Featured content on Scribd.com

Since I uploaded the first part of the book to Scribd.com for you to read (yesterday) it has been made feature content. I'm stoked.

Preview Vanishing Act

Here are the first few chapters of the book.
Order the book here.

Click the icon on the top right to view full screen.

Read this doc on Scribd: Vanishing Act

Soundtrack Survey

Well, I'll never be accused of doing things the same old ways as everybody else.
Today I spent hours developing a survey to go along with the soundtrack - which is now working away on the Apple iTunes store.

If you take the survey on the BrainForestPress site and put you details onto the database then you could win one of four hardback copies of the book. I'll put a custom message in it for you or for you to gift to a friend. The joys of custom digital publishing.

What I'd like to do is develop some reader soundtracks. Who says I have a monopoly on taste. Well, I guess I have to wait for the results of the survey. To know if I have any taste at all.

Act 2 - The VA soundtrack

When I was writing Vanishing Act on my trusty Apple MacBook Pro I usually had music playing from my iTunes collection. I would make a playlist to get me into the mood, depending on what was happening in the chapter I was working on.

It occurred to me that there's not really much difference between a book and a movie. I don't know about you but when I read I 'see' the action in my mind's eye; which reminds me of the expression that once applied to radio - Theatre of the Mind. To me reading is a creative act - it requires your imagination to take flight.

Maybe the music I've chosen will help readers to get on the same wavelength as me.

Once you've read the book maybe you could create your own iMix. I'd be interested to hear what it evoked for you.If you make your own version of the soundtrack post send me a link through the comments function on this blog and I'll post the playlist for other readers to compare with their own impressions.

Maybe we could aggregate the best of - vote on it

Here is your chance to let me know what you think about the tunes in my Vanishing Act soundtrack. The songs I've chosen simply reflect my taste and mood of parts of the story. I'm not saying that I'd listen to these selections all day every day. But let's have a little bit of fun…

The Vanishing Act Soundtrack survey
Norah Jones. Sunrise. Laid back jazz to get the ball rolling. The little fishing boat KaiMoana is heading out across the bar. Jimi Tamaki looks back to the east as the sun comes up and he thinks about his life in Kawhiamatu. Scale of 1-5 (1=hate it. 5=love it).
Norah Jones, Sunrise
Carla Bruni. L'Excessive. Sexy, exotic and all just a little bit over the top. Dr Hinemoa O'Reilly is all of these things. Young, intelligent and telegenic in the extreme. She travels the world in a superyacht that has been converted to a latter-day Calypso, part dive expedition, part floating movie studio. Light and upbeat. Could the French influence be an homage to Jacques Cousteau. Perhaps2026? Scale of 1-5. Yo know the drill.
Carla Bruni, L'Excessive
Jack Johnson, Constellations. The surfer musician. Laid back, too cool for school. Maybe a little like Jimi. You'll see the irony of including some of J.J's sounds when you meet Daniella McBride, the long limbed fashion model (but I don't want to give too much of the game away…)
Jack Johnson, Constellations
Crowded House, Fall at your feet. What is the connection here? Well, aside from the Kiwi connection (I know, I know2026 the Aussies claim Crowded House as their own, but really, we know better don't we?). Could the title reference media mogul Ted Buscolli's feelings about Hine. Or could it be his feelings for the almighty dollar? Or something else entirely. Cat remains in bag on that one, sorry. Live and acoustic version by the way.
Crowded House, fall at your feet
Jane Birkin and Serge Gainsbourg. Je t'aime mois non plus. A slightly surreal inclusion. Kind of sexy. Makes an unexpected appearance in the book. Tres Cool. I think so. You?
Jane Birkin and Serge Gainsbourg
Radiohead. Weird Fishes/Arpeggi. How could I write a book about the ocean and not include a song about fish. Well, not all the weird fish in the book swim. Take Des Bramwell for example. Minister of Fisheries. Or the four Portugese seamen. Or Maori protester Willy Ihimaki? I don't think you'd find a stranger cast swimming in the darkness around a hot plume a the bottom of the Mariana trench - though you might find them swimming about the hot plume of media attention and money.
Radiohead
Robert Plant & Alison Krauss. Gone, Gone, Gone. 'Some sunny day baby when everything seems ok baby, you'll wake up and find that your alone. Cause I'll be gone. Gone, gone, gone.Really gone. Gone, gone, gone. Cause you done me wrong." I was wrapping things up in the book when I got this track. Spooky. It kind of neatly ties up the strands. Upbeat and fun. What do you think?
Robert Plant & Alison Krauss
We'll stop there for now. I'm looking forward to comparing notes with you.

Chapter One

Vanishing Act is my first novel. I wrote it over the past few months. It's a simple story - more of a yarn than a work of literary fiction.

I have self-published it on Lulu.com. So you can order a copy of the Hardback, Paperback or download the PDF.

For the moment I consider it to be in Beta. I might refine it a little, I am trying to find an editor to evaluate it, then find a literary agent.

I have got some software to write a companion script, I guess I always 'saw' it as a movie when I was writing it.

Let me know what you think.