Sometimes things click into place and the "fates" determine that something special is going to happen. Sometimes it's timing. Sometimes it's luck. Sometimes it's talent and hard work. I think this is all of those things. And I couldn't be happier at the way it turned out.

Turbulent Sea is Joley's story from the Drake Sister's series. I always ask Circle of Seven Productions to do something different with the trailers so they're unique. The idea of doing a music video was exciting!

I sent the story to Sheila Clover English who writes the scripts for most of my trailers.  After reading the book she sat down and wrote lyrics for the music video.  I loved it immediately! Michael Miller came up with the melody and then Gregory and NiNi Burkart of CORVO took it and made it into a song, with NiNi singing it.  It was a real collaborative effort on the part of COS.

Sheila worked with Domini Stottsberry to choose some of the scenes that would be in the script and then Sheila had to match the chosen scenes to the lyrics of the song so they would flow correctly with the music.

Sheila approached me about having someone more experienced with music video do the directing. Victoria Fraasa has worked on many top music videos and her husband, Steve Fraasa is an experienced videographer and DP. I met with Victoria in Pittsburgh during RT and we went over her vision of the scenes. I knew right away that this was going to be something special. So many people were involved from the beginning of the process to the very end.

We thought we would try to get the cover model from the Turbulent Sea book cover to play the part of Ilya. But, he wasn't going to be available during the time of the shoot so Sheila and Victoria started working on the casting.  As soon as I saw Eric Holter I knew he would be perfect as Ilya. He had played a Russian before and we watched his professional reel, which is like a video resume, and contacted his agent to book him for the video.

Cecilia is my youngest daughter and has always played the part of Joley in the other book trailers. It was her turn to be the star. Cecilia got the music in advance and worked hard to learn all the words. She practiced lip syncing to the music and even listened to it in her car as she was driving around. My little girl was about to become a rock star! Lol

Michael Miller does all the special effects for COS and he would be on the set to help out and as a consultant for the special effects shots.  Cheryl Miller, Jacob Henderson and Mike Miller all came for the shoot and Mike, Michael's son who is following in his Dad's footsteps, volunteered to play the villainous teenager that Ilya lifts up off the ground around the middle of the video. 

Watching Cecilia perform was amazing! And watching the video I could see how hard she worked on capturing who Joley and how she performs. 

Eric is an experienced actor and you could really tell. He was so patient and helpful with Cecilia and the two of them bonded right away. You can tell how great their chemistry was during the shoot. A lot of people think there's a kissing scene in the video, but there isn't. The romantic scene is so beautifully done and the part where Joley finds Ilya's gun and pushes him away gave me chills!

I am always so excited to watch the process during one of these shoots, but I never really can imagine how it will look when it is all put together. When I saw the video I was overwhelmed! It was more than I had hoped for. The sense of love, adventure and danger all came across exactly right and the performances were breathtaking.  I love so many of the scenes it's hard to say which my favorite is. I've watched it so many times now and I'm still not tired of watching it. I love the music. I love the video. I hope that people will read this book and watch the video again. The book is very dear to me and I want to thank everyone who is so supportive of this series.

I hope you enjoy the video!