For Curtsies & Conspiracies, the second Finishing School book I got a music video!

I thought you, Gentle Reader, would like some insight into how it came about.

Wait, What?

Bring. Bring. Bring. (OK, it’s my phone so instead it went: Quack. Quack. Quack.)

Gail: Hello?
LB: Chat chat chat.
Gail: Chat chat. *tea sipping* gossipy gossip
LB: So, we were thinking for C&C we’d do a music video.
Gail: Qua? (A sound not unlike her quacking phone.)
LB: No really. It’ll be fun.
Gail: *Suspicious.*
LB: Seriously, (do New Yorker’s say seriously? I can’t remember. Anyway…) it’s the same person who did ‘Call Me Artemis Fowl’, Artemis Rocks! He does this professionally, he’s great.
Gail: Ummmmm. I don’t know about…
LB: Different tone, we swear. Why don’t you send us some steampunk music and ideas and such?
Gail: Ooookkkaaayyy…

As you can see, at first I was nervous about the whole thing.

However, I did send some of my favorite steampunk music, a wide range considering how my taste varies (from Professor Elemental to Unwoman) as well as the intro to BBC Mystery. I reminded them how much I liked the Edward Gorey style animation of the Finishing School launch video, and that it was important to stay funny or at least quite silly.

The Lyrics!

While at Bunson and Lacroix’s Polytech for boys
They emphasize the joys of deadly little toys
At Mademoiselle Geraldine’s School for proper young killing machines
The curriculum on the whole
Is certainly more droll

But all the things that go on,
She’d hate to know, hate to know
All the things that go on…

And if you find you’re irritable Uptop in the dirigible
Down below, the Sooties know a thing or two you mightn’t
On Mademoiselle Geraldine’s, nothing’s really what it seems
But the curriculum, you will find, may give you some excitement

But all the things that go on,
She’d hate to know, hate to know
But all the things that go on,
She’d hate to know, hate to know
All the things that go on…

Music & lyrics by Josh Fix

More?

Some thoughts:

• The “she” is Mumsey. Implied.
• The singer we discussed at length. He’s sort of a Lord Akeldama character, but it’s possible he could be Tunstell singing about the past. But are his trousers tight enough?
• The costumes are off temporally, but that has to do with the melding of Gorey style with the funky music and the 1930’s silent film captions.
• Yes, I did help write the captions.
• But the tumbling mustache was all them.
• Yes, when I tweeted out the question about the Victorian sound a shooting cork would make, we were trying to come up with “Plip.” Plip was decided. Thank you to the suggestor of this most excellent word. You get a gold octopus kiss.
• Yes, I do think Sophronia and the other two girls look a little old, but I believe that’s intentionally aspirational, as it were.
• However, I do love Sophronia’s looks in the video. That’s more how I imagined her than the Natalie Portman/Kiera Nightly look on the covers. That said, I’m really happy with both, I don’t quibble much on such things. And, being a spy, Sophronia is . . . changeable in appearance.

I was constantly consulted on this project over not just music style and lyrics, but how things would be shot and which images would go where. I tried to stick my nose in only when strictly necessary. It’s amazing the amount of work that everyone put into it and it was an great experience. I really do hope you like the it as much as I do, I was surprised and delighted by the end result.

Some fun behind the scenes shots that my Little Brown publicist kindly sent to me to show you. I adore those skeletal look of the see-through parasols.

Want more behind the scenes sneak peeks? Join the Chirrup

GAIL’S DAILY DOSE

Your Moment of Parasol . . .

Your Infusion of Cute . . .

Teapot octopus ornament, handmade gift from a friend

Quote of the Day:

“Tris: “I was reading.”

Sandry: “You’re always reading. The only way people can ever talk to you is to interrupt.”

Tris: “Then maybe they shouldn’t talk to me.”

~ Tamora Pierce, Briar’s Book

BOOK DE JOUR!

Etiquette & Espionage: Finishing School Book 1

PICK YOUR VENDOR!

It’s one thing to learn to curtsy properly. It’s quite another to learn to curtsy and throw a knife at the same time. Welcome to Finishing School.

Fourteen-year-old Sophronia is a great trial to her poor mother. Sophronia is more interested in dismantling clocks and climbing trees than proper manners–and the family can only hope that company never sees her atrocious curtsy. Mrs. Temminnick is desperate for her daughter to become a proper lady. So she enrolls Sophronia in Mademoiselle Geraldine’s Finishing Academy for Young Ladies of Quality.