I had no idea.

Photo by Mandy Walls.

I remember my friends Brian and Kim’s faces when I pitched them the idea. “So… I was thinking we could do a montage, right? ‘Cause then we could show all this stuff that happens in the book and it’ll be easier, ’cause it’ll just be little snippets.”

*blink, blink*

They already knew then what I was about to learn. Montages are one of the hardest things to do, because you have to film so many scenes, in so many different locations. But evidently, my enthusiasm was catching, because Brian and Kim decided to follow me into the madness and awesomeness that was making the Harbinger trailer. And over the course of the next year, I learned something else important.

Making movies is AWESOME.

Okay. Some of it _was_ running around with a camera.

I’d only been on a real set once before and I’d never made anything of my own. So somewhere in the back of my mind, I thought we’d kinda just run around southern California with a camera and a couple actors and shoot stuff. Not so. Because if I’d really thought about it, I’d have realized that filming takes a lot of specialized equipment and people with even more specialized skills. And my favorite part about making the trailer was watching people work, watching how skilled people can use amazing angles and lighting and performances to transform a set into a movie. I loved learning how you bring a story to life. Especially because this was my story!

But the best part about making this trailer was also the hardest part. People. Making something like this takes a lot of very talented, very skilled people. And again, I was blown away and fascinated by what these wonderful people could (and would!) do.

The ocean might have been a little chilly. Sorry, Olivia!

Let’s take Olivia, for example, clearly the most visible part of the trailer. I saw her photo when we were casting and I thought, “This is our Faye. She looks perfect!” And when we met her, we realized that not only did she look the part, but that girl could act! And incredibly, that wasn’t the best part about Olivia. The best part was how committed she was. On the first day, we shut her in a hot garage to shoot the green screen for the leaping shot. The next shoot, we stained her hands red with blood, put her up a tree, and made her run around in the woods. On the third shoot, we sprayed her down with water until she was shivering. And still, she didn’t even blink when we told her we wanted her to walk into the ocean in December. She was serious about her craft and what we were doing. And it shows.

Then there was Brian, our director, who got up before dawn to go out into the ocean with Tony and get the underwater footage. Who refused to give up our original vision when I was overwhelmed by how complicated and time-consuming the trailer had become and wanted to quit. Who imagined the epic shot of Faye leaping out of the ocean and convinced us all to think big.

And Jason, who worked all day and late into the night on the Glee set, only to wake up early (and sick!) for a 10 hour shoot. And at the end of the day, he still managed to do the incredible, creepy lighting for the shot of Faye waking up on the cement floor, hands covered in blood.

I have stories like this for all of our cast and crew. All of them taking time out of their professional lives to volunteer to make this trailer. Honestly, it leaves me speechless. I cannot really express how grateful I am for the wonderful, talented, creative people who made Harbinger come to life. Thank you.

When I watch this trailer, what is clear to me is this: it has a life and momentum of its own. People jumped in with both feet and made it theirs. The Harbinger trailer may have started off as my vision, but it became everyone’s. A fantastic conglomeration of long days and pizza and generosity and so much talent. Thank you to everyone who worked on this. One year, 5 film shoots, 6 locations, and 50 people later…we have a trailer!

And here’s a little behind-the-scenes montage of my own to show you exactly what I mean.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Most of the footage in the “Making of” is taken on my little Flip camera and the wonderful, surfy soundtrack is courtesy of The Ghosts of Searchlight. As I previously noted, I have NO experience with making movies and this is my first dabbling with Adobe Premiere, so you’ll have to take it for what it is, just a fun compilation of candid moments. But you can clearly see how much time and love people put into this!

Before I go… I have some more thank yous!

To Brian Horn, Kim Kotis Horn, and Tony Etienne, who dreamed up this trailer with me at the beginning, who rethought and reimagined it over and over, until it became the best possible version of itself! Thank you from the bottom of my heart!

To Ryan Harvie, who is a wonderful producer and whose constant vigilance about the details (and gift of a Tribble) allowed me to regain my sanity.

To all our talented actors! Olivia Delgado, Katy Yoder, Patrick Ward, and Barbara Witzer Banner…thank you for bringing my characters to life! You are amazing!

To our tireless film crew, Lucas Merino, Jason Puliti, Justin Talbott, and Tyler Beauregard…thank you so much for all your care and craft! It was amazing watching you work…magic!

To Leigh Bardugo,who took time to be our make-up artist for the first 2 shoots, even though she was on deadline for her book. She is an amazing new author and her book SHADOW AND BONE completely blew me away! It comes out in June, 2012 and believe me, you do not want to miss it!

To Ryan and Jenn Bosworth, for not just the use of their greenscreen, but for Ryan’s incredible help during the shoot. Ryan is an incredible director in his own right. And Jenn Bosworth is another fellow author whose riveting book STRUCK is coming out May 2012. Keep your eyes out for her book trailer coming out soon!

To Angela Blake, make-up artist extraordinaire, who gave so much to this trailer and was so fun to have on set. You’re amazing!

To Omar Fadel and Brian Horn (multi-talented!), whose music gave this trailer its ambiance and soul.

To Gail, another fantastic writer and friend, for letting us take over her house and yard for an entire day!

To Steeg and Lisa, who also graciously allowed us to monopolize their house. You made Holbrook come to life!

Bonfire!! Photo by Rita Crayon Huang

To Mandy Walls and Rita Crayon Huang, who took wonderful photos of our shoots!

To Tony (again!) for your amazing visual effects work! Faye’s leap takes my breath away.

To so many other wonderful people whose generosity, talents, and time made this happen… thank you Ryan Doolittle, Matias Volkert, Rohan Chitrakar, Sean Morris, Brandon Martin, Jeff Beeland.

And last but not least, Damon Nagami and all to our bonfire dancers! Thank you, friends, for braving the cold (and the fire!) to make that scene amazing! And for wrapping up the trailer shoot with a bang!

And we’re gonna live it up… with 4 months worth of Harbinger extras!

24 incredible illustrators and artists have created Harbinger-inspired artwork to give you a taste of Faye’s world (and to generally rub it in that they’ve all read Harbinger and you haven’t!) Let me tell you, in the last few weeks, the art has been coming in and I’ve been blown away. Beautiful, haunting, wonderful pieces! And the whole celebration will be culminating in March with a gallery show and book signing here in LA.

Every Thursday, leading up to Feb. 2, 2012 and beyond…

I’ll be posting the one of these spectacular (and often very creepy) illustrations on the Holbrook Academy website. But you’ll need the password to see the newest picture!

Follow the Path! Each week, a different (and fantastic!) YA book blogger will be hosting the newest username and password on their site.  I’ll be announcing who has that week’s password on the Holbrook Academy Facebook page and on twitter: @HolbrookAcademy. You’ll also be able to see interviews with the artists here on this website.

This Thursday, October 27th, I’ll be kicking-off the whole thing with two Harbinger extras. You’ll get to see the world of Harbinger through the eyes of the very talented artist, Jason Puliti. And a dreamy, creepy portrait of Faye, by the amazing Joan Charles, will be up too… but under lock and key.

So make sure to “like” Holbrook Academy on Facebook or follow me on twitter to get the location of the passwords!

And remember… at Holbrook, we walk the path together!

I had a great time as Harriet the Spy (Tony went as Encyclopedia Brown. HAWT!) even though I forgot my notebook...

In a follow-up to my post about community, I thought I’d share a few pictures from the Kid Lit costume party last night.

Also attending, we had Bunnicula and The Dot... otherwise known as my critique group

Harriet hearts Encyclopedia.

Jennifer Bosworth dressed as her character Mia, from her debut YA novel, Struck (coming out May 2012) and Jessica Brody as her chacter Lexington, from 52 Reasons to Hate My Father

Jack Skellington and Sookie from True Blood

A beautiful (and a bit scary) Día de los Muertos creature meets Bunnicula.

Perhaps the most impressive were Roald Dahl's Witches... exact down to the wigs, gloves covering up their too-long fingernails, and RSPCC nametags!

Mischief was definitely afoot at the Wellesbourne Saturday Night! So good to see all these characters out and about!

I will not deny that Facebook and G+ and twitter are distracting, but for me they are also a lifeline. I go to them to be cheered up and cheered on. When I have a bad writing day, find a fun fact, am so close to finishing a draft… but not quite there: this is where I go. It’s a reality check that there are other people are out there struggling through their own stories and excited to read mine.

I spend most of my day alone with my computer and puppies. Neither are great conversationalists. And honestly, this is kinda blissful. But it also means that field trips are REQUIRED. Bookstore excursions with friends, SCBWI writer schmoozes, and my critique groups keep me sane and grounded. A reminder that I am not alone out here! In fact, the LA Kid Lit Costume Party is coming up this weekend, Saturday Oct 22nd. So come out and play if you’re a SoCal local.

And in the last few months I’ve been privileged to join another community. Readers and YA book bloggers! As cover reveals, excerpts, and ARCs of Harbinger have gone out into the world it’s been amazing to get responses from this group. I know that not every single person will fall in love with Harbinger, but that’s kinda the point. Here is an active, engaged group of people, reading and thinking about stories. Ones they like. Ones you might like. And ones they want to tell.

Now when I get a little lonely or just cannot figure out a plot point, I go visit with the rest of the book world. Blinking in the sunlight, I remember that the world is full of readers, writers, bloggers. Friends.

Everyone was wondering what was in them.

Those of us with opposable thumbs decided to investigate.

We were all very excited.

Ta-dah!!!!!

Check out my G+ profile pics to see a slideshow of the grand opening!

Like: AMAZING blurbs by awe-inspiring authors… Tamora Pierce and Lisa McMann.

Like: Getting an author profile on Goodreads that posts your blog RIGHT THERE ON THE PAGE. (If you’re reading this on Goodreads, then that’s very meta:)

Like: This incredible cover for Harbinger. When my editor, the phenomenal Stacey Barney, asked me what I imagined for the cover, I said that I’d love something that had a striking central image and continued to draw you into the story as you looked closer. But that I didn’t want to get too specific, because the artists could clearly dream up something much better than I ever could.

That was truer than I could have imagined. The artists and designers at Putnam made this stunning cover that takes my breath away every time I look at it.  And there’s still more to come. This is the cover that will be on all the Advanced Reader Copies… but on the final cover, the border will have line art specific to my story!

*sigh* I’m completely in love!

So thank you Stacey and everyone at Putnam that has made this an amazing publishing adventure so far. I feel incredibly fortunate.

As Dr. Who says… Allons-y!

Now that I’m almost finished and putting on the finishing touches, I look around my office and realize that perfect isn’t really a worthy goal. My favorite mug that I drink coffee out of every morning is a potter’s reject…glaze dripping unevenly down its side. My most treasured books are the ones that are signed with funny, personal messages from the authors and illustrators… ink marring the title page. Notes and memorabilia are chaotically tacked to my corkboard, a collage of encouragement and happy accidents. Perfect is underrated. Perfect is boring.

A couple weeks ago, I went to a Belle and Sebastian concert at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery. Rain drizzled on us as we waited in line to get in. I was couldn’t believe our bad luck…. rain in LA? But the rain ended up keeping the audience small, a rarity for such an incredible band. As my husband and I danced out there in the graveyard, singing along to our favorite songs, I realized something. What makes a concert special is that it isn’t perfect. If it was, you might as well stay home and listen to the CD. It’s the moments of spontaneity that make the experience amazing. The band bizarrely throwing signed footballs out into the audience. Stuart Murdoch kneeling while an audience member put mascara on him so he’d look appropriately angsty for the next song. The fans getting up on stage to dance.

And so in these last days before my revision is due I’m going to try to focus instead on what makes my story interesting. What makes it gritty or funny or surprising. Because this is what a reader is truly looking for. Because it’s the moments just outside of perfection that makes something extraordinary.

But what really thrilled me about this year’s conference was how many people were talking excitedly about the changing medium of books. E-books, cross-platform storytelling, and the future of publishing was on everyone’s minds and here’s what I took away from the discussions.

Technology is evolving in a direction that will allow us to tell stories in ways we haven’t even begun to imagine. Websites and enhanced ebooks allow us, as writers and illustrators, to stretch outside the boundaries of pictures and pages. A story can be expanded by creating maps, back stories, and world-building on a website. Characters can exist alongside kids on myspace and facebook and twitter and all the newest interwebs. Author interviews and other innovations can make ebooks a valuable and interesting way to read.

More than that… these things are cheap compared to printed and bound books, and much more in the author’s control. And while fewer gatekeepers might mean lower quality, it also means experimentation, creativity, and (not to sound overdramatic) revolution!

In Jon Scieszka’s talk about telling stories across multiple media formats, he showed numbers for how much time kids spend consuming media. While some people were shocked at the high numbers, I realized that I, myself, usually spent more than the average kid on computers, video games, and listening to music. And that doesn’t upset me. As Jon Scieszka (the former Ambassador for Children’s Literature, no less) said, our job is not to stop kids from using technology, but to teach them how to filter it. How to be media literate.

This summer, for the first time in the writing world, I heard more excitement than fear. More creativity than condemnation. And that set my brain whirling and my heart racing. This is an amazing time to be a writer. For the first time in hundreds of years, books are changing. And we’re the ones writing the story.

It’s an incredible sight, reminiscent of the Wizard of Oz, with orange colored fields stretching into the distance. But the stunning thing to me is that this is all happening in what is essentially a desert. Silvery green sagebrush breaks up the vivid flowers. Tumbleweeds come rolling at you up across the landscape. And rattlesnakes sun themselves on the sandy path.

It amazed me that, in what should be a sparse landscape, such beauty and vibrancy could be found. The plant that fascinated me the most was the false dandelion. It was instantly recognizable as similar to the puffballs we’re used to. But this ‘dandelion’ was shimmery and structured, almost looking like it was made out of glass or quartz crystals. I bent down to study it and hesitantly reached out to touch it, certain the flower would be barbed or sharp. But it was sleek and silky.

The wind was so fierce that it hurt my eardrums. You could lean into it and let it hold you up, imagining you were flying out over the orange hills. But even in that exhilarating, buffeting wind that swept across the landscape, this ‘dandelion’ remained intact. Waiting.

But what was it waiting for? Just the right current of air to blast a seed off of it? Was it waiting for rain? Or the right temperature? I guess in the desert, you have to be sure of your moment.

And I suppose the same is true for a story. The landscape around us is often a bit harsh. If we aren’t careful, we can be swept up in hurricanes of criticism and doubt and cautionary voices. And if we do, we run the risk of our story falling on gritty, dry land.

So while we are crafting each crystalline seedpod, we must shield our stories. We must hold them close and muffle the noise of the wind whipping past. We must build the story as strong as we can and hold tight. This is challenging enough as it is, but then there is a trickier bit.

We must wait.

How can we be sure when it’s the right time to share our stories with others? We can’t. Somewhere there is a balance between giving your story to trusted readers and patiently allowing the story to grow in the protected alcove of your imagination. By letting it go too early, you risk the wind smashing your dandelion apart. But if you never let the story go, it will never take root.

In this dance of risk and trust, each of us has to figure out the timing we feel comfortable with. When to take shelter and when to share. But the most important thing to remember is that even in the desert, lovely things grow.

During the question and answer segment, a boy got up and asked her, “Why do your books always have sad endings?” Then he listed off the melancholy endings of book after book.

“Well, when you put it like that…” Kate laughed with the audience, looking a little sheepish.  Then she took a minute to really think about the question. She went on to explain that she didn’t mean to write sad endings,  but that life is full of the sad as well as the beautiful, and she tries to write what is in life.

This was a big difference from Meg Cabot (The Princess Diaries) who also talked about the sadness of life in her dynamic speech. But Meg Cabot’s answer to this uncomfortable truth about life, and especially childhood, is to write ‘pretty things.’ She said she wants strong girls and glitter and prettiness as an escape from what might be the bleakness of real life.

I found these differing answers to the same truth fascinating. And cleary, judging by the popularity of both their books, both are needed in our world, often by the same readers. Sometimes I want to read a world that has beauty and sadness that reflects our own, but whose stories often make more sense than the seeming randomness of our own lives. But other times, I want to escape, with glitter or dirigibles or princesses, to a world totally unrecognizable from mine.

What struck me the most in these two talks was that both writers, so different in their styles, their presentations, their books, knew why they wrote what they wrote. They were compelled by their subjects and it was this compulsion that led to the confidence in their speaking and in their writing.

Perhaps that is something it takes years to develop. Not just the courage to get your words down on the page or to stand up in front of readers, but a certainty in what you choose to write. Perhaps it is this, more than tears or glitter, that invites us into these authors’ stories. That, word-by-word, builds their worlds around us. And it’s this confidence that makes us want to stay.