This trailer for The Memory Weaver was provided by my publisher, Revell, who allowed me to write the short script and approve the production. The background opening title is taken of the ledger sheet, an iphone shot I made while visiting Kirk’s Ferry in Brownsville, OR where much of this story takes place. The ledger is from the 1850s and I found entries by both Henry Spalding, my protagonist’s father (and early missionary to the Nez Perce) and Eliza Spalding Warren’s husband. It was a special twist of history seeing those pages.
I loved this production at first view! Especially the music, and the horses…who cannot be moved by the flow of horses across a western landscape. I made one slight change to the fine work by this Oregon production company. The original had a quote by Salvador Dali that I include in the front matter of the book. It reads: “The difference between false memories and true ones is the same as for jewels: it is always the false ones that look the most real, the most brilliant.” It’s an appropriate quote for this story of a young woman who as a child endured a great tragedy. In the West, it’s known as the Whitman Massacre of 1847. She was also held hostage along with several others for 47 days that winter. Eliza Spalding was ten years old and the only one who knew the language of the Indians who had taken them. So she had to interpret between the hostage takers and those huddled in fear.
The change I made was removing that Dali quote as the final words you can read at the end of the trailer. They are still in the book. I did a little mind-mumbling about doing that. I mean, why remove such an appropriate and beautiful quote from a painter of such renown who even titled one of his masterpieces “The Persistence of Memory”? Especially when I thought to replace them with my own words.
So I asked my friends whether they thought that was wise.
Leah, my media person from Impact Author thought I should change it. “It’s a short opportunity to put your words before the viewer.” And there are lots of people who haven’t read my words and they might if my words were included. My prayer group all concurred and so did the head of marketing for the publisher. So with a cadre of people of good will and professional savvy, I replaced Salvador Dali’s words with mine. (Gulp)
That’s why I ended it as I did, with these words that I so truly believe in my heart and hope Eliza Spalding Warren, that massacre survivor, did too.
“…the healing of old wounds comes not from pushing tragic memories away but from remembering them, filtering them through love, to transform their distinctive kind of pain.”
I hope you’ll look for the book in September. Warmly, Jane
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