Friday: Just fooling around with videos . . .

Today, thought I would try a new video for Standing Stones, my first book in the McDonnell saga to see which might work best to support my overall marketing.

I could use Vimeo or Youtube. Here are the results of both. Which do YOU like better?

VIMEO: Set up with Vimeo for a "lite" (free) account. Limited to 6 frames and 30 seconds. Took me about 1.5 hours to figure out how to draft, edit and create the following. Cons: No direct link to my Amazon page for Standing Stones.



Standing Stones, Book 1

YOUTUBE. Here's the 30 second version on YouTube. It's been awhile since I used YouTube's uploading/editing features, but I found some neat music from their free music library (Celtic) and liked how I could add more than 3-5 words to support each slide. One negative: I didn't have good control over what would be the 'bookmark' image. 

What took me so long (about 3 hours) is creating the PowerPoint slide show (edit, edit), then figuring out how to export it in video format so I can easily upload the finished 30-second product to YouTube!


TAKE 2 for YOUTUBE. This wonderful two minute version was created by Sandy Brown Jensen as a surprise for me and features beautiful Celtic music by Mairead Nesbitt, "The Butterfly."



So now I'm wondering, of the two YouTube videos, which is easier -- the 30-second version or the 2-minute version?

And of the two 30-second versions, do you like the Vimeo format OR the YouTube format?

Thank YOU for commenting! 

Ending the year . . .

Take a moment to watch Sandy Brown Jensen's beautiful poem, "Year's End, Sweet Creek," in digital storytelling mode.  

Fall into nature as you think about 2015 and what it means to you. May it be a very good year for you and all those you love.

A month of unexpected kindness . . .

We're now in December, a month of holidays with Thanksgiving (and NaNoWriMo) just past. Just for kicks, here's my graphic for words written during NaNo.

But I'm still feeling thankful for writing friends and unexpected kindnesses.

Out of the blue, Sandy Brown Jensen, a digital storyteller and creative writing teacher, sent me a video trailer she made for STANDING STONES. 

Now I did experiment in making my own video trailer for Standing Stones and Years of Stone, using PowerPoint, images I took, and freebie music via youtube. But I love Sandy's new trailer, "Beth Camp: Writer of Forgotten Worlds."  





Another unexpected kindness: Annette Drake, author of Bone Girl and Celebration House, hosts a table at a local craft & book fair this week. She invited me to participate. Here's her table!

Baskethound Books and me

Annette has a marketing mind and inspires me to try new ideas to promote my writing. For some reason, just as many other writers feel about marketing, I'd rather be writing. I'm on the verge of trying something new that will definitely expand my marketing boundaries, but I hesitate. Why push right  now, this holiday month, for more visibility, when everyone else is out there? Accountability? Belief in my writing? 

The research for book 3, Rivers of Stone, goes well. With each detail, I'm able to imagine the life of a voyaguer crossing Canada in the 1840s. The arc of the story may not satisfy every reader, for the resolution is not traditional. But I like it, even as I wrestle with the idea of what it might be like to be a woman in that time.

I still need tenacity and courage to achieve my marketing goals, those very specific tasks that always seem to get pushed down to the bottom of the to-do list. 2014 is close to ending and 2015 is filled with promise. 

But today I'm celebrating that community of writers -- virtual and face-to-face, that encourage my commitment, that connect me to like-minded souls, especially those self-published indie authors who simply want to write their stories and poems. 

Thank you! And may your writing go well.

A Round of Words in 80 Days
The Internet Writing Workshop
Weds WIPpet at My Random Muse
NaNoWriMo National Novel Writing Month
Spokane Authors

Into the Blog Hopper . . .

I think the My Writing Process blog hop has gone viral.

This very informal blog hop asks writers to talk about their writing process. It has no rules and no coordinator. Writers answer 4 questions and tag two more writers, giving each a deadline of 1-2 weeks. The questions are:

1. What am I working on currently or just finishing?
2. How does my work differ from others in this genre?
3. Why do I write what I do?
4. How does my writing process work?

Poet Morgan Dragonwillow got me started. Her invitation was quickly followed by another invite from Deb McKnight. I happily went off to the east coast for a family reunion and a wedding and forgot who invited me first. Red face! Morgan graciously forgave me.

Morgan Dragonwillow writes poetry about that unique journey creative people pursue. In Wild Woman Waking, an inspirational read, she celebrates her commitment to writing.  Her book pairs poetry with some phenomenal photographs from Tui Snyder. Morgan's combination of visual image and writing from the heart pulls me right in.

Then, one of my tags bowed out! So I invited Sandy Brown Jensen to participate, a creative writing teacher colleague I've known for many years. 

Sandy talking about her sister's painting, Cheryl Renee Long

Now the fun begins, for Sandy writes poetry, paints, teaches writing, and has embarked on something called digital storytelling, that neat combination of voice and image presented in a video. 

Her latest video brought me to tears, in the way something true and exceptional evokes that emotional response.

Here is Sandy's video, "The Current is Everything" -- her response to the first question: What am I currently working on?


The Current is Everything from Sandy Brown Jensen on Vimeo.

This morning S. J. Maylee invited me to participate in another My Writing Process blog hop via Twitter, a new wrinkle I almost missed. I'm going to hop next week, but with slightly different questions . . . and, inspired by Sandy, just maybe a different medium. 

Sandy balances her writing process posts with the end of the school term; her posts will go live over several days on her blog, Sandy Brown Jensen: Mind on Fire

Morgan has already posted her responses on her blog, Morgan Dragonwillow, Dancing Where Others Fear to Tread 

Why not hop on over to visit Morgan and Sandy?  

How do you celebrate creativity in your life?

Two November poems . . .

The first snow has melted but this morning is a little bleak. A cold and rainy early morning with folks already driving to work. Here are two morning commute poems, embellished by the camera art of Sandy Brown Jensen..

Morning Commute #1

My poem got lost
on the way to work
this morning,
fog-bound fields,
trees patterned against the sky,
faded photocopies.
A few frail yellow and red leaves
float above the bones of a winter landscape,
with many gray days ahead.

Morning Commute (Sandy Brown Jensen)

November Weather Report

Early Tuesday morning,
clumps of clouds
hang low over the valley
as if they had fallen -- like stars,
like dreams
too close to earth.

On Wednesday, gray dimples
fill the sky, flecks of light
at the horizon hint at the sun,
while trees shiver yellow.

Thursday, brilliant sun blinks
and twins to moon,
traceries of cloud
alternately hide and reveal the sun.
Wispy streamers of gray drift,
filling up the sky.
Pale yellow bands light up
the edge of the world,
now yellow, gray, and blue,
layered in morning harmony.

Later the moon rises,
a perfect circle in a glassine sky,
white shadow circling,
bright aura shimmering.

Oregon morning (Sandy Brown Jensen)

Sandy Brown Jensen lives in Oregon, writes, paints, and teaches creative writing and digital storytelling. Sometime in the last few years, she grabbed a digital camera and began to explore what she saw and loved. Her more than 6,000 photos are used with permission, available on Flickr under a Creative Commons license.She's also on Vizify, an interesting online profile site I know nothing about!  Sandy and I taught together. Just before retiring, I took a creative writing class from her and am privileged to be her friend.

So for those of you who are curious about Big Brother, the Internet, and your personal data, consider checking Vizify out. Apparently, you push a few buttons and an online visual profile appears -- all about you. I'm going to try it. Here's a neat background article on Vizify by social studies teacher Dawn Casey-Rowe.

If you're here because of you like to read or write poetry, and perhaps are suffering from withdrawal by the end of OctPoWriMo (a poem a day for the month of October), consider visiting Poets on the Page, a weekly poetry prompt each Monday -- with a link.

May your week go well.

October 6: In Celebration of Butterflies . . .

I've been wanting to start a series of posts on creativity this month, but have been distracted by writing that daily poem for OctPoWriMo.

But today's OctPoWriMo prompt -- Tell me what gives you butterflies -- was the perfect segue to Sandy Brown Jensen's inspirational video-poem: Can You Catch Butterflies.  (Her poem appears below for your reading pleasure.)


Today I chased butterflies,
in search of beauty
Today I climbed a mountain
because the day was fair
and I was free.
Today I chased butterflies,
took pictures,
and climbed a mountain
all at the same time.
Can you catch butterflies?

My response:

In celebration of butterflies

I'm always delighted when
a solitary butterfly passes by.
I could be walking in the woods
or along the watershed when
a fragile, bright dot of color appears.
Butterflies remind me
of that fleeting inner voice
that leads to poetry or painting,
something ephemeral
that hovers
on the edge of understanding.

I have seen butterflies sleeping,
wing to wing,
then lift to the sky in some mysterious migration.
I only know they leave us,
and I come to understand
that in some great cycle least expected,
these butterflies will return.

Thank you, Sandy, for giving me 'butterflies.' You have challenged me to write and hold me to high standards. Inside I may doubt; you do not. You are an inspirational writing teacher and friend. Your creativity constantly amazes me, and your latest venture -- to explore the connections between visual and written arts -- intrigues me.

Today's prompt from OctPoWritMo was truly "tell me more about what gives you butterflies." But the prompt goes on to ask, "What makes you nervous?" I think what makes me nervous more than facing down a group of strangers who have come to hear me read is this: That I do not finish what I've begun to write. Creativity seems awfully close to those migrating butterflies -- a gift that I try to honor with commitment and discipline.

Read more of what others have written for OctPoWriMo here.

Visit Sandy Brown Jensen's website here. And I will return with a future post on creativity with Sandy -- and her sister, Cheryl Renee Long, artists both.