Now we’re past the first day of spring, and my thoughts go here 
…to hammocksville…my favourite summer place.
Where’s your favourite summer place?
Do you know that Canadians have an international reputation for NOT leaving comments on blogs?
Just thought I’d throw that at you… 🙂
Wow. I’ve done it! I’ve learned something about iMovie, and I’ve made a trailer for my new novel, Molly’s Cue, out in May. Â 
I think this should be the new way to create those horrible “book reviews” we had to do as kids in school. I always loathed doing them; they ruined the reading experience for me. But thinking in terms of visuals/symbols, and linking them…now that might be fun!
The toughest part–but in many ways, most enjoyable–was finding images/photos that connected with the story and the characters. Then creating brief pieces of text. They say that you know whether or not a book can be turned into a decent film if you can make a visually-successful trailer.
Okay, here’s what I’m going to do: post the trailer here on my site and Youtube, and I’d like for you to view it, and list the ways that the pictures, the words, and any other elements connect with the book…which means you’ll read the book. The person who can come up with the most connections, I will send a signed copy. Anyone who makes a connection that I didn’t see myself–even if it’s the only connection they list–will also get a book! (So much of the writing process is sub- or un-conscious; sometimes the writer doesn’t recognize what seems obvious to the reader.)
My email is alison at alison acheson dot com. (Please do not post as a comment! A wise young fellow at Jarvis Elementary pointed out that if people DO post as a comment, then others can see the answers! So do send to my email…and I’ll post the winning answers!)
Let’s see what you can come up with!
It’s March. February slipped through somewhere. January, too. And I’d promised myself posts every two week.
I began to write a short novel (16000 words) on December 10, and gave myself two months to do it, 2 pages a day. But had a two-week-long task in January. The novel took two months and ten days to complete. It was born first as a picturebook…come to think of it, it was scratched out by hand, rough draft–very drafty–sitting in a chair outside the hotel room in Kelowna, with the smoke from the Glenrosa fire still thick in the air, morning after. I knew my son was safe, finally, and my other family members. (See post re: Glenrosa/July.) So already, there’s a recursive loop in my blogging. Yeah! A loop. We write to make loops, to try to catch things that are uncatchable. Or that run away from us.
I haven’t done as much writing before now as I have in this past year. A third of a novel through the fall (can’t wait to get back to it, though the subject matter frightens me), a re-write of another novel (now awaiting word…), this short novel, and now, a chapter book for Tradewinds…which just might be the first “funny” thing I’ve written. I’m having fun writing it, at least. Humour is a fingerprint, though. A bit slippery, too.
Marching along…
