The Former Anne Spollen's Author Blog Is Being Retitled to "Notes from Living Upghetto": All Light Beneath Ferns Stuff

Monday, April 26, 2010

All Light Beneath Ferns Stuff

When I wrote Light Beneath Ferns, I didn't really think in terms of genre. I just wrote a story about a girl who was a loner and wanted to stay that way because she was going to move in a new direction. A strange direction, but a new one. When it came out, I got emails from people telling me it wasn't romantic enough for a paranormal romance. Or it wasn't scary enough. Most of these people were within ten years of my age, which puts them way, way out of the age range for this novel which is about 14.

But of course some folks got it. I got emails from young teens who read parts of this at sleepovers and were creeped out. That was pretty much the idea. Then there were a few adults who loved it and wrote to me. One of these adults is Donna, who wrote probably my favorite review so far of this story.

Now, onto teens. As you know, they infest my house, leave shoes everywhere, carefully place empty milk cartons in the fridge and hog the computers. They are forgiven however as they took pity on me as I tried to make a simple book trailer.
Listening to me complain, they came over to the computer and put together this book trailer which I think is amazing. It's not a polished, marching band kind of trailer, but what's cool about it is that it is made by teens-

I have to especially thank Tiffany J. for her patience - not with the trailer, but with me and my technical blankness. She is responsible for the effects, and essentially the trailer as I had given up, Emma picked out the music which I think is perfect, Philip did a cameo, and Christopher explained to me that not everyone is meant to be technically competent. At least Christopher was patient enough to get me started. I think they did a great job! If you want to see more book trailers, you can watch and vote on your fav here.

19 comments:

Stewart Sternberg (half of L.P. Styles) said...: Writers who are slavish to genre find their efforts may cut both ways. On one hand, there is a shorthand for a particular type of genre that allows the writer to quickly establish a connection with the reader. There is also a sense of community that is available for quick marketing and p.r.. On the other hand, there is also a sense of imprisonment and being pigeon-holed.

Another thing I always consider is that while there are genre conventions, I view these, and I sense you do as well, as only guidelines, not hard rules to be enforced by the mystical genre police.; Monday, 26 April, 2010
Anne Spollen said...: Oh, I am not slavish to my genre, Stewart. I didn't even realize I was writing a paranormal romance (that phrase always make me think of that ancient tv show, Dark Shadows - if anyone remembers that)
I was just writing a story. The world told me what I had written, but now I think people see it more for what it is: an atmospheric piece that's more creepy than anything.

I think I might be the mystical genre police's nightmare...; Monday, 26 April, 2010
Bish Denham said...: Awesome trailer! I so want to read you book....; Monday, 26 April, 2010
Adrienne said...: Awesome job...I loved the trailer, and I was also really amused by Emma's comment on the Five Awesome YA Fans video! (Curiosity got the better of me - I just had to watch that one too...)

That's a great support team you've got there.; Monday, 26 April, 2010
Anne Spollen said...: Thanks, Bish. I might have a contest with some giveaways soon and you can win it. It all depends on whether or not I get some good writing news (and it looks like I might, but I can't say just yet)

Thanks, Adrienne. They are supportive, but I don't think Emma realized that teens other than the ones we know actually read my books. She was like, "MOM, SOMEONE READ YOUR BOOK AND MADE A THINGY!!!" I just saw her comment when you pointed it out. : ); Monday, 26 April, 2010
Jemi Fraser said...: Congratulations to you and your trailer team! Awesome work - everything blends together so nicely. Very well done :); Monday, 26 April, 2010
storyqueen said...: That review made me want to read your book soooo bad!! Wow!

Well done!

Shelley; Monday, 26 April, 2010
Anne Spollen said...: Thanks Jemi - or thanks from the teens (and Emma keeps reminding me one tween) as I had very little to do with that except supplying the Doritos and spaghetti (their choice) I can't help but imagine what would happen if they put that amount of effort into their hw...

I know, Shelley - I don't know whether to thank Donna or marry her.; Wednesday, 28 April, 2010
Marcia said...: Love the music and atmosphere on the trailer! And Philip's cameo hit just the right note.; Wednesday, 28 April, 2010
Anne Spollen said...: Thanks, Marcia. The music is a free ringtone Emma downloaded (I didn't know she knew how to do that; her brothers must have taught her). The kids blended it together somehow.

Philip is a ham, and happy to be one. He's so like his dad...; Wednesday, 28 April, 2010
K.C. Shaw said...: Awesome trailer, very atmospheric! Philip's cameo is very good. :); Thursday, 29 April, 2010
Aiof Murphy said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; Thursday, 29 April, 2010
Anne Spollen said...: Thanks, K.C. I think that's what I like about how the kids did it - they got the mood of the book right. Not paranormal so much as atmospheric.

I take it no one can see that Philip's wearing his b-ball shorts under his jacket ; ); Thursday, 29 April, 2010
Donna (Bites) said...: Thank you so much for linking to me! You make me blush! :) This book certainly deserves all the praise is can get. It was amazing.; Thursday, 29 April, 2010
Anne Spollen said...: Thanks for being such a perceptive reader, Donna.

I am so glad you liked LBF so much, and I will be stalking your blog soon.; Friday, 30 April, 2010
Anonymous said...: I recently purchased The Shape of Water, and I'd also like to read Light Beneath Ferns.; Monday, 03 May, 2010
Shannon said...: I had to smile when I saw the "Philip cameo" - it fit just perfectly with the mood of the music. Nice music selection, Emma (?): it definately creeped me out. I think it's amazing that we have 'book trailers' out nowadays. I mean, I'm part of the generation that's supposed to roll their eyes every time the parental unit grimaces foggily at a technological device, but book trailers are amazing partly because they mix the excitement of the cover picture with all the "little words" that really draw you in. I can't wait to get LBF. It sounds like a story (kind of like SOW) that any person of any age can relate to.; Saturday, 08 May, 2010
Anne Spollen said...: Thanks, Medeia! I'd be interested to know what you think of them both. Hope you enjoy your reads.

Hey, Shannon - yes, Emma picked the music out. I'll tell her you liked it. Philip came out a lot better than I thought it would when they were filming. It was in the back yard and he had basketball shorts on under that jacket.

The parental unit? Yes, lol, they did all of this for me; I kept the snacks coming. I love book trailers, too.

Hope you like LBF. If I come out west (well, really, really west), I'll have to sign it. Let me know what you think if you do get a chance to read it!; Friday, 14 May, 2010
Anonymous said...: i am a free potographer, perhaps you'd like to use some of my photos? i think it would be nice for your blog :-)
absolutely enjoy your blog! send me a email please in case you want to colaborate; Sunday, 12 December, 2010

Books

Light Beneath Ferns

"I have this strange sense that my silence is preparing me for something I can't name . ."

Elizah Rayne is nothing like other fourteen-year-old girls. More interested in bird bones than people, she wraps herself in silence. Trying to escape the shadow of her gambler father, Elizah and her mother move into an old house that borders a cemetery. All her mother wants is for them to have "normal" lives. But that becomes impossible for Elizah when she finds a human jawbone by the river and meets Nathaniel, a strangely hypnotic boy who draws Elizah into his dreamlike and mysterious world.

Only by forgetting everything she knows can Elizah understand the truth about Nathaniel—and discover an unimaginable secret.

Teen made trailer for Light Beneath Ferns.

Order Light Beneath Ferns here.

Foreword Magazine's Review of Light Beneath Ferns

Excerpt from THE SHAPE OF WATER

CHAPTER ONE
I discovered windows one afternoon and after that, nothing was ever the same. They had always been there, of course, glass panes shimmering in the color of rain, but that spring for the first time, I was able to open the windows in my room. For years, the locks had been painted stuck, and during the winter, heat from the radiator beneath my windows finally steamed off enough paint off the metal wings of the locks could be twirled open. Knowing that I could open the windows attracted me to them, and I began sitting under the windows, staring through the glass at the sky. From that position, on a chair in my room, the sky did not seem real; it seemed a place I was making up, so I watched it.
The white wood of the window panes acted as frames so the sky came to me slowly, and the huge openness of its space did not touch me. All the window glass in our old house had wavers and bubbles inside it, so at times the clouds moved like water, melting and blurring until they passed outside of the warp. After a few afternoons of sitting, the heavens seemed too quiet to keep watching so I began watching a small patch of woods next to our yard that housed little more than trees and a scatter of bony, mean-looking rabbits.
I started gazing at the sky and the woods in March when the branches were still wet and it was then, with nothing outside my window but trees and rain, that I noticed a shine inside darkness, I noticed colors glimmering within the darkness of the wood. I watched birds come and go, I watched rain nipple down from buds to the grass. The water dripping from branch edges and leaves created optical tricks; I could see that as I watched leaves melt.
Then one day I ventured into the space outside. I did not think about doing this much beforehand. I simply opened the window and dropped to the ground below, uncertain as to why this should be such a more satisfying exit than simply using the door; my father worked until seven o’clock and I could do whatever I wanted until then. But I liked the solid sound my legs made when I landed. Leaving via a five foot drop seemed so much more a decision than just using a door. The sense of escape made my heart pound, though all I escaped was the soundless spread of moss-colored light inside my house and the silence.
I had come to know silence well during those months after my mother died. When you sit in silence long enough, you learn that silence has a motion. It glides over you without shape or form, but with weight, exactly like water. Its color is silver. And silence has a sound you hear only after hours of wading inside it. The sound is soft, flute notes rising up like the words of glass speaking. There comes a point when you must shatter the silence, when you must shatter the blindness of its words, the blindness of its light. I did this by going into the yard. Once I stood there, in the grass next to the trees I had been watching, I found silence outside as well. But I was happier outside than I had been in the house, so I stayed for a bit. I stood beneath my bedroom window for a few minutes, looking up at the branches and the crooked pieces of sky colliding between the branches. I believed I could identify the scent of the sky as I stood there, a blue menthol fragrance similar to the scent of seawater that sprayed into my face when I first dove into the ocean. That initial scent smelled much more subtle than the ocean’s heavy, fishy aroma, a whiff of salt and mint that warned a more powerful scent would enter my nose just as I approached the water on a dive. It was the scent I dreamed in. And it was the scent of that spring sky as I stood in my yard.

***