Lighting the Torch for "The Wrong Girl"

Fresh off the press, recorded this morning. I'm talking about what inspired me to write "The Wrong Girl". Click here to watch.

BUY LINK for all you amazing people.

(ebook available now)

"The Wrong Girl" AI promo journey - bloopers

So in the previous post I blogged about my AI-generated promo videos. Here is my favourite blooper:

Did you catch it? It's in the text. It's supposed to read: "The Wong Girl gripped the judges from the opening line. With strong and realistic characterisation, descriptions that bring the story to life and a plot which grips the reader, it is clear this book will be one which will have wide appeal. The author is definitely one to watch."

What does it say instead? Who knows. 

Buy Link for all you awesome people out there

"The Wrong Girl" promo goes AI - my marketing journey

The first time I tried to use AI in a promotional video for "The Wrong Girl" was back in the Dark Ages of 2024. The software was free and it didn't listen to my prompts. The family had a good time when they discovered my attempts on YouTube.

Fast forward a year, and here I am again. "The Wrong Girl" is being republished by She Rises, and I'm coercing Flow to create cool veo clips of a few scenes from the book.

What do you think?

(Here is the pre-order link in case you're kind enough to buy the book.)

"The Wrong Girl" featured in the Writers' News

Click here to buy

 

How AI made my book trailer

 I confess, I've been a bit slow to board the AI train. Mostly because I'd rather write science fiction stories about it than actually use it. And also because I don't want to put creative people out of jobs. Still, curiosity won in the end, and so here is my first ever AI-generated book trailer for "The Wrong Girl".

Some observations:

• At first glance, wow, so impressive. I tell the free program/site invideo to make me a book trailer for a domestic thriller in which a teenager and her mother are on the run, and a mysterious near-death at a boarding school in a New Zealand seaside school, and it does.
• I get an opportunity to edit it. The script changes are easy, and when I ask for the voice to speak slower, it does.
• However, when I ask for a few clips to be replaced with something else, it struggled. Replaced the wrong clip. The replacement wasn't as specified (I'm guessing their library is limited).
• I have the option to pay to remove watermarks and for high definition, but I don't. It's just a bit of fun, not a marketing tool.

What do you think?

(You can read more about "The Wrong Girl" here.)

The Wrong Girl - a review

 Reviewed by Viga Boland for Readers’ Favorite

It’s been four years since I discovered the excellent writing of Yvonne Eve Walus when I read her book, Serial Wives. Though not her first novel, it was her first mystery murder featuring New Zealand policewoman, Zero Zimmerman. I loved both the story and the protagonist, so I was delighted to find Zero is back in The Wrong Girl, and what a terrific read Walus has for fans like me. The setting for this novel is a boarding school for the daughters of wealthy parents. Following a staff drowning, the suicide of a male student in the nearby boys’ school, and now what might be either a suicide or the attempted murder of a popular female pupil, Zero, a “human lie-detector”, has her work cut out for her.

Through Zero, Yvonne Eve Walus leads readers down varying and chilling paths of possibilities as she tries to discover the truth behind these deadly occurrences. But don’t feel bad if the sleuth in you doesn’t discover who and why these unfortunate events have happened: Walus is as highly skilled in keeping us guessing as Zero is in tracking down the truth! While I love Walus’ complex plots, the other things she brings to her stories make me want to stand up and applaud. In The Wrong Girl, Walus addresses current polarizing topics like gender issues. She delves deeply and thoughtfully into parenting problems, and she understands teenage crushes, jealousies, and angst. It’s fascinating how well she explores the roller-coaster of emotions teenagers face while Zero and other adults in the novel parallel the same insecurities when it comes to romance and love. How does she weave all that raw humanity into such a well-plotted novel? That’s what you will find out and enjoy when you read The Wrong Girl. Bravo, Yvonne Eve Walus!

The Wrong Girl - author interview

Interviewer: A novel is such a major undertaking; there’s the writing of it, of course, then you’re spending months and months revising, polishing, and then promoting it. How did you know this was the book you wanted to spend the next couple of years on?

Yvonne Walus: As a mother of teenagers, I knew I wanted to write about the issues that Generation Z faces: gender identity hype, very real gender dysphoria, the desire to conform to trends, depression, suicide ideation, heartbreak. I’m hoping to start a conversation about our children’s drive to label themselves: gay, autistic, non-binary, vegan, communist, cat lover, city-dweller. In their search for identity, do they create boxes and borders and societies divided?

Read the rest of the interview here.

Book Trailer - The Wrong Girl

 

Check it out here.