The Earth Shifter Mystical Setting: A Walk Through Manhattan

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Author Lada Ray, Greenwich Village, Hell's Kitchen, iPhone, Lake Baikal, Manhattan, Moscow, New York City, photography, Russia, Siberia, The Earth Shifter, The Earth Shifter excerpt

You may have read my post about Sacred Lake Baikal, Siberia. This is post two in The Earth Shifter Mystical Setting series. Last Thanksgiving we took a fabulous walk around Manhattan, NY, visiting The Village and Hell’s Kitchen, where part of The Earth Shifter action takes place. It is the location of Red’s Underworld Club with the secret entrance into the real, honest-to-goodness Underworld. 😉 While depicting Underworld Club I drew on my real Manhattan experiences and observations.

It was dusking, still I couldn’t resist taking some pics with my iPhone since the setting was so right. Judge for yourself!

We are walking towards Hell’s Kitchen. Only in Manhattan! A weird, narrow “wedge” building next to Madison Park. This building is usually referred to as the “Flat Iron” and I think it goes so well with Red’s theme.

More Madison Park area:

I thought this was sooooo Red! This building and the amazing colors as they came out on my iPhone camera reminded me of Red’s Underworld castle as I imagined it.

In reality, this is a church…

A very progressive church. The sign says: “Organ Meditation,” which to me is also soooo Red.

We are walking through Greenwich Village, which we call simply “the Village.”

This could be Red’s motorcycle. 😉

A Village shop.

I love the detail on the Village buildings.

There are so many hidden gems here, which are easy to overlook, but if you have a keen eye, you are in for a treat. Illuminated with the surreal light of the dusk, these pictures remind me of Red’s Underworld castle and garden.

Red is one of the coolest characters in the book, and this is her world!

By the way, I structured the book in such a way that Red’s real identity remains an enigma till almost the very end. I dare you to guess what she really is while reading the book! But no spoilers, please!

Ah, finally, Hell’s Kitchen!

These sentinel-like iron guards also remind me of Red’s Underworld Night Club.

Hell’s Kitchen is nothing like it used to be!

From The Earth Shifter:

On Friday, Kei met Red at the corner of 47^th Street and 9^th Avenue. She wore skinny jeans, high heels, and a sleeveless black tunic with sequined accents, which highlighted her dark hair and eyes, and made her look positively ravishing.

“We are going to an underground night club, fittingly called Underworld,” she explained. Kei didn’t care whether they were going to Underworld, or to the end of the world. He was ready to follow her anywhere.

The Hell’s Kitchen area of Manhattan was once where prostitutes, drug addicts and other rather unsavory characters found refuge because it was cheap. Now of course, the entire Manhattan was so gentrified that even here you wouldn’t find a shoe-box-sized apartment for less than $3,500 a month.

It was only 6:30 p.m. and still early by the nightclub goers’ etiquette. Red knocked three times on a nondescript, metal door painted dark brown, which was buried in a walk-down. At eye level, the door had a small window with jail-like grates. There was movement behind the door and the non-smiling face of a burly dude, who belonged in a Pro Wrestling rink, appeared behind the grates.

“We are cl…,” he started. Suddenly, his expression changed and he hurriedly opened the door, muttering apologetically, “Yes, of course, come in, come in—welcome, my Lady.”

“Thank you, Heraldo,” Red replied regally, making her way past the huge bouncer. Kei followed, throwing cautious glances at the towering mountain of muscle guarding the door.

“I am actually not of age…yet,” admitted Kei when they were safely out of the bouncer’s earshot.

“Not to worry,” said Red, smiling. “It’s covered.”

At this hour, the bar was still dark with only a couple of people sitting in high chairs with drinks in their hands. There was no one else—not even a bartender—around. The whole place gave out the air of forlornness typical of nightclubs before patrons pile in and the show begins.

“Light, please,” said Red into thin air, making herself comfortable at a tiny table for two, located not too far from the dance floor.

The moment she finished her sentence, the candles set in whimsical cast iron candle holders burst into flame around them, giving the space an immediate feeling of mystery and magic.

“My Lady, what an honor to serve you!” A slick waiter, dressed all in black with white gloves, materialized in front of them with a bow. “What can I offer my beautiful queen and her handsome prince?”

“You are such a joker, Emmanuel,” murmured Red. “The usual—for two.”

“Of course, my Lady.” He melted into darkness, as if he never existed.

“Wow,” said Kei. “What is this place? They haven’t even asked for my ID, and they treat you like a queen…”

“Do you like it?”

“Yeah, it’s great, but how is that possible? You are no more than twenty, right?”

“Something like that,” said Red, smiling serenely.

“Then, how come they know you so well here? Are you a celebrity of some sort? Should I know you? Of course,” Kei continued his monologue, “of course, how silly of me! You must be a celebrity—just look at you! You are so beautiful. I am just surprised I can’t remember you from a movie or a magazine.”

“Let’s eat, shall we,” replied Red with a mysterious smile, as a whole procession of servers, directed by Emmanuel, brought out their dinner.

Somehow, the table they sat at started expanding to accommodate all the dishes being laid out before their eyes. Kei closed his eyes, and rubbed them vigorously. When he opened them again, everything seemed back to normal.

Meanwhile, Emmanuel was describing the bounty on the table. “Exquisite eggplant caviar—goes wonderfully with the Russian pancakes; fresh vegetarian pate—just in from our French suppliers; artichoke and olive salad; assorted cheeses from Holland, France and Greece; guacamole and rainbow-hummus platter, created by our chef especially for you; Middleastern salad; jasmine basmati rice with pine nuts, and of course…,” with these words Emmanuel conjured a large carafe filled with dark red liquid, solemnly placing it on the table. “Fresh from the vines of Tuscany, just as you like it, my Lady.”

Kei’s eyes widened. Having grown up in a Chinese family, he never tried wine before. At sixteen, he still had much to learn about the world around him.

“Very nice, Emmanuel, you’ve outdone yourself,” said Red approvingly.

The waiter and the servers bowed and vanished into the darkness.

“Let’s begin, shall we?” said Red. “I am starving.”

“Wow, this is quite a spread,” commented Kei. “Wine, my Lady?” He tried to sound mature while picking up the carafe to pour some wine into Red’s goblet.

“Yes, please,” she said with the same smile, pushing her goblet closer to Kei. She had to reach all the way to the middle of the table to do so, and again, Kei got a distinct feeling that the table was actually much larger than it visually appeared.

He chased the thought away, preparing to pour the beautiful dark liquid into Red’s goblet, and hoping—praying—that he’d be able to handle the wine.

“It’s actually not wine—it’s grape juice, from the best vines of Tuscany,” she explained in response to his unspoken fears.

“Oh…” Kei’s hand twitched and he spilled a drop of dark red liquid. The drop kept expanding, forming a blood-red stain on the snow-white tablecloth.

Red glanced at the drop, and then back at Kei. “I’m really not much of a drinker, and you are not of age yet.”

“Right,” said Kei, inadvertent relief spreading through his veins. He confidently poured the juice into goblets. No more spillage.

In the near future, I am planning posts about other Earh Shifter settings, including Moscow (Tverskaya and Moscow University), Princeton, NJ, Battery Park City and New York Chinatown. I’ll be filming Chinese New Year in Chinatown and will post it both here and on my Youtube channel. Stay tuned!

Read other great posts:

THE EARTH SHIFTER characters/setting/excerpts galore

The Earth Shifter Mystical Setting: Lake Baikal, Siberia

Excerpt 1

There is still time to enter THE EARTH SHIFTER Giveaway! Drawing for kindle formatting/editing/Accidental Spy Adventures ebooks is next Saturday 1/26! Don’t miss it!

Win ARCHOS Tablet     

Win Kindle formatting/Manuscript editing/3sets of Accidental Spy ebooks

How to Make a Book Trailer

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Amazon, Author Lada Ray, book promotion, book trailer, classical music, Film, Gold Train, Goodreads, Green Desert, images, indie authors, movie trailer, music, nature videos, photography, Shutterstock, Smashwords, Social Media, Stepford USA, trailer, United States, video, Windows Movie Maker, YouTube

Authors traditionally rely on writing to spread the word about their books. Yet they often overlook videos as a fabulous promotional tool. Trailers historically have been reserved for movies. But with the advent of Social Media, it became possible to make book trailers at low or no cost.

A book trailer adds an extra dimension and visibility to the promotion of your book. And in our competitive world, we, authors, should use every advantage we can get. This, visual dimension can be quite valuable. A book trailer can be posted on your YouTube channel, website, author Amazon and Smashwords pages, Goodreads, as well as a number of other places.

I know, I know. You think it’s too hard. It actually isn’t, but there is a learning curve – a rather steep one. One point I want to make is that the trailer doesn’t need to be overly complicated. For example, you don’t need to make it into a movie, unless you like that kind of thing. It is very effective to use pictures/photos, together with a snappy narrative and suitable background music. This is my preferred way of making a trailer, but of course, use your imagination and let your creativity tell you what works for you and your book. Sky is the limit!

I estimate the learning curve for making a trailer at about 50-60 hours. So, if you can’t afford to dedicate this much time to learning about movie and trailer making, than you are better off delegating this task to someone else.

But if you are up for the challenge, here is what you need to know.

First, you need to start a YouTube channel. It’s easy to sign up and setting it up takes no more than half an hour.

Mine is called Lada Ray Channel and for now, I keep it simple. So far, I’ve made 4 book trailers and a bunch of nature/Halloween videos. But I may expand my channel in the future, time permitting.

Take a look at my channel here: http://www.youtube.com/user/LadaRay/videos

Once you’ve set up your Youtube channel and learned the ropes, you can start making your book trailer. Estimated time for each trailer: 5-10 hours.

Here is what you will need:

1. Find and upload on your computer a movie maker software. Google it. There are several that are free, including Windows Movie Maker. Of course, you can also pay for a more sophisticated version.

2. Think about the theme and flow of your trailer. I love this part! It’s like directing your own movie. I usually write down the narrative for each frame and visualize what kind of picture would work with it.

3. Write out the narrative. Don’t overwhelm your trailer with text though. Remember, you are making a movie, not writing a book. It’s supposed to be snappy, entertaing, and a feast for ALL the senses.

4. Gather enough images to be used in your trailer before you begin. My advice, have plenty of extras. You can always discard the ones you decided not to use. It is much better than coming short while in the middle of your trailer-making process.

To find the images, go to a website like Shutterstock, where you can purchase royalty-free photos inexpensively.

I love photography, so whenever I can, I use my own pics for trailers and videos.

5. Find the music that works with your trailer. You can purchase a piece of music online, or use a royalty-free piece that is past its copyright. These are usually classics. A word of warning: classics are great if they go with your topic and presentation. But I sometimes see pieces that are completely mismatched. Try your music for size before applying it.

For example, check out my STEPFORD USA trailer.

The music used is a classic: Second Waltz by Russian composer, Dmitry Shostakovich, written in the 1940s. And it works very well with this particular piece.

6. After you’ve assembled all the elements, the real fun begins! Upload your images into frames, add text and music! Enjoy!

TIPS:

1. To make my videos look and feel more professional, I usually play with extending or narrowing time frames depending on how long I want every image to linger.

Check out my GOLD TRAIN  trailer.

Notice how the music changes and highs emphasize the narrative and work with images?

2. Always fit your music to frame. Otherwise it will be too long or too short. This will make it look sloppy and unprofessional.

Check out my videos:

Enchanted Autumn  and  Amazing Autumn Meditation

to see how the music precisely matches the length of the video. Unfortunately, not every video has this, resulting in a period of silence or a cut off piece.

3. YouTube offers some very cool video enhancement tools, like color enhancement, moving frames and text, etc. I used some of them in my videos. See if you can spot what enhancements I used in the following trailers and videos:

GOLD TRAIN  trailer

STEPFORD USA trailer

Autumn Waltz of the Ducks

Amazing Autumn Meditation

Enchanted Autumn

Humorous Enchanted Halloween

These video enhancement tools are great fun and I enjoy playing with them. Word of caution: make sure they work with your particular piece! And sometimes less is more.

Good Luck! If you decide to make a book trailer or if you already have one, feel free to post a comment together with the link!

P.S. When you set up a YouTube channel, make sure you subscribe to Lada Ray Channel and let me know about it. I’ll be glad to reciprocate!

Copyright Lada Ray, 2012

My Beautiful Nature Walk

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Amazon, Author Lada Ray, beauty, book giveaway, book reviews, Catskill Mountains, E-book, Gold Train, mystery thriller, nature photography, nature walk, New York, paperback, photography, Rail Trail, Soviet Union, Twitter, Upstate NY, YouTube

This post features original photography by author Lada Ray. 

First, a few quick announcements: Today, May 6, is the last day of the GOLD TRAIN  BLOG TOUR, and I want to thank all my gracious blog hosts and readers for a truly wonderful experience! I enjoyed all the interviews, reviews and new friendships very, very much!

Today is also the end of the GOLD TRAIN Giveaway on Lada Ray Blog. Giving away 2 Gold Train ebooks. This is the last chance to participate! Please check it out here! Two lucky winners will be announced at 8 p.m. tonight on this blog and on Twitter. I’ll also send both winners Twitter DMs with further instructions.

Finally, today is the last day to download GOLD TRAIN ebook on Amazon for $0.99 or the European equivalents. Tomorrow, the price will be $2.99 (reg. $3.99) – Mothers Day Sale. Buy ebook here.

GOLD TRAIN paperback is now on sale for only $9.99 till May 13 as Mothers Day Promotion. Regular price is $14.95. Buy GOLD TRAIN paperback here.

Happy reading and see you on pages of my books!

Now, without further ado, today’s post:

Sunday. Today, I was supposed to post my new piece, FACT AND FICTION IN GOLD TRAIN… but something in me rebelled against that. So I decided that I would do this very important article on May 12, as a follow up to the GOLD TRAIN Blog Tour. Also, another follow up, THE COOL, THE ORIGINAL AND THE CONTROVERSIAL, will appear on this blog on 5/9.  See the GOLD TRAIN Blog Tour Schedule.

But today… the sun is shining brightly, the air smells like honey and freshly cut grass. So, my husband and I decided to get our camera and embark on a lovely nature adventure instead. We are surrounded by some wonderful nature here, in the Western Catskills. And it’s actively awakening now. Spring comes late to the northern NY State, but finally it’s here! My goal is to capture on camera its joyful awakening!

In keeping with the GOLD TRAIN theme, we decided to take the Rail Trail, a defunct rail road turned walking nature trail, which connects many towns in our area.

I am inviting you to share our today’s nature walk! Enjoy the images I’ve captured along the way, including the giant fields of sunny dandelions, the beautiful horses, graceful geese, local farms and colorful chickens, and of course, the mountains.

This is just a primer. I will be doing a bigger post: Spring in the Catskills, and a YouTube video later. Stay tuned!

A Feast of Gold Train, Photography & Feng Shui

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Author Lada Ray, book, Buddha, coffee, Feng Shui, Ganesha, Gold Train, green tea, hi-res photos, Jade Snow International Adventure Series, paperback, photography, pics, pictures, Russia, Russia Adventure, Turkish coffee, wine

This post features original photography by author Lada Ray

As The GOLD TRAIN Blog Tour continues, I decided to do a somewhat unusual post.

GOLD TRAIN GIVEAWAY: Please leave a comment to be entered to win a GOLD TRAIN ebook on 5/6! More here!

Hurray! I just received first shipment of the GOLD TRAIN paperbacks. Check it out on Amazon!

I unpacked the box with trembling hands of a novice, hardly able to contain the excitement of a newly-budding novelist. No, just kidding. In fact, I resolutely reached for my sharp knife and forcefully slashed through the rough and dusty tape… No, not like that either. Well, you get the point. Got to be the writer even as I do something as mundane as opening a box containing my precious book 😉

Anyway, I got the books out and decided to celebrate by creating various photo designs with anything that came to mind. The Gold Train cover came out quite lush and yummy. Hmmm… what might go with it? Ahh, yes. Let’s serve Gold Train with all the things I love, namely my feng shui symbols and Oriental art I collect, as well as great coffee, authentic green tea… and wine (I don’t really drink, but thought it appropriate to add an element of celebration here).

By the way, don’t forget to check out other awesome blog stops, Gold Train reviews and giveaways here!

And now, feast your eye on my photo designs, which I captured with my new hi-res camera!