http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-sand-bar-rebecca-bryan/1109719391?ean=2940014242110
(copy and paste link)
Update for those with Nooks like myself. The Sand Bar is now available on the nook. Outskirts still doesn't have the print version available. I am grinning and bearing it because what else can I do?
Another side note: My novel titled "Escaping Bubble Land" was just sent to a publisher as a "full" That means they are interested in buying the book. That was kind of a fun thing. And on days when you are waiting, waiting, waiting for a book to go live you have to look for the positives.
Tonight I get to play Mrs. Robinson down at BYU. Don't worry, it fades to black before they ever reach the "portrait". I think it is going to be so fun to play a cougar, if you know what I mean. Here's what I'll be playing for those of you not familiar with the movie. I am not going to watch this because I don't want to try and be just like her, but I will watch it tomorrow.
Fun, fun, fun!
Have a great weekend. It's General Conference tomorrow. That will be great after I've just played a horrible seductress. Hope I can handle it. :)
Friday, March 30, 2012
Sunday, March 25, 2012
5...4...3...2...1...LIFT OFF!!
UPDATE
It's happening!! I feel excited and sick in my stomach at the same time. I want to turn and run away, or cover my hands in my face and peek between my fingers. Either way, here it comes!
Today, Amazon, Kindle has my book available for download and the Barnes and Noble Nook version should be available by tomorrow. The print version should be available very shortly. Like any day.
It's happening!! I feel excited and sick in my stomach at the same time. I want to turn and run away, or cover my hands in my face and peek between my fingers. Either way, here it comes!
Today, Amazon, Kindle has my book available for download and the Barnes and Noble Nook version should be available by tomorrow. The print version should be available very shortly. Like any day.
Friday, March 16, 2012
UPDATE
I'm feeling bad about bashing Outskirts like I did. I really went after them the other day. I hate doing that. I try to keep negative views of other people or businesses to myself, or at least between me and my hubby, but I'd really had it...and I let everybody know.
There has been a change for the better so I wanted to let you know that all is not the devil over at Outskirts. I had to scream and shout, but they finally heard me and acknowledged their error. In so doing, I feel it only fair to recognized a few errors of my own. First, when I realized I did not get my free edits I should have immediately brought it to their attention. I didn't. I stewed and felt frustrated, but did not want to confront them. A miserable part of my personality that I detest. Secondly, I realize now that I could have cut and pasted the @ sign. Why didn't I do this? I don't know. That would have been such a simple solution. Instead, I panicked and thought, "I don't know where the copy symbol is. I'll just use this and they'll understand"
My assumptions get me into a lot of trouble. Like the time I assumed my husband knew that I had somewhere to be and he would be home in time to watch the kids, or the time I assumed the waitress heard me ask for more water and she ignored me and then I felt slighted. I could go on and on. But I won't. I just thought I should be fair. It's what I would expect from the other guy. I am trying to live by the golden rule. It would be nice if a few more people did the same.
There has been a change for the better so I wanted to let you know that all is not the devil over at Outskirts. I had to scream and shout, but they finally heard me and acknowledged their error. In so doing, I feel it only fair to recognized a few errors of my own. First, when I realized I did not get my free edits I should have immediately brought it to their attention. I didn't. I stewed and felt frustrated, but did not want to confront them. A miserable part of my personality that I detest. Secondly, I realize now that I could have cut and pasted the @ sign. Why didn't I do this? I don't know. That would have been such a simple solution. Instead, I panicked and thought, "I don't know where the copy symbol is. I'll just use this and they'll understand"
My assumptions get me into a lot of trouble. Like the time I assumed my husband knew that I had somewhere to be and he would be home in time to watch the kids, or the time I assumed the waitress heard me ask for more water and she ignored me and then I felt slighted. I could go on and on. But I won't. I just thought I should be fair. It's what I would expect from the other guy. I am trying to live by the golden rule. It would be nice if a few more people did the same.
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
Self-Publishing Pros and Cons
I am writing this morning with a lot of fire in my chest. Probably not the best time to put my thoughts out there in the blogger world, but to me it seems necessary.
First, a recap and update on the self-publishing journey.
Remember what I said about there being no perfect solution in the world of Self-publishing? Well that needs to be underlined. I've had a very bumpy road to say the least. I'm actually beginning to think that I'll try querying again after the experience I've had with Outskirts Press.
Here's the bad news.
I don't know about other self-publishing companies, but Outskirts Press has treated me like a number in some huge, gray and cold warehouse. When my representative submitted the wrong version of my story, she insisted that she was not at fault, and if I wanted to resubmit the correct version I could do so for an additional 100 dollars! And have a good day.
Why would I do that? She had the correct version, even she admitted that, but it was not the version that was used in the final galley review. I dug my heels in. I knew that she had made the mistake, not me and I wasn't going to pay the additional amount. All I wanted her to do was submit the correct version. She wanted me to resubmit and pay the money. "Cha-ching cha-ching" I had to take it to the president of the company, who was very gracious and promised to fix the problem right away.
Only one problem. I didn't get his email. It went straight to my trash box. Sometimes I think there is an unseen force out there trying to keep me from succeeding. In his email that I didn't receive, he suggested I make all additional corrections and then resubmit it for free. Well,by the time I discovered it, (he sent an additional email stating he hadn't heard from me and I went digging) I had already sent it back to his supervisor uncorrected.
Doing it his way would have been a great thing. You see, going through and making corrections would have saved me a lot of time and money in the long run, but I was trying to play by the rules. I didn't want them to think I was trying to cheat them. So I missed an opportunity to make corrections. Bummer. That wasn't anyones fault, except the unseen force that sent his email to trash. So I went to the Galley review to make the corrections and found that they had skipped ahead to the second Galley Review.
What is the significance? The first Galley review offered 25 free edits. Not only were we two weeks behind schedule because of this misunderstanding, but I also lost those 25 free edits! It was such a pain to get them to see my way the first time that I just gritted my teeth and paid for all the edits. (turned out to cost me an additional 200 dollars)
On the last edit (The Fourth Review) I discovered they had given the wrong person credit for the cover photo. I went ahead and paid for it and did not argue with them because again, it didn't seem worth it. Believe it or not I don't like confronting people. It makes me very uncomfortable. On the other hand, even I have my limits. Anyway, in making the correction, since I don't know where the copy sign is on the computer I used an @ sign as an example of what I wanted, thinking that they would clearly understand what I was getting at.
Wrongo! These people are not really people, they are computer robots. They must be.
Well, you can guess what happened next. They copied it exactly the way I had written it. So now instead of a copy sign it has an @ sign. Is anyone confused? So I fixed it and stated that it was their mistake and I expected to be credited for the cost.
This morning I got an email stating that I would not get a credit. That "they copy it exactly like I write it and to have a good day!"
Have a good day? Blimey! I feel like screaming!
When I corrected it I stated "Put copy symbol here" If they really do "copy it just like you write it" then that is going to look really stupid and I was better off with the @ symbol.
This has been a very frustrating experience. I ignored several of the editors mistakes, realizing that she was human, just like I was and ignored the fact that they gave credit to the wrong person and paid for the change myself, and it did nothing to help me.
Am I weird? Okay, don' t answer that, but really, maybe it's because I'm from a small town, but I assume that people have common sense,and will recognize that they make mistakes, and admit it when they do. For something so small I would expect a little neighborly kindness. But no. This company is all about the dollar. I mean, they are really all about the dollar. Every change, edit, whatever, comes with a price tag. And talk on the phone? Are you crazy? Time is money, and we've got to publish 100,000 books this year!
Plus I hate their logo! It is huge on the back cover. It looks like a self-published logo. I hate it. It's bigger than my name.
I'm so done with Outskirts Press. I will probably use Abbot Publishing with my next book because at least the guy called me on the phone. I didn't realize how RARE that was.
Here's the good news.
I am almost finished! Hopefully by today or tomorrow I will push the button that says "Go to publish" That is the good thing. That is the hopeful thing. No matter what has happened with the publishers, I am going to get my hands on my very own book. And then I will promptly turn to Createspace or Abbott Press and publish my second novel "Escaping Bubble Land"
So that's it. And now the real work begins, the marketing, and book launching parties, and signings. I have dreaded this part. Just so you know, self-promoting is way out of my comfort zone. I hate it. If I didn't I would be a famous movie star by now. But I really hate talking myself up. I hate it when other people talk themselves up too; Really get's under my skin.
Have a great day!
First, a recap and update on the self-publishing journey.
Remember what I said about there being no perfect solution in the world of Self-publishing? Well that needs to be underlined. I've had a very bumpy road to say the least. I'm actually beginning to think that I'll try querying again after the experience I've had with Outskirts Press.
Here's the bad news.
I don't know about other self-publishing companies, but Outskirts Press has treated me like a number in some huge, gray and cold warehouse. When my representative submitted the wrong version of my story, she insisted that she was not at fault, and if I wanted to resubmit the correct version I could do so for an additional 100 dollars! And have a good day.
Why would I do that? She had the correct version, even she admitted that, but it was not the version that was used in the final galley review. I dug my heels in. I knew that she had made the mistake, not me and I wasn't going to pay the additional amount. All I wanted her to do was submit the correct version. She wanted me to resubmit and pay the money. "Cha-ching cha-ching" I had to take it to the president of the company, who was very gracious and promised to fix the problem right away.
Only one problem. I didn't get his email. It went straight to my trash box. Sometimes I think there is an unseen force out there trying to keep me from succeeding. In his email that I didn't receive, he suggested I make all additional corrections and then resubmit it for free. Well,by the time I discovered it, (he sent an additional email stating he hadn't heard from me and I went digging) I had already sent it back to his supervisor uncorrected.
Doing it his way would have been a great thing. You see, going through and making corrections would have saved me a lot of time and money in the long run, but I was trying to play by the rules. I didn't want them to think I was trying to cheat them. So I missed an opportunity to make corrections. Bummer. That wasn't anyones fault, except the unseen force that sent his email to trash. So I went to the Galley review to make the corrections and found that they had skipped ahead to the second Galley Review.
What is the significance? The first Galley review offered 25 free edits. Not only were we two weeks behind schedule because of this misunderstanding, but I also lost those 25 free edits! It was such a pain to get them to see my way the first time that I just gritted my teeth and paid for all the edits. (turned out to cost me an additional 200 dollars)
On the last edit (The Fourth Review) I discovered they had given the wrong person credit for the cover photo. I went ahead and paid for it and did not argue with them because again, it didn't seem worth it. Believe it or not I don't like confronting people. It makes me very uncomfortable. On the other hand, even I have my limits. Anyway, in making the correction, since I don't know where the copy sign is on the computer I used an @ sign as an example of what I wanted, thinking that they would clearly understand what I was getting at.
Wrongo! These people are not really people, they are computer robots. They must be.
Well, you can guess what happened next. They copied it exactly the way I had written it. So now instead of a copy sign it has an @ sign. Is anyone confused? So I fixed it and stated that it was their mistake and I expected to be credited for the cost.
This morning I got an email stating that I would not get a credit. That "they copy it exactly like I write it and to have a good day!"
Have a good day? Blimey! I feel like screaming!
When I corrected it I stated "Put copy symbol here" If they really do "copy it just like you write it" then that is going to look really stupid and I was better off with the @ symbol.
This has been a very frustrating experience. I ignored several of the editors mistakes, realizing that she was human, just like I was and ignored the fact that they gave credit to the wrong person and paid for the change myself, and it did nothing to help me.
Am I weird? Okay, don' t answer that, but really, maybe it's because I'm from a small town, but I assume that people have common sense,and will recognize that they make mistakes, and admit it when they do. For something so small I would expect a little neighborly kindness. But no. This company is all about the dollar. I mean, they are really all about the dollar. Every change, edit, whatever, comes with a price tag. And talk on the phone? Are you crazy? Time is money, and we've got to publish 100,000 books this year!
Plus I hate their logo! It is huge on the back cover. It looks like a self-published logo. I hate it. It's bigger than my name.
I'm so done with Outskirts Press. I will probably use Abbot Publishing with my next book because at least the guy called me on the phone. I didn't realize how RARE that was.
Here's the good news.
I am almost finished! Hopefully by today or tomorrow I will push the button that says "Go to publish" That is the good thing. That is the hopeful thing. No matter what has happened with the publishers, I am going to get my hands on my very own book. And then I will promptly turn to Createspace or Abbott Press and publish my second novel "Escaping Bubble Land"
So that's it. And now the real work begins, the marketing, and book launching parties, and signings. I have dreaded this part. Just so you know, self-promoting is way out of my comfort zone. I hate it. If I didn't I would be a famous movie star by now. But I really hate talking myself up. I hate it when other people talk themselves up too; Really get's under my skin.
Have a great day!
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
FISH-FREE CHURCH
Hey! I'm an actress...or at least I pretend to be. I did this small film a few months ago and I'm excited to share my first debut film with you and whoever is willing to watch. My part is small, but hey, everybody has to start somewhere, right? The funniest thing was my kids all asked me if I knew I was the 'bad guy' in the film. I should have told them to get used to it. I think I like playing the diva. And I don't want to hear that this thing was type casted!
Fish-Free Church from LeGrand Fry on Vimeo.
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Healthy, wealthy, and wise
When I was young,I spent too much time focusing on all the things that were wrong with me.
I remember praying to Heavenly Father that if he would just fix my nose and make it as pretty looking as the girl's nose down the street I wouldn't do anything bad ever again!
I was much like Anne Shirley, wishing her orange hair would turn a raven black.
Well, we know what happened to Anne's hair, and I didn't fare much better. God didn't fix it, therefore, I didn't hold to my end of the bargain either.
But that's okay because I've sort of grown into my blessed nose. And while it would be nice to have perfect features, I don't really care about those things anymore. Today, I am grateful to have my health, just as I am grateful for the blue of the sky and the white of the fluffy clouds overhead. Thankful that I have legs to run, heart that pumps, lungs that breathe.
I was reminded of that the other day when I went to my son's talent show. He played the drums. But it wasn't his performance that brought tears to my eyes.
Sorry, cute son, but I think he'd agree that the number that touched everyone's hearts was the dance performed by a boy named Gabe.
I don't know much about him. At first glance you can see that he has no arms and no legs. He has an amazing wheelchair that allows him to get around a school of a thousand students pretty easily. I have no idea how it works, but I'm sure he is as grateful for his wheelchair as I am for my legs.
I also know that he is the most courageous person I have ever seen in my life. He "stood" in front of all his peers and danced with pure inhibition. When he finished dancing the whole school stood and cheered. Tears filled my eyes and the eyes of everyone in the room. Even Junior High students. Who can say they have had that kind of affect on Jr. High kids?
And Gabe's face! Oh if I could put it in a bottle and bring it out whenever I am down or feeling sorry for myself. His face radiated pure,simple joy.
The joy of dancing.The joy of moving your body.
The joy of living!
Maybe he'd felt that way before, I don't know. But I hadn't. Thirty-seven and I'd never experienced that kind of joy watching someone else dance.
It was love without boundaries and courage without self-gratification. It was beautiful. And I was lucky enough to have been there. Oh, yeah, I can prove this because I'm at the very end of the video. I'm the one clapping. Funny, huh?
Next time you say you can't or that your not good enough, remember Gabe. You can do anything you want in life if you set your heart on it.
Happy Valentine's day to all of you. Love and hugs.
I remember praying to Heavenly Father that if he would just fix my nose and make it as pretty looking as the girl's nose down the street I wouldn't do anything bad ever again!
I was much like Anne Shirley, wishing her orange hair would turn a raven black.
Well, we know what happened to Anne's hair, and I didn't fare much better. God didn't fix it, therefore, I didn't hold to my end of the bargain either.
But that's okay because I've sort of grown into my blessed nose. And while it would be nice to have perfect features, I don't really care about those things anymore. Today, I am grateful to have my health, just as I am grateful for the blue of the sky and the white of the fluffy clouds overhead. Thankful that I have legs to run, heart that pumps, lungs that breathe.
I was reminded of that the other day when I went to my son's talent show. He played the drums. But it wasn't his performance that brought tears to my eyes.
Sorry, cute son, but I think he'd agree that the number that touched everyone's hearts was the dance performed by a boy named Gabe.
I don't know much about him. At first glance you can see that he has no arms and no legs. He has an amazing wheelchair that allows him to get around a school of a thousand students pretty easily. I have no idea how it works, but I'm sure he is as grateful for his wheelchair as I am for my legs.
I also know that he is the most courageous person I have ever seen in my life. He "stood" in front of all his peers and danced with pure inhibition. When he finished dancing the whole school stood and cheered. Tears filled my eyes and the eyes of everyone in the room. Even Junior High students. Who can say they have had that kind of affect on Jr. High kids?
And Gabe's face! Oh if I could put it in a bottle and bring it out whenever I am down or feeling sorry for myself. His face radiated pure,simple joy.
The joy of dancing.The joy of moving your body.
The joy of living!
Maybe he'd felt that way before, I don't know. But I hadn't. Thirty-seven and I'd never experienced that kind of joy watching someone else dance.
It was love without boundaries and courage without self-gratification. It was beautiful. And I was lucky enough to have been there. Oh, yeah, I can prove this because I'm at the very end of the video. I'm the one clapping. Funny, huh?
Next time you say you can't or that your not good enough, remember Gabe. You can do anything you want in life if you set your heart on it.
Happy Valentine's day to all of you. Love and hugs.
Friday, February 3, 2012
Believe, Believe, Believe!
This story is amazing! Prepare and amazing things come your way. Of course, you have to be brave and put yourself or your idea out there. I hate that part.
This interview is from Coldplay's website. Such a cool story.
After you've been inspired, go do something amazing.
Hi Jason, how are you?
I’m good, thanks. Just getting my head around what’s coming next with the Xylobands.
Let’s start at the beginning. How did you meet Coldplay?
The original connection came via buying tickets to go to the Crisis gig in Newcastle, because my son had always wanted to go and see them. There was an auction where you could bid for meet and greet tickets, and we had some of those. But we didn’t get there because of the snow.
Oh no!
Yeah, my son was absolutely devastated, so I got in touch with Crisis and asked if there was anything else we could go along to. And lo and behold I had an email from Phil Harvey and he asked if we wanted to come up and watch the band rehearse. So we did that and I decided I’d be brave and tell him about an idea I’d had a long time ago for Coldplay. Which was the wristband. And it all just went from there.
When did you have the idea?
In 2005, when Coldplay did the Glastonbury Festival. I remember I was going through a few down days and I saw them doing Fix You. And there was just such a feeling of it bringing everyone together, as well as the line “lights will guide you home”. That’s when the idea of a wristband came to mind.
So it was specifically invented with Coldplay in mind?
Absolutely. To this day, I still have my doubts that this would really work for anyone else. I feel Paradise, Charlie Brown and MX are almost too perfect for them, really. Like Chris said, it’s quite freaky how he wrote a lyric a long time ago about glowing in the dark and then all of a sudden it all comes together and we’ve got wristbands making people do exactly that.
What’s your background then? Have you always been an inventor?
Well, when I left school I went to work for the family vehicle repair business, but after 17 years I realised it wasn’t me, and that I liked making things, fixing things and creating things. So that’s when I ventured out on my own. And I managed to prove that I could have an idea and take it from my head to being successful. I’ve ended up working with people like Disney, Jim Henson, Sesame Street and Sony.
So, when you met Phil, was he immediately receptive to the idea of the wristbands?
Definitely. He’s someone who needs to be as praised in this story as anyone. He’s the one that saw the potential and took the chance. We were just talking and I was saying that I’d had a bit of a tough year and I could do with a break. But at that time the band were finishing the album and the priority was obviously to get on with that. And then all of a sudden one day I had an email from Phil saying he’d been chatting to Chris and that he had that break for me. He wanted to know when we could start looking at making the wristbands.
With the idea being that the Madrid UNSTAGED show would be their debut? Exactly. That was a nerve wracking situation. We had a product that was untried and untested. We knew what we thought it could do, but we had to put it on stage with Coldplay at this huge YouTube show and hope that it worked.
You didn’t have a dress rehearsal?
No, we jumped straight in at the deep end. Everyone said we were mad. The wristbands only arrived in Madrid on the morning of the show in a van which had brought them overnight from the UK the minute they landed there from China. Me and Phil walked down from the hotel to the venue carrying a huge bin of wristbands and I told him that I was shitting myself. He was great. He just said “It is what it is. We’ve done it now. Let’s see.” So it was a really scary night, but it worked.
That must have been a relief.
Absolutely. After the show, I had no idea what the band had thought of it. But when I got back to the hotel and charged my phone up there was a message from Chris saying well done, that it was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen and that he wanted to do it again.
So there was a chance they could have gone no further than Madrid?
Yes, exactly. We were ongoing with talks, but nothing was concrete and agreed before that.
But you obviously ended up doing the whole tour.
Yeah. Which has been such a rush. What we did and how quickly it was done is pretty unheard of, really. It was beyond madness. But we did it.
How were they manufactured?
You get your team of people here to design them and do a prototype and spend a little time testing and then you turn it over to a Chinese manufacturer.
So how do they work?
Basically they’re an RF-driven wristband. They’ve got a receiver in them which receives data and that data tells them how to flash and when to flash, basically.
How far can you transmit?
I think at the moment we can go to about 300 metres. Hence the story of the lady who lived near the Charlie Brown video shoot who’d been to a gig and suddenly found that her wristband was flashing again!
Ah yes, the Xylobands feature prominently in Charlie Brown video.
Yeah, and I think that video’s going to look amazing. They had about 20 dancers with neon paint and we put like four or five wristbands on each arm. So they were definitely glowing in the dark. It looked really cool.
Could you do it over a bigger area?
That’s a good question. We’ve not really tested that yet. 300 metres is quite a long way. But we’d love to be able to do it over a big festival site one day. Somewhere like Glastonbury is the dream. But you could always have multiple transmitters. It’d be amazing to see that moment of unity that the Xylobands seem to create on that kind of scale.
It’s amazing to hear the roar the moment they kick in at the start of each show.
Definitely. Even if you watch the footage of the X Factor show - you can hear a massive roar when they first come on. It really does seem to blow people away.
Have there been any problems with them?
No, they’ve generally been fine. You get the odd faulty unit - you get that with any electrical item - but that’s not been a big problem at all. And the feedback has been incredible. It’s almost hard to imagine Charlie Brown live without the wristbands now. They just make it seem so alive and bouncy.
The X Factor performance must’ve felt like another big moment.
Oh totally. It was a production dream, how they shot it. It looked amazing.
A lot of fans have been asking if they could make the wristbands work at home?
Not at the moment, no. We are looking at a product which does work at home, but the main concern is that if you make it possible to activate them at home, then you’d get people trying to set them off at a gig, and spoiling the effect.
Is it theoretically possible for someone to make a transmitter like yours which matches your signal?
Possibly. But we put code and other stuff in there too, to stop that. But it would be possible to change your battery if it’d run out and bring it back to another show.
There’s a lot of dates in the diary for 2012. Is the idea to take the wristbands to the entire tour?
I believe so. The order is a big number. We’re looking at more than a million pieces.
Will you be there for the whole thing?
We’re sorting that out at the moment. I’m a family man, so I’ve got to balance all that out. There’s a lot of dates. We’re discussing that now.
But you enjoyed being on tour in December?
Oh, it was brilliant. It was just nice to see people having fun with what we’re doing - the band and the audience. I loved it.
Have you got plans for future tweaks and changes to the wristbands?
Yeah, we’d like to do something that’s a bit more tailored for home. We’re looking at that for the future. The dream would be to create a global event with the wristbands - almost like a global Mexican wave. Just bring people together and let them have fun for a little while. Another dream would be that the band could do a gig on the net and we could provide people with a small, low-cost device that would flash in exactly the same way as people who were at the gig. We’re also trying to look at zones with the wristbands, to see if we can do different shapes within the crowd and that sort of thing. There’s definitely a lot of possibilities.
And are you marketing the Xylobands to other companies?
Well, the band don’t want the experience diluted for Coldplay, so we’ll see. But I think we will see some organisations using them for other kinds of events.
Do you guys have some kind of patent on them?
Yeah. The band and I have an agreement which covers the design trademark on them, patent protection and the intellectual property rights. So we’re pretty covered. We believe it’s a product that belongs to Coldplay and us, so if people want to do it themselves, they’d have to find a different way to do it.
It sounds like 2011 was a pretty crazy year for you.
Well it started with no notion of what was going to happen at the end, that’s for sure. If you’d said to me I’d be flying on a jet with Coldplay and feeling like I'm the happiest man in the world, I’d have said you were off your head. When I had this idea, I was sat in a dark room, I’d split up with an ex, with all these doom and gloom feelings, and there’s Chris singing, “When you lose something you can’t replace, stuck in reverse”. That was certainly how I felt! And then “lights will guide you home” was the line I really hooked onto for the wristbands. Actually, the first show we did the Xylobands, they suddenly started flashing of their own accord just as he did that line. That was pretty freaky! A lot of this whole thing has felt like fate, to be honest. But I’m incredibly grateful and thankful to Phil and the band for giving me this chance.
Do you have any top tips for aspiring inventors?
Believe, believe, believe. Don’t ever give up on the belief in yourself and if you try hard, you’ll get there eventually, for sure.
Final question, did you put any wristbands on your Christmas tree this year?
Haha! Well, we’ve certainly had some fun with them at home, yes.
For more info on the Xylobands, see Xylobands.com
Tagged As: interview xylobands
This interview is from Coldplay's website. Such a cool story.
After you've been inspired, go do something amazing.
Hi Jason, how are you?
I’m good, thanks. Just getting my head around what’s coming next with the Xylobands.
Let’s start at the beginning. How did you meet Coldplay?
The original connection came via buying tickets to go to the Crisis gig in Newcastle, because my son had always wanted to go and see them. There was an auction where you could bid for meet and greet tickets, and we had some of those. But we didn’t get there because of the snow.
Oh no!
Yeah, my son was absolutely devastated, so I got in touch with Crisis and asked if there was anything else we could go along to. And lo and behold I had an email from Phil Harvey and he asked if we wanted to come up and watch the band rehearse. So we did that and I decided I’d be brave and tell him about an idea I’d had a long time ago for Coldplay. Which was the wristband. And it all just went from there.
When did you have the idea?
In 2005, when Coldplay did the Glastonbury Festival. I remember I was going through a few down days and I saw them doing Fix You. And there was just such a feeling of it bringing everyone together, as well as the line “lights will guide you home”. That’s when the idea of a wristband came to mind.
So it was specifically invented with Coldplay in mind?
Absolutely. To this day, I still have my doubts that this would really work for anyone else. I feel Paradise, Charlie Brown and MX are almost too perfect for them, really. Like Chris said, it’s quite freaky how he wrote a lyric a long time ago about glowing in the dark and then all of a sudden it all comes together and we’ve got wristbands making people do exactly that.
What’s your background then? Have you always been an inventor?
Well, when I left school I went to work for the family vehicle repair business, but after 17 years I realised it wasn’t me, and that I liked making things, fixing things and creating things. So that’s when I ventured out on my own. And I managed to prove that I could have an idea and take it from my head to being successful. I’ve ended up working with people like Disney, Jim Henson, Sesame Street and Sony.
So, when you met Phil, was he immediately receptive to the idea of the wristbands?
Definitely. He’s someone who needs to be as praised in this story as anyone. He’s the one that saw the potential and took the chance. We were just talking and I was saying that I’d had a bit of a tough year and I could do with a break. But at that time the band were finishing the album and the priority was obviously to get on with that. And then all of a sudden one day I had an email from Phil saying he’d been chatting to Chris and that he had that break for me. He wanted to know when we could start looking at making the wristbands.
With the idea being that the Madrid UNSTAGED show would be their debut? Exactly. That was a nerve wracking situation. We had a product that was untried and untested. We knew what we thought it could do, but we had to put it on stage with Coldplay at this huge YouTube show and hope that it worked.
You didn’t have a dress rehearsal?
No, we jumped straight in at the deep end. Everyone said we were mad. The wristbands only arrived in Madrid on the morning of the show in a van which had brought them overnight from the UK the minute they landed there from China. Me and Phil walked down from the hotel to the venue carrying a huge bin of wristbands and I told him that I was shitting myself. He was great. He just said “It is what it is. We’ve done it now. Let’s see.” So it was a really scary night, but it worked.
That must have been a relief.
Absolutely. After the show, I had no idea what the band had thought of it. But when I got back to the hotel and charged my phone up there was a message from Chris saying well done, that it was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen and that he wanted to do it again.
So there was a chance they could have gone no further than Madrid?
Yes, exactly. We were ongoing with talks, but nothing was concrete and agreed before that.
But you obviously ended up doing the whole tour.
Yeah. Which has been such a rush. What we did and how quickly it was done is pretty unheard of, really. It was beyond madness. But we did it.
How were they manufactured?
You get your team of people here to design them and do a prototype and spend a little time testing and then you turn it over to a Chinese manufacturer.
So how do they work?
Basically they’re an RF-driven wristband. They’ve got a receiver in them which receives data and that data tells them how to flash and when to flash, basically.
How far can you transmit?
I think at the moment we can go to about 300 metres. Hence the story of the lady who lived near the Charlie Brown video shoot who’d been to a gig and suddenly found that her wristband was flashing again!
Ah yes, the Xylobands feature prominently in Charlie Brown video.
Yeah, and I think that video’s going to look amazing. They had about 20 dancers with neon paint and we put like four or five wristbands on each arm. So they were definitely glowing in the dark. It looked really cool.
Could you do it over a bigger area?
That’s a good question. We’ve not really tested that yet. 300 metres is quite a long way. But we’d love to be able to do it over a big festival site one day. Somewhere like Glastonbury is the dream. But you could always have multiple transmitters. It’d be amazing to see that moment of unity that the Xylobands seem to create on that kind of scale.
It’s amazing to hear the roar the moment they kick in at the start of each show.
Definitely. Even if you watch the footage of the X Factor show - you can hear a massive roar when they first come on. It really does seem to blow people away.
Have there been any problems with them?
No, they’ve generally been fine. You get the odd faulty unit - you get that with any electrical item - but that’s not been a big problem at all. And the feedback has been incredible. It’s almost hard to imagine Charlie Brown live without the wristbands now. They just make it seem so alive and bouncy.
The X Factor performance must’ve felt like another big moment.
Oh totally. It was a production dream, how they shot it. It looked amazing.
A lot of fans have been asking if they could make the wristbands work at home?
Not at the moment, no. We are looking at a product which does work at home, but the main concern is that if you make it possible to activate them at home, then you’d get people trying to set them off at a gig, and spoiling the effect.
Is it theoretically possible for someone to make a transmitter like yours which matches your signal?
Possibly. But we put code and other stuff in there too, to stop that. But it would be possible to change your battery if it’d run out and bring it back to another show.
There’s a lot of dates in the diary for 2012. Is the idea to take the wristbands to the entire tour?
I believe so. The order is a big number. We’re looking at more than a million pieces.
Will you be there for the whole thing?
We’re sorting that out at the moment. I’m a family man, so I’ve got to balance all that out. There’s a lot of dates. We’re discussing that now.
But you enjoyed being on tour in December?
Oh, it was brilliant. It was just nice to see people having fun with what we’re doing - the band and the audience. I loved it.
Have you got plans for future tweaks and changes to the wristbands?
Yeah, we’d like to do something that’s a bit more tailored for home. We’re looking at that for the future. The dream would be to create a global event with the wristbands - almost like a global Mexican wave. Just bring people together and let them have fun for a little while. Another dream would be that the band could do a gig on the net and we could provide people with a small, low-cost device that would flash in exactly the same way as people who were at the gig. We’re also trying to look at zones with the wristbands, to see if we can do different shapes within the crowd and that sort of thing. There’s definitely a lot of possibilities.
And are you marketing the Xylobands to other companies?
Well, the band don’t want the experience diluted for Coldplay, so we’ll see. But I think we will see some organisations using them for other kinds of events.
Do you guys have some kind of patent on them?
Yeah. The band and I have an agreement which covers the design trademark on them, patent protection and the intellectual property rights. So we’re pretty covered. We believe it’s a product that belongs to Coldplay and us, so if people want to do it themselves, they’d have to find a different way to do it.
It sounds like 2011 was a pretty crazy year for you.
Well it started with no notion of what was going to happen at the end, that’s for sure. If you’d said to me I’d be flying on a jet with Coldplay and feeling like I'm the happiest man in the world, I’d have said you were off your head. When I had this idea, I was sat in a dark room, I’d split up with an ex, with all these doom and gloom feelings, and there’s Chris singing, “When you lose something you can’t replace, stuck in reverse”. That was certainly how I felt! And then “lights will guide you home” was the line I really hooked onto for the wristbands. Actually, the first show we did the Xylobands, they suddenly started flashing of their own accord just as he did that line. That was pretty freaky! A lot of this whole thing has felt like fate, to be honest. But I’m incredibly grateful and thankful to Phil and the band for giving me this chance.
Do you have any top tips for aspiring inventors?
Believe, believe, believe. Don’t ever give up on the belief in yourself and if you try hard, you’ll get there eventually, for sure.
Final question, did you put any wristbands on your Christmas tree this year?
Haha! Well, we’ve certainly had some fun with them at home, yes.
For more info on the Xylobands, see Xylobands.com
Tagged As: interview xylobands
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