{"id":2091,"date":"2017-01-08T19:42:15","date_gmt":"2017-01-09T03:42:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sacollins.com\/blog\/?p=2091"},"modified":"2017-01-08T19:48:51","modified_gmt":"2017-01-09T03:48:51","slug":"the-life-of-a-hookah","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sacollins.com\/blog-wp\/?p=2091","title":{"rendered":"The Life of a Hookah …"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Life of a Hookah …<\/span><\/h1>\n

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“Nothing in life is free, baby! Everything’s got a price. You may not see it right away, but if you dig deep enough or wait long enough, you’ll\u00a0find out you still have to pay the piper.” – Mi Tia<\/span><\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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Face it, we’re all hookers of some sort. Whether we hawk our time out to an employer, hawk our wares (books, music, art … what have you) to the masses, or that housewife who does her damnedest to keep the house in order, put food on the table, get the kids here and there \u2013 giving the hubster a little pickle tickle that will hopefully keep you both sexually satisfied and maybe, just maybe<\/em>, he’ll get you a little sparkling bauble for your anniversary to let you know how much he appreciates you.<\/p>\n

Yeah, babydoll, you still a hookah.<\/em><\/h3>\n

Ain’t nothing wrong with that. Hell, I’m in the same boat,\u00a0so it isn’t like I’m trying to be all elevated and shit about this. We all hookah’s, bitch!<\/p>\n

One way or another, that is.<\/p>\n

So why am I going on with the whole prostitute thing? Well, when I have the need to promote what I do, it feels a little like standing on the corner watching the John’s roll by:<\/p>\n

“Date? Wanna date? Dating …”<\/em><\/h3>\n

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That’s what it feels like. I know I said on many occasions that I write for the sake of writing – that releasing it and promoting it isn’t my thing. It still isn’t. So why do it? Especially if it makes me feel all hooker-ish? Well, oddly enough, for the same reasons that I write – I just like the creation process. I release the damned things to see what will happen, but I’m not tied to it’s success. Actually, if it flops I find that more fascinating. Lessons learned and all of that rot, ya know?<\/p>\n

So over the Christmas holiday I spent a fair amount of time working on a book trailer. Mostly to flex my video and special effects editing muscles (yeah, I got those … my daughter went to film school at SFSU … who do you think assisted in production of her school work?). Between Seven Styles on YouTube<\/a> and Andrew Cramer’s brilliant VideoCoPilot.net<\/a> site, I am fairly well stocked with the special effects and editing arsenal that I need to do some serious book trailer damage.<\/p>\n

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MY ANGELS OF MERCY BOOK TRAILER:<\/span><\/h3>\n

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http:\/\/www.sacollins.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/aom_trailer_final_06_010717_720p.mp4<\/a><\/video><\/div>\n

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So when I decided to give my series a go with a book trailer (… btw, are they still a thing?) I wanted something different. So I dug around until I found an effect that looked promising. For those not in the know, Seven Styles produces some of the best damned photoshop actions (think of them as self running applets within photoshop that can speed along your creative process) in the business. It also doesn’t hurt that you get to hear his lovely Aussie accent in his training videos on his YouTube channel.<\/p>\n

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