As you know I (and my husband and dog) have been staying with my dad since March 2011. Well, with the storms this weekend, we were "forced" to check in to a hotel. Apparently the electric is back on at dad's place, but we didn't want to go back.
It's a long story. But the basics are that we've been here for about 15 months now and for about two, maybe three months, we've been ready to leave.
My health has gotten worse living at dad's (I'm positive there's a real mold issue). My dad is stable. Both his knees are done being operated on now. We cannot predict when his wife will go, but we aren't willing to stay around on a "death watch" until she does. Dad is reasonably lucid and handles most of his day to day life necessities on his own.
We cannot go back to our house in Florida since we're allowing my husband's kids to live there. His daughter 25, her husband, 26 and their newborn (one), and my husband's son are living there. The son is finishing college in the area. He'll be moving out by fall. The SIL leaves town to work. He's in IT/Electrical and makes decent money. It's great for them to have the stability now that there's a newborn and we were glad when they moved in. We really don't want to go back to Floriduh anyway.
So we hatched a plan. It will allow us to do work we love (and are good at) from anywhere on earth and possibly make enough money to chip in and support my dad. Eventually he's going to need it. And you can help me get it going.
So ya'll know I've got a background in advertising creative and production as well as creation of film/web/tv programming and content. You may also know I'm an avid reader. So hubby and I are ramping up something we started last year: a division of our company will create movie trailers for books - AKA book trailers. But these will be live action trailers that look like real movie trailers.
Here's one we really like. It will give you an idea of how powerful they can be. No we didn't make this one...but we will make trailers that look like this. We look forward to the challenge of working with authors and helping to shape a creative, effective advertisement for their book.
We're hosting a monthly competition that awards one author with the prize of a live action book trailer. There are some other awesome prizes too, for people who don't win and even prizes for every entrant as well as a drawing for a $50 Amazon card just for people who spread the word!
We can think of only one or two other things we'd love to do more than the challenge of creating a new awesome trailer every month for one author. But the great thing about it is, with only small number of entries, we can pull this off, put some people to work, create a great trailer and still make enough to support ourselves modestly somewhere (we're thinking St. John New Brunswick) and help my dad out regularly.
So I'm asking for your help.
If you could share the contest link at the end of the diary with your network, I'd deeply appreciate it. If you're a blogger, vlogger or radio host that reaches authors or readers, and you'd like a guest to talk about how authors can make their own trailers effective, hit me up. If you're an author or publisher, feel free to enter. I've created a DK promo code (code: basementescape) that will give DKers 15% off the entry fee (cuz ya'll are family). And be sure to let other colleagues know. If you want a consult about how to create your own trailer, I offer that as well. (No, a DIY trailer won't be like the ones we make, but I can advise you on how to make it as effective as possible). And if you happen to be a rich person who would like to make it possible for us to do this contest without charging authors at all, I REALLLLLY want to talk to you.
Thanks for you help and support. Fingers crossed.
Take a Look at the Contest Page!