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One of the highlights of my trip to Bentonville was seeing the play of The Fantastic Secret of Owen Jester performed by the Bentonville High School drama students.

Thank you to Fine Arts Chair, Justin Scheuer, for this great honor.

Owen with Tooley

Owen and Earlene

Viola and Owen in the submarine

Viola lecturing Stumpy, Travis and Owen

Travis and Stumpy with Tooley in his cage

Me with the cast and crew. They rocked it.

I had the most amazing visit to schools in Bentonville, Arkansas.

They chose The Fantastic Secret of Owen Jester for their One District One Book program.

Since a picture is worth a thousand words, I'll show you my visit in pictures.

My Bentonville BFF, Wendy Hannah, was my go-to gal. She drove me around, planned, worked, scheduled, etc, etc. etc. I owe a major THANK YOU to Wendy for making my time there amazing.

The lovely town square of Bentonville

The first Walmart!

In front of the awesome 21c Hotel

I walked the beautiful trail to the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art

The architecture is beautiful

Such a lovely museum

Bentonville, Arkansas, has been busy reading The Fantastic Secret of Owen Jester as part of their One District, One Book program.

The community and elementary schools have cooked up some super activities for readers.

Carly Edwards of the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art made this great submarine photo prop for the book event.

Conrad made this awesome frog trap with his dad.

Next week, I'm heading to Bentonville, Arkansas, to visit 11 elementary schools as part of their amazing One District One Book Program.

This year's book is The Fantastic Secret of Owen Jester.

To get in the spirit, the schools have organized some great events.

Librarian Brittany Fleming (right) with her dad, one of the school counselors

These two support Viola.

Once again, I'm quoting author Elizabeth George:

I develop a place that I can own on paper because I want the reader to experience the setting right along with the characters.

Ms. George placed the emphasis on the word "own", but for me, the key word in that quote is "EXPERIENCE".

Setting is critical to enabling the reader to experience the story.

In order to experience the story, the reader must experience the setting.

That means seeing all the little things there are to see: hubcaps in the weeds, dogwood trees in bloom, a bullet-riddled stop sign.

And feeling: the gooey tar on a hot road; the coarseness of a wool blanket.

And smelling: burned toast; honeysuckle; lavender talcum powder.

And hearing: the sprinkler in the yard; the crickets in the garden; the clickety clack of high-heeled shoes

It's critical for the writer to become so totally immersed in the setting that the reader can experience each scene perfectly - like a movie.

Sometimes I find myself with a setting that is very clear to me - in my mind - but is often hard to translate onto the page so that the reader can see it, too.

In order to help me maneuver the character throughout the physical setting, I sometimes draw a little sketch.

Here is the sketch of the setting of The Fantastic Secret of Owen Jester:



This may come as a shock to some of you, but I am no artist. :-)

But that simple little sketch is a big help to me as the main character moves around from place to place.

It helps me to help the reader EXPERIENCE the setting.

Check out these awesome comics made by Ms. Blackburn's 6th grade students at West View School in Limestone, Tennessee.

I've been making book trailers for 4 years now.

Mine are simple.

No bells or whistles.

Just photos, music, and script.

My first one was Greetings from Nowhere:




Then The Small Adventure of Popeye and Elvis:






Then The Fantastic Secret of Owen Jester:






I'm currently working on one for my October release of On the Road to Mr. Mineo's.

Here are the steps to a VERY basic book trailer:

1. Find photos. I use iStock Photo. They always have great photos that fit my story. I download the small size. Each photo costs a certain number of "credits." The credits needed for this trailer cost about $180.  I also sometimes use this site.

2. Find music. This is fun. You want the music, of course, to fit the tone of the book. I use Premium Beat because they have a good variety and are inexpensive. I bought the music for $30.

3. For this trailer, I also added one short video clip, purchased from iStock Photo for $20. 

4. Write the "script."

5. I use iMovie. Easy peasy. Literally drag the photos and music into the project. Add transitions, etc.

6. I spent 5432 hours tweaking it. 


7. Try to keep it to no more than 2 minutes.


8. Publish to YouTube, Teacher Tube and/or Vimeo.


9. Spread the word online.


DONE