Colleen Helme's Blog, page 8

Book Signing

I had a blast at my first book signing at The King's English Bookstore. It was so fun to talk about my books and meet some wonderful people. Thanks for everyone's support!

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The Relic

I am in the process of the final edits for The Relic! The book cover looks great and I'm so excited for this book to be released. With my book signing coming up next week, I have a lot on my plate, but I'm enjoying every minute of it.

The RELIC will end the story of Callista and Justin, but they will always be close to my heart!

Best Wishes!

Flame of Destiny Video Trailer

Hey!
Just got my video trailer for Flame of Destiny posted! Please take a look! You will find it on my author page

I composed the music and Melissa created the video. Pretty Sweet!

It's Official!

I am excited to announce that I am a featured author at The King's English Bookstore!
Date: July 12
Time: 7:00 p.m.
Place: 1511 South 1500 East
Salt Lake City, UT

I will be reading from two of my books: Flame of Destiny and Carrots!

Questions and a book signing will follow - plus my books will also be available for purchase.

If you are in the neighborhood - Please stop by!

Link to The King's English Website:
http://www.kingsenglish.com/event/loc...

Featured Author

Today I am the featured author on Clare Dargin's blog for all three of my books!
Songbird
Flame of Destiny
Carrots

Please stop by and take a look:
http://theembraced.blogspot.com/

Book Group

Last night I had the opportunity to talk to a group of friends who have a book group and wanted me to review my book, SONGBIRD. I had a wonderful experience talking about fantasy, writing, and the story of SONGBIRD. It was a blast, and so fun to be surrounded by good friends. Writing is a solitary pursuit. I didn't realize how much until I was able to talk about it. I only hope I didn't talk too much! It was also exciting to see that my writing was enjoyed by so many people. As a writer, that's really all you can hope for. That the people who read your work will be glad they spent some time in the worlds and with the characters you created.
Thanks to all my friends and readers on this list!

Window on the Workplace

I recently had the opportunity to speak at another local High School. It was fun to talk about writing and creativity and my love of fantasy. The students were great and it was fun to share my books!

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Notice what the white board says above my posters! I love it!

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The librarian got so many requests for my books that they decided to order them for the school. Sweet!

Love of Fantasy

Why do I love fantasy? I think it's mostly because I love the idea of magic. First of all, I grew up on fairytales. Cinderella needed a fairy godmother to make things right. In a way magic means having a special ability to help control your world. Magic or special abilities give us heroes to save the day when nothing else will. In my book Songbird, the magic is manifest through music. What if someone could use their singing voice to heal, influence people, bring down lightning, or kill? What would this kind of world be like? The magic in Flame of Destiny is quite different. Here, there is one person who has been given the power to destroy the shadowbeasts and the evil wizard who created them. They are both heroes given difficult challenges. Their courage in the face of these challenges gives us hope that we too can overcome the things we face, and be better people because of it.

Career Day

I just returned from career day at a local high school. I was the guest author and it was so fun to talk about writing and some of my experiences. It's funny how excited and passionate I got when talking about my books! As an author, the books you write contain so much of yourself that it's hard to separate the work from the person. A friend of mine read SONGBIRD and because she knows me, she kept thinking things like, "Where did she come up with this?" and "How did she figure all this out?" while reading the book. It was probably somewhat distracting - and I hope didn't ruin her enjoyment of the story. Just as in journalism, there is always a story behind the story - layers that make reading and writing so interesting and enjoyable! It is getting to the heart that brings satisfaction and helps us understand the world in which we live, and a little more about who we are, and who we want to be. One of my favorite quotes sums it all up - "I am more than a human being, I am a human becoming."

Artwork for Songbird

One of my favorite scenes in Songbird has just been put to art! It is near the end of the book, and I don't want to give anything away so I won't explain what's happening for those who haven't read it - but please check it out! You can find it here:

http://www.colleenhelme.com/novels.aspx

under ART. It's called 'Grove Ascending'. I did the outline and my daughter, Melissa did the graphics. It's way cool and just how I imagined it!