The Pen is Mightier than the Sword...

... but, if you try to commit hari-kari with one, you just end up drawing all over your stomach.

Yup, two more passes on my queries mocked me from my in-box yesterday. I feel this visceral clench now whenever I see that I have email in that account. For every "Sounds interesting! Please send the first 50 pages!" I get, there are about ten "Not the right fit for us; best of luck." emails.

Plech.

I know that the chocolate in the kitchen cabinet is for my kids, but I'm considering mauling it anyway.

OK, enough disgruntlement.

Nathan Bransford has guest posters this week on his blog. Yesterday's was about making a book trailer. This was wicked timely, since I've been thinking about making my own for a while now, ever since my brother gave me his notes on MINDER.

My brother's the guy in the "IF AIR TRAVEL WORKED LIKE HEALTH CARE" thing on YouTube that I linked to a few posts back. Yes, he works in the movie industry and knows how to make movies. So he gave me a lot of notes about how MINDER could work as a movie.

And he knows people who make movies, including special effects experts, which is relevant because my characters are, as a friend from Yale so succinctly put it:

TEENAGE MUTANTS WITH SUPERPOWERS - IN LOVE.

And superpowers really do need special effects to "pop" on screen. How pathetic would it look to have things lifted by telekinesis and be able to see the string?

I also know the lead singer of the band Glenridge. They have a song called "Angels" that I want to use for the trailer, if and when I make it. And he said I could. No charge, just credit.

I listen to it and picture how I could start (about 1:38 into the song) with a Voice Over:

VO: I don't know how Del and his two friends died.

Flash an image of three boys lying dead in the back of a van.

VO: I just know that I killed them.

And then I see a montage of exciting images filled with magical energy stuff. And, interspersed with the images, a few written words: "Spark" "Charm" "Telekinetic" "Healer" "Remote Viewer" "Ganzfield"

The last bit would have the word "telepath" fade into "MINDER." I'm not sure of the other words have the resonance for potential readers, but this last bit really works for me, since it explains the title.

It's this middle part, the montage, that stumps me. I don't want to make something boring and cheesy, but I don't want to spend thousands of dollars to make this thing, either.

One short clip I'd love to have is Drew, who's a spark (a pyrokinetic), running down a dark, blue-lit hallway toward the camera, then flashing up a yellow-orange ball of fire in his hand and throwing it at the camera.

I also want one of the MC and her guy, sitting cross-legged facing each other and backlit by an upturned flashlight, as they lean in slowly to kiss each other. This is probably the easiest clip to get, since I just need two actors, a dark room, and a flashlight.

I'm still thinking about how to show an RV (remote viewer) with golden threads of light flashing out and haloing her head.

Yeah, that would be cool.

I think I'll daydream about it for the rest of the day, as I watch the snow fall outside my window.

If you have any suggestions, I'd love to hear them!