Book Trailer

I'll be creating a book trailer for a book titled Sleeping with Ward Cleaver. The auction winner got it as a gift for the author of the book. Here's a brief synopsis:

Protagonist Claire Doolittle--a 39-year old mother of five and caretaker of a menagerie that includes a three-legged mutt named Tripod and a verbose parrot who burps exactly like Claire’s husband--has had it with her desiccated sex life and tapped-out existence. Married to the still-handsome architect Jack, she finally realizes that her one-time Adonis has morphed into the new-millennium version of Ward Cleaver, father of The Beaver and all around mundane middle-aged man. And the last person in the world Claire ever imagined having to sleep with on a regular basis is a man whose sex appeal more closely resembles that of George Washington than George Clooney. Claire is in for a life crisis as she realizes that in her quest to suppress her lack of desire for her drab-yet-stern disciplinarian of a husband she has also completely suppressed her yearning for much of anything. Or anyone. And when she receives an email from her almost fiancÈ Todd Sterodnik--who dumped her years earlier for a blond bimbo named Vanna Black--making nice and trying to weave himself back into her psyche, Claire learns that sometimes you have to delve into your past to determine your future.

Claire’s determination to join Jack on a Miami business trip to try to revive their stale relationship is thwarted by her less-than-enthusiastic spouse, who, she discovers, will be accompanied by his much younger and far more nubile colleague Julia Juilliard, whom Claire dubs “the home-wrecking homebuilder”. So Claire sets off alone on a spy mission to Miami, intent on learning the true nature of Jack’s designs and to maybe indulge in some long-needed R&R. All bets are off when Todd shows up to try to sweep Claire off of her world-weary feet, and Claire has to straddle the fine line between unwanted responsibility and unfulfilled desire.
When Claire finds her husband in a suspicious embrace with his colleague, Claire accosts him. An argument ensues and Jack, whose father died at 47 from a heart attack, experiences chest pain. Claire is jarred to her senses with the fear that she might lose her husband, and rallies into action. Jack is rushed to the hospital, where they learn that Jack had merely suffered an anxiety attack. For the rest of the weekend in Miami, Claire and Jack finally take the time to do what they hadn’t done in years: discuss their lives, their hopes and dreams, about how they became so disconnected, and how they can try to rekindle interest in one another. Claire and Jack end many hours of tears and recrimination by making love for the first time in ages minus many layers of animosity. Later Jack, who’s been training for a marathon, encourages Claire to join him on a run, and Claire realizes how therapeutic taking time for herself, even just running, can be. As the weekend comes to a close, Claire and Jack have begun to reconcile their resentments and regrets, and are committed to rebuilding their once-solid foundation.

They arrive home to find that Jack’s mother Candy, who watched the kids, has organized a regimented system to help Claire gain control of her out of control life. Over the next few months, everyone in the family assumes responsibilities for righting the imbalances in their lives. Claire and Jack have found a common bond in running; Jack has persuaded Claire to train for the marathon with him. The kids begin to help out around the house, and life starts to feel the way it should have all along for Claire. Claire learns in an e-mail from Todd that he’s been able to reunite with his son; she receives a thank-you e-mail from his son for her role in their reunion. Another e-mail from Todd reveals that his wife is expecting a baby, something that he once eschewed but now embraces. Claire and Jack run the marathon together, Jack finishes first and turns back to help Claire with the last desperate half-mile.

The next night, after best friend Kat’s wedding, an enfeebled Claire and Jack return to their hotel, tired but happy, whereupon Claire cagily proposes that she and Jack engage in a little elevator sex. When she and Jack furtively make love on the elevator, Claire is happily fantasizing not about Ward Cleaver, but about her own Eddie Haskell, the bad boy she long ago chose to spend the rest of her life with.


Excerpts and other info are available if you google the title. Suggestions for what to include in an amusing trailer are being taken.