There’s more information about the novel and the people behind the traler at http://www.ShadesOfMilkAndHoney.com/trailer. I will shamelessly ask that you pass that link around to anyone that you think might like it.

Meanwhile, I thought you might like to know a little about how the trailer is made. We’re using a style of puppetry called Shadow Masks. The style was originated by Larry Reed of Shadowlight in San Fransisco and it combines the grace of a human performer with the stylization of shadow puppetry.

All of the set pieces are created with small cut paper vignettes on an overhead projector, while the performers work next to a paper screen with the masks. So when the Lady (Sarah Frechette) is sitting at the fortepiano, that’s a practical bench and a shadow fortepiano. Sarah is a puppeteer by trade but we also had two members of the Oregon Regency Society in to play the seamstress (Suzannah Hamlin) and the gentleman (Jason Stanley). They do a wonderful job and I wish you could see some of shots we didn’t use, which really show off their beautiful sense of movement.

The magic, which in the world of the novel is called glamour, is CG and created by Remo Balcells, a BAFTA award winning special effects supervisor, and his assistant Johnathan Nation.

Awesome! My friends at the Puppet Kitchen were on ABC news this week. Check it out.

See! Saying things like  ”Pass me an eyeball” is perfectly natural.

Due to the delayed flight, I am once again ensconced on the porch of Merrie Haskell’s lake house and working on revisions to Glamour in Glass. While I am thus engaged, allow me to present to you Emma Thompson’s speech at the Golden Globes when she pretended to be Jane Austen.

My most grateful thanks to Miss Ellis for sharing this video with me.

This makes me giggle. Particularly at 2:14.

What we have here is a short film in which Michael Winslow (Man of 10,000 sound FX from Police Academy) “recites” the history of typewriters.  Watching him listen to the sound of a typewriter and then recreate it is strangely compelling.

History of the typewriter recited by Michael Winslow from SansGil—Gil Cocker on Vimeo.

(Thanks Saladin!)

You know how you can tell when someone on tour has gone insane? It’s when they make something like this.

So hard to look away…

These are not the horse puppets you are looking for…

This USB typewriter is just brilliant. The fact that it can also function as a typewriter so that if you want to write on paper and then have a computer copy is a beautiful thing.

Thanks to Jon Freestone for sending a link to this beauty my way.

Everyone needs a break sometimes, so I took some time off to go fishing for kitties. Here’s a demo video.

Well, I’ve just stumbled onto the best resource EVER if you are writing about warfare in a time with mounted artillery. The King’s Troop is a ceremonial unit in the British Army which King George VI decided to maintain following the mechanization of the last of the horse drawn artilleries.

So what we have here is a troop of active soldiers who happen to train for warfare from horseback. This isn’t an amateur re-enactment group, these are actual soldiers.

This video is of their annual Musical Drive. Apparently, some of the formations they are doing have been in the drive since 1897.

There are loads more videos of them training and working. Very cool stuff.

So, I have my audition slot. June 17th next week from 2:30-5:30. There will be eight other people in my slot and they are calling it a workshop.

This means I can make some guesses about the format, although they are just guesses at this point. I know that one of the horses will be there along with the puppetry coordinator. Since there are nine of us and the horse takes three puppeteers, my guess is that they will show us how to use the horse and then rotate us through different slots and combinations of puppeteers.

Since they are auditioning for four days with a morning and afternoon slot each day, my guess is that they’ll probably see about 70 puppeteers. The show requires 12 for the cast but some of those may be precast.

There’s really not much I can do with this information but knowing that the audition will be in workshop format makes me relax some because it means I’ll have three hours in which to watch and try to understand the puppet. The worst is when you come in and have five minutes.

They’ll pick a group from that to go onto call backs the following week, which I am trying my hardest not to think about. I may get in there and just be too small. 

Here’s another of the video diaries from the West End production. They go visit real horses of the King’s Troop. Around the 2:30 mark Toby Olié talks about being conscious of how he was sitting as a rider because of the time he’s spent as a horse. Fascinating stuff.

War Horse Video Diary: Episode 2 from Toby Olié on Vimeo.

The current statutory liability for a company which has an oil spill is $75 million dollars, which, as Rob points out, is the cost of a modest Hollywood film.

Here is a simulation of what might happen if the typical current patterns hold and the spill continues to go unchecked.

To me, this is scarier than any Hollywood film, and the cost is much higher.

If this were Hollywood, then some scientist would invent a bacteria that would eat the oil spill without subsequently consuming all the petroleum on the planet. There would be a kiss between the scientist and the romantic interest as the sun sets over a spotless ocean. A dolphin would leap triumphantly out of the water.

That’s not going to happen.

Cherie Priest wrote a very moving post called, Oil, about what is happening in the Gulf right now, which I encourage you to read. She also came up with a list of things you can do about the oil spill.

Just to kind of bring home exactly how big the spill is right now visit If It Was My Home which puts the oil spill over the place where you live.

Here it is over Iceland.

And finally, if you haven’t seen it yet, swing by the Big Picture which has pictures of animals caught in the oil spill.  It is heartbreaking and makes the viscosity and consuming nature of the oil very palpable. The pictures are difficult to look at.

Normally, I mock Hollywood endings but I would take one right now.

This is very funny and painful and my big fear.

So, um, there’s a list of dates of my book tour, plus other sightings, over in the left sidebar. Come see me?

Also, I am totally going to see Parnell Hall the next time he’s on tour.

I need someone to get one of these so I can ride in the car with them.

No, really. It’s not a joke. Darth Vader really does GPS navigation. What do you think the Force is for?

In comments on another subject entirely, Samantha Henderson reminded me of how awesome Buster Keaton is.  Just in case, you don’t know already, here…