Beauty Returns--Book Trailer Part Deux

Readers would probably be shocked at how much research goes into a work of fiction. When I wrote A Different Kind of Beauty and Beauty Returns, I needed to get into the head of a blind 16 year old boy so I interviewed some blind people. I hate the way that sounds and could write instead "visually challenged" or something else but it would all suggest that I'm interviewing the handicap instead of the person. And it's the people details in which a writer is really interested.

I met Angela Wice and she helped shape Kyle immensely by sharing the sounds, smells and feelings along the path of losing losing your sight and then somehow gaining a new vision.( for example she let me test my bloodsugar level exactly the way diabetic Kyle would.( I became a regular at her coffee house where musicians often visited to showcase new work. I became a fan.

When I write stories, I know I need music in my character's lives but can't really afford the time or money to purchase rights to songs. I believe after seven words of a quoted song you need to get permission. So I write caricatures of songs. They're shorter with bits of verses and minimal refrain so that a book reader gets a sense of the music but doesn't get bored.

Kyle's Lullabye in Beauty Returns is one that Angela helped me develop into a real song. I have sung it at the OLA launch of the story and at various author visits (one in a grade 9 prison).

Angela consented to sing it for the book trailer and my son Craig filmed it yesterday. The moment the first note left her mouth I felt so touched. A creation of mine had reached a new tangible level for me.

More poignant too because Craig and Eireann's baby Violet was there and cooed all the way through it. I also loved how three artforms were cooperating to produce something totally different. It will be awhile till Craig can put this all together. His daytime job at Emotion Pictures keeps him busy and I know he cherishes his family life in the hours he has left. But I also know it will be a masterpiece t.