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Inkabout L. Darby Gibbs

Science Fiction & Fantasy author

What I’m (th)Inkingabout

Tuesday prompt

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Frequently description starts wide then slowly narrows down.  In this prompt, start narrow, as tight into an object as you can; then move out, not just on the image but on the crux of the story as well. 

My example: The ridged metal round, a green stripe accenting it, was crimped tightly to the multi-flattened sides of the yellow painted wood length, the soft pink and black-stained eraser at one end a contrast to the sharp point of lead at the other.  The nearly new pencil lay in crystal sands, the rounded edge of a footprint holding it partially elevated and at an angle just so that it appeared to be an arrow pointing out the glimmering edge of a gold watch’s dialed face peaking up where the big toe of a dainty foot had pressed.  And Gina would remember that gesture of coincidence as the beginning, the glimmer of melting ice, in a very cold case.

How I made my book trailer

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I thought that since I just finished  the improved version of my book trailer,
that I should talk about what I used to put it together.  The main
programs (Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Premiere) should be no surprise.  The
pictures were standard digital images I took with a simple digital
camera.  I opened them up in Photoshop and worked them into what I
wanted for the video.  My nerg box is actually a picture I modified of a
large safe.  There are no real nerg box prototypes for me to take
pictures of, so the safe was a great replacement.  Another picture I
took, which was of a wooded area with a path, was also easy to modify in
Photoshop.  The path actually led up to a lake shore, but that is not an
image needed for my book. I erased the unnecessary water feature which
worked out nicely in the video.

I then used Adobe’s
Premiere Pro video software to set up my video.  I uploaded it to my list
of media the pictures I had modified, and some animated backdrops and
royalty free music (I’ll mention those sources later in this blog). 
From that point on it was just a matter of entering titling, video and
audio transitions, though I did have to modify one of my animated
backdrops. It was actually blue, but I wanted to have a  pale white,
rather murky movement going on in the background because my character
travels in time, and the process takes him through a place between
future and past that is rather like a bright foggy day where nothing is
clearly visible.  This modification was not hard to do. Using a feature
called fast color corrector under video effects, I was able to remove the blue tint
and raise the intensity of the brightness.  Dropping in my media by
layers and resizing a few pictures was the last of the easy parts. 
Preparing the titling was the most challenging.  I had to come up with
what I wanted my viewer to read, but also select text size, placement,
font, animation and color.  I worked on titling the most because I wasn’t sure
what sizes and fonts would support my story, and I didn’t want them to
upstage it either.  My most important tool ended up being my daughter.  
After awhile I would get too immersed in the process and just couldn’t
step back far enough to get it an unbiased look.  I would have her
watch and tell me what she thought needed more visual work, and then I
would go at it again.

My source for the music and animated backdrops was
Digital Juice. A person can find all sorts of useful items at their
site, from backdrops to motion design elements, such as snow falling, frames,
and revealers. They are priced reasonably and well done. They also have music useful for every genre imaginable.  The packages include some with variety and well as music under a single genre. So you could order music that is space age
in style, country, jazz or inspiring, etc.   What makes the music
selections so great is that they are provided in various lengths that
usually run in 15 seconds, 30 seconds, one minute and full length (anywhere from three minutes to a bit over four). Having the different lengths already cut to fit make selecting music easier, though selecting the piece for the mood I wanted definitely took time. 
I ended up choosing four or five, dropping them into my media list and
trying each one out with the visuals I had laid out out on the timeline in
Premiere.

Now I had all this available to me because my husband and I had been involved in videography for a few years, and we kept our equipment and software after we got out of the business.  I won’t say that authors need to purchase all these items to make a good trailer, but if you think you are going to be making several trailers over time, these particular software programs and animations do offer advantages.

Tuesday prompt

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How about a miracle?  What if Sally just found herself knee deep in an overflowing toilet while the dog is barking crazily at something and is on the verge of being winded.  In ten minutes a young couple will be coming by to see her house, which she needs to sell in record time. What miracle would save her?  When she answers the door, she finds the young couple waiting, the husband dressed in a local plumbing company’s uniform.  That’s a miracle, but what is that dog still barking about?

Jump off from this scenario or imagine your own troubles a-coming and the character needs a miracle setup.   Then come up with the miraculous happening that is going to fix the immediate problem but still leave the character with other things to take care of.

Those darn book trailers

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I have been working on making a book trailer for my novel In Times Passed. This has not been an easy process. I have pretty much everything I need to produce one except a clear idea of how to put across just the right amount of information to create interest in buying the book and understanding of what the novel is about. I have received some feedback from other writers/readers/trailer viewers/etc. at Goodreads, and this has been helpful.  But again it comes down to me making the necessary changes. I posted my first version on YouTube, at Smashwords on my book page, at Goodreads on my author page and for a short time on this blog.

After considering editing my trailer, I sat down and wrote out the book’s plot in the simplest terms. I thought that this would help me get an idea of what is essential and what I need to leave out. Definitely helped to use the most basic of tools: the plot line.


So I ended up with this brief draft:  
It’s the year 2275 and Brent Garrett has been living off privilege for more than 24 years; however, recently it’s been leaving him dissatisfied.  But it is hard to complain.  

Raised at Meredith Complex, he knows he is expected to add to his orderly and secluded society.  He has yet to contribute anything.  Then he receives a prototype Nerg box and modifies it on a whim with startling results.  Now he has a time machine.  With a means to leave his frustrations behind (or is it ahead of him?), he travels back in time to 1979, part impulse and part destiny.  He meets Miranda Jenkins who offers him a new life, one he’ll have to work for. And it’s satisfying.  

Living the life of the common man has its benefits and its flaws.  Some flaws can shred a heart. For a man with time at his fingertips, running away is a tempting option.  

So that is where I am now. I think I have the text.  Next I have to work on the video.

Tuesday fiction prompt

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Write in first person about the beginning of history for a species.  Find the voice of the tribe’s oral historian and have him or her share the tribe’s beginnings to either a formal or informal audience. Focus on establishing a voice for the speaker and putting across the mythology the group reveres.

When I can’t sleep, I read. When I read, I can sleep.

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I love to read.  I can do it anywhere.  Long ago,when my parents would get into an argument, I would pick up a book and start reading. The sound of them would just disappear.  I would dive into the story, think about the characters and what was happening to them, or read a really great line over and over, twisting it about with thought-filled hands to examine it from all angles.  Hours would pass, and I would close the book to find I was so hungry I was nauseous. I had left the place behind while I read, a transcendentalist, my body snugged into a chair that looked out over my neighbor’s driveway, my mind in some other space.

Reading was essential. In many ways, it is still the same kind of essential it was when I was a child and later a teenager.  If I cannot sleep, which happens fairly often, all I need do is pick up a book.  Maybe I can’t sleep because I am thinking too much, lesson planning or planning a field trip or going over a conversation that just won’t quit my mind. Whatever it is that is keeping me awake disappears when I read.  It is as if my mind narrows to just this one thing, the story I am reading.  It fills the space between my ears.  Fifteen, maybe twenty minutes later, I can turn off my Sony reader, roll over and shortly I am asleep. When I read, I throw everything out and leave room only for the story.  I don’t actively examine the details; I take them in, spread  them out for reflection.  It is a leisurely flow of reading and understanding, putting things together without effort.  When I put the book down, that meditative flow stays and rolls me right into sleep.

If I didn’t read, I would remain awake for hours.