sallymurphy.com.au

Sally Murphy, Australian author

Readalong Post #6: Poetry Friday Introducing Toppling

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It’s Poetry Friday and, for me, it marks the start of the second week of my Readalong , and time to introduce the second of my verse novels.  First, though, thanks to everyone who took part in week one. From my lovely Poetry Friday friends who commented on last week’s post about Pearl Verses the World, to the many people who’ve commented on Instagram and Facebook and also to those just reading along on the sidelines. It is a joy to be in such good company every day, without leaving home.  The post that drew the most reaction was the one comparing the two covers, which was discussed at length on Facebook, so it will be interesting to look later on this week at the THREE covers Toppling has had.

Speaking of Toppling, this week I’d love it, if you have a copy of Toppling to hand, if you would revisit it with me. But if you don’t have a copy, you can still join in and learn about the book. Toppling was released in Australia in 2010. Here’s the Aussie  cover (I’ll show you the others later in the week, though you might catch a glimpse of the US cover in the book trailer below):

You’ll see that Toppling had a different illustrator from Pearl, the amazing Rhian Nest James, but the same  cover design team at Walker Books.

If you haven’t yet read the book (or even if you have) you might enjoy this trailer, made by amazing Librarian Julie Hembree:


It’s a little more professional than the one I made for Pearl Verses the World!

And, if you’d like a taste of the book, here I am reading Chapter One:

 

And, for Poetry Friday, here is a poem from that reading:

If you have a copy of Toppling, I’d love if you would reread it with me this week. If you don’t own a copy, it’s available from libraries and bookstores in three editions:

The Australian version, published by Walker Books Australia.

The US version, published by Candlewick.

And the UK version (with a different title, John & Dom), published by Walker UK.

(Note that while these links do go to online bookstores, our brick and mortar stores are really struggling at the moment, so if you are going to buy a book, and have access to a local bookstore (lots are delivering!), I urge you to shop there.)

Over the next week, I’m going to share more about Toppling – why and how I wrote it,  a glimpse at those three different covers, and more.  You can join in: if you have a copy of the book,  or a memory to share, I’d love to see a post on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook (#toppling), or a comment here or on my Facebook page.

Want more poetry? Of course you do! Molly has this week’s Poetry Friday roundup this week at Nix the Comfort Zone. Pop over there to see all the other poetry goodness shared around the world – and to admire Molly’s bread!

 

Poetry Friday: My Readalong Begins

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It’s Poetry Friday, which is always exciting, but today I am especially excited because today also marks the beginning of my Readalong. Welcome! I am so glad you dropped by.

What’s a Readalong, I hear you ask? A readalong is where you are invited to read a book (or, in this case books) along with others doing the same.  My readalong is running for four weeks, and each week I will be inviting you to read one of my verse novels. But don’t worry if you don’t have a copy of your own – you  can dip your reading toes in to the extracts I’ll be sharing, and get a taste.  If you DO have a copy, I would love you to grab it off your shelf, read, or reread, and participate by asking questions, posting comments, or sharing your reactions on social media using the hashtag #readwithsally, or the individual hashtags for each of the four books. This post here gives more details and, as you’ll see, the purpose of all this is to spread some verse novel love AND celebrate the release of my brand new verse novel, Worse Things, on May 1.

So,  to start at the beginning, this first week, I’d love it if you would read along with my first verse novel, Pearl Verses the World, which was released waaaay back in 2009.  Here is the cover, which still takes my breath away:

Pearl Verses the World

Heather Potter, the illustrator, rendered Pearl, and her world, so beautifully, and the team from Walker Books crafted the most amazing cover design.

If you haven’t yet read the book, here is the booktrailer that I made way back then (incidentally, this was my first ever attempt at a trailer).

And,  if you’d like to hear an extract, here I am reading the opening pages:

Lastly, because it’s Poetry Friday, here’s one of the poems:

If you already have a copy of Pearl Verses the World, I would love if you would pick it up this week and revisit it. If you don’t own a copy, it is available in three editions:

The Australian version, published by Walker Books.

The US version, published by Candlewick Books

And the UK version (with a shorter title, just Pearl), published by Walker UK.

(Note that while these links do go to online bookstores, our brick and mortar stores are really struggling at the moment, so if you are going to buy a book, and have access to a local bookstore (lots are delivering!), I urge you to shop there.)

In the next few days I am going to post more about Pearl Verses the World – why and how I wrote it, some of the lovely moments that have come from interacting with readers, and more.  You can join in: if you have a copy of the book,  or a memory to share, I’d love to see a post on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook (#pearlvworld), or a comment here or on my Facebook page.

Thanks for reading this far and for joining in in whatever small way you can. And don’t forget there is, as very Friday, lots of other poetry goodness happening all over the web. You can see the Poetry Friday roundup at The Poetry Farm, hosted by Amy.

Five Minute Promo: Day 7

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Day seven of the five minute promo challenge means we are more than a quarter of of the way through. Thanks for coming back – and, if you’re new here, thanks for dropping by.

Today’s task is one which could be done in as little as five minutes, or could take a whole lot longer. But, because I promised that each task would be five minutes (or less), I did a test run to make sure it was possible. So, here goes:

5 Minute Promo #7: Make a Book Trailer

A book trailer is a short ‘film’ adverting your book – like a movie trailer, though usually much shorter. It can be as simple or as complex as you, your talents and/or your budget will allow, including sound effects, acting, voice overs, visuals and more. If you are going to do all that, it will likely take you much, much longer than five minutes, but, if you use a simple tool such as Photo Story, and images you already have on hand, it can take as little as five minutes. Here’s my five minute effort:

I like using Photostory because it’s free, very simple to use, and creates it’s own music, so there are no copyright issues. I use my own pictures or ones from my books, so that again there are no copyright issues – and, in this case, because I already had them, it only took me five minutes to arrange them, add text and music, and create the video. The end slide I created in Paint. If I had more time I would have made it longer and probably included a voice-over, which is simple to do in Photostory.  There is a good explanation of how to use Photostory here.

 

As I said earlier, if you want to take longer than five minutes, there is no end to what you can do. Here is a longer trailer I made several years ago (in fact, the very first book trailer I ever made):

And here is much cleverer Booktrailer made by a wonderful teacher:

( created by Julie Hembree and shared here with permission.)

Anyway, the timer is ticking, so off you go and make your own booktrailer. When you’re done, upload it to Youtube, then post it on your website, your Facebook page and Tweet the link. As always, if you leave a comment here, I will check out what you’ve done. Have fun!

Thoughts on Book Trailers

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With a new book coming in July, and another one just released in February, I have been thinking about book trailers. I haven’t made one in a while, largely because it’s not something I feel super confident about doing.

If you look at my first ever book trailer, made 6 years ago after a one day workshop organised by Writing WA, you’ll see that it was pretty simple:

I used just a few images from the book, music generated by the photo story editor I was using, and my own voice (with the exception of the voice of Pearl, which I coaxed Murphlet 6 to do for me). You can even hear me clicking the mouse to move to the next image during the recording.

My effort pales when compared to this awesome trailer for Toppling, created by librarian/blogger Julie Hembree

I also found an awesome Toppling video, which is not strictly a trailer, though it does promote the book along with showing some truly awesome toppling efforts.

A book trailer is a way of inviting potential readers to connect with a book, to want to pick it up from their nearest bookshop or library and read it. I don’t have a lot of skills in this area, but I have a camera, an ipad and a computer, so perhaps it’s time I think about making some new trailers.

sallymurphy.com.au