Colleen Houck's Blog, page 60

Top Ten Reasons Why I Love The Vampire Diaries

 Top Ten Reasons Why I Watch Vampire Diaries

 
#10         Tyler
 
I was really prepared not to like him. He seemed like such a bully in the beginning of the series but the writers have developed his character so well that I can't help rooting for him. He shows a vulnerability that I didn't expect to see and I really enjoy where the writers are taking him.
 
#9           Caroline
 
In the book Caroline is a snobbish, self-absorbed cheerleader but the character on television is complex and interesting. She has a tough layer underneath the soft exterior and is way smarter than she appears.  Making her a vampire was a fantastic idea. I love how Damon calls her Vampire Barbie. Caroline has her own interesting little love triangle going which is almost as compelling as Elena's.
 
#8           Jeremy and Bonnie
 
There is no Jeremy in the book version but I think he's an extraordinary addition to the cast. Of the different ladies who have caught his eye, Bonnie is the one I like him with the best. They're good together and they support each other in a healthy way that could continue long term. They are both vulnerable in their own way but they bring out the best in each other.
 
#7           Klaus and Elijah
 
I absolutely love this backstory and seeing the repetition of two brothers caught up in a rivalry that lasts centuries. Both of these brothers are interesting and frightening and they add a lot to the series. I hope they stick around for a while.

 
#6           Katherine/Elena
 
Nina Dobrev does such an amazing job at playing both of these characters. When I'm watching Katherine I totally believe she's someone else. There's no Elena in there at all. She is motivated differently and she loves differently.  I imagine it would be hard to pull off two very singular characters but Nina does it well.

 
#5           Backstory
 
The book doesn't go into Stefan's and Damon's backstory much at all except that they were in France when they met Katherine. In the television show a full and complex backstory was created that explains how the two brothers fell in love with Katherine and became vampires. It was set in the civil war period which adds a lot of interesting costumes and plays on the brothers' code of chivalry. It turns out their family has connections to the town and I love the idea of their lives coming full circle. It takes a lot of planning to connect all those pieces so seamlessly.

 
#4           Season One Finale
 
Damon and Elena share a kiss but we later learn it was Katherine kissing him. This totally caught me by surprise and it's very hard to surprise me. I felt horrible for Damon but was a little surprised that he couldn't tell the difference. She was carrying Elena's dress which was tricky.

 
#3           Damon & Stefan Switch Places
 
I really enjoyed seeing how when the brothers first became vampires, Stefan was the one who convinced Damon to be a vampire and Damon wanted to be the good guy which was an interesting development. In season three we get to see the same thing. Stefan heads over to the dark side leaving Damon with Elena as the one she can depend on. Switching which brother you root for keeps the show interesting and fresh.

 
#2           Damon Shares Feelings
 
My favorite scene of the series so far happened when Damon is returning Elena's necklace. Before Damon gives Elena back her vervain jewelry, he tells her how he feels about her. We, the audience, don't get to see how she reacts which is frustrating but it really works to keep the romantic angst at electric levels. He then compels her to forget all about what he said and how she responded which is very noble of him. I like seeing these sneak peeks into Damon's character.

 
#1           Twists and Turns
 
Every episode offers me something I didn't see coming. If you think this is just another teen paranormal drama, give it a chance. The Vampire Diaries surprises me and keeps me coming back every week. It's my favorite show right now. The characters are complex and interesting. The writing is sharp-witted and shrewd.  I have to applaud the writers who took a book with a familiar theme and created something exciting and truly exceptional.  Well done!
 
Those are my top ten reasons why I love the show as a writer, but as a girl there is only one reason I can't miss The Vampire Diaries—Ian Somerhalder. If his blue eyes, fantastic hair, and awesome facial expressions weren't enough, then his acting would be. I loved him on Lost and was so sad when he died on that show. He has the unique ability to show all his emotions on his face. Every time he's on screen I'm riveted. Ian is just fabulous to watch.  Swoon W O R T H Y. =)

 
So there you have it. If you agree, disagree, or have other reasons you watch, leave a comment below.
 
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INSPIRATION CORNER
DURGA AND HER TEMPLE


I found the story of Durga and her tiger in the early days of my research and she became the main focus of my story. I knew right away that I wanted her to come to life and gift her weapons to our heroes.  I found a temple that I really liked the look of and used the description of it for the temple in Tiger's Curse. The pillars are there but the carvings on them that I created for the purposes of my story are not.  The statue you see below is there though. The temple was a little too far to the East so in my book I moved it much closer to Hampi.  In this temple Durga is accompanied by her tiger Damon but in the temple that Kishan and Kelsey visit in Tiger's Quest there is no tiger.  Pay close attention to what happens in the temples and to all the advice that Durga shares.  This will all be important later in the series.















 
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PUZZLE
 
Finish this word search puzzle and leave a comment with your finish time here to be eligible to win a signed bookmark.  Enjoy!







Tiger Saga Puzzle word search game » word search


 
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That's it for me this week.  Don't forget to come and see me if you live in the DC area! I will be at the National Book Festival signing books and giving a presentation on Sunday September 25th!  For more details check my last two blogs or the events tab on my website.  Have a good week everyone!



PS Don't forget the Vlog contest.  There is still time to submit your vlog reviews of Tiger's Curse and Tiger's Quest to win a copy of Voyage!  There is also still a Barnes and Noble review contest going on through the end of the month as well.  Don't miss out on either of these.  If you have questions about the contests, email my sister-in-law, Suki, at contests@colleenhouck.com.



Colleen
 
 
 
 

Back to School Contest Winners

 Hi Everyone!



I am sending all of you students headed back to school today good luck.  It's exciting and scary to start a new year of education but I hope you all enjoy it and have fun.  Just pretend Ren and Kishan are going with you and keeping potential "Arties" at bay.



Here are the long awaited results of the Back to School contest.  I 100% agree with these selections.  They are awesome!



Now I know you're waiting to hear from Suki so here she is...

Wow! This was certainly an experience judging a contest like this. There were 124 entries and it was hard to narrow it down to just a few winners. Unfortunately, not everyone can win so I employed the help of my wonderful husband. I thoroughly enjoyed reading every single entry. I was surprised by how many different ways people came up with as a continuation of the teaser paragraph. Now, onto the winners of the Back-to-School paragraph contest.

 

 

MOST SURPRISING WINNER

 

Holly C. wrote:

 

We turned around to see who was addressing us. The warm breeze continued, blowing out the candles' flames and replacing them with slightly curling tendrils of smoke, like a hand twirling yarn around their finger. Whatever had just arrived and greeted us, it was coming closer. I could hear the padding of huge feet--no, huge paws. "Ren?" I asked uncertainly, feeling somewhat tense. He didn't answer. I glanced at Kishan, who was frowning slightly and listening intently. I squinted my eyes, which were adjusting to the growing darkness, and barely made out the face, shoulders, and front legs of a tiger. "Oh, Ren," I said, relieved. "What--" Kishan squeezed my shoulder. "Wait a minute, Kells. That doesn't smell like Ren." I frowned, confused. "What do you mean? He has smells different than he usually does?" I asked. "No," Kishan whispered. "I don't think it's--" His voiced faltered. I gasped as a tiger stepped into our small circle of candlelight. This tiger was slightly smaller than Ren, and it had slate gray fur, thin, more widely-spaced stripes, and rounder ears. It blinked its amethyst colored eyes, and then I watched in awe as the tiger morphed into a woman--a woman who had tears pooling at the bottom of her eyes. One tear escaped, making a glistening path down her flushing, rosy face. Kishan drew in a breath. "Yesubai?"

 

Suki says:

One of the reasons this won was because it was the only paragraph that wasn't about Kelsey and that really surprised me that "Let. Her. Go." could mean "Back off, strange lady. Kishan's MINE."

 

 

MOST ROMANTIC WINNER

 

Jessica Specht wrote:

 

My eyes fluttered closed, letting the voice soak into my soul. It was like liquid fire coursing through my veins and I never wanted it to stop. Not again. I couldn't lose him again. I opened my eyes and saw golden orbs gazing back. They were filled with a sadness that I couldn't bear to see in my friend's eyes. Even though the entire thing had been Kishan's idea, I knew it still hurt him deeply to see how he couldn't affect me like his brother could. He smiled at me and caressed my cheek softly. "Go calm him down, bilauta, before he hurts himself." He started to turn away, but stopped when he felt my hand still holding his. "I…" I tried to think of something, anything, to say, but my thoughts were clouded. Kishan squeezed my hand tightly and I knew that there was nothing I could say. I'd already made my choice long before we'd even met. He dipped his head and caught my lips for one last, chaste kiss. "Be happy, rajkumari," he whispered almost silently, before he transformed and bounded off into the night. Leaving me to reunite with my tiger. With my Ren.

 

Suki says:

I thought it was so sweet that Kishan loved Kelsey and Ren so much that he took that difficult choice away from Kelsey (having to choose between the two) by choosing to leave and allowing them to be happy.

 

 

MOST HUMOROUS WINNER

 

Melissa Dalton wrote:

 

I spun around at the sound of his voice, my heart beating wildly. Ren stood before us, a look of rage plastered all over his face. I turned to Kishan to see his reaction, but he looked as confused as I felt. What was Ren doing here? "I thought I told you to let her go," Ren said, pointing at his brother. A thrill of fear rushed through me, and I took a step toward Ren to try to buffer the situation. "Listen, Ren, we can explain ..." I started, but he held up his hand to interrupt me. "I don't care about explanations. I just want the truth. Who did THIS?" he said, pointing to an empty tray in his other hand. I don't know why I hadn't noticed it before. "What are you talking about?" Kishan asked. Ren's eyes narrowed as he looked at the two of us. "My cookies," Ren seethed. "I saw you two in the kitchen together, and now I want to know. Who. Ate. My. Cookies?"

 

Suki says:

Honestly… I am STILL laughing over this entry. I love it!

 

 

RANDOM WINNER

 

This winner was chosen by taking all the entries (except for the three paragraphs from above and their other entries) and picking one randomly by a random number generator. There were 319 entries.

 

#159: Gabrielle

 

She won by subscribing to Colleen's newsletter. For her paragraph entry, she wrote:

 

Kelsey wanted to throw herself into Ren's arms and sob at the exact same time that she wanted to pound on him with her fist for coming at the WRONG moment! She didn't expect him to remember her now that she had fallen for Kishan. In retrospect for Kelsey she did say "if i could find love with someone along the way, then so be it. That someone became Kishan, then again she did promise Ren that she would remember his love. All of the happiness Kelsey felt at that moment quickly vanished as she saw the hurt and anger in Ren's cobalt eyes. She couldn't  help but feel scared.  

 

 

Winners: you have received an email from me. Please respond back as quickly as possible!

 

 

OTHER CONTEST INFORMATION

 

Remember we are running two giveaways for the month of September. I wasn't as specific for the Vlogs contest as I was for the Barnes & Noble one. In order for any of your entries to be valid, you MUST submit a Vlog for any of the Tiger Saga books. Any random entries with no Vlog attach to them by the end of the month will be disqualified to win. I have received emails from several people who submitted their entries prior to posting a vlog. Easiest way to do this is to NOT submit any entries until you have your vlog done. However, if you are one of these people, you can email me for assistance in fixing this situation. I don't want anyone to not have a chance of winning!

 

I can be reached at contests@colleenhouck.com.

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Those were fantastic!  Thanks so much to all who participated and congratulations to the winners!



I wanted to add another item on my schedule for the month of September.  On September 13th I will be going to Powell's again to support my publishing brother Gregg Olsen as he signs his new book ENVY.  Click HERE to watch the book trailer.

 

True-crime author Gregg Olsen makes his young-adult debut with a new fiction series for teens based on ripped-from-the-headlines stories — with a paranormal touch. In the deceptively picture-perfect town of Port Gamble (aka "Empty Coffin"), Washington, evil lurks, and strange things happen — and 15-year-olds Hayley and Taylor Ryan secretly use their wits and their telepathic "twin-sense" to uncover the truth about the town's victims and culprits. Envy(Splinter), the series debut, involves the mysterious death of the twins' old friend Katelyn. Was it murder? Suicide? An accident? Envy will take you to the edge — and push you right over.

Preorder a signed edition of Empty Coffin #01 .

 

Tuesday, September 13th @ 7pm Powell's Books at Cedar Hills Crossing 

3415 SW Cedar Hills Blvd. (800) 878-7323



Gregg is the second author picked up for the new YA imprint Splinter that also publishes my books.  This is why I call him my publishing brother.  I'm hoping he'll be joining our next YA Scavenger Hunt in December.  I will also sign any stock of Curse and Quest Powell's has while I'm there.  My husband snuck ENVY away before I could read it but he really liked it.

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Inspiration Corner


There are some really creepy trees near a house that belongs to a friend of mine.  They are some kind of pine tree that grow really long branches that look like arms with needle fingers.  When I was writing Tiger's Curse we drove past her house and the idea came to me to use a tree in Kishkindha.  I made my trees a bit more like weeping willows because the branches of willows are thinner and can move around a bit more.  I never really took the idea far enough to explain what would happen to you if you were wrapped up in the branches like the monkeys were.  I don't think the trees would actually eat a person.  It's more likely that they were just doing their job to protect the Golden Fruit.  Once you were dead they'd probably drop you and let you fertilize their roots. Ew, did I just say that?  Here are some pictures of haunted forests I used for inspiration.  I was never able to find a picture of the tree that inspired me.  I looked for it on several websites but never came across one that looked exactly the same.







 





Have a great week everybody!



Colleen Houck

 

Vlog Contest

Vlog Contest
We have TWO giveaways running all month long! If you haven't read about the first giveaway of the month (the one that is all about the Barnes & Noble website), please go read there because there are some instructions about how to use Rafflecopter that I am not going to repeat here.
 
PRIZES
Five people will win a galley (ARC) of Tiger's Voyage.
 
HOW TO ENTER
Vlog a book review for either Tiger's Curse or Tiger's Quest. (I'm being told that sentence is incorrect grammar from Word. I say that Word is just outdated and doesn't know what vlogging is.) You can even do TWO vlogs: one for each book.
 
Don't know what a vlog is? A vlog is a video blog. You tape yourself giving a book review of either of Colleen's books and then either post it to YouTube or anywhere else with a URL. Then you come here and you enter the link as part of the giveaway! If you plan on submitting a vlog for both books, please wait until you have both vlogs to submit your entry.
 
GIVEAWAY DATES
This giveaway begins Thursday, September 1 and ends Friday, September 30. Winners will be emailed immediately and announced on Monday, October 3.
 
EXTRA INFORMATION
This is not a contest. Your vlog won't be judged on how good your review is or how well you can speak or if your hair looks super pretty. However, to be eligible, your vlog must be a valid book review. It cannot be sarcastic and you should not have any incorrect information. Please don't be rude but if you have constructive criticism, well, a book review is the perfect place for that. If your vlog passes my critique (bwahahaha!), you will be eligible to win!
 
We also have the extra optional entries of liking Tiger's Curse on Facebook, following @colleenhouck on Twitter, tweeting about the giveaway, and sharing the giveaway on Facebook.
 
All information submitted (names, email addresses, and mailing addresses) will be kept private. We won't sell or hand out your information to anybody. Your information will only be used for the express purpose of the giveaway.
If you have any questions, I can be reached at contests@colleenhouck.com or on Facebook.

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Try to Remember the Kind of September

Hello!





First I want to tell you about my upcoming events in the next two months.

Oregon Shakespeare Festival

Medford, Oregon

September 2nd-4th

This weekend I will be going to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland, Oregon. I'll be stopping in Medford, OR on the way and will sign stock at the Medford Barnes & Noble Friday morning, September 2nd and I'll stop by the Bloomsbury Bookstore on main street and sign any copies of my books that they might have too.  This is an impromptu visit which means Bloomsbury may not actually have any of my books. You might want to call and ask them before you head into their store for a signed copy. I'd stop in Eugene too but I don't think I'll have the time.  Maybe on my return trip.

 

 

 

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The Creative Connection Event

St. Paul, Minnesota

15th-17th

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Here's my schedule at the conference.



Thursday, September 15

1:30pm - 5:30pm: Pitch Slam - How to Become a Children's Book Author

6:30pm - 9:00pm: Attending Keynote Welcome Dinner



Friday, September 16

11:45am - 1:15pm: Attending Keynote Luncheon

2:30pm - 5:30pm: Teaching Class - Creative Writing for Beginners

6:30pm - 9:30pm: Autograph Cocktail Party



Please come see me there at the book signing or even better take a writing class that I'm teaching.  You don't have to attend the entire conference.  One fan called them and they said you could just take my class only for a small fee.  The signing is free I believe but call or email them just to make sure before you show up.

 

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National Book Festival

Washington D.C.

The National Mall

September 24th-25th

 

Authors I'm excited to see-David McCullough, Cassandra Clare (I've been near her several times but she's always too busy), Sarah Dessen, and I heard a rumor that Suzanne Collins was going to attend but I can't find her name on the website.  Here's my schedule.  You can find me in the Cutting Edge Pavillion.

Presentation


The Cutting Edge

Sunday, September 25

3:45 pm - 4:30 pm


Book Signing


Sunday, September 25

1:00 pm - 2:00 pm

 




If you live in or near the D.C. area, come and see me!

 

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Smart Chicks Kick It Tour

This is not my own event but one I'm excited to go to.  On September 29th I will be attending an author event at Powell's. If you like YA books you should make plans to attend because there won't be just one author, not two, but seven!




 Join young-adult authors Melissa Marr (Graveminder), Kelley Armstrong (Spell Bound), Jennifer Lynn Barnes (Trial by Fire), Ally Condie (Matched Trilogy), Claudia Gray (Fateful), Beth Revis (Across the Universe), and Sara Zarr (How to Save a Life) as they present stories from Enthralled: Paranormal Diversions (HarperCollins), a collection of paranormal short stories from some of today's bestselling young-adult talent, all united by a common theme: road trips.



 

Thursday, September 29th @ 6pm Powell's Books at Cedar Hills Crossing

3415 SW Cedar Hills Blvd. (800) 878-7323



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Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association

Portland, Oregon

Airport Holiday Inn

October 13th-15th





 
This conference is only open to librarians and booksellers and I don't have all the details yet except that I've been invited to the Author Fest on Friday, October 14 from 5:00 pm to 9:30 pm.  It's very similar to the speed dating thing I did with other authors at the Romantic Times conference.  I go table to table and talk about my books as my listeners feast on delicious treats.



The other cool thing is that Tiger's Curse and Tiger's Quest are both being considered for the 2012 PNBA Book Awards.

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Tucson, Arizona

October 20th-24th

I'll be vacationing with my family in Tucson and spoiling nieces and nephews, but sometime during the week I'll swing by both B & N stores and sign stock.

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Inspiration Corner

Kishan...deep sigh.  I knew I wanted to create a romantic rival for Kelsey's affection from day one. It adds a lot of romantic tension in the story and inspired lots of juicy dialogue.  After I decided to have the rival be a brother and set them up to already be mad at each other because of a girl from their past, Yesubai, I had to think about how the curse would affect Kishan.

 

In researching tiger stories from India, I came across some vague hunter myths of a black tiger.  It seems there were rumors at one time that there existed a black tiger and hunters were sent into the jungle to try and find one.  They came back with black panthers but no tigers.  I asked a few tiger experts if a black tiger could really exist and I was told it was very possible.  I found other evidence of Maltese blue tigers which look a bit grey. 



There's also the really cool symbol of having a white and a black tiger. I could play with the ideas of yin and yang, dark and light, good and bad.  It was perfect.



I instantly fell in love with the idea of creating a creature as unique and beautiful as Kishan's tiger form.  The fact that rumors did and perhaps still do exist of a black tiger that hides himself in the jungles of India was especially exciting because I wanted to take readers on a journey that was maybe just a little bit possible.
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That's it from me, now here is some contest info from Suki.





Barnes & Noble Contest

 
Namaste! It's Suki and I'm here to announce another great giveaway! There will be a few times when I wish I could enter these giveaways instead of run them. This is one of those times! It looks like someone has some money to spend instead. Before I introduce the contest, let's talk about how to enter. Almost every contest or giveaway will use this new method.




Remember how I used Google Forms for the Back-to-School contest? Well, forget all about that form. Now I'm using Rafflecopter—it does the same things but easier (for me and for you). The first thing you need to do is the MANDATORY entry. We want to speed up the process of getting prizes out to our wonderful winners. Instead of requiring a 48 hour period in which the winners need to respond to email (THIS IS STILL IN FORCE FOR THE BACK-TO-SCHOOL CONTEST), we will send you an email notification as well as announce the winners. And we'll just ship the prize off to you!
 
 
Once the mandatory entry is complete (some contests may have multiple mandatory entries), the other entries will be available for you to complete. It is really easy. You click "Click for Instructions" and then do whatever it says. I tried to make the instructions easy to follow. If the entry isn't mandatory, you do not have to do it. It looks like a lot, but you can pick and choose.
Who is now completely bored, fell asleep, and drooled on the keyboard? Let's get to the good stuff.
PRIZES
Five people will win a bell anklet. How cool is that?! Winners will be chosen randomly.
HOW TO WIN
We have several options for entries. I know I said the only mandatory entry was the mailing address but there are secondary mandatory entries. There are 11 ways to enter the giveaway besides the mailing address thing. You MUST complete at least one of the entries on the Barnes & Noble website. The last four entries will be deleted from the giveaway if you have not completed something from the first seven.
GIVEAWAY DATES
This giveaway begins Thursday, September 1 and ends Friday, September 30. Winners will be emailed immediately and announced on Monday, October 3.
EXTRA INFORMATION
I won't go over all the entries because I already wrote the instructions in Rafflecopter below. One question I already anticipate is "what if I have already written a review for all the books that I've read?" If you have already written a review, you can still submit it. If you click the "Write a Review" button, it will take you to your original review for that book. Grab your text from there to submit to the contest.
Another thing of note: You do not have to prove that you voted on reviews because I couldn't figure out how to verify that one, but please still be honest. Don't say you did it if you didn't.
All information submitted (names, email addresses, and mailing addresses) will be kept private. We won't sell or hand out your information to anybody. Your information will only be used for the express purpose of the giveaway.
If you have any questions, I can be reached at contests@colleenhouck.com or on Facebook.
 

 

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Puzzle Contest Winners
 

Remember that little puzzle of the Tiger's Voyage cover? If you follow Colleen on twitter or on Facebook, you may have known that there was a little contest if you posted your time.

 

There were eleven entries and the five winners chosen by Random.org were 1, 5, 11, 4, and 6. I posted who the winners are below. If you are one of these winners, please email me at contests@colleenhouck.com with your mailing address so that I can get your prize out to you!

 

Oh yes, you probably want to know what you've won. :) Each of you will be receiving bookmarks signed by Colleen!

 

#1: sstevenot said "500 moves in 1403 seconds…my score was 0. Pathetic I know :)

 

#5: jusjolly said "Completed in 1290 seconds. Used to play these puzzle games as a kid :) Fun! Can hardly wait to see what Destiny will look like!"

 

#11: dilora said "My fastest so far has been 274 moves, but that was after playing for a while. I love puzzles! THANKS:) for the first 4 chapters!!!! I love the series soooooo much. I just hope the love triangle will eventually find their loves. I don't care who they end up with as long as they have someone."

 

#4: rajkumari378 said "Solved puzzle in 1320 seconds."

 

#6: kimcute13 said "Wow that puzzle was hard. Finished in 704 seconds with 500 moves and 0 score. But that was fun. Hope to read the whole book soon!! :)"

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 Vlog Contest
We have TWO giveaways running all month long! If you haven't read about the first giveaway of the month (the one that is all about the Barnes & Noble website), please go read there because there are some instructions about how to use Rafflecopter that I am not going to repeat here.
 
PRIZES
Five people will win a galley (ARC) of Tiger's Voyage.
 
HOW TO ENTER
Vlog a book review for either Tiger's Curse or Tiger's Quest. (I'm being told that sentence is incorrect grammar from Word. I say that Word is just outdated and doesn't know what vlogging is.) You can even do TWO vlogs: one for each book.
 
Don't know what a vlog is? A vlog is a video blog. You tape yourself giving a book review of either of Colleen's books and then either post it to YouTube or anywhere else with a URL. Then you come here and you enter the link as part of the giveaway! If you plan on submitting a vlog for both books, please wait until you have both vlogs to submit your entry.
 
GIVEAWAY DATES
This giveaway begins Thursday, September 1 and ends Friday, September 30. Winners will be emailed immediately and announced on Monday, October 3.
 
EXTRA INFORMATION
This is not a contest. Your vlog won't be judged on how good your review is or how well you can speak or if your hair looks super pretty. However, to be eligible, your vlog must be a valid book review. It cannot be sarcastic and you should not have any incorrect information. Please don't be rude but if you have constructive criticism, well, a book review is the perfect place for that. If your vlog passes my critique (bwahahaha!), you will be eligible to win!
 
We also have the extra optional entries of liking Tiger's Curse on Facebook, following @colleenhouck on Twitter, tweeting about the giveaway, and sharing the giveaway on Facebook.
 
All information submitted (names, email addresses, and mailing addresses) will be kept private. We won't sell or hand out your information to anybody. Your information will only be used for the express purpose of the giveaway.
If you have any questions, I can be reached at contests@colleenhouck.com or on Facebook.





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Whew that was a lot of information! 



Next week we will announce the winners of the Back to School contest and post some of the entries.  Good luck to all!



Until next time,

Colleen

 

 

 

Voyage Cover Revealed!

Questions Answered

 

I recently read a blog post done by Teralynn Childs and Sophie Jordan, two good friends of mine, that had interviewed their husbands and I found the comments fascinating. Their husbands were referred to as Romance Husbands which I thought was cute.  It gave me an idea to do my own blog post so I asked Facebook fans to send me some questions for my husband and here are Brad's answers.

 

 

Hi, friends!


 
Here are the answers to the most commonly asked questions.
 
1. Does Colleen ever bounce ideas off of you for her books (e.g., if she's stuck and needs to talk something through, etc.)? Also, do you get special privileges and get to read her books as she's writing them or help give her feedback on different drafts of her manuscripts?

 

 Colleen is so creative she hardly needs to bounce ideas off of me...! Particularly since she knows I can't possibly match her creative genius. However, in the beginning I was her sounding board and witnessed the birth of the Tiger Series. After that, she completely ran with it as the series took shape and form. My "privileges," as you call them, consist of reading aloud each completed chapter with her, almost immediately after she has finished, so I am the very first to lay eyes on the unfolding of the Saga. (How's that for privilege??) : ) She also bounces her fresh story ideas off of me before adding them to the books. My only contributions are reminding her when a scene is needed (such as when she forgot that Kelsey is supposed to have a vision when she touches a prize), helping her construct Durga's prophecies and other poems, clarifying minor inconsistencies, and editing punctuation and word choices. That's about it!
 
2. Do you each have your own office space, or do you share one? If you share, do you use your office at the same time?

We have our own offices and computers. Mine is downstairs, while hers is upstairs. Sometimes when she is finished writing a chapter, since I can't hear her call for me, she throws a thick Twilight paperback onto the downstairs floor. Feeling that jolt shake the floor literally makes me jump out of my seat(something I'll never get used to...) and I know then she wants my attention.

 
3. Have you (or would you) go with Colleen on her book tours?

 I have accompanied her to on her first tour to Portland, Seattle, Salt Lake, Phoenix, Tucson, Los Angeles, and Boise. She ventured out on her own for the second tour to the Midwest and New Orleans. I definitely plan to go with her on future tour segments, while on other segments she will go on her own or with a family member.

 
4. How did you feel about her writing romantic scenes about another guy?
 
I have no qualms at all with her writing romantic scenes. It's not like they are real characters, for crying out loud...! :) Now, if I thought her writing crossed a boundary or I wasn't comfortable with how a scene was progressing, then I would certainly let her know. But I know she would never write a scene that both of us would be uncomfortable with. And writing romance is definitely a strength of hers that adds immensely to her novels, wouldn't you agree?
 
5. How fun was it?
 
It's absolutely a lot of fun to watch the series unfold first-hand, and to have cool experiences with her. Petting a white tiger, for instance, or riding a movie producer's Segway down Rodeo Drive in Hollywood are some things I never dreamed I would do.
 
6. Do you try to change yourself based on what Colleen writes about to make her happier?
 
Let's say that I have learned and applied a few things about romance that she really appreciates. I will never match Ren's penchant for delivering amazingly perfect gifts, but I'm trying to improve in that area. Let's leave it at that.


7. He (your husband) sounds amazing as it is. But I find myself hinting a lot to my significant other about romance :p
 

I certainly believe many boyfriends/husbands could learn at least a thing or two about romance from this series. Though I am no expert on women, I think how Ren and Kishan treat Kelsey is generally how most women would like to be treated, though sometimes they get way overprotective, and I'm like, "Boys, chillax!"

 
8. Are you jealous of your alter-ego (Ren)?
 
I was never the jealous type. Not my style. :)
 
9. What aspects do you enjoy most? Least? (And why for each)
 
I really enjoy watching the relationship between Ren and Kelsey blossom in the beginning of TQ-and love the dragons in TV (I have no doubt you readers will love them as much as I do) simply because how they relate to each other is funny, and the dragons are fascinating and entertaining! The editing work is probably what I enjoy the least because it's a time consuming and repetitive process.
 
10. Do you ever give her any advice about how to portray her male characters?
 
No, not at all! I guess I'm all the example she needs (wink). For instance, the scene with Ren asking Kelsey for permission to kiss her is based on an actual dating experience. I did ask and Colleen responded in exactly the same way Kelsey did, saying "If you have to ask permission, then the answer is no." She has plenty of literary heroes to draw from for character inspiration, so she hardly needs my advice.
 
11. Do you get aggravated with a busy schedule when she has one?
 
No, we are both very busy people and we like it that way. If I ever get annoyed, I merely have to remind myself that she has worked extremely hard on the series and that she deserves every good thing that comes her way. And if it causes minor aggravations, then so be it!
 
12. Are you more like Ren or Kishan?
 
I'd say I'm more like Ren, though not as smooth nor as romantic. Like Ren, I'm very patient (though Colleen might disagree...), and I enjoy athletics, poetry, music, Shakespeare, and spending time with a beautiful and intelligent young lady--I'm very fortunate to have married her!
 
13. What is your wife really like?
 
My wife is very sweet, very generous, and very stubborn. She's a hard worker, extremely creative, and I learn new and amazing things about her every year. Though I knew she loved telling stories, I had no idea she could translate that gift to writing novels. 

 
14. Finally, are you team Ren or team Kishan?

 
I'm team Kelsey all the way! But I'm also team Kadam and team Fanindra.

 

______________________________________________________________________

 
Inspiration Corner
 

When I was writing the Cave of Kanheri, I knew I wanted a complicated underground maze and tried to come up with a variety of booby traps.  I found a picture of these giant beetles and they inspired me to write the bug scene.  Kelsey and Ren had to run through a tunnel swarming with these things.  At the time I wrote this, I had no idea how to explain how the bugs got there or why they were only found in one section of the cave but I am happy to tell you that I now have an explanation for this and you'll get to read all about it in book five, Tiger's Dream.  Just thinking about running across a bunch of these bugs freaks me out. 

 

 

Oh and when I said that the bugs popped like ketchup packets, I know how messy that is by personal experience.  When I was interpreting gym in middle school one of my Deaf students saw a packet on the gym floor and thought he should jump on it.  Ketchup exploded all over me.  So disgusting.  I think it's funny now but I wasn't happy that day, I can tell you.  He's grown up now and if he's reading this, this serves as your warning , I've got a ketchup packet with your name on it! =) I've been saving it up for you.  Sorry in advance to any others that may be standing in the splatter zone.

 

 

_________________________________________________________________________

 

Voyage Cover Puzzle

 

Rearrange the tiles to reveal the full cover for Tiger's Voyage!

 

Voyage Puzzle sliding puzzle game » sliding puzzle maker

 

Have a great week everyone and don't forget to check out the events tab on my website.  We're starting to add Voyage tour dates!



If you haven't submitted your paragraph to Suki for the Back to School writing contest, hurry up!  The deadline is Aug 31st!  For more info see http://www.tigerscursebook.com/blog/post-118/



This weekend I will be at the Northwest Author Fair in Lincoln City, Oregon.  Check out http://bobsbeachbooks.net/events/ for details.

 

Colleen

虎 Tigers

虎

I'm very excited to announce that Tiger's Curse has been published in complex Chinese! My publisher in Taiwan is called Locus publishing and you can take a peek at their Tiger's Curse website HERE.



I like the deep purples and blues on the book cover and its fun to look through it. Complex Chinese reads from what we think of as the back of the book to the front and it's fascinating to see what the text looks like.

 

 
The Chinese symbol for tiger is 虎 and it sounds like Hǔ.  We just missed the Year of the Tiger which ended in February 2011.  This year is Year of the Rabbit and next year is Year of the Dragon.  It would be really cool to have VOYAGE be released during the Year of the Dragon.




I have a few copies of this book to give away.  If you, a friend, or a relative can read complex Chinese, write to Suki at contests@colleenhouck.com and tell her why you should get a free copy.

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Inspiration Corner

The first time I ran into battle elephants during my research was when writing TIGER'S CURSE.  It was fascinating to imagine these gentle creatures in a battle and I knew I wanted to incorporate them into my story somehow.  They appear first in TIGER'S CURSE when Mr. Kadam tells Kelsey a bit of his background as a warrior.  Painted elephants come up again when Kelsey learns about the history of Hampi.  The elephants had their own apartments in a sort of elephant stable and were the private stock of the king.  In research I learned that the Indian territories that had the most elephants were considered the richest and as a result many battles took place over those lands due to their high value.  These animals have a very important place in the history of India and I knew they needed to be in my book.  Elephants will be making an appearance again in TIGER'S DESTINY.

 

Here's a piece of research that was cut from the new version of TIGER'S CURSE.

 

I pondered that information and then asked, "What was it like being in a circus?"

"Maurizio's circus treated me well and did the best they could, so I was patient with them but many others were inhumane to the animals. The trainers used whips, choke collars, fire, muzzles, and more recently electric prods, and shock treatments. There's also another tool that has been used for centuries. My own kingdom even used it. It's called an ankush."

"What's that?"

I tripped over a stone and he reached out to steady me. When I was standing firmly again he slid his hands reluctantly from my waist and offered a hand to me again.

"It's a long wooden stick with a sharp hook on the end that's used on elephants. Elephants are very intelligent creatures, you know. They can be trained to do a variety of things. My father had thousands of elephants that were trained for battle.  In addition to the battle elephants, others were trained to move big things around. We didn't have cranes and tractors, so we used them to do our heavy lifting. The ankush was a popular tool used by our trainers."

"How is it used?"

"An elephant has certain sensitive areas—the feet, the mouth, behind the ears, and under the chin. The ankush is used to poke and prod the animals in those vulnerable areas until they do your bidding. An elephant has very thick skin on most of their body but in those certain areas the skin is as thin as rice paper and the prodding really hurts."  

"Did they use any of those things on you?"

He reflected darkly, "Yes.  I was whipped, poked, and prodded with the rest of them. I was lucky though because I healed quickly and I was smart enough to know what they wanted me to do. The other animals were relying on instinct. 

A tiger doesn't naturally want to jump through a flaming hoop. Tigers hate fire, so the tiger has to be taught to fear the trainer more than he fears the flame."

"It sounds awful!"

He shrugged, "Circuses back then were. The animals were placed in cages much too small. Natural familial relationships were broken and the babies were sold, which is hard, especially on the elephants. They're social creatures. In the early days, the food was bad, the cages were filthy, and the animals were beaten. They were trekked from city to city and left outdoors in places and climates they were not accustomed to. They didn't survive very long."

Thoughtfully, he went on, "Now though, there's more study done and more effort is made to prolong the lives of the animals.   Expensive habitats, professional veterinary care, and high-quality food are the rule of the day. But captivity is still captivity no matter how pretty the jail is. Being caged made me think long and hard about my relationships with other creatures."

__________________________________________________________

 

Don't forget about the writing contest happening this month.  You can find information about it on my last blog post.

 

Also there is still time to write my publisher to get your city added onto my Voyage tour.  Write kids@sterlingpublishing.com and tell them why I should come to your city!



 


GO TEAM TIGER!



Colleen

 

 

Siblings

Siblings
 
Hi Everyone,



 
Inspiration Corner
 

I came up with the idea of an amulet early in the series and only randomly chose five pieces which worked out perfectly for me later.  I found this picture of an amulet with a tiger in the center and loosely based Ren and Kishan's amulets on that.  The words in Sanskrit on the outside aren't what I'm actually using because I didn't come up with the phrase around the outside until I was writing Tiger's Voyage.  I think these words here are what I used for the Rajaram family seal that opened up the Cave of Kanheri.  Lokesh wears three pieces, Mr. Kadam has the one given to Ren by his father king Rajaram, and Kelsey has one given to her by Kishan who was given his mother Deschen's piece.  Deschen's piece was handed down to her from her Tibetan ancestors while Rajaram's piece was passed down through Indian generations.  You'll find out where the other pieces came from in Tiger's Destiny.

 

 
 
_____________________________________


Some of you may know and some of you may not but I am blessed to be the eldest of seven children.  I have three brothers and three sisters.  Now that all of them are married and have their own children I have a very large family.  Why am I sharing this information you may ask?  Not only does having a family of that size give me plenty and I mean PLENTY of stories to inspire my imagination but it also means that there are many trusted hands to put my work into.



Getting three books out in one year and going on three tours in one year while at the same time trying to build an online presence, run multiple contests, and all the while writing a fourth book has been exhilarating and challenging and while I am an organization queen and can usually handle multitasking with ease, the different areas that I've been trying to manage get bigger and bigger and its time to ask for help.



Many of my long time fans have already begun helping the new ones.  They share links, answer questions, and welcome my new fans into the fold.  Thank you all for working with them when I wasn't able to take the time to do it.  Now my brothers and sisters, my mom, and my in-laws are going to be helping out as well.  You'll probably see them on Facebook, answering questions at the contactme@colleenhouck.com email address, running contests, and responding to comments on my blogs.



Of course I'm still around and I will continue to tweet, blog, and write my Ren and Kishan quotes but your everyday questions will probably be answered by someone else.  It's sad that when an author becomes too popular they end up shutting themselves away from their fans.  I won't be doing that.  Though I may not be available to you in one on one situations, I will still be reading fan mail and I will check out the various sites, but it may seem that I'm much quieter than I have been in the past.  I need to hunker down and write for a while but I will ensure that contests still happen and that you all get the information you need.



So that leads me to this month's contest which will be run by my sister-in-law Suki.  Suki meet everyone.  Everyone meet Suki.



|,,/,



Colleen

 

________________________________________________
 
BACK TO SCHOOL WRITING CONTEST
 




Welcome to August. August is a busy month.  Ginny Weasley was born, we celebrate National Left-Handers Day, everyone is hurrying up to finish the last of summer fun, and it's rainy and 80 degrees Fahrenheit in Mumbai. It's also when many people start school again or at least knows someone starting school again. We want to celebrate the beginning of the school year with a giveaway!
I don't know about the rest of you but I love Colleen's books! Who bought Tiger's Quest and was so excited to see a teaser paragraph of Tiger's Voyage at the end? Who just about DIED wanting to know what happened next???


I want YOU to write the next paragraph of what you think should happen in Tiger's Voyage. Obviously, the paragraph that is really in Tiger's Voyage is already written and set in stone (and you can read it November). But just to tide me over so I don't wilt and die...

 

THE RULES:

I'll be using Google Forms for running contests. All entries must be entered by this form. Colleen loves comments so feel free to leave a comment still but they are not counted as entries.


There will be FOUR winners. The winning paragraphs will be the most SURPRISING, HUMOROUS, or ROMANTIC.


You may only enter once, but there are optional entries. The mandatory entry is by writing a paragraph. You can also like Tiger's Curse on Facebook, follow @ColleenHouck on Twitter, and receive Colleen's newsletter for one additional  entry for each item.


Did I mention entries only count when the form is used?


I said there would be four winners but only announced three categories. All other remaining non-winning entries will be entered to win the final prize chosen by a random number generator.

The contest ends August 31, 2011

 
The winners will be announced Tuesday, September 6. All entries will be verified. The winners will be emailed and they have 48 hours to respond to the email before a new winner is picked.
 


THE PRIZES:
 
Each winner will receive a gift bag from Sterling Publishing with books relating to the category they won (i.e. the winner of the most humorous paragraph would receive some joke books) as well as a galley of Tiger's Voyage.

CONTACT ME:
If you have any questions, comments, concerns, or praise for me, you can contact me at contests@colleenhouck.com. I will also read any comments on this blog post and try to catch any questions asked on Facebook.

 

Just in case you don't have access to the teaser paragraph, here it is.

"…I won't let you be alone ever again. I love you too, Kishan."I leaned forward and pressed my lips to his. He shifted to hold me against him and then kissed me back, gentle, soft and sweet. But then, I felt a crack, a splinter, and then a pull. My heart jerked wildly and a fire burned suddenly within me. It blazed with a heat I hadn't felt in a long time. It was consuming and powerful. My heart opened. My connection was back. My frame shook from the intensity of it. I was whole again. Time seemed to stop. Something huge hit the deck behind us and several candles extinguished in a sudden warm wind. My body vibrated from the impact and the shock of it made me topple. What was that? A dragon? A meteor? Thoughts of various possible disasters raced through my mind. Kishan looked at me in confusion and we froze as an enraged, intractable voice in the dark threatened, "Let. Her. Go."

 

And the writing starts… RIGHT NOW!!

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Contest Winners!

Thank you to all who participated on the YA Scavenger Hunt yesterday!  There was an enormous outpouring of love from the fans that we all felt and we are so appreciative of all of you who took time out of your busy schedules to participate.  It was fabulous!  We had 1000 entries in our grand prize winner contest so here is the result you've been waiting for!

 


 Our GRAND PRIZE WINNER the winner of 23 signed books


is
 
ANNE LIU 

of Richland Washington!







Your fantastic GRAND PRIZE will include signed editions of books, signed bookmarks, jewelry, and many more exclusive gifts with at least one from EVERY AUTHOR! Note: Your prize will be shipped to you from each author individually. Congratulations!





__________________________________________________







AND THE ELIGIBLE WINNERS OF THE TIGER SAGA PRIZE PACK ARE






 
1) Kaitlyn Nicole Davis
2) Cassie Madsen
3) Lupe Saldivar
4) Cassidy Osborn
5) Leah Jean Dakin
6) Maria Maunez
7) Lisa Hood
8)  Laura Ferguson
9) Kelsey Hamersley
10) Emily Gilot

 
The first person to email me back at contactme@colleenhouck.com will win the prize pack.




This is the correct version of the poem just FYI

 
 Welcome fans of young adult literature! Don't forget to WAKER up in time to join our special event! In YAHTZEE you roll the dice and, like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're going to get. Our scavenger hunt is very similar. Surprises wait around every corner. Turn one page and you're chasing a GHOST through a SPOOKY GRAVEYARD. Turn another and you are being HUNTED by a TIGER which leaves your heart RACING. YA STORYBOOKS are full of SMOLDERING heroes who must SACRIFICE themselves for the greater good. Some of the characters travel through TIME or have a SECRET POWER. If there is one thing YA books have taught us, it's that if you leave your HOMESTEAD keep an eye out for a patrolling WOLF. They're very dangerous. Maybe not so frightening as a MINOTAUR, but still you should be careful. Also beware lest you become ENTRALLED by vampires. KISSING one is a different story. Just remember that bite has ETERNAL ramifications and that afterwards the sun can BURN you unless you get bitten by a glittering type. Whether you like dark, paranormal, romance, fantasy, STEAMPUNK, Sci-Fi, or a combination of those, we've got something for you.



We think that each fan is a ROCKSTAR and we love you all!







___________________________________________

 


The next two contests were held in July and are not a part of the Scavenger Hunt





 
GOODREADS CONTEST






 
OPPORTUNITY TO WIN ONE OF FIVE GALLEYS OF TIGER'S VOYAGE
 
Only five can win so the first five who email me back with their mailing address will win a copy of the ARC of Tiger's Voyage. My email address is contactme@colleenhouck.com . Good luck to you!
 
 

http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/59...
http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/58...
http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/57... stevenot
http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/58...
http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/59...
http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/58...
http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/34... hightower
http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/52...
http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/32...
http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/59... stacklin

 
________________________________________________________________________________


POETRY CONTEST
OPPORTUNITY TO WIN ONE OF TWO AUDIOBOOKS


 


I just want to say thank you all so much for participating. I thought I would only get a handful but I recieved over 200 submissions!  That made it very difficult to choose and impossible to post them all.  I am including my top ten honorable mentions and if your poem is on my list there you can email my husband Brad at sales@colleenhouck.com and he will send you a signed bookmark.  Again thank you all!  Ren would be proud to talk poetry with all of you!



Since my husband helped me judge this contest, he would like to say...



Not only did we have a fabulous art contest, the poetry contest surpassed our expectations! Both Colleen and I are poetry lovers and we were very pleasantly surprised at the quality of submissions. From more than 200 submissions, it was not easy to pare down the list to the top 12. In fact, many well-written poems did not make the final cut. Poems were judged on, but not limited to, the following: overall presentation, unique voice/point of view, depth of thought, theme, creativity, format, rhyme scheme/free verse , word choice, and so forth. The most popular point of view was naturally Kelsey's. Thank you all for sharing your skills, your time, and your efforts! So without further commentary, here are the 12 finalists--not listed in any order, except for the two winnning poems at the bottom of the list. I hope you like them as much as we did. Congratulations to all who made this list!

Brad


 
Honorable Mentions

(I really like the ocean and the sun imagery here)

WHICH ONE

by Katie



Which one? 

The ever faithful sun, 

Who rises every morning bringing sunshine into my life.

Or the ever changing sea,

Who makes my heart race with its wild and unpredictable waters.

The sun that helps me to grow with its gentle warmth.

Or the sea that quenches my thirst for life with its mere essence yet makes me yearn for more.

The sun who is my ever present companion never failing to greet me every morning.

Or the sea, the one who makes my heart soar when it rises and plummets when it recedes. 

Which one is the one to choose that will make me the happiest.

Which one?

 

 
 
 
 (I like how this poem shows the pain BOTH of them feel)
PAINFUL EYES
by Summer Young
 
She tells me things
I cannot see
Things of
Her and Me
I don't remember
I don't respond
But what I do see
is the pain in her eyes
the tears on her cheeks
Yet
She doesn't see
The pain she brings me
Her name
Her voice
All bring me pain
of the darkness
the torture
I bring her pain
of not seeing her
And she brings me pain
of wounds unhealed
Twin wounded souls
Each wounded by the other
With painful eyes









 

 (I really liked the rythym of this one)

KELSEY'S TEARS 

by Breanne Kraft

 
A tear for recognizing that this was truly love
A tear for thinking that I was never good enough

 
A tear because I'm a radish and not a buffet
A tear believing it was best to walk away

 
A tear for leaving to be a whole world away
A tear for recalling when he begged me to stay

 
A tear for every moment of being so far apart
A tear sudden emptiness consumed in my heart

 
A tear for all the pain I know he must have suffered
A tear for knowing a second option is offered

 
A tear for his return. He is back, I am so glad
A tear for him forgetting all we ever had.


 
 





 



(I love all the colors used here)
TIGER LILIES 

by Xandria Johnson
 
Flaming orange 
touches my skin
burning a tattoo of pleasure.
A burst of yellow
splashes inside
awakening my soul.
Sprinkles of sienna 
kiss my eyes
lightening my vision.
Tendrils of green
wrap around my arms
drawing me closer to 
cobalt coolness.
This garden of
color is enlightening
as the tiger lilies
bloom from my heart.








 
 
(This one is very creative in how it uses the different features of Ren)

REN, KELSEY'S TIGER
By: Alia Paddock
 
His fur, his glossy fur
Shadows draped across snow
Trees in a moonlit grove
Supple fur, a river of silk
A glossy coat over warm muscles
Muscles ready to embrace her
Or kill to protect her
 
His paws, his steady paws
Prints in the mud to guide her to her beloved
Paws that coax relaxation into her tensed back
To swat playfully butterflies by the waterfall
Or wound any threat to her
 
His tail, his graceful tail
It keeps him balanced on his feet
While her love keeps him balanced in his heart
To thwap any menace
Or brush a glistening tear softly from her face
 
His purr, his gentle purr
Birdsong on a spring morning
A roaring waterfall
The thrum of his guitar
Rumbles with more meaning than a thousand words
Her courage in a battle
Her breath underwater
Her sunshine in a storm
The sound she feels in her dreams
 
His tongue, his rough tongue
In a mouth that she fears
But would sooner harm himself
That brushes wet, pink kisses on her unsuspecting hand
 
His eyes, his incredible eyes
Cobalt windows into his soul that can see into hers
That light up with certain magic as he gazes at Kelsey
A gaze that makes her quiver in her chest
And brings color to her face
A gaze that can cripple her resolve
And melt away all her resistance
Eyes with more power over her
Than life itself
The last thing she sees before she slips into slumber
And the first thing she sees at the dawn of a new day
Eyes imprinted on the insides of her own
They contain a gravity she can never escape
 
Ren, Kelsey's tiger
The embodiment of her love
More powerful than anything she could ever fear








 




(This poet went the extra mile and wrote the piece in two languages-Amazing!)

REN'S TORMENT  

by Roshni Patel

 
Zakham pe zakham seh rahan hoon
Even after taking all this torture
Pata nahin kaise jeeye ja rahan hoon
I don't know how I am still alive
Zamane ke sitam se nahin magar
Its not so much the atrocities
Tumse judaa ho kar mar rahan hoon
Being apart from you is whats killing me the most
 
Jahan bhi dekhoon andere hi andhere hai
Wherever I look there is only darkness
Dard hi dard har jaga hai yahaan
There is nothing here but pain
Tumhare pyar ki roshni ke liye
Only for the brightness of your love
Dil tarasta ja rahan hai mera
My heart pines the most
 
 
Yun to meri dhadkan mein base ho tum
Your are in the beating of my heart
Meri  nas nas mein behte ho sada
Only you flow through my veins
Kaise chupaoon dushman se tumhe?
How can I hide you from the enemy?
Meri har sans se guzarte ho sada
Only you are in each breath I take
 
Kis tara chupaloon tumhe mein?
How can I hide you?
Meri ruuh mein, wajood mein ho tum
You who are my spirit, my soul
Khudko agar mita sakta mein
If only I could destroy myself
Tumhare pyar ke sadke jaan de deta
For your love I would have given my life
 
Ab to bas itni hi duua hai meri
I only wish for one thing
Jahaan bhi ho tum sada khush rehna
Wherever you are, you will always be happy
Ho sake to bhula dena mujhe
If you can, please try to forget me
Tumhare pyar pe qurbaan dil hai mera
For your love, I sacrifice my heart
 





 


(I love the formatting of this poem)

HE CANNOT KNOW

by Jayci Arredondo
(From Kelsey's perspective the night Ren came to her in the hotel)
 

I was scared, but you seemed not

                while sanctioned in the dark,

                             and when your hand brushed up next to mine

                                            my heart skipped its rhythmic mark.



 
But later did come the marveling surprise

                that quakes my heart still,

                                when in the night you came to me

                                                and shook my very will.
 
I fell that eve, when in your arms

                my soul began to ache,

                                and deeper still I fell that night

                                                when your lips, a kiss, did take.



 
The softness of your lips on mine,

                the tenderness of your touch,

                                I couldn't bear to let you know

                                                I wanted you so much.



 
I can't explain the way I felt

                when in your arms so tight,

                                and watching you smile down to me

                                                made heaven of that night.

 









(I really enjoyed this one from Durga's point of view)
THE PROPHESY OF KELSEY 

By Ashlei Cottom

(Durga's POV)
Two tigers, day and night.
For one girl they will fight.
Kelsey.
The dangers she may face will all be forgotten in her tigers embrace.
Two loves, one choice…
Kelsey.
She may risk it all, even though she may fall.
She will answer my call.
Kelsey.
Noble one, Favored one, My Daughter.
Kelsey.










(This is a great one from Kelsey's point of view)

WHERE HAVE YOU GONE?  

by Keerin DeWet
 
You were right here, my hearts spark;
Now you are nothing but a shell.
The hearth in my soul has gone dark;
Maybe this is hell.
 
When you look at me, diluted animosity
Has replaced those passionate blue flames;
What an unforgivable atrocity
That silence replaces those beautiful names.
 
I can't help but beg to a deaf sky
To bring that fire back to me;
I Beseech stars with a desperate cry
To set my lover's memories free.
 
But just as when my parents went
I'm left alone to face that pain…
But maybe it's true that I've been lent
Temporary light to keep me sane
 
His eyes are gold instead of blue,
And the kisses aren't the same.
But maybe while I wait for you,
Stars can go by a different name.
 
But it still won't be what I want because…
 the one I've always wanted, was…
You.
 





 


(I loved how this poem ended)

I CAN REMEMBER

Jeanina Kay Reyes



I can remember

The first time I saw you 

Mesmerized by your big brown eyes

Your unbelievable beauty 

But there was something about you 

Like you needed me and I needed you 



I can remember

When I hugged you tightly against me 

Shielding you from the blistering cold, keeping you warm with my love 



I can remember

Your hands

As you laid them on my chest

Feeling my heart beat go not faster nor slower than yours

Simoutaneously beating like a drum 

Then I took your hand 

And kissed each one of your fingers 



I can remember 

When we kissed 

I took in your ripe smell of peaches-and-cream

Letting it drown my lungs

And having your soft lips connect with mine 

All I can think of was 

You



I can remember

Dreaming about you when you were gone

Pacing back and forth 

I was lost 

No sense of direction

Destination: You



I can remember

You, lonely you

Gentle, vulnerable you

Brave, gorgeous you

My love



Now all can remember is

Everything

Except

You 

 
And...without further ado...the winners!
 
 

Winner of the Tiger's Curse Audiobook




 
(I am totally amazed that this poet is only thirteen)

TO WATCH AND WAIT

by Caroline Barnett



 
 
Alone.
Watching.
Waiting.
For what? I do not know. Yet I must. I sit.
Alone.
Watching.
Waiting.
To be moved from place to place without my consent.
For I! Me! The mighty prince of the Mujulaain Empire!
High Protector of the People...
Champion of the Battle of the Hundred Horses...!
Prince Alagan Dhiren Rajaram!
Heir to the Throne of my Parents!
Alone.
Watching.
Waiting.
Despair running through my fingers. Despair wasted. What could have been life.
Could?
Have?
If ?!
No. I must sit.
Alone.
And Watch.
And Wait.
Ahh. Something new?
For what could this girl bring me in my years of captivity.
Poetry.
No more Alone, what else am I to do but
Watch.
And Wait.
To her.
I have grown fond of this girl.
This girl.
Not afraid to touch.
Not afraid to stare into my eyes.
These cobalt blue eyes my mother bestowed upon me.
She gives me what I have lacked these many years.
Hope.
 
Where is she?
Gone?!
Never.
She wouldn't.
I am alone.
Watching.
Waiting.
Anxiously.
No!
There she sits.
For me.
My performance.
Alone.
Watching.
Waiting.
I lock eyes with her chocolate brown ones that seem to melt my soul.
Stop!
What am I saying.
No.
I pace back and forth.
Back and forth.
Here she comes!
Alone. For me.
Watching for me.
Waiting for me.
"I wish you were free."
What is happening?
This, this fur cape wrapped aroung my being.
Gone.
Its cold, striped claws no longer hold me.
If merely for a second.
No longer leaving its marks and bruises and handprints.
If merely for a second.
She leaves.
Yet no more Loneliness. Or Watching. Or Waiting.
I have tasted something I swear I will never go back on.
I bask in it.
It.
Hope.
 


 




Winner of the Tiger's Quest Audiobook
(This poem is fantastic and made me laugh)

KISHAN'S FATE

by rnoftsier

My name is Kishan, but that you know.

My story began a long time ago.

I was a young prince ruling over men.

My only setback was my brother Ren.

I found my true love, but she was claimed.

Would you like to guess who I blamed?

I conspired against him to make her mine,

It was too late when I realized I'd crossed the line.

We were cursed to be tigers, my brother and I.

Cursed until the day we would die.

I lived in the darkness, angry and alone,

Long gone were the days I sat on a throne.

The years passed by, but I barely noticed.

My biggest regret was my bargain with Lokesh.

Then came the day I met Kelsey Hayes,

She lit up my world, brightened my days.

But she also belonged to my rival, Ren.

Would this injustice never end?

She was fond of my brother, this much I knew.

But I fell in love, and this time it was true.

There was joy in my soul, but also pain.

Would fate never end its cruel game?

But this flicker of hope could not be killed.

For with every touch, my heart is thrilled.

Her gentle gaze penetrates my tiger mask.

She's the only one who sees through my act.

This powerful need I can no longer ignore,

This beautiful girl is the one I will fight for.

But I'm afraid I can say no more my friends,

Though I know the question running through your heads.

"Will Kelsey choose Ren? Or will Kishan get his way?"

It's the question I ask myself everyday.

But I know not what will happen in the final scene,

For my fate lies in the hands of Ms. Colleen.

Congratulations to my two winners CAROLINE BARNETT and RNOFTSIER! You have ONE WEEK to email me to claim your prize. Please include your mailing address in your email. My email address is contactme@colleenhouck.com .


 
________________________________________________________________________________



 


Just a reminder... 
 
 

DON'T MISS OUT ON THE VOYAGE TOUR!
My event planner Meaghan has said that she wants me to be out on tour for TIGER'S VOYAGE from November 1st until Thanksgiving and she would like all you to help plan my tour. I have been to a lot of fantastic places but there are some that I've missed and she needs to know where she should send me. If you'd like me to come to a city near you during the Voyage tour please email her at kids@sterlingpublishing.com and also ask your nearby bookstore to host me and to email her too if they are willing to have me. The bookstore doesn't have to be a Barnes & Noble and it really doesn't even have to be a bookstore. A local library can host me too. The important thing is that she knows there are fans there who want to see me and the more noise the fans make in a certain area the better the odds.



She's already had some fans write in to her from Florida and Massachusetts so don't let your city/state be left off the tour schedule. Now is the time to book tour dates!
 
 
Until Next Time,



Colleen

 

Welcome to the YA Scavenger Hunt!

Welcome to the YA

Scavenger Hunt!





On this hunt you will be able to gain access to exclusive bonus material, sign up for giveaways, and get an all access pass to top secret insider information. This fabulous sneak peek into what’s coming up in YA literature is for one day only!

As an extra bonus we’ve put together a puzzle with one keyword found on each website. Complete it and you will be eligible for a fantastic GRAND PRIZE which will include signed editions of books, signed bookmarks, jewelry, and many more exclusive gifts with at least one from EVERY AUTHOR!

Scavenger Hunt Puzzle

Directions: Copy and paste the puzzle below onto a document or blank email page and fill it out as you proceed through the Scavenger Hunt. Search for keywords, one on each website that will be highlighted in RED, and insert them into the puzzle, then fill out the Google form here.

Rules: To be eligible for the grand prize, you must submit this filled in puzzle before midnight on August 1st Pacific Time. All the keywords must be in the correct place, and you must include your full name and address. Entries sent in without name and address will not be considered!




W
elcome fans of young adult literature! Don’t forget to _______ up in time to join our special event! In _______ you roll the dice and, like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re going to get. Our scavenger hunt is very similar. Surprises wait around every corner. Turn one page and you’re chasing a ____ through a _____ _____. Turn another and you are being ______ by a _______ which leaves your heart ______. YA ______s are full of ______ heroes who must _____ themselves for the greater good. Some of the characters travel through ______ or have a ______ ______. If there is one thing YA books have taught us, it’s that if you leave your ______ keep an eye out for a patrolling ______. They’re very dangerous. Maybe not so frightening as a _______, but still you should be careful. Also beware lest you become ______ by vampires. ______ one is a different story. Just remember that bite has _____ ramifications and that afterwards the sun can _____ you unless you get bitten by a glittering type. Whether you like dark, paranormal, romance, fantasy, _____, Sci-Fi, or a combination of those, we’ve got something for you.
We think that each fan is a _____ and we love you all!











Now let's get on with the HUNT!

I am so excited to be hosting the fabulous TARA HUDSON!



Like me Tara is super smart, gorgeous, and fairly new to the whole being an author thing.

Okay!

So, two out of three?

Fine!

One out of three.

We both published our debut novels this year.

Seriously though she was a pre-med major who ended
up getting a degree in law and then to top it off,
tacked on a career as an author!

Can you say amazing woman?

I'd really feel so much better if she
was just a little bit homely.

But, sigh, she looks like she should be
a model on a book cover.







See what I mean?
I can totally picture her as a ghostly
heroine haunting a graveyard.



Here's her Bio

Born and raised in Oklahoma, Tara Hudson graduated with a degree in law, mostly because she believed all the horror stories about English majors and their careers in the food-service industry. Luckily, she soon remembered how much she loved telling ghost stories, particularly to her girlfriends who liked visiting abandoned cemeteries as much as she did. Tara currently lives in Oklahoma with her husband, son, and a menagerie of ill-behaved pets.



Her book is called HEREAFTER





Read this to learn a little more about HEREAFTER

Drifting in the dark waters of a mysterious river, the only thing Amelia knows for sure is that she's dead. With no recollection of her past life—or her actual death—she's trapped alone in a nightmarish existence. All of this changes when she tries to rescue a boy, Joshua, from drowning in her river. As a ghost, she can do nothing but will him to live. Yet in an unforgettable moment of connection, she helps him survive.

Amelia and Joshua grow ever closer as they begin to uncover the strange circumstances of her death and the secrets of the dark river that held her captive for so long. But even while they struggle to keep their bond hidden from the living world, a frightening spirit named Eli is doing everything in his power to destroy their newfound happiness and drag Amelia back into the ghost world . . . forever.



HEREAFTER is the first book in a trilogy.


To find out more about Tara Hudson and HEREAFTER check out her website.


If you'd like to purchase a copy, you can find HEREAFTER at
Barnes & Noble, Amazon, and Indie Bound.


AND NOW FOR THE TOP
SECRET EXLUSIVE AND
FANTABULOUS BONUS FEATURE!

READ THIS SPECIAL EXTRA
COMING TO YOU DIRECTLY
FROM TARA!



ELI‟S ORIGINAL BACKSTORY Eli Rowland wasn't always a sexy misguided rockstar. In the original version of HEREAFTER, Eli was a fallen man of God. Notice how much more formally he speaks here? I definitely like – or dislike, depending on the scene – the new Eli better!





Eli fell silent once more. But this time, the silence only lasted a few more minutes. When Eli spoke again, his voice was softer than I'd expected.

"The story -- my story -- begins in 1934. The year my wife Dorothy and I moved to this region."

I nearly stopped walking, I was so surprised that Eli had had a wife. It was hard to imagine any woman could have stood to be around him for more than a few hours. Wisely, though, I kept this opinion to myself and continued to listen as we walked. As Eli spoke, his quiet words gained a mesmerizing cadence, a kind of rhythm I couldn't ignore.

"In the midst of a nation-wide Depression," Eli went on, "My wife and I came to Oklahoma San Bois Mountains. For religious reasons, ostensibly. It may shock you to know I was a man of God, already a preacher at age twenty. My particular calling, or so the Baptist Church thought, was to travel around the country, acting as a sort of missionary to the rural communities of America.

Dorothy and I would arrive in each of these communities and set up camp, as it were, for several weeks. Typically, we were given leave to do our mission work in church buildings, although we occasionally had to make use of school rooms or even outdoor tents.

Our settings, however, didn't have much bearing on the events that occurred within them. No matter where I preached, each sermon I gave would be more moving, more fantastic, than the last. Each word I spoke was intended to transport a flock of believers to God, and then return them, a more inspired group of Christians, to their normal Sunday preachers.

Revivals, the gatherings were known as. More like carnivals, really. At least, ours were. We had strings of electric lights, fiery torches, scores of musical instruments. We put on quite the show, week to week, all in the name of God. But please, pay close attention to the word "show."

Because, Amelia -- and you may judge me, if you want, for what I'm about to tell you -- my revivals had little to do with the spiritual message I imparted to people. Instead, the revivals had everything to do with my favorite thing in the world: money.

You see, while other Americans lost their savings, their farms, their very homes…while the rest of the country starved, Dorothy and I thrived. Unbeknownst to the church, we specifically sought out the towns that were on the verge of ruin but had not yet collapsed. Places where people were desperate, but not yet destitute. Places where Christians, wavering on the brink of financial destruction, might give hundreds if not thousands of dollars to a man who promised them salvation."

At this point in Eli's story, I stopped walking and sucked in a hissed breath. Eli paused, too. He even had the decency to hang his head.

"I told you that you'd judge me," he said quietly.

"I'm…I'm trying very hard not to, Eli. I'm trying very hard to just…listen." I stuttered as I spoke, probably because I was trying harder, at this moment, to hide my lie than to listen.

Eli chuckled softly, but it was a mirthless sound. He continued to make his way through the woods, picking back up with his story after only a few steps.

"In 1934, this area of Oklahoma proved to be my greatest find, in terms of flocks to fleece. The area still had a relatively high level of prosperity, due in part to the coal mines that pocked the mountainsides. By the thirties, however, the Depression and Dust Bowl -- both of which had so successfully driven the rest of Oklahoma to its knees -- had finally found their way into this region. Coal alone wasn't enough to keep the fear out of men's eyes, though it still provided a healthy paycheck to some. Even better, a mining accident had claimed the lives of fifteen men, only four years prior. All of these things provide excellent fuel for the fire of desperation.

So Dorothy and I came here, moving from town to town, putting on our great show. And what a success we were! We had never felt richer, more prosperous, than we did in Oklahoma.

And that, of course, is when the worst happened. The morning after our last show in Wilburton, Dorothy discovered she was pregnant. Very quickly, she informed me that we couldn't travel much, not for the duration of her pregnancy. And the longer she remained pregnant, the more adverse she was to leaving Wilburton at all.

With no small amount of anger, I contacted the central authority for the Missionary Baptist Church and sought permission to remain in one place for a while. The Church readily granted the request, but they cut my already-meager salary to a mere pittance.

And that wasn't the worst of it.

To my surprise…to my horror, pregnancy began to change Dorothy. It began to…soften her. She was only eighteen years old at the time -- an impressionable age. So susceptible to change.

Although I sometimes wonder, now, whether Dorothy loved me at all, I could never doubt that she truly loved that child inside her. She spoke softly to it. She crooned to it each night as she fell asleep. She dreamt of its future. A future, she began to realize, which would only be tainted by an association with our way of life.

On behalf of our unborn child, Dorothy grew to hate our lives of deceit. She actually became happy the pregnancy had forced us to settle down in this wretched little town -- a town we had long since fleeced. You see, the point of a graft is to accomplish it and then disappear, before the unsuspecting victims start thinking their pitchforks look more like weapons than farm tools.

But Dorothy's love for that child made her forget all this. Dorothy even wanted me to try and establish myself in the community. To become a settled preacher -- a real one.

And, for her, I tried. I did. But the townspeople of Wilburton, and Talihina, and High Bridge, and Red Oak -- well, if they had been fools before, they certainly weren't fools now. They didn't run me out on a rail, I'll give them that. But they didn't place me at the helm of any church, either.

So, without our extra fleecings, without even our basic income from the Church, Dorothy and I began to do what the rest of the country was already doing -- starve.

Whatever Dorothy could scrounge, she stored for that baby. Whatever I could scrounge, I poured into my mouth in the form of cheap whiskey, which drove Dorothy and I even further apart.

I was drunk the night Dorothy went into labor. I remained drunk throughout that night, into the next day, and then into the following night, as she tried to deliver. Each time she cried out, I took another sip. Even at the sight of my newborn son, I took another sip.

And when the doctor told me Dorothy had died in childbirth, I took yet another sip.

After I buried her, I made a vow to myself that I would stay drunk for every remaining minute of my life. I set about accomplishing the goal with amazing vigor. To this day, I can't precisely remember the face of my son. The blur of that memory has nothing to do with my death; it has everything to do with the perpetual shroud that drink placed over my eyes.

The early months of 1935 were part of the coldest winter I'd ever experienced. The chill only made me drink more. I made no effort to hide my actions, and it quickly became clear to the town that I was in no condition to father my child. The people of the town, who were far godlier than I ever could have hoped to be, took my child from me, to protect him. The night they came for him, I drank myself into a stupor, walked several miles to High Bridge, and then kept walking right off of it."

At this revelation, Eli fell silent.






--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Thank you all so much for visiting my website and I hope you are all enjoying the tour. While you're here, sign up to win a fabulous prize pack including a signed copy of TIGER'S CURSE & TIGER'S QUEST as well as an advanced reading copy of the soon to be published TIGER'S VOYAGE, the third book in the Tiger Saga. Also included in the prize pack is a journal, jewelry, and the most coveted prize I will be giving away, which is an exclusive signed poster depicting concept art for the upcoming TIGER'S CURSE motion picture.






To qualify to win the prize simply leave a comment on my page. Ten eligible people will be selected and emailed at 9 am pacific time on Tuesday August 2nd. Each person selected must have entered the grand prize contest as well to prove they were a participant of the Scavenger Hunt. The first person to email me back at contactme@colleenhouck.com will win the prize pack.






Ready to go to the next website on the Scavenger Hunt?

Click HERE!

If you get lost, here is a complete list of participating authors in alphabetical order. There are actually 23 authors involved. I forgot to add myself =)


JOSEPHINE ANGELINI
TERA LYNN CHILDS
ANGELA CORBETT
KADY CROSS
HEATHER DAVIS
DJ DESMYTER
BREE DESPAIN
LEIGH FALLON
MARLEY GIBSON
ABBI GLINES
COLLEEN HOUCK
TARA HUDSON
ELANA JOHNSON
SOPHIE JORDAN
MYRA MCENTIRE
ALEXANDRA MONIR
LISA NOWAK
AMY PLUM
BETH REVIS
LISA & LAURA ROECKER
INARA SCOTT
JERI SMITH-READY
LANI WOODLAND

Contests, Contests, Contests

Contests, Contests, Contests


 

Okay I need to hire like a contest person because I am so not getting any writing done this week.  Still, it's really fun to have contests and interact with all of you.  So here are all your contest updates.

 

_____________________________________________________________________________

Goodreads Contest
OPPORTUNITY TO WIN ONE OF FIVE GALLEYS OF TIGER'S VOYAGE

If you haven't participated yet there is still time.  Create an account at Goodreads.com if you haven't already.  Then find me by searching for my name.  You can friend me, become a fan, follow my reviews, write reviews and rate my books, and vote on one or more of the many lists you will find my books on.  How you find a list is to search for a book, TIGER'S CURSE for example, and scroll down until you see the tab that says LISTS WITH THIS BOOK.  Click on it and you will see all the lists.  Choose a list you want to vote on and it will take you to the exact placement of my book in the list then click on the vote button.  You don't have to vote on every list but your odds are better at winning the more you participate. Ten eligible names will be selected and announced on August 2nd.  The first five to email me win a prize.




DEADLINE IS JULY 31!
 

____________________________________________________________________________________


Poetry Contest
OPPORTUNITY TO WIN ONE OF TWO AUDIOBOOKS

Write a poem and send it to me at contactme@colleenhouck.com.  It doesn't have to be about my books but if it is, let me know which character's perspective you are writing from.  Entries will be posted on August 2nd and the winners will then be announced. The winners will have 48 hours to contact me via email to claim their prize.


DEADLINE IS JULY 31!

_____________________________________________________________________________________


YA Scavenger Hunt
START THE YA SCAVENGER HUNT ADVENTURE

RIGHT HERE ON MY WEBSITE AUGUST 1!


 


DEADLINE IS AUGUST 1, 2011

ONE DAY ONLY!

 
OPPORTUNITY TO WIN ONE GRAND PRIZE

The fantastic GRAND PRIZE will include signed editions of books, signed bookmarks, jewelry, and many more exclusive gifts with at least one from EVERY AUTHOR!

AN OPPORTUNITY TO WIN A TIGER SAGA PRIZE PACK

This fabulous prize pack includes a signed copy of TIGER'S CURSE & TIGER'S QUEST as well as an advanced reading copy of the soon to be published TIGER'S VOYAGE, the third book in the Tiger Saga. Also included in the prize pack is a journal, jewelry, and the most coveted prize I will be giving away, which is an exclusive signed poster depicting concept art for the upcoming TIGER'S CURSE motion picture.

 



 


 

To qualify to win the prize, you must click on the newsletter button on my website and register. Ten eligible people will be selected and emailed at 9 am pacific time on Tuesday August 2nd. Each person selected must have entered the grand prize contest as well to prove they were a participant of the Scavenger Hunt. The first person to email me back at contactme@colleenhouck.com will win the prize pack.


On this hunt you will be able to gain access to exclusive bonus material, sign up for giveaways, and get an all access pass to top secret insider information. This fabulous sneak peek into what's coming up in YA literature is for one day only! 



During the hunt you will be looking for my bonus material which is a short story I wrote called All Hallows Eve and is set in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains.  See a glimpse of Ren in the 1930's at a Halloween Party where he performs for a rich crowd at the famous Biltmore Estate in Asheville, North Carolina. Also find a special announcement about the exclusive reveal of the cover of Tiger's Voyage! You really don't want to miss out on this event!

_______________________________________________________


 
Inspiration Corner

 

This beautiful actress is named Aishwarya Rai.  She's from India and has been in many many movies.  She's smart, sassy, and just so pretty it's unfair.  Nilima's character was based largely on her looks and personality.  I really loved her in the movie Bride and Prejudice which I recommend watching.  If you haven't read my bonus material on Nilima you should take a peek.  It's on one or two blogs ago and it shows how Nilima first met Mr. Kadam.  Nilima doesn't always get the spotlight but she's very brave and smart and practically runs Rajaram Industries while Mr. Kadam is busy helping Ren and Kishan.  You'll get to see a bit more of her in Tiger's Voyage since she accompanies them on their adventure.

 

 






__________________________________________

 
A VERY SPECIAL FINAL ANNOUNCEMENT
 

My event planner Meaghan has said that she wants me to be out on tour for TIGER'S VOYAGE from November 1st until Thanksgiving and she would like all you to help plan my tour.  I have been to a lot of fantastic places but there are some that I've missed and she needs to know where she should send me.  If you'd like me to come to a city near you during the Voyage tour please email her at kids@sterlingpublishing.com and also ask your nearby bookstore to host me and to email her too if they are willing to have me.  The bookstore doesn't have to be a Barnes & Noble and it really doesn't even have to be a bookstore.  A local library can host me too.  The important thing is that she knows there are fans there who want to see me and the more noise the fans make in a certain area the better the odds.



She's already had some fans write in to her from Florida and Massachusetts so don't let your city/state be left off the tour schedule.  Now is the time to book tour dates!

I'll see you all right back here on Monday, August 1st for the Scavenger Hunt. 

 

Until Next Time,



Colleen