“LIGHTS! CAMERAS! ACTION????”

Filming a book trailer is much more difficult than it would seem. For months I had been kicking around the idea of heading to the ocean to film an author “pitch” for “Awakening Avery,” my spring release set against Florida’s Gulf Coast.

We traveled to Maryland’s lovely Ocean City and found a great spot outside our hotel. There was an enormous and splendidly beautiful pot of flowers on the corner of the boardwalk, so I situated myself in front and asked my husband to stand on the nearby step so he could also catch the ocean in the background.

Ready? Set? I froze. The backliner blurb from my book went right out of my head! Swell. . .

Take two. . . We begin again with a panoramic sweep of the ocean. Cue Laurie. I smile and begin blathering something that actually sounded pretty good when one of those annoying airplanes that pulls an ad sign doodles by 500 feet above our heads, drowning me completely out.

Retake number three. Scan ocean, cue Laurie. . . I begin speaking and a hoard of people decide that now is a good time to use the hose to wash off the beach sand before heading poolside.

Take four. . . a small crowd is assembling on the steps now. I get a little nervous and babble incoherently. My camera man and husband is a little annoyed at being in the blazing hot sun.

Moving along with a promise to get it on this take . . . take number five . . . I begin. A tram rolls by. Of course.

Take six, Laurie starts out strong. We feel the excitement building. Then, two “and ums. . .” as I get distracted and lose my train of thought. Dear husband scowls at me. His head is beginning to sunburn.

Take seven. . . we get something coherent and I call it quits. My son, (two of my children and their families are with us), asks, “Why don’t you ask the desk clerk if you can film from the balcony of one of their ocean front rooms?”

I bounce this off my cameraman who now wishes he had a union card so he’d have someone to complain to. The desk clerk is very nice and leads us to a beautiful room. We stand on the balcony and begin again. I miss my beautiful pot. Tom wants to stuff me into the beautiful pot. We get a decent take and call it quits. As we leave the hotel room I glance in the mirror and realize that a stray piece of hair is angled across my forehead like a weird comb-over. Great. . . Do you think I’m going to start this process over again? No. . . . .

So tune in shortly for the release of the “Awakening Avery” trailer on YouTube. It should be quite a spectacle!