In Which Fingernails Are Bitten
Back in March, when patches of snow were still thick on the ground but a certain writer could pretend to read outdoors without looking utterly miserable, we filmed a promo for The Books of Elsewhere, Volume Two: Spellbound. The staff at the LeDuc mansion in Hastings, Minnesota (www.dakotahistory.org/LeDuc/home.asp), were kind enough to let us use the amazing estate (and to let me skim their copy of Ivanhoe). It made a ridiculously perfect setting for a discussion of The Books of Elsewhere: Not only does it look almost eerily like the McMartin house of my imagination and of Poly Bernatene's illustrations, but the home is still filled with many of the possessions of the original owners, including a library of antique books and several paintings done by one of the family members. See? Ridiculously perfect.
I have an aversion to being photographed, so I can only watch this in the way that you might watch a horror movie or battle a Gorgon (through your fingers or reflected in another surface--preferably a sword--respectively), but here it is:
I have an aversion to being photographed, so I can only watch this in the way that you might watch a horror movie or battle a Gorgon (through your fingers or reflected in another surface--preferably a sword--respectively), but here it is:
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LOL you are to funny! I can picture you with a pillow in front of you peeking around the side. The LeDuc mansion looks like such fun to walk around in and the items still there are very interesting. Thank you so much for sharing it, despite your reluctance to see yourself it really is neat to see how your ideas developed and what inspires you.
Thanks so much, Brenda! Glad it's doing its job, even if watching myself makes me want to hide under the furniture.
Thanks a bunch! It was cool to hear what brought about the book. Can't wait for the next one! :)
Here are my answers to the questions Gabriel posted above:1. The idea that sprouted into this whole series came from a house in my hometown, which I used to see every day on my bus ride to middle school. The house was huge and crumbling and mysterious, and it was owned by an inventor who made small wind-powered machines that were scattered all over the lawn, whirling and whirring. I used to look at the house and imagine what kind of family might live there, and I loved the contrast of a bunch of scientific, logical (but odd) inhabitants in such a haunted, intriguing place...and that's where Olive and her house came from.
2. I have yet to be recognized--at a bookstore or anywhere else--by someone who hasn't already seen me speak or read in person. That's a nice thing about being a writer: Even authors whose work is much better-known than mine get to keep a lot of their anonymity. When I go into a bookstore and see my book on the shelves, it still gives me a very strange, I-Must-Be-Dreaming sort of feeling, and I usually tiptoe away very fast, before the books can magically disappear.
3. There's been some interest in making The Shadows into a film, but nothing is in the works yet.
4. Ooh...tough choice. I love both stop-motion and 'traditional' animation, but amazing things can be done with CGI, too... It would be fun to see how a skilled filmmaker would envision some of the story's elements (especially the paintings and the cats!)in any of these formats.
5. Under the dustjacket of The Shadows, there is a pair of spectacles. Under the dustjacket of Spellbound, I'm not sure what image will be used--I haven't gotten to see it yet--but I think it's going to be a different object.
6. The real-world friend Olive makes in Spellbound will definitely be a major part of the stories to come. (Plus, he's a lot of fun to write.)
7. Volume Three is written and is currently being polished up, and when the title is finalized, I'll definitely mention it on my blog, website, etc. It will be released in summer 2012.
8. I don't think there will be another animated trailer for Spellbound, but other new features will be added to the house on the website, scattered throughout the rooms and waiting to be found: http://www.thebooksofelsewhere.com/
Thanks, Gabriel, and good luck with your illustrating project!
- Jacqueline
Is the house from your hometown still there?
It is--but the inventor died and someone else has moved in and fixed the place up considerably. It's not at all creepy (and inspiring) anymore!
That's to bad it probably would have been fun to go inside.
1. Jacqueline, how did you got into the idea for THE BOOKS OF Elsewhere: THE SHADOWS?
2. how to you get into a bookstore and see your book there? Sometimes the attendants know that you are the author of The books of Elsewhere?
3.If I want to do this, but someone already told him to make a film about THE SHADOWS besides me?
4.You would like a movie THE BOOKS OF Elsewhere was in LIVE-ACTION, STOP-MOTION, an ANIMATION (as guardians of the legend)?
5.This so eager to Spellbound, which launched two days before my birthday, I would make a personal question, what is the design that comes in hard cover, not that of Olive holding the cat's tail, but one that comes after like that of The Shadows, which comes with an eye in the second book will be drawing on the cover of the book?
6 Olive friend in real life, enters Elsewhere, will he be in the next sequels?
7.You will release the third title of the book this year?
8.gostei video that appears in the house, you make a video about spellbound
as he did in The Shadows?
well that's it, hopefully answer, I love talking to you will be out for a while, I have to stop to illustrate a book of my mother's friend who is also a writer.
but keep going until your reply.
Good night and good weekend
Gabriel