Almost nine months have passed since our publisher began preparing the Hazel Moon manuscript for publication. The Hazel Moon Magic seemed to begin back then and hasn't let up.
After reading my original manuscript through, early on he suggested the title, Luna, and prepared a working cover based on the opening Prologue where November talks about wearing yellow rain boots to look for salamanders and frogs out in the woods. What you see above was the original working cover he prepared for use on Wattpad, a social media writing platform we used to jointly edit the manuscript.
Yesterday I met with the publisher again to write a press release and happened to be wearing a pair of yellow rain boots, given to me by my sister, Lori,as a recent birthday present. While working on Hazel Moon on Wattpad my sister and I adopted pen names, mine was "Roma" and Lori's was "Venice." If you look closely at the boots you'll see my pen name, "Roma" on the side!! Lori had no idea that name, Roma, would be on the boots when she purchased them!!
In our story, the characters November and Angela are so one-of-a-kind individuals, and prone to display any number of cute quirks as the story unfolds. In one scene, Angela begins coughing while trying to sip a drink and is specific about asking November for a straw to put in a cup. Yesterday I was caught sipping a latte out of a straw and it became all too apparent that so many of our characters traits were drawn from our personal foibles and eccentricities!
But now for the most amazing Magic that happened yesterday. Only hours before, I'd been discussing other authors and other books with our publisher, suggesting he might be interested in Sylvia Plath's, The Bell Jar, as well as Erica Jong's, Fear of Flying. The very next day I went to a series of rummage sales with family not expecting to get anything in particular and what did I find, two hardcover volumes in perfect condition for 50 cents each...and what were the titles...yep, The Bell Jar &Fear of Flying!!
At our meeting I presented them to our publisher, told him the story, and our mouths both dropped open as we wondered why the Hazel Moon Gods or fairies or angels or whatever is behind such magical synchronicity swirling around our project, continue to remind us that Hazel Moon has taken on a life of its own and is now a Child of the Universe...
And speaking of "children" on December 8th our Hazel Moon book launch party will take place. The project began, that is our book was conceived, on April 4th 2015 when I experienced a profound moment of synchronicity running into our publisher at a Walgreens on the day before Easter. By December 8th 2015 nine months will have passed...the time it normally takes for a child to develop and be born!
My busy amazing sister, coauthor, and professional entertainer, Lori, was at it again as one of the featured performers at a Frank Sinatra tribute concert at George's Pub in Racine, Wisconsin last night.
The group is known as the Rat Package and they've been singing Sinatra for years. Above, Lori sang "Lady is a Tramp" along with lead singer, Rick Mach, a veteran performer and the producer and director of the cabaret troupe.
After three long sets and singing on close to 30 songs, Lori, ever the professional, wanted to discuss how the show went and how she could improve. That's my little sis... (I'm 40 minutes older...lol)
As we look forward to our December 8th book launch party at Peabody's Interiors, I know I'm going to be leaning on Lori for support as being in front of the public has always been her "thing" and I know she'll handle the book signing like the professional that she is!
Well, good thing the author pic our editor had selected for the back cover of our book was a little out of focus because it was on his to-do list for things to improve before the first printing of Hazel Moon. A good thing because without the push we wouldn't have come up with incredible author pic you see above!!
As you can see, this was no ordinary portrait. With the Wizard of Photography Oz, Larry Zamba, guiding the action with the skill of a Hollywood director, Larry knew that for us two subjects getting the background music right was going to be half the battle.
When asked to describe how the shoot went, here's what Larry had to say. "The music started off with Wild Cherry's "Play That Funky Music White Boy," as the twins entered the studio. It progressed from that song through a stream of rap, featuring artists like Salt-N-Pepa, a concert Lisa had recently attended in Milwaukee. Lisa hit her stride with "Rapper's Delight" by the Sugar Hill Gang! By the end of young Michael Jackson's effervescent song, "ABC," finished I had the money shot for the author pic. After the session we reviewed the images and settled on the one that most captured their indomitable, free, and ageless spirit. It was Halloween weekend, so as a reward for their hard work, after the shoot it was off to a local haunted house. Arriving 15 minutes late, we went through anyway after seeing zombies, freaks, and goblins outside milling around in the parking lot. Lisa and Lori enjoyed a good scare!
Regarding the technical aspects of creating the author portrait, I had a very clear idea where I was going with the image before they arrived. I'd recently committed to a manifesto regarding the nature of my photography going forward--My images would now reflect fantasy, creating colorful photographs filled with escapism. They will be entertaining and full of illusions, ambiguities, and curious contradictions that celebrate differences. I want my subjects to look like they might have just jumped out of a comic book! Since my photos are a culmination of my life experience, they are in part self-portraits. And, since I love the collaborative process, especially working with talented people, their influences will be felt too.
With that mission statement in place, I had just finished painting the wall to match the mood I was going for. It has to have an '80s feel, hence the bright, almost neon blue, but still couldn't appear dated. In fact the paint was still wet in spots as Lori discovered when she accidentally got some paint on her hand. The crowd shot feature was added in later. It took a crew of helpers, including my daughter, to hold up phones and mics to get the group effect. My hands are featured in two of the images, one shot by my daughter, the other by myself. Adding them all to the finished shot was challenging. After getting the right feel for the beautiful chaos before me, I rotated everything to the right to create the sense that the twins were being mobbed by paparazzi. The entire technical effort, including post production Photoshop work, took 16 hours. For example, Lisa was in a rush to get to the shoot and forgot to do her nails. I manged to painstakingly color them in using Photoshop. Also, the twins were both under the weather and it took some doing to sift through the many preliminary shots until I captured just the right image where they both looked like they were on top of the world despite their coughing and sniffles!"
This year Lori and I ended up with our guys at a private Halloween costume party that took place at a friend's house. We had been eager to promote our upcoming book by dressing up as the characters, November & Lady Luna, from our Hazel Moon story, wearing name tags, and passing out book business cards with our blog address on them.
When that didn't seem appropriate to the setting, we instead we shifted gears and knowing we would be needing a book trailer, began working out scenes and matching characters and with those at the party, all close friends, who might fill those roles in our upcoming book trailer!
Lori's man, Dave (above), projecting a quiet confidence, we thought would make an excellent Cash Reynolds, while my guy, Jeff, who could pass for an Irishman, would be a terrific Finn McCool!
Our choice for November, Stacey (above right), was there as well!
Now we have to get to work writing a script, selecting scenes, casting the roles, rehearsing, and finding the right videographer to capture and edit the trailer, adding hopefully original music from Lori's husband, Kent, who sadly passed eight years ago, but who was a musician and songwriter. Thankfully, Lori's background in the theater, especially musical dinner theater, will be invaluable!
