Book delivery... and new book trailer

Posted on December 14, 2009 (Subscribe to Blog)

Labyrinth of Fire is now available -- again! This time I have a shelf full of copies, as opposed to a handful that went quickly and left me waiting for a bulk order that never turned up.

My replacement order arrived via UPS this afternoon, so I've breathed several sighs of relief. Tomorrow morning I'll be sending out a bunch of copies as well as delivering to local bookshops and libraries (all as requested). But I'll still have a load left over, so if you're chomping at the bit and want a copy before Christmas, order now and I'll post right away!

For those who haven't yet got a copy of Island of Fog, order both together and save on shipping. The shipping rate is actually the same for two books as it is for one. It's $4.95 for deliveries within the USA, and $9.95 for the rest of the world.

The story picks up directly where Island of Fog left off, with some of the children having to deal with their new shapeshifting abilities. Some of the others think they have it easy... but I plan to throw them to the lions in the third book. Well, not lions exactly... but maybe manticores. Or worse. Actually, in Labyrinth of Fire, all the children are in danger one way or another. It's just that some have it worse than others.

Meanwhile, in the real world, there's a new craze in town: Book Trailers. These are... well, trailers for books rather than movies. This might sound odd, since a book doesn't have any actors or movie footage or even any soundtrack. But nevertheless, many publishers, and even authors, are putting together short trailers to promote their books. Some consist of the author reading an excerpt, which I think is guaranteed to bore the pants off potential buyers. Others are hiring actors and playing out key scenes. But most are putting together little montages of photos and overlaying suitable titles and music.

I couldn't resist having a go myself. It was fun, but of course I don't have a musician to hire for the music, so I, er, borrowed some music from a movie soundtrack. Right afterward I came across some free-use downloadable music that would have done just as well, so I might change it at some point. But since I didn't ask permission to use the music on my little test trailer, the least I can do is give due credit. The main chunk of music is a track called The Forbidden Line, and the later piece is called It Is Not Real, both from the movie soundtrack of The Village.

View the Book Trailer for Island of Fog

Comment by HEATHER on Monday, December 14, 2009...

Sounds like you've breathed a large sigh of relief! Love the trailer too. You may wish to put a spoiler warning on top of some of your blog posts though - sentences like "The story picks up directly where Island of Fog left off, with some of the children having to deal with their new shapeshifting abilities" could have a little too much detail for those who have not yet read Island of Fog. Just a thought!

Comment by KEITH ROBINSON on Monday, December 14, 2009...

Yes, this spoiler warning thing is kind of awkward for my books. It's hard to say anything about the second book without giving away things about the first. In my defense, on the back cover of Island of Fog it says "Hal and his friends must keep their shapeshifting talents secret until they can uncover the sinister truth once and for all..." So in that sense, the cat is already out of the bag before the first book is read.

Maybe I should say nothing about either book — just leave the synopses and back covers blank, and simply say, "Read!"

Sigh. I just don't know. Glad you liked the trailer though!

Comment by MING on Monday, December 14, 2009...

Great trailer! Not sure about the ending though, a bit too abrupt, which is fine but it seems as if the trailer shuts off before the music is over... if you know what I mean. :-) Looking forward to the books!

Comment by RALPH CORDEROY on Tuesday, December 15, 2009...

As Heather suggested, I was bitten by the spoiler. Perhaps you could tag such text as a particular class, normally hidden or marked as "spoiler" until the mouse goes over it or a "unveil spoilers" button is clicked?

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