Commercials + Contest- Straw House, Wood House, Brick House, Blow by Daniel Nayeri

YA author Daniel Nayeri makes his solo writing debut on October 25th, when his collection of four novellas, titled Straw House, Wood House, Brick House, Blow releases from Candlewick Press.

In an ambitious promotional project, Nayeri worked with a leading production studio, Plywood Pictures, to produce a series of four commercials to accompany each story from the book.

You can view all the videos here (it would take up too much space here since I've got other fun stuff to show off!), so enjoy them! They're absolutely stunning!

Says Nayeri about the final clips, "Each of these commercials tries to give a sense of the tone of each story. I tried as hard as I could to keep my nose out of it. The Plywood Pictures guys are pros. They've done this for companies WAY bigger than me. So I said my peace and got out of their way. I love what they came up with. I'd love to see more book commercials, instead of trailers. From a writer's perspective, they didn't mess around with a story that I spent years laboring over. They made their own thing."

Fast Facts about the Straw House, Wood House, Brick House, Blow videos:

1. The visual effects side for "Our Lady of Villains" took about 45 hours..not including at least a day of screen tests and noodling around with the technology.

2 "Toy Farm" was filmed entirely in Plywood Pictures studio with green screen backgrounds. (photo attached). Using stills and some digital camera tracking tools, they were able to fill in the rest of the scenes digitally. The impressive train and trestle were filmed on the green screen, as were the puffs of cotton, but everything else was a conglomeration of various photos of national parks which were sourced online.

3. The real trick for the "Wish Police" commercial was simply the machine. The machine took a couple days to design on paper and then about 2.5 days to build. (early blueprint attached with photo of assembly)

About the book:

This bold collection of novellas by Another series author Daniel Nayeri features four riveting tales. These modern riffs on classic genres will introduce young adult readers to a broad range of writing styles that explore universally compelling themes such as identity and belonging, betrayal and friendship, love and mortality.

Straw House: A Western sizzling with suspense, set in a land where a rancher grows soulless humans and a farmer grows living toys.

Wood House: This science-fiction tale plunges the reader into a future where reality and technology blend imperceptibly, and a teenage girl must race to save the world from a nano-revolution that a corporation calls "ReCreation Day."

Brick House: This detective story set in modern NYC features a squad of "wish police" and a team of unlikely detectives.

Blow: A comedic love story told by none other than Death himself, portrayed here as a handsome and charismatic hero who may steal your heart in more ways than one. With humor, suspense, and relatable prose, this hip and cutting-edge collection dazzles.

Written entirely on an iPhone, this quartet of YA novellas by Another Pan and Another Faust author Daniel Nayeri showcases four different genres.


Doesn't it sound awesome? Since I'm posting about this before the on-sale date of Oct. 25, Candlewick is providing a copy of the book for me to give away! So if the book sounded good to you, go ahead and leave a comment by Sunday, October 23 at 9pm EST and I'll pick a winner then. USresidents only. Good luck to all!