October has turned out to be an eventful month for me as an author. Rather than spending any time throwing out witty comments to entertain you I’ll just get right to the news.
            I’m a member of an author group in Arizona called the Typeractive which include Janette Rallison, Brock Booher, Laura L. Walker, Marilee Jackson, Stephen J. Stirling, R. C. Hancock, and myself. We meet every month to discuss our creative works and see what we can do as a group to market our books. One of our ideas was to put together an anthology of clean fiction written by us and then offer it to the public for free.
            Typeractive Tales contains 12 short stories in a variety of genres so readers are bound to find something to their liking. And best of all it gives anyone willing to download the free anthology a chance to sample the work of seven published authors. Who knows, the readers just might find themselves a new favorite author.
            Brock Booher contributed three general fiction stories to the collection: Delivery, Time Flies, and Milk Run. R. C. Hancock shows off his diverse talent with the humorous Brains and then following it up with the suspenseful Match and Mirror. Marilee Jackson takes us into the realm of the supernatural with Fur, Fangs, and French Class. Randy Lindsay (hey, that’s me) flexes his science-fiction muscles with a trio of stories: Judgment, Perchance to Slumber, and Time Enough to Die. Janette Rallison reminds us why she is the queen of romantic comedy with Crush. Stephen J. Stirling gives us a story right in time for the holidays The Christmas Warrior. And Laura L. Walker wraps up this diverse collection of fiction with a romantic tale, Dreamers and Schemers.
            Enough describing the book here’s the link where you can get Typeractive Tales.
 
            The second big event for the Typeractive authors is the Ready . . . Set . . . Write conference on October 24th. Originally envisioned as a mini-conference to support the release of R. C. Hancock’s book, An Uncommon Blue, it eventually evolved into a one-day conference to prepare authors for National Novel Writing Month and specifically the NaNoWriMo challenge of writing 50,000 words on a new novel.
            Bring a pencil, a note pad, and a willingness to put your creative muscles to work and we will do our best to make sure you walk out of the conference with a story that’s ready to be written. Then on November 1 you can unleash the kraken . . . if that happens to be what you call your story-telling skills.
            This all starts with the local NaNoWriMo representatives explaining the National Novel Writing Month event and giving a few tips on how to defeat writer’s block. Then I will present a workshop on generating story ideas which participants of the conference can use the rest of the day to flesh out the basics of an actual novel. Bock Booher will present a class on plotting. We’ll stop for lunch and then Connie Flynn will enlighten you with her keen insights to characterization. Angel Morrison will follow with a presentation on world building. And the last class of the day will be taught by Laura L. Walker and Marilee Jackson on putting some romance into your story. You know what they say, “What the world needs now is love, sweet love.”
            We will wrap-up the conference with an author panel, giving everyone a chance to ask whatever questions they have about writing and publishing. The best part of the conference is that it’s FREE. And I think I heard rumors of a few door prizes as well.
            All of this takes place at:
 
Red Mountain library
635 N. Power Rd.
Mesa, AZ 85202
 
The conference starts at 10:30 so I suggest you arrive a little bit early.
 
            (I have more news, but it can wait until my next post.)

During my recent blog tour for Call to Arms: Nations Fall, I was interviewed several times. I wanted to repost those interviews for anyone who missed their chance to read them.
 
Q1: What was the inspiration for your latest book (i.e. the one you are currently promoting)? 

A1: This story deals with the events leading up to the end of the world (the Second Coming) from an LDS perspective. I wanted to write a realistic story that would give people warning of what they could expect and also to give them hope in an increasingly chaotic world. 

 
Q2: How much of yourself is reflected in this book, and how? 

A2: Virtually none. Anything pulled from my life that shows up in the book is by subconscious accident. The characters in my book are true heroes while I’m pretty average.  


Q3: The first thing that draws me to a book is its cover. Can you tell us about your cover - why you chose that concept and who the artist is. 

A3: The cover artist is Michelle May. She does wonderful work. Part of the book takes place in Trenton, Italy. I found some pictures of Trenton while I was writing and used them to help me with the descriptions of the city and to give me a feel for the environment. One of the pictures is of the Fountain of Neptune. The cover for Call to Arms: Nations Fall is an apocalyptic version of the picture I used during my writing. 


Q4: Why should we read this book (or series) and what sets you apart from the rest? / What makes your book/series unique? 

A4: I think readers will see similar events to what I’ve written happening in the world today. The reason they should read it is to open their eyes to the crumbling world society and use that as inspiration to prepare themselves for upcoming events. My stories on this topic are meant to be as realistic as possible. The characters, for the most part, are people like you and me trying to get through life as best they can. 

 
Q5:  Can you tell us something quirky about this book , its story and characters? (for example, were the characters named after something or someone in particular) 

A5: All of the main characters are named after people in my family tree. Calvin McCord, for instance, is my great-great-great-uncle. 

 
Q6:  Who would you recommend this book to and what should readers be aware of (any warnings or disclaimers)? 

A6: I would recommend it to fans of apocalyptic fiction, religious fiction, and to a lesser extent military fiction. We see the beginning of World War III in this story. As far as warnings, usually my readers comment about how they couldn’t put the story down so you might want to wait for the weekend to start on the book. However, even though I write clean fiction there are a couple of scenes that are rather intense and some military action scenes. In movie terms I would give it a PG rating. 

 
Q7: If you could / wished to turn this book/series into a movie, who would be your dream team? (e.g. director, actors, locations, etc. - dead, alive or mythical!) 

A7: I do have a few actors picked out for some of the roles.

Robert Williams would be a young Richard Thomas (John-Boy Walton)

John Williams would be Karl Urban

Sarah Williams would be Emma Stone

Calvin McCord would be Brian Cox

Nelson Boggs would be Sean Penn

Sierra Weintraub would be Alexandria Daddario


Q8:  What do you like to write about? Do you stick to a particular genre or do you like to explore different ones? Is this / Are these the genre(s) that you also like to read about? 

A8: Most of what I write is Fantasy/Sci-Fi. What I find myself wanting to write about the most is the conflict between angels and devils-with humans firmly stuck in the middle. My favorite reading genre is post-apocalyptic sci-fi. 


Q9: What is your writing process? 

A9: I have a moment when I’m excited about an idea for a story. I spend a couple of weeks plotting the story. Then I spend the next six months writing the story from the outline. 


Q10:  What is in store next? (please tell us about your future plans; if book is part of a series, can you give us any hints on future developments) 

A10: There is a follow-up novel planned. Actually, I have 3 more stories in the series planned. I have to tell you that I really feel bad for Robert. He has a long and painful road ahead of him. And poor Calvin, despite his excellent leadership the government he hopes to save is doomed. Frankly, I’m not sure what I’m going to do with him. 
 

Bonus Question: And as a final quirky thing, to get to know you a little bit better... do you have a pet or something that is special to you (this could be absolutely anything!)? Could you please provide us with a picture of you with them / it?

Bonus Answer: No pets. I have a daughter who loves to be with me. She attends most of my author events and really helps me out. Here is a picture of my daughter, Lucy, with one of my fans at a book signing.

            
As it turns out, Brock Booher lives fairly close to me, we are both published through Cedar Fort, and he makes an outstanding lemon pie. It has been my pleasure to have met him and I decided that an interview with this author was in line. I suggest that you keep an eye on this guy because I expect his writing career to really soar.


  
 

Q1: What was your inspiration for writing his particular story?

A1: The stories my parents told me over the years provided the initial inspiration for the story, but I have always pondered the gifts we each have. The book started as a short story that didn't really work that well, but as I researched the ideas sparked by the short story and my parents' stories, I found inspiration a few pieces at a time until eventually I had a novel. I find that inspiration comes from a variety of sources.

 
Q2: Healing Stone takes place in the 50s. Why then?

A2: I chose that era for two reasons - it was the time period of my parents' stories, and it was the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement. One provided me with the intimacy I needed, and the other provided me with the conflict and tension as a backdrop. It was an time when the world was simpler and time when the world was about to change  significantly.

 
Q3: Are any of the characters based on real people? 
 
A3: One character is based on a famous revenue man that busted up more moonshine stills than other revenue officer in Kentucky history. I researched his history and tried to get his personality right, but I did have to take a bit of license with the timing and involvement. All the other characters are a combination of people I have met over the years, people I grew up with, and my imagination.

 
Q4: Healing Stone is set in Kentucky. How would the story be different if it happened someplace else, like California?

A4: I don't think this particular story would feel right in California for me. It needed to happen in the South because of the various themes it explores. If it had taken place somewhere else the nugget of the story would be the same, but the themes supporting the storyline would have to be different. Time and place influence a story as much, or more, as characters do. We can often take a familiar story line and change the time and place to give the story a different feeling, but sometimes it doesn't work. For me, this story had to happen when, and where, it did for it to feel authentic. The sequel will use a different time and place to capitalize on different themes.

 
Q5: What does the future hold for Stone Molony?

A5: He has to find his fortune in the world. He has to move through life like the rest of us. The only problem is that he isn't like the rest of us. He has a gift. We shall see what fortune and trouble his gift will bring.

Q6: What makes Healing Stone stand out among the other books in this genre?

A6: I am not sure what genre to put this book in LOL. Maybe that's what makes it stand out. It has the feel of magical realism, religious writing, mystery, and coming of age all rolled into one. I wasn't really thinking of a
genre. I just wanted to tell a story.





 
Q7: What challenges did you have writing this book?

A7: Finding the time is always the biggest challenge. After that it was finding the right voice. Once I found the voice the story just poured out. Then my challenge was finding a publisher that would publish it.

 
Q8: What was your favorite chapter to write and why?

A8: I enjoyed writing the scene when Leck convinces Stone to try and heal a young girl, Hazel, with polio. It brought me tears when I wrote the scene. I love the irony of someone that didn't feel worthy of healing insisting that the healer who didn't feel confident enough to heal should try and heal a young girl with the faith to make it all happen. It was the moment when Stone begins to understand his gift and unlock his future.

 
Q9: What message do you want your readers to walk away with when they finish  
Healing Stone?

A9: I hope that like all good art the reader takes away the message they need most. That could be a message of hope, a message of change, a message self-development, a message of justice, or perhaps a message of faith. I hope that I have layered enough themes throughout the story that the reader can take whatever message they need at the
moment.

 
Q10: What are you working on now?

A10: I am playing with a sequel idea, but I have another manuscript about a young street orphan in Lima, Peru, that gets caught up in an organ-smuggling organization. I hope to
have it ready by the end of the summer. I am always coming up with new ideas...

            
The last couple of weeks have given me the chance to experience a whole new aspect of the author’s journey through life. Author interviews. I have had no less than three of them and they have taught me a few lessons. 
              
Journals of a Healer: Unleash Your Hidden Genius with Mary Blake was the first of my interviews to be released. This is a podcast interview and that meant there was an opportunity to have any tremendous gaffs on my part removed. That certainly takes off some of the pressure of being interviewed, which in turns results in a more relaxed and more entertaining event. 
             
What I learned from this interview is the value of having your answers ready ahead of time. Now, you can’t always predict what the host will ask, but it is worthwhile to have a list of commonly asked questions. I’m not suggesting that you read from a prepared sheet of responses because that leads to a lifeless interview. However, you can think of these questions ahead of time so that you have a feel for how you will answer them, or questions similar to them. One of Mary’s questions really caught me by surprise and I am so glad that the horribly long pause I gave was edited out. 
             
Next was The Good Word
podcast with Nick Galieti. This was actually my first interview, but it was placed on schedule to follow all of the other interviews that had already been recorded. The great thing about this interview was that Nick made it very easy to go through this process the first time. I feel sorry for the amount of editing that had to go into it to remove all of my “ums” and “ands”. The important lesson I learned from this particular experience was that the interviewer really makes or breaks the interview. A good interviewer will usually lead to a good interview. Before you agree to appear on a show take the time to listen to a couple of the interviews to get a sense of the host’s style. 
             
Finally, last week I appeared on live radio. KFNX 1100 AM in Phoenix has the Networking Arizona show with Carol Blonder and it proved to be the most educational of the three interview experiences I’ve had so far. Carol is a true professional. Before the show she sat down with everyone who was going to be on her show and went over what they would talk about. This wasn’t a case of her telling us what she wanted. It was a matter of her finding out what we needed to discuss to help us in our individual situations. On the air she was smooth and controlled the interviews in a good way. What I mean by that is if a guest was stumbling with an interview she picked up on that right away and jumped right in. She also has a great online presence. No matter what was being discussed with the guest she sounded interested, which will make it sound interesting to the listeners. 
             
The best part of my experience with Carol Blonder came after the show. She took the time to help me understand what I need to do to successfully to pitch my book. Any book that I write. Believe me, I took notes. Those notes will be helpful for further interviews and even speaking opportunities. I am going back to do a second show with Carol and when I’m done with that I will post it on the website. Until then, feel free to check out my interviews with Mary Blake and Nick Galieti.

During the last week I have been able to participate in the most iconic of author events—the book signing tour. Arranged by my publisher, Cedar Fort, I have been fortunate enough to setup and sign books in the local Costco stores. Today will be my third signing in Arizona and 
arrangements are being made for a week of signings in
Utah next month. 
 
The experience is probably a little different for debut novelists than it is for more established authors simply because they have a chance that fans of  their previous books will stop by and visit. However, I suspect that the basics are the same. And I’m going to share a little bit of what I learned.  

Take someone with you. I don’t remember where I got this advice, but it was
right on the money. Having a friend along will not only help you to loosen up so you can greet the customers with greater ease, but they can act as your assistant. You need to focus on connecting with the people in the store. A helpful friend can let you do that while handling all of the other tasks that need to be done. 

Get a poster with your picture on it. It wasn’t until after my first signing that I understood the wisdom of this advice. I thought that pasting my image on a poster was an unnecessary bit of vanity. In reality, it informs the people walking by that there is an author on the premise ready and willing to sign their books. Very few people knew that I was an author. I have no doubt that more of them would have stopped and talked to me if they realized that I had written the book on the table in front of me. Even if that was for no other reason that to tell their friends that they had spoken with a real live person
of interest.  

Stand and smile. I have been to my share of trade shows and know from my experience on both sides of the table that those
people who stand and smile attract a lot more visitors than those who sit and wait for
people to stop and talk to them. It’s the difference between a joyous invitation to participate and solemn warning to be
left alone. At least, that is how it appears to your potential customers. 

Say hi. You’ll be surprised at the results. At each of my signings I sold books to people
who had barely looked in my direction. A friendly greeting, literally, turned them back around and after a fun discussion with them, they bought The Gathering. 

That’s enough author tips for the day. The important thing about my
book signings is that I had the chance to meet all sorts of
interesting people. This is the moment I had dreamed about as
a wannabe author. All of the slow moments and effort that goes into  
meeting new people is worth it when one of them stops and takes an 
interest in my book. 

If you get a chance, I hope you will stop by one of my signings and say hi. 
 

Last minute addition: I didn’t have time to post this 
before I left for today’s book signing and am glad that I had to wait. Because, it gives me the 
opportunity to talk about my 
new friend—Earl. 
 
Earl stopped by and told me that he had already read the book and liked it. Well, color me surprised. Not that he liked it, but that within the week that The Gathering has been out someone has already read it and had time to come down from Salt Lake City and tell
me about it. Alright, he didn’t make the trip to Arizona just to tell me he liked the
book. It just happened to be a happy coincidence that he was in Costco while I was doing the signing. The important thing is that I received my first, in-person feedback on the
novel. Earl said his favorite part of the book was the questions in the back. 
 
Thanks, Earl. It was a pleasure to meet  you. 

            
Once you have filmed the trailer, sent all the extras home, and cleaned  up the mess—you’re still not done. The post production crew needs to have a go  at the footage before you have a trailer that will wow the masses and convince them to buy your book. This includes video editing, special effects, sound  recording or re-recording, and sound editing.
             
At this point in the process, you should have a good amount of footage from which to make the trailer. Video editing will take the twelve shots of a table full of stately men in suits yelling at one another and put it together to form a scene of political chaos. Or at least that’s what I hope is going to happen. If you have video editing software and are moderately familiar with it, this is something you could do on your own. Fortunately, I have an expert on the process doing that for me. 
             
Special effects. Everyone loves them. I don’t know very much about the process. Video editing software carries a number of effects the average person can use. They include stop motion, time lapse, and attaching text to an object on the screen. For The Gathering I needed a burning building. Amber Nichols and Doug Monce filmed downtown
Phoenixand will be inserting a special effect that makes one of the buildings looks like it’s on fire. Cool,  huh?
             
There are some options as to how you put together the sound track. You could use the actual sound that is recorded at the time of the filming, but that will leave you with an amateurish quality of audio. You can re-record the dialogue and match it to the video. You can place the original audio in the
background and record a voice over track on top of it. And you can ignore any of the recorded sound all together and run a music track. We decided to do a bit of all of those. The original audio track will be used in the background, a soft music track will be placed on top of that, and then a voice over track will be
the primary sound that is heard. 
             
If you’re selling a book you probably need to ad text that will tell your audience where they can buy it. Or you might want to roll some credits. In either case, this really falls under the category of special effects, but requires a different focus. Put your marketing cap on and decide what information you want the viewers to have after having just seen the trailer. I’m going to flash a message at the end of the last scene and then go to an
advertisement that has the cover image and the Amazon.com information so they
can order it. 
             
A live action trailer is a lot of work and may include tasks that are  beyond you and your circle of friends. That’s okay, there are alternatives. 
              
Another method is to do a slideshow with text and background music. If you can find the right images it can result in a very effective trailer. For an example of this, check out the Wonder trailer. With the purchase of a reasonably priced video editing suite you could do this yourself. 
              
A second option is to hire someone to put a trailer together for you. In some cases, it may be cheaper to go this route than pay for the software and spend the time to do it yourself. My friend, Craig Mazur, does this this at his site Top Rank Solutions. He will be doing my next book trailer. You can contact him here. Feel free to mention my name. 
             
Whew, I think that covers it. I won’t be posting over the holidays, but watch for an interview the first week in January. I’ll be interviewing one of the characters out of my book. Until then . . . Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. 

            
Once you’ve written the script for your trailer and assembled a crew to make it, the next step is casting. In the case of the Manic Pixie Dream Girl trailer I was brought on to the project as a helper/extra. That part is easy enough to describe. Amber put out a facebook message asking if anyone wanted to participate and I jumped on the chance to be part of the fun. Boom. That’s it.





Here is a picture of Amber, and Lucy watching Christopher Sheffield setup for the classroom scene. 
             





For The Gathering trailer I’m  much more involved in the process. There are six sets, nine actors, and about a dozen extras needed for what should be a one-day shoot. Scrounging up the on-screen talent is something that Amber normally does, but I wanted to be as big a part of the process as I could. I agreed to see what I could pull from my
network of family, friends, and neighbors. 
             
Because I have a good voice for it, I decided to take on the role of narrator. One of the guys in my neighborhood, Dan, does stand-up comedy and volunteered for any speaking parts. There’s only one and as it turns out he can easily pass as a television reporter. While those were the two key parts in the trailer they weren’t the hardest to cast. Almost half of the footage will be of a family watching the news in their television room. I don’t have any children near the age of the ones we need so I couldn’t use them or their friends. I ended up recruiting Luke Jackson, who looks pretty much the way I pictured one of the characters in my mind. He agreed to convince enough of his friends to
fill the rest of the teenager slots. 
             
But the trickiest job of recruiting extras was getting a room full of politicians. Where are you going to find a bunch of mature men in suits? I’m hoping the gentlemen at my church will be interested enough in experiencing the wonders of film to fill out my roster of angry politicos. 
              
That still left two scenes uncast. These were a little more difficult to arrange. I needed a food riot and the location of a terrorist attack. Amber suggested that we purchase those scenes from an online video archive. In this case, it was easier and cheaper to find footage that matched our needs than attempt a complicated shoot for them.
             
Now, comes the fun part. The shoot itself. Getting together and actually filming the scenes is what comes to mind when people think about shooting a video. Lights. Cameras. Action. And as an author this is probably as close to seeing your story turned into a movie that you’ll ever get. Enjoy it. 

Shooting for my trailer doesn’t start until the end of the month, so I’ll be drawing on my experiences as an extra with Manic Pixie Dream Girl and Mantecoza. What I took away from both of these shoots is to expect repetition. I can boil it down to just a few words of instruction: stand here, walk until we say stop, then go back and do it again. 





This is Amber giving us our "Stand Here" instructions.









Don’t get me wrong, I had a blast. Sometimes my “stand here” spot was the same and sometimes it wasn’t. Some of the time they wanted me up front with the primary actors and some of the time they wanted me in the back since they had already shown my face
in the last take. Most of the time it didn’t matter, because the take they decide to use might not even be one where you make an appearance. As an extra, you might walk around an office floor for three hours and not show up in that scene at all. 

The best part of being an extra is getting to know the rest of the cast. There’s a chance you’ll make new friends. You’ll definitely make useful contacts. And you share an inside view of the project. Like the time that they queued the scene, but forgot to take the lens cap off the camera. 
 
That’s it for today. Looks like I need to do a part three so that I can discuss the post production elements of creating a trailer and alternative methods of production. Until then, keep your stick on the ice or something like that.
 

There are some amazing moments on my journey as an author. Finishing my first
manuscript—okay, any manuscript. Signing the contract with a publisher. And seeing the cover for your novel. The amazing moment in my life right now is 
making the book trailer for The Gathering.

Geek moment—waaaahooooooo!

Even though the filming doesn’t start until the  end of the month, I’ve had the advantage of participating in the shoot for the  Manic Pixie Dream Girl. You can see that here.

Go ahead,  take a couple of minutes and check it out. Not surprisingly, I was lucky enough  to enlist most of the same crew to put together my trailer. 

Obviously, the first step in the process is to write a novel that’s going to be published. Then once you have that out of the way you’re going to need a script for the trailer. I felt comfortable doing that myself so I sat down with my good friend and Producer for the project, Amber Nichols, and together we worked out the storyboard. I had an idea in my head of what I wanted and Amber kicked back a lot of great ideas to improve it. I spent
the next day writing and revising the script and then sent it over to Wendell Brown. He has more experience with screenplay formats than I do and was able to make suggestions on how to punch it up.

This step was tremendously fun. Instead of daydreaming about how the movie version of my novel would look, I wrote it—in miniature form. Even better, I involved several of my friends and they shared in my vision of the story.

The next item on the list was to recruit the talent needed to film the trailer. This is where your networking efforts as an author really pays off. Amber was able to convince Douglas Monce to join The Gathering project as the Director, Brandon Gesimondo-Clark as Chief Camera, and Dee Astell as the Set Photographer. Having people who know how to properly set the lighting, manage the actors, and how to transform a location into exactly what the scene requires makes the difference between a professional quality video and an amateur attempt.  

Here’s a picture from the Manic Pixie Dream Girlshoot. If you watched the trailer you may remember a classroom scene where the two main characters of the story are talking together. Classmates are in the background. The funny thing about this scene is that we didn’t have enough extras on this particular day. Amber had to improvise. Keep in mind that these are supposed to be
teenagers. In the back row you will see my eleven-year-old (who is a small eleven) and Amber’s aunt posing as teens.

Did you notice that they were not teens when you originally watched the trailer? Probably not, because Amber did a masterful job of making eight people, in two rows of chairs, look like a classroom. And the cameraman was able to really help that illusion along with the correct shooting setup. 

One of the fun aspects of participating in a project like this is getting to see all the interesting behind-the-scenes bits. In the case of the classroom scene mentioned above that included having to scrounge enough textbooks for my daughter to sit on and Amber’s aunt putting her hair into a ponytail. Both actions were needed to make them look more like the teens they were meant to be portraying. And it worked, but I stood in the background and snickered at the thought of the two of them passing for teenagers.

Then there was the delightful banter between the two lead actors during the actual filming. Since their dialogue wasn’t going to be used in the trailer they had instructions to talk. No lines. No topics. Just talk. The lines that Sean Worsley delivered were hilarious. They would have made a phenomenal outtake.

In part two of this article I’ll discuss casting, filming, post production, and some alternate book trailer formats. See you then.