Early this year I decided to produce a book trailer for “The Soul Thief.” My motivation was purely commercial: I wanted to experiment with promotional tools, and this was one that I thought I should use. I had no strong compulsion to work with video tools, no desire to explore visual storytelling, and absolutely no inkling of how much I would enjoy making that video.

It was fun.

In fact, it was so much fun that I began to consider doing more video work. At first, I considered just making a series of book trailers, using special effects and, perhaps, a limited amount of footage with actors. Then I shot that footage with actors, and my world turned upside down. Here were people, real flesh and blood people, playing the parts of my characters. I had to have more.

I spoke with a friend who had been making a short film of his own. He became excited when I told him I was considering getting into filmmaking in a limited way, and he urged me to skip the pretense and make films, period.

Now, four months later, I’ve just wrapped up production of my first short film, “Falling Rock.” This film is not part of my “Gypsy Dreamwalker” series; it stands alone, a dark little story involving two brothers, a form of resolution, and a nasty twist at the end. If all goes well and the footage isn’t completely unusable (so far, it looks quite good), I will edit it, score it, and screen it by September. If it’s particularly good I may submit it to festivals; if my camera work isn’t up to par (by my standards), I will release it to YouTube, and I’ll be sure to post a link!

However, Angela fans rejoice: I will soon be shooting a “Gypsy Dreamwalker” tale, starring Dr. Angela Cooper and a small (miniscule?) cast. It will be a short film, and I plan on starting production in a couple of months if all goes well.