A lot has been happening here lately at Little Hoof, LLC.!
First, we have been working hard creating the promotional video for my upcoming eighth book, Losing Dani Strumm. Over the years, we have created five or six videos for my books, and I have always loved doing so. Don't get me wrong, I am a huge reader, but I am also a visual person who loves to see stories brought to life in a well-crafted video.
Writing the script took me some time because it is challenging to fit a 60,000+ word novel into a one-minute commercial. In addition, I wanted to tell enough to draw readers in without saying too much and giving away spoilers. I hate spoilers.
Once I had the script finished
I began working on finding the footage I needed. Again, another challenge when there is so much good footage, but you can only use little bits and pieces because you only have one minute.
The last step was to find a voice actress. Over the years, I have used my voice and images taken by local photographers (thank you, Tasha Trainor), taken photographs myself, and hired friends to do camera work (Thanks, Jayson Miller and John Gillow). In addition, I have created book covers and featured my daughter Lori Ulman and Rebekah Shields. Finally, I hired an actress for Before the Sun Sets: Pandemic Dawn Book IV, who was on the cover and filmed some scenes for promotion.
So I have had many different experiences with my books, all of which were super!
For Losing Dani Strumm
I wanted the promotional to feature her talking, so I was out. Because the video production went so flawlessly, I knew I had to hire a professional to get the job done.
I searched the pool through nearly 100 voice actresses until I narrowed it down to 16 I thought fit the part. From there, I listened closely with headphones on for any flaw, narrowing it down to just four.
I decided to put all other considerations aside and choose by 1 factor alone, and that was which one sounded how I imagined Dani sounding. So 100%, this was her.
This brought me to the actress Jess Fisher. She trained at one of the top acting schools, NYU Tisch Drama. She has done commercials for Plato's closet, Indeed, Talkspace, iHeart Radio, Wondery Podcasts, and Idaho Suicide Prevention Hotline (kudos!), but I recognized her from the Southwest University commercials.
Let me tell you; this is it!
Here is one of the commercials she voices.
So I am super excited to get this promotional video finished and share it with everyone!
Secondly
We are right on schedule for printing the advance reader copies of Losing Dani Strumm for the December 1st, 2022, drawing!
Things were looking tight there for a while, but they are moving along and will be printed and ready for shipment after the drawing.
The drawing will be random from my website subscribers. What is excellent about subscribing to my website is that you will get updates (like this one) about upcoming novels and drawings, giveaways and contests, and even the occasional help-wanted posting!
This is how I found some photographers and directors over the years.
Another great thing about signing up is that once you do, you will automatically be entered into everything that happens here, whether contest or drawing. So you don't have to sign up for things continuously.
If you know someone who loves books, send them this link, and they can also enter the drawing!
Finally, if you are new to author B. A. Shields and his science fiction style, check out some of his previous novels!
Our following newsletter will feature the video promotion for my upcoming novel, Losing Dani Strumm, so watch out for that!
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