free passes to Faerieworlds in Eugene OR until I run out. Buy a copy of the Triskaidek and email me that you have (with your address) and I'll send you some free passes. Be sure to tell me: what day you bought your copy of The Triskaidek and whether it was on Amazon or Lulu, your address, how many passes you want, and what day you want to attend.

Thanks!
13asil

International Faerie Day

Today is International Faerie Day. In celebration anyone who buys my book today on Amazon.com (either the physical book or the Kindle download) AND decides to follow me on this blog, I will give FREE PASSES to visit Faerie Worlds in Eugene Oregon this summer.

Here's a link to Faerie Worlds:
http://www.faerieworlds.com/

Here's a link to my book on Amazon.com:
The Triskaidek (both versions) on Amazon

Enjoy!

13asil Sprig

So much news, so little time

Wow, there's so much news I don't know where to start.

First of all, thanks to one of my followers (stalkers) I discovered that The Triskaidek is actually available already through Amazon.com (even though I haven't approved the proof.) I don't know if this means you will be pre-ordering the book if you buy one, or if they will be selling the version I had temporarily available for about 15 minutes last week before I discovered a fatal flaw in it and pulled it back off the market.

Go check it out at:
http://www.amazon.com/Triskaidek-1-Basil-Sprig/dp/145288689X/

The second most important thing in the news is that I posted late last night (or was it early this morning?) our next Camp Fae video trailer called "Mischief." It is available at Fairy Mayhem Films on YouTube. Here's a link to FMF:

http://www.youtube.com/FairyMayhemFilms

And here's the actual video embedded:



The next piece of important news is that The Triskaidek Global Book Launch Party went great! When I say that, I feel like I'm walking on water. I could feel let down that hardly anyone showed up, but I'd rather tell you at how psyched I am at the enthusiasm of the guests who were there. It was awesome! When I think about "what am I doing all this for" - it is all for YOU, my readers. You are a great bunch of people.

Let me tell you how it went. To begin with I asked my daughter and one of her friends to dress up in their fairy costumes (from the videos.) The idea was to draw attention to ourselves since we were in a public place. I was there in my cape, and my beard alone is generally enough to draw attention to myself. But when all the other kids started arriving, they were in their costumes too, and they wanted to put on jewelry and get all decked out as my particular type of fairy (you've got to read the book to understand.) You can look at the photos on my main web site if you haven't read the book and you've never seen what my fairies look like. www.campfae.org

So, by the time I started reading to the crowd there was a flock of fairies on my left, and a flock of their parents on my right. It was like there was some sort of official segregation going on that prevented kids from sitting with their parents.

I read the first chapter, and everyone clapped, and I took a dramatic bow. Then I opened it up for questions and the kids went wild. I won't tell you what they asked, because they've all read the story (many of them several times) and that would spoil things. But we had a lot of very interesting dialog. It is great these kids are so passionate about this world I've created. They were even arguing about things. I will be posting some photos of the book launch on the Camp Fae facebook page so you can see what I mean.

The kids, and their parents, and the hand full of other guests who came all got to preview the second video trailer. We had it mostly complete at the time. The only thing that wasn't finished yet was the credits. These kids were all so excited to see themselves in the video that they didn't even care about the credits.

All-in-all the book launch was an enormous success. I say it was a success not because I sold a ton of books, and not because tons of people came. I'm grateful for those who did come! I say it was a success because it was mostly a bunch of kids celebrating a story, and you can't get better than that! Inspiring young people to dream is what it is all about.

~ Basil

Video Update

Video editing is moving along, but unfortunately very slowly. We are all busy people and have real lives too! But part of it was that I needed a new voice-over introduction to continue the story a bit, and I we needed a voice-over for some parts that you couldn't hear the actor when we filmed.

Thankfully, I met with Anya (my main actress) this weekend and got about 2 hours with of voice-over recording. Unfortunately there's only one sentence, plus 3 words! :) Now I've got to spend several hours weeding out all the junk and finding the best recordings and then deliver them to my video editor. The short version is: hopefully we will have the next video ready this weekend.

Hopefully!

Stay tuned.

Writing About Fairies

When I'm out and about and people get me talking about my books, the question often comes up: "is it difficult writing about fairies?"

I have to confess, yes, it is difficult at times writing about fairies. There are days when I wonder if anyone believes anything I have to say about them.

Triskaidek Global Book Launch

The Triskaidek Global Book Launch will be at the thirteenth hour of the thireenth day of June at the Shoreline Library in Shoreline WA.

Here's a public Facebook page you can go to and RSVP to the event or get more details.

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=118560611508167

The public is welcome and invited, especially fellow writers, authors, readers, and so on.

I hope to see you there.

News from Camp Fae

Well, here's the latest news.

Next Video

Our next video trailer is currently in editing. It's going to be awesome. It was our most elaborate video in terms of the set design, filming, script rewrites, sword choreography, location scouting, schedule coordination, and number of people involved. (Wow, I just counted and there were THIRTEEN fairies around that campfire. Honestly I didn't plan that!) There were at least 24 people on hand while we were filming this brief video.

Below is one of the still shots from the video footage:



Yes, it is also the only video in which the director (me) has a cameo appearance, staring as (who else?) Mordakai, one of the characters in my book.

As I understand it (latest news from our Director of Photography) it is a very elaborate film editing process too. I can't wait to see the results!

Writing

As you can imagine, I'm excited about book 2, tentatively titled "Pixie Wars." Apparently so are my fans, since I keep getting questioned about it. I might as well tell you: I haven't had any time to work on writing, but I am working on creating. Now you will probably all think I'm insane (who doesn't right?), but the way I work on these things is that I hash things over in my head (for months sometimes) before I put any of it in writing. So, I already wrote the first 8 chapters or so back in January, but I'm still working on the rest of this book in my head as I go about my daily life. I hope to actually pick up and continue writing sometime before the end of May.

Events

I am working on the location for my Triskaidek Global Book Launch, which is currently scheduled for June 13th. My first choice of a location for this event fell through, but I'm not dissuaded. There will be a Global Triskaidek Book Launch (GTBL) and it will be on the 13th! Stay tuned for the exact location and time of this event.

That's all for now. Happy reading!

Public Speaking

Today I got to speak to three separate classes of 9th graders at my daughter's school. It was a lot of fun. I think they learned some things, and I know I learned some things.

For one thing, I learned that whereas I'm terrified standing up in front of adults and talking, I actually had a lot of fun standing up in front of kids and talking. I seemed to inspire them, and give them ideas and questions, because they were attentive the whole time (55 minutes each class) and had a lot of good questions - even to the point of lingering after they needed to be leaving and going on to the next class.

Wow, some of you kids may actually come read my blog, now that I think about it. So, hurray for the 9th Grade at Canyon Park Jr. High! There I knew that would cheer you up. Nothing like school patriotism, and my daughter goes there too, so I can stand behind it.

(Yes, I know I'm calling that "attentive" when you were really whispering to each other and passing notes around, and drawing... but you were listening too because I noticed that the ones who were doing the most whispering and sketching were also asking the most questions!)

Hmmm.... maybe your teachers give you points for asking questions?

I digress.

Hopefully, I inspired those kids in a couple of ways:
* to believe in themselves and work hard to follow their passion in the arts (whether it is writing, or making movies or music, or computer games or whatever)
* to realize that it is HARD WORK and not talent that in the end will make you successful. (Although it is particularly good to have some talent too)
* to discover that there are a lot of different options and possibilities for careers having to do with both the arts and computer sciences (my other field)

Anyway, a great bunch of kids, and all-in-all a great day!

After I got home, I worked all afternoon and evening on the Amazon version of my book. Hopefully I'll have that available soon.

~ Basil

An Exercise in Fae Dialog

Well, I've got the notion "if the kids can do it, I can do it too!"

So, when I discovered that my follower Riv decided to participate in a blogfest by writing a spontaneous piece of dialog and seeing what happens, I figured: what is there to lose? I hate doing stuff like this, so why not?

Below you'll find my "entry" in the May 18th Blogfest sponsored by fictiongroupie (there's my official link back... if I don't chicken out and pretend to miss the orange Publish button...)

(I may actually end up using this in book 2 - it goes with what I'm working on, but here you have it fresh off the keyboard.)

* * * * * * *

"Twig, what are you doing?"

Alley gazed at him perplexed. He wasn't exactly invisible, he was a translucent orange.

"Messing with my light spectrum."

"Your what?"

"My light spectrum."

Alley raised her sharp dark eyebrows into points.

Twig continued. "You see, don't tell anyone, but the reason I'm so good at invisibility is that I mess with physics."

"You what?" She hadn't know this was possible, but of course it actually made sense.

"I mess with physics. Most fairies make themselves invisible by bending the light around themselves, but I mess with the visible spectrum of the light too."

Alley laughed. Leave it to Twig to think of something like that.

"But orange?" she quipped.

Twig was grinning - a big wide glowing orange grin. It was rather uncanny with the dirty patches on his face glowing a darker orange.

"Just having some fun."

Yeah, fun, she thought.

"Watch this!"

He suddenly flashed about a dozen different colors and then vanished without a trace. It reminded her of a light bulb suddenly burning out - except for all the colors. She wasn't sure what the colors reminded her of.

Well, now what, she thought. Where did he go?

"Twig?"

Nothing.

"Oh, Twig?"

She glanced around every which way - swatted her hand out toward where he had been standing.

"OK," she said, "you win."

Nothing.

"Whatever," she said in a huff and turned to walk away. There he was sitting on a stump behind her with a big grin on his face - normal dirty self, unbrushed teeth and all.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

Too Much Magic

Our first video from Camp Fae is now live on YouTube:

Fae Explorers

If you've read The Triskaidek, then you know there's a group of older Fairy Scouts called Fae Explorers. While I was working on The Triskaidek I created a group of Fae Explorers to read various revisions of the book, and give me feedback. I created a point system that was heavily weighted in favor of finding typos, and next to that giving me personal suggestions for improvement of characters, scenes and so on. I set up a special web site, behind the current existing Camp Fae web site (if you are clever and have fairy instincts you can figure out how to get to it...) that the Fae Explorers could use to give me feedback, but it ended up that the most substantial feedback came in the form of handing me my book back with tons of post-it-notes in there.

I had both kids and adults in my group of Fae Explorers, and that worked really well. I got some great feedback and it really helped me make the book better. Collectively they found more than 300 typos (yes, more than one per page). I could not have hired an editor who could have done better than that!

Well, today was the Day of Reckoning. I went through and tallied up everyone's points. There were three levels of rewards: if you earned more than 10 points, more than 20 points or more than 30 points.

Well, here's the amazing results:
* I had exactly THIRTEEN prize-winners!
(no, I did not - could not have planned that!)
* I had way more > 30 point winners than I ever expected. 7 actually.
* the top winner had 250 points, and they were ALL from finding typos!

What can I say? It has been a lot of fun.

Coming Soon: The First Trailer

The first video trailer advertising The Triskaidek is coming soon: "Too Much Magic"

We've asked the fairies how they made this video and here's what they had to say:
(most of these are pretty accurate, but some may be in "fairy time")

105 hours over the course of 3 months as follows:

• 2 film sessions (one outdoor/indoor and one outdoor) @ 6 hrs each
• 2 voice recording sessions (w/ rehearsals and costuming) @ 3 hrs each
• 10 hrs of script writing & rewriting
• 2 jam-sessions between Director/Producer and Director of Photography for editing and artistic planning @ 3 hrs each
• 3 shopping trips for costuming and jewelry @ 1 hr each
• 6 hrs of set preparation and planning (construction of rigs)
• 40 hrs of video editing (lead fairy is just guessing what the DP has done... maybe it is more?)
• 10 hrs of location scouting
• 6 hrs of casting interviews/auditions combined with more costuming and rehearsing
• 6 hrs of project management (coordinating schedules, emailing people,, writing and getting signed some release forms for all the kiddies)

Cost?

• $300 in props and costuming
• $200 in gifts to cast members (hey, if you are a cast member, don't complain - I haven't given them out yet!)

People?

• Counting the Director/Producer/Writer (me) and the DP (Harry) and the two actors we had 12 people total involved in the creation of this one video. [this doesn't count each of our families!]
• several fairies and pixies (sorry nobody was quite sure how many as they were barely visible and only for a moment) and possibly (no one was quite sure) one sunbird

WOW, and that is only one of the videos! We've got the footage filmed for four total videos (if I haven't lost count) and are going to be finishing up the others in the next several months.

The videos will be posted FIRST at the Fairy Mayhem Films YouTube page:

http://www.youtube.com/user/FairyMayhemFilms

(and possibly other places after that.)

See you there!

The Triskaidek Available NOW

Apparently when the fairies said they'd have the first book in the Camp Fae series available to purchase at the 13th minute of the 13th hour on the 13th of May, they meant GMT! You've got to keep a sharp eye out when dealing with fairies.

So, the Triskaidek is already available at the link below.



Happy Reading!

Comes the Triskaidek

On the 13th day of the 13th month of her 13th year, something very strange happened to Alley Willowwood.

At the 13th minute of the 13th hour of the 13th day of May something very strange is going to come to this world.

About this blog

I'd just like to say, that because this blog is run by fairies, it is going to undergo constant random color changes.

Not only that, but you might find some nonsense here from time to time.

Generally that nonsense may include short quips and quotes from books published and to be published in the Camp Fae series.

It may also include scenes from the lives of the fairies of Camp Fae that don't make it into any of the books.

It may also include random fairy sightings, videos of fairies blowing things up or making hurricanes or getting into fairy mischief around a campfire.

You are strongly advised to not visit the blog while standing up and balancing a cup of coffee on your nose, or while driving a car.

Strange Tidings from Camp Fae

We've had a strange summer at Camp Fae. Not only has a girl gone missing, but there's been an explosion and a hurricane. What next?