I love film trailers... If I'm ever going to the cinema with friends I think I'm a bit awkward when I say that we absolutely must be in the screen and sat down comfortably, popcorn and drink already purchased, before the previews for upcoming films start. For me, it's all part of the cinema-going experience. (And with the cost of a cinema ticket now, it doesn't seem as if you're getting your money's worth if you don't see the trailers too!)
Film trailers in themselves are like mini-movies - a lot of the time they admittedly include scenes that aren't actually in the film they're previewing - but I'm definitely a trailer addict. I remember going to Saturday morning screenings at our local Odeon cinema in Newcastle with my brother when we were younger, and more than the film we were going to see, we would be itching to see the trailers of future releases. Along with trailers for upcoming movies I also love how you get teaser posters (my current favourites are for Pirates of the Caribbean 3) and also the "rumour mills" that start churning with any anticipated future release...
Incidentally, talking of rumour mongering, I did a check recently for how many variations of "Moon Crater" websites there actually are, and most are simply "reserved" for future use - none by myself, I have to say, because as I've said time and again that isn't the actual title of my book at all, so there'd be no mileage in me trying to get one of those sites for myself... But anyway to get back to my main point, I think that perhaps the best kick out of seeing those teaser posters, watching film trailers, and trawling through every single rumour of a future release is that your imagination begins to work overtime and you form a picture of what you yourself think the story will be about, even if it isn't how it actually how it turns out once you see the film itself.
I suppose it's the intrigue and mystery that trailers throw up that's the ultimate attraction, really. From the beginning of writing this blogspot and setting up http://www.findthemissingreel.com/ I've seen both sites as "trailers" of sorts for what's to come in Moon Crater the novel itself. Through them I can drop tantalising previews of what's to come and hopefully build up the anticipation of the story amongst its potential readers, and maybe, get readers to form their own theories on how the story will turn out for Billy and Jo...
Recently I've been keeping an eye on the teenage fiction section of local bookshops to see what kind of books are coming out and I've been amused by the various "teaser" trailers which some of the big titles have been putting out. The first and obvious one is Harry Potter 7 which we now know is to be called The Deathly Hallows - but for a while it only had the moniker of "Book 7". It's amazing to me how a series of books generates such a following, but it's no different than avidly following a series of films either, anticipating each new part of the series, hoping to find out more about characters that you've come to care about so much...
Another book which I spotted with some clever marketing recently was the third in the Young James Bond series by Charlie Higson, which sat on the shelves in unmarked packets, only allowing the title of the book to be discovered if you bought a copy... Rather than this being a shameless selling technique, I see it more as providing hungry readers for the extra information they seek once they finish a story. Another clever teenage-range writer recently released a book with a free CD on the cover which held additional details on the characters in his book as well as other clues to the overall story of his series of novels - adding layers and "pushing the envelope" on the world of a book is a very interesting concept to me right now.
But apart from obsessively thinking about Moon Crater for every second of every minute of the day, I also want to continue this year to post more of my short stories on the other blogs I've set up to display my writing. So this past week, in a way of preluding, previewing and precursoring (is that even a word?!) some brand new short stories, I've created small "teaser trailers" of my own on each of my sub-blogs to hint at the tales to be told over the coming months of the new year - here's a quick-links list for what's to come from the pen of CGAllan in 2007 - there'll be...
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