Introducing Dreambeast
Please stop by Dreambeast, the chronicle of my enthusiasms and obsession, where I blog about the things I love. The first post is devoted to riding and my beautiful horse, Tucker.
Entries by Mary Maddox
Darkness in Sunlight
In August I spent several days with my friend Carol in Studio City, California. Carol works in the movies as an art department coordinator. She was working then on a film called The Artist, so we partied in the evenings and I entertained myself during the day. I took my mini-cam and explored Ventura Boulevard. […]
HOW I MADE MY OWN BOOK TRAILER
Here is the entire saga of my adventure in video production wherein I make my own book trailer, “Rad Pays His Respects.” Some readers may have already seen the first posts. If so, I invite them to pick up where they left off.
What the hell is a codec?
After some research into editing software, I narrowed my choices to three: Sony Vega, Corel Video Studio, and Adobe Premier Pro. All three companies offered free download of a trial version that would function for a month then shut down unless you paid up. So I began with Vega. I downloaded the trial version of […]
How hard could it be
When I began promoting Talion, I noticed book trailers were hot. I found dozens on You Tube, thirty-second or one minute ads with authors talking about their books or music and visuals to evoke the book’s atmosphere. I thought Talion deserved a trailer too. And I knew right away what it would be. In my […]
I recognize that nasal stranger
I used Soundbooth to record myself reading the passage from Talion. Listening to my own voice was painful. Worse, the recording was peppered with electronic noise and distortion. Figuring I just needed practice using Soundbooth, I fiddled with the settings and made a second recording. More snap, crackle, and pop. I gazed at the pathetic […]
Storyboard and Rough Cut
Joe laid down the rules. First, I had to make a storyboard laying out the shots of my book trailer and matching them to the voiceover narrative. Then I had to make a rough cut in Premier Pro. My trailer should be 60 seconds long precisely, Joe told me, like an ad on TV. “But […]
There’s nothing you can’t FX
I trimmed my rough cut to a 60-second video keyed to the narrative voiceover. Still it wasn’t right. The framing and unsteadiness of some shots made them look like vacation movies. Since they were filmed on three separate occasions, the lighting and color tone didn’t match. All the shots were too cheerfully green for the […]
Becoming a Writer
I’m thrilled to be a guest blogger on the site Review from Here. My post describes the moment when my imagination came to life: When I was four, my family lived in Soldiers’ Summit, Utah, a forlorn place high in the Wasatch Mountains. Population two or three dozen people, tops. Our house was heated with a coal […]
Maybe a Blunt Rejection Hurts Less
Yesterday I was looking through an old copy of Milan Kundera’s The Art of the Novel when came across this form rejection tucked between the pages. I forget what story I submitted to The Quarterly but I remember that this form letter, which tries so hard to cushion the blow, didn’t make me feel any better about […]
Review of Talion
Talion has received a short but sweet review from Mystee on her blog, A Moment with Mystee . The blog is worth checking out for the many giveaway opportunities as well as the reviews.
Talion Virtual Book Tour
Please join me on my first virtual book tour. The complete tour schedule can be found on my Web site or at Pump Up Your Book promotions.
Featured News & Events
Darkroom Wins First Prize for Fiction in the 2017 IndieReader Discovery Awards.
From the Blog
Daemon Blood’s Sensational Cover
Finally! I’ve finished work on Daemon Blood, the third book in the Daemon World series. The novel will go on sale March 8, 2022. Meanwhile, check out Daemon Blood‘s sensational cover, designed by Damonza.com. I think the image captures fully the tension and eerie atmosphere of this story about a looming daemon war. I hope […]Read More »