Katie Marcario

When we reached the gymnasium, I did exactly what I said I wasn’t going to do–sprawled out on the bottom row of bleachers and batted my eyes like a fangirl. Okay. Not exactly. I did sit on the first row, but my posture was decidedly rigid.

He disappeared into the locker room and returned a moment later with two basketballs. When he saw me locked tightly onto the seat, he smirked.

“Come on, Honeycutt. Show me what you can do!”

Two times in a matter of minutes, he surprised me by knowing my name–not just my first name, but my nickname and last name, too. That thought was crowding into my mind, which had frozen at the sight of his smirk. No one deserved to look that good while smirking.

When I still didn’t move, he shoved the ball into my stomach, just as he would have with one of his teammates. I stared at it, running my fingers over the pebbled texture for a moment, before lifting my eyes to his incredulously.

“You can’t be serious. I can’t even bounce it.”

Travis snorted out a laugh and demonstrated the exact bounce that I feared. “It’s called ‘dribbling’. First lesson.”

At his cocky tone, I stood and gave him my own smirk. “Dribbling sounds like something a baby does. I’m just going to call it bouncing, if you don’t mind.”

“Whatever, Bex. Just bounce the ball. It’s not hard. All you have to do is drop it; it’ll bounce on its own.”

Well, that didn’t sound too hard at all. I held the ball out and dropped it, prepared to catch it when it came back to me. Instead of hitting the polished floor with the rubbery ping that Travis’s ball made, it hit the toe of my shoe and rolled away, looking about as dejected as I felt.

To his credit, he didn’t laugh. Instead, he handed me his ball and ran after the one I’d dropped.

“Okay, so there’s a bit more to it than that,” he admitted when he returned. “Here, I’ll show you.”

He set his ball down gently and then stepped behind me. I started to face him, but he stopped me with a gentle hand to my shoulder. What happened after that felt so surreal that I had to convince myself for days that it had actually happened. Without hesitation, Travis moved closer until he was completely flush with my back. My breath caught when I felt him bend his knees a bit behind me, and then he nudged my right foot forward with his. His knee pressed into the back of mine, causing me to adopt a stance similar to his, but I knew I wasn’t quite as graceful. I leaned forward a bit, mostly to escape the heat of his body, but he pulled me right back to him.

“Hold still for a second,” he muttered.

I couldn’t breathe. Every inch of him was molded to me as he perfected my stance. Even with him crouching behind me, I was overwhelmed by the size of him. Slowly, he reached out and ran his right hand along my arm until he reached my wrist. It was a feeling that I never wanted to forget–not for the rest of my life. I closed my eyes and breathed in, surrounded by him, his warmth, his smell… Goosebumps prickled in his wake, and I fought off a shudder.

“There.” Satisfaction oozed from him as he stepped away and admired his work. “Stand like that as you dribble–”

“Bounce,” I interrupted.

He bit back a smile and rolled his eyes. “Bounce. Fine. You won’t hit your feet that way.”

Soundtrack cover shoot with Katie Marcario and Blake Mundell

I had every intention of blogging about Liam’s new weed trimmer, but after being assured divorce would be in my future if I wrote one word on the subject, I decided to avoid that topic. Instead, I bring you the making of a book trailer. After all, it’s relevant and interesting, and it saves my marriage. It’s a win all around.

From the moment the idea took root, I knew it was going to be a problem. Some fell into place immediately. I do happen to know the best photographer in Nashville, so lining up the true talent of the day was pretty easy. MD Laidlaw jumped on board the crazy train with me, and plans really kicked into gear. The storyboard was written, and then we had another brief roadblock. Enter AJ Ellington, an emerging musician and producer in the Nashville area, and the original score for Side Effects was introduced.

Those were actually the things I expected to be the hardest to take care of, especially since the talent necessary to cover those aspects of the trailer needed to be significant. Instead of struggles, I ended up working with some of the best possible artists. Where we really ran into trouble was finding a location for the shoot. We had models lined up back in April, but the first location fell through. We then had to wave goodbye to those models and start a new round. When the location fell through in May, I began to get a little antsy. My assistant, Sarah, jumped on the bandwagon and began calling every school within a fifty-mile radius to secure a location once and for all. The moment it was decided, we lost half of the models again.

With a song, a photographer, and a location, I knew we could make it work. We had the main characters cast and locked down, as well as some models secured to play school friends, so we were pretty sure we could do some tight shots and really pull it off. With that thought in mind, we pressed forward with determination. We might have failed.

We didn’t, however. Thursday night before the shoot, MD and I took a little trip to hear a songwriter she knows, and the whole thing turned around. First of all, he was fantastic, as well as the other two singers with whom he shared the stage. When we got the chance to talk to all of them after their round, we mentioned the photo shoot and our concerns. These wonderful, talented people stepped forward and volunteered to fill in the gaps. We ended up with five more participants for the shoot, and everything was looking up once more.

As you might expect, I woke to thunder on Saturday. Go figure. With a call out to some Twitter friends to perform an anti-rain dance, I went on with the show. Faith is an amazing thing. Would you believe the last drop of rain fell the moment the first model pulled into the parking lot at the shoot location? Not only that, but the sun came out from behind the clouds right on cue throughout the day. With failure after failure leading up to the day of the shoot, we ended up with the best group of models we could have asked for, the most perfect weather possible, and a great location that offered plenty of options for photo sets.

I can’t wait to show you the final product, because I know it will blow you away. In the meantime, I’d like to take a moment to thank the people who made the whole thing possible. Without MD Laidlaw, nothing would have happened. She kept her cool and led the charge like the true professional she is. Her work on the trailer will blow you away, but until you can see that, you should check out her portfolio on her website.

AJ Ellington, the brilliant musician who penned the score, is working on her website and her first album. When you hear the song, you’ll know she’s going places. The piano piece she composed is only one facet of her talent, though, so be sure to keep an eye on her for future work. I can’t say enough about the ability this woman has.

Sarah Witte gave of her time to help us secure a location, and I couldn’t be more grateful to her. Not only that, but she showed up on the day to help keep things organized and drag props to and from the sets. Without her help, I might have absolutely lost my mind. If you get a chance, leave a message for Sarah to let her know how awesome she is.

The main characters of Isaac and Grace were portrayed beautifully by Austin Lewis and Macy Mayfield. Let me tell you; they are so perfect in the trailer it’s as if I wrote the book with them in mind. I must thank them for being so professional and open to direction. You will see the story through their photos. Macy nearly leaps from the photos, she’s so brilliant, and Austin was also gracious enough to pose for the book cover.

Logan Patton, Tayler Moore, Alexia Marable, and Kiana Marable also helped out to portray friends of the characters. They were brilliant on Saturday, and I am so grateful to them for their time and assistance. I hope to see big things from all of them in the future.

Finally, to the fantastic people who jumped in at the last minute to help make everything a success, I give my undying gratitude. It may not seem like much, but these guys showed up two days after hearing about the shoot and gave four hours of their time. Katie Marcario, who works with The REP Agency here in Nashville, was so adorable I had to beg her to be on the cover of my next book. Blake Mundell, a singer/songwriter who already has plenty going on in his life, also stepped in and helped out. You’ll see him featured on the next cover, as well. Chelsea Gill, a beautiful singer/songwriter from Belmont also gave freely of her time. Finally, Jared Mitchell and Tim Price of the band Yours Truly jumped in and added the final missing pieces. They also passed out some CDs at the end of the day, and I haven’t stopped playing mine.

As a thank you to these guys for saving my bacon (oh, I really did say that, MD and Yours Truly), I hope you’ll check out some of the stuff they’re working on. You’ll eventually see them all featured on the artist page, but for now, I’ll list some links you can follow. I highly recommend them, not just because I like them, but also because they’re true talents and the future of music in Nashville. If you like what you hear, you should let them know. You can say you heard it here first!

And as a thank you to you for your patience and enthusiasm, I’m also including another shot from the photo shoot on Saturday. Enjoy!