By the Sea

We've been posting videos on this website for some time now...but I'm at the beach shooting a video for The Silver Boat and can't wait for you to see it (soon!) Mike O'Gorman, my friend and video director, shot footage on the beach and by a fireplace with white tiles of dolphins, sea horses, starfish.  

I talk about characters, sisters, a few secrets from the novel.  The sea is so blue, the sun shining, and while we were shooting, a pod of dolphins swam past.  I built a sandcastle, and the waves washed it away.

Then we went swimming, because how could we not?

Coming soon

Coming soon, How to Write a Novel video.  I'll tell you all my secrets!

[Update: video is up!  Aspiring writers and others, please click above to watch.]

The shoot lasted all day.  Once darkness fell, Mike O'Gorman, the director, (pictured below) set up lights with red and blue gels.  The effect was quite magical.  A night shoot was essential because dreaming is such an important part of writing.  I fall asleep and take my characters with me.  Dreams mix everything together, answers are revealed, and story falls into place.  I wake up, write down what I've learned, and go back to sleep.

Here are a few stills from the How to Write a Novel shoot.  Notice Maggie sleeping next to me...  There's one of Mike taking 5, and one of my wonderful video-online team at the wrap party at the Red Cat.  From left--my assistant (and Mike's fiance) Jessie Cantrell, Ted O'Gorman, me, Mike O'G, and Hallie Clarke.

Video Love

Please get the popcorn.  Darken the lights.  And watch the videos made for luannerice.com by Michael O'Gorman.  The Pony Story...the Intro...more to come.  The Luanne Rice video series!  (Just go to "Multi-Media" on the home page here.)     I feel lucky to have Mike working for this site.  He is a comedian by day and night.  Like the undead, he gets no rest.  He is destined always to be funny.  He has has own show, and he frequently appears on VH-1, the Onion, and other hilarious tv shows.  He just so happens to be the main squeeze of my friend and associate Jessie Cantrell, and he has been working between jaunts to Vegas, Sunset Boulevard, and the PIT to make video magic for our site.

Now Mike has started out easy.  We wanted to ease the site into sweet, simple videos that introduce you to me and my writing.  It's a new way to get to know a little more, a little deeper.  At times Mike's avant garde innovation comes out.  I stare down the barrel of the camera at him and and quite certain i'm seeing the reincarnation of Cocteau.

No matter what, Mike has true heart.  He gets the emotional nature of my work and lets if come through.  He makes me laugh while doing it, threatening to ruin take after take because I can't hold it in.  He knows my novels, and sticks close to the spirit of them in the videos.  We've been lucky enough to uncover some ancient (truly! circa sixties and seventies) Rice family movies, and Mike has woven them into the current stories.

Honestly, in videos coming up we have footage of the Rice girls swimming AND real live images of Twigg Crawford--famous to many of my readers, considering he's both a recurring character and a dedicee (of "The Last Kiss.")

So please jump on the video love train. We'd love you to love them, and if so, to repost them to your friends.  If you have ideas, please just use the comment section under "multi-media."  Any videos you'd like to see me in?  Singing Francois Cabrel's "Encore et Encore" in French and pretending to be a cat playing with a catnip apple are two much-requested favorites.  Merci for those ideas, but we shall skip them for now.  Thank you for visiting my site, and I'm really hoping you'll groove to the videos and give them the popcorn shout-outs they deserve.