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.
Monday, May 31, 2010
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
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!
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!
Saturday, May 22, 2010
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
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
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
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.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
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.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Saturday, May 15, 2010
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.
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.
Friday, May 14, 2010
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)
- $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!)
- 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
The videos will be posted FIRST at the Fairy Mayhem Films YouTube page:
See you there!
Thursday, May 13, 2010
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!
So, the Triskaidek is already available at the link below.
Happy Reading!
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
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.
At the 13th minute of the 13th hour of the 13th day of May something very strange is going to come to this world.
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
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.
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?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)