SIMULATE News: Filming a Book Trailer

Instead of writing a post apologizing for not blogging in forever, I'm going to give you peoples a very quick overview of what's happening in my writing life (which, coincidentally, has very little to do with writing.)

My WIP, SIMULATE, is currently in its third draft. For me, this means that I'm taking last year's nearly completed, 83k manuscript, and re-working it. Adding a bigger plot, changing scenes, taking some elements out, adding others, changing characters... it's basically a new novel. And it's always changing. I thought I had it figured out a couple weeks ago, but then I got some cool new ideas so I have to fit those in, too.

But what I really want to talk about is an exciting new project I've started with some friends. We're filming a book trailer for SIMULATE! It so happens that one of my good friends loves filming (she's going into a film program at university) and a lot of my other friends are actors/actresses, so I have the perfect people to make a trailer.

The style of trailer we've chosen is similar to the trailer for Veronica Rossi's UNDER THE NEVER SKY, which has various shots done as if the book was a movie. However, instead of having dialogue in the shots, we're just having the narrator do a voice-over for the whole trailer. So, it's sort of a cross between a more traditional book trailer and a movie trailer. I've been disappointed with a lot of book trailers I've seen recently, so I wanted to create one that would draw me in to the story.

We've filmed two days now, a total of about seven hours, and probably have about half of the footage that we'll need for the trailer. Since one of my friends who plays a main character is leaving on Saturday to go perform across the country, we had to hurry and do his scenes today. Even though we had to work quickly and try to adapt (filming a futuristic book trailer in little ole PEI isn't easy), I think everyone involved had fun. For instance, two of my friends got to do some epic fight scenes, which I really enjoyed. It helped that one of them managed to cut his arm on a tree branch, so we had real blood to work with... (don't worry, it was more of a scratch than a cut!)

There was one awkward part, though, where two of my friends had to kiss. We had to have the scene, since it's really pivotal in the book, but since one of my friends is dating (someone else), and the other has never been kissed, we made it a stage kiss instead. Still, they had to do it about ten times, which easy could have been awkward, but they were great about it. Even though they didn't actually kiss it looked real, which is what counted. Plus, afterwards my female friend got to really slap my guy friend, which definitely made up for the kiss. :)

Basically, that's what's happening in the world of SIMULATE. I'll try and post more often about the writing process, since this type of editing is new to me, and as soon as the book trailer is up I'll let you know!

An Explanation

Hi Everyone!

I just wanted to say sorry for not posting the past couple days. I've been really busy with the end of the first summer term, since it came at the same time as a lot of other random business, so I really didn't have time to post. Since it's now officially summer and I have nothing to do but work and write my novel (35K now, guys. Be proud of me!) I should be able to get back on track with this blog.

Upcoming series should include:
1- Help with beginning your novel
2- University tips (for those of you starting in the fall)
3- Anything you'd like. :)

See that last one there? If there's anything you'd like to see more of, be that writing tips or book reviews or updates on my WIP or just random posts about what happens on this wonderful little Island that I call home, then just leave a comment and I'll do my best to get to it.

New WIP: The Web

The other day I learned that I won't be starting work until the end of May (I work in a restaurant, so it doesn't get busy until the tourist season starts) so I decided that May was going to become MyNoWriMo. Last fall I really enjoyed doing NaNoWriMo, and I managed to finish WANDER in just 19 days. This year I'm not expecting to be able to write that fast, since my Shakespeare summer course starts next week, but I still believe I can reach the goal of 50k. I've got 5115 words so far, over three days.

Anyways, the novel I'm working on is a YA dystopian Sci-fi thriller (yeah, I know, way too many tags, right?). Here's the pitch I created:

With the New American Union at war with the European Alliance, it takes sixteen-year-old Cognate protégé, Astrid, to pre-fight all the battles in her mind.

As the youngest Cognate—the intelligent elite— on the Island, Astrid is the only one with the perfect brain to run the complex mental simulation known as The Web. Astrid is the ultimate weapon; in The Web, she can fight upcoming battles over and over to come up with the perfect strategy, allowing the NAU to win every time. It seems like the European Alliance is helpless against this superior technology, until Astrid meets a strange boy inside The Web.

The next morning, the NAU loses their first battle. An hour later, Astrid’s older brother fails the Cognate test and is banished from the Island. That evening, Astrid receives a new brother, Caiden—the mysterious boy from The Web. Astrid hopes that Caiden will explain what’s happening, but there’s one problem. He doesn’t remember a thing. Now Astrid is stuck fighting a losing battle and slowly falling in love with the boy who is legally her brother.

Astrid is convinced that Caiden is innocent, but there’s no denying that the NAU is losing the war. The only way to end the war is to kill the boy she loves, or destroy The Web forever. 

Does this sound like something you'd read? If you're on inkpop, I'd be happy to add you to the notification list. For samples, check out The Prologue or Sample Chapter. This cover is just one I created really quickly; I'll have a better one made by the time I'm done.