Colleen Houck's Blog, page 65
December 5, 2010
Fun Day Out
Today was a good day. My family went to the Heathman Hotel in downtown Portland for a Christmas Tea. We ate delicious finger sandwiches and sipped hot chocolate. My six year old nephew asked the waitress if he could choose food from the adult menu since he was almost a teenager. With a missing front tooth it was hard to convince her though.
After we ate we went to see Tangled which is very cute. Four words, "You broke my smolder!" Classic. Still waiting for an Indian Disney princess though. Pocahontas doesn't count. The best thing about today though, was shopping at Powell's Books after the movie. Dad stopped cold in his tracks, got all teary eyed, and pointed to the Young Adult section where they'd hung a large Tiger's Curse poster with a sticky note at the bottom that says, "Coming January 2011!"
It's coming and it's real.
Colleen
Picture on the website.
After we ate we went to see Tangled which is very cute. Four words, "You broke my smolder!" Classic. Still waiting for an Indian Disney princess though. Pocahontas doesn't count. The best thing about today though, was shopping at Powell's Books after the movie. Dad stopped cold in his tracks, got all teary eyed, and pointed to the Young Adult section where they'd hung a large Tiger's Curse poster with a sticky note at the bottom that says, "Coming January 2011!"
It's coming and it's real.
Colleen
Picture on the website.
December 2, 2010
My Crazy Week in New York Part Three
Oops! Forgot to post this one.
Hello Everybody,
I just got back from my prepublication tour. Some of you have wondered what that is so I'll tell you. It's an opportunity for me to meet with librarians, bookstore owners, and events coordinators before an actual tour happens. We can plan fun events together and they can get to know me a little bit before the frenzy of a tour. A local picks me up at the airport, drives me to different venues, makes introductions, and gives me advice on what's going on in the local book world. This person is called a Media Escort or, sometimes, a Literary Escort. They keep the tour running on schedule, take pictures, and make sure I eat something. I think that would be a fun job. I hope you all have a happy Thanksgiving and here is part three, the finale of my New York blog.
Friday, October 15th
I had a breakfast meeting at the Maialino restaurant. When you walk in, you can actually taste the butter in the air. I had Ricotta pancakes with plum compote and maple syrup and we shared cream filled doughnuts, candied ginger scones, and flaky chocolate croissants. If you ever find ricotta pancakes on the menu, try them. They’re like cheesecake pancakes. At breakfast I met the Author Events Coordinator for Barnes & Noble and had my two new friends, Derry and Shimul with me. I asked lots of questions about the book signing tours and how they would choose which stores I would be going to.
Next, we went back to my hotel, picked up my mom and my husband, dad opted to stay in the hotel room and read, and met a new friend named Frank who is a sales rep in New York City. His job is fascinating. He said he loved Tiger’s Curse but since he’s a guy I tested him. “What’s your favorite part?” I asked. “The jump in the Cave of Kanheri over the chasm,” he replied smoothly. So it’s official. There is at least one guy out there who likes my book.
We went around to some of the big bookstores in NYC, The Bank Street Bookstore, Books of Wonder, and McNally Jackson Books. Each place is amazing and has its charms. The Bank Street store is a children’s dream and it’s full of products for teachers too on the upper floor. It has a really lovely polished wooden staircase and the owner is passionate about independent bookstores remaining community fixtures. In Books of Wonder they specialize in carrying autographed copies and have lots of book signings. Very fun store to browse and the bonus feature is they have an indoor cupcake shop where you can order hot cider and hot chocolate with your muffin or cupcake. At McNally’s we got the most wonderful reception in the Young Adult section and talked for a long time about favorite YA authors. Very knowledgeable staff there.
After our visits, we said goodbye to our new Sterling friends and met up with Raffi and his girlfriend for dinner at an Italian restaurant. Raffi had to get the craziest thing on the menu which was giant calamari. Seriously, I’ve never seen them that big. I think it must have been Kraken calamari and it wasn’t fried either so I could picture the Kraken in all its rubbery glory. Fortunately that was just the appetizer and we had a delicious meal then he had a surprise for us and took us to Max Brenner’s chocolate restaurant. The official name is Max Brenner-Chocolate by the Bald Man and to say by entering you’ve died and gone to heaven is probably not giving the place enough credit.
I’ve read an article about the place that says if you are a single man in your 30’s and your date is going well, you probably take your date here for dessert. Raffi must have thought his date was going really well to take all four of us and his girlfriend. Somehow with an hour wait and no reservation he was able to get us a table within five minutes. Now I don’t know if he slipped the hostess some cash or if the role of Kelsey has been filled now, but that’s a man with some skills.
We ordered chocolate crepes, lava cakes, spicy hot chocolate, a giant chocolate and peanut butter pizza, s’mores sundaes, and the chocolate tasting platter which included a banana split waffle, chocolate sponge cake, a chocolate egg roll, which was spicy, chocolate wafer balls with chocolate sauce and a chocolate fondue with fruit and marshmallows you could toast over your own personal tiny flame. Seriously read the menu and tell me why this place isn’t franchised all over the United States. It’s just not fair!
After the taxi driver used the jaws of life to pry our plumped bodies from his cab and rolled us in the direction of our bell boy, he drove off and left us to stumble to our rooms moaning about chocolate overload. Raffi said that he had picked the place with mom in mind and she was very impressed. Guess who gets an invite to Thanksgiving dinner this year. Move over, son. Raffi’s my new favorite. We had a great time with him and his girlfriend who we found delightful.
Saturday, October 16th
This was my day off. A photo shoot had been scheduled but the photographer couldn’t make it so I got the day off and spent most of it with my mom. We headed to Times Square and went shopping for all her friends at work and browsed all the cool stores, saw the New Year’s Eve Ball and Times Square Historical Museum, shopped the M&M store which we could easily have spent another hour in, then we went to see The Lion King and had a fabulous time there. That is one amazing show and another one that gives me goose bumps when the music starts. The costumes were fantastic and the actors were fabulous. Our husbands met us outside the theater and we went to Central Park and took a buggy ride through the park with a charming driver. We had our last dinner near our hotel and asked if they happened to have cheesecake. They did. It was light and lovely and delicious. We checked off that last item on our list and retired early.
Sunday, October 17th
A driver picked us up and took us back to the Newark, NJ airport. The streets were dead quiet. It was eerie almost like in the Will Smith movie I Am Legend. The driver said, “Of course. It’s Sunday.” After all the noise and waking up to multiple honking cars and garbage trucks beeping as they picked up their loads, the silence was a little strange. The flight was nice and I ended up watching Avatar on my laptop and finishing a book.
That’s it for my crazy week in NYC. Now I have to go step on the scale and assess the damage. =)
Colleen
Pictures on my website.
Hello Everybody,
I just got back from my prepublication tour. Some of you have wondered what that is so I'll tell you. It's an opportunity for me to meet with librarians, bookstore owners, and events coordinators before an actual tour happens. We can plan fun events together and they can get to know me a little bit before the frenzy of a tour. A local picks me up at the airport, drives me to different venues, makes introductions, and gives me advice on what's going on in the local book world. This person is called a Media Escort or, sometimes, a Literary Escort. They keep the tour running on schedule, take pictures, and make sure I eat something. I think that would be a fun job. I hope you all have a happy Thanksgiving and here is part three, the finale of my New York blog.
Friday, October 15th
I had a breakfast meeting at the Maialino restaurant. When you walk in, you can actually taste the butter in the air. I had Ricotta pancakes with plum compote and maple syrup and we shared cream filled doughnuts, candied ginger scones, and flaky chocolate croissants. If you ever find ricotta pancakes on the menu, try them. They’re like cheesecake pancakes. At breakfast I met the Author Events Coordinator for Barnes & Noble and had my two new friends, Derry and Shimul with me. I asked lots of questions about the book signing tours and how they would choose which stores I would be going to.
Next, we went back to my hotel, picked up my mom and my husband, dad opted to stay in the hotel room and read, and met a new friend named Frank who is a sales rep in New York City. His job is fascinating. He said he loved Tiger’s Curse but since he’s a guy I tested him. “What’s your favorite part?” I asked. “The jump in the Cave of Kanheri over the chasm,” he replied smoothly. So it’s official. There is at least one guy out there who likes my book.
We went around to some of the big bookstores in NYC, The Bank Street Bookstore, Books of Wonder, and McNally Jackson Books. Each place is amazing and has its charms. The Bank Street store is a children’s dream and it’s full of products for teachers too on the upper floor. It has a really lovely polished wooden staircase and the owner is passionate about independent bookstores remaining community fixtures. In Books of Wonder they specialize in carrying autographed copies and have lots of book signings. Very fun store to browse and the bonus feature is they have an indoor cupcake shop where you can order hot cider and hot chocolate with your muffin or cupcake. At McNally’s we got the most wonderful reception in the Young Adult section and talked for a long time about favorite YA authors. Very knowledgeable staff there.
After our visits, we said goodbye to our new Sterling friends and met up with Raffi and his girlfriend for dinner at an Italian restaurant. Raffi had to get the craziest thing on the menu which was giant calamari. Seriously, I’ve never seen them that big. I think it must have been Kraken calamari and it wasn’t fried either so I could picture the Kraken in all its rubbery glory. Fortunately that was just the appetizer and we had a delicious meal then he had a surprise for us and took us to Max Brenner’s chocolate restaurant. The official name is Max Brenner-Chocolate by the Bald Man and to say by entering you’ve died and gone to heaven is probably not giving the place enough credit.
I’ve read an article about the place that says if you are a single man in your 30’s and your date is going well, you probably take your date here for dessert. Raffi must have thought his date was going really well to take all four of us and his girlfriend. Somehow with an hour wait and no reservation he was able to get us a table within five minutes. Now I don’t know if he slipped the hostess some cash or if the role of Kelsey has been filled now, but that’s a man with some skills.
We ordered chocolate crepes, lava cakes, spicy hot chocolate, a giant chocolate and peanut butter pizza, s’mores sundaes, and the chocolate tasting platter which included a banana split waffle, chocolate sponge cake, a chocolate egg roll, which was spicy, chocolate wafer balls with chocolate sauce and a chocolate fondue with fruit and marshmallows you could toast over your own personal tiny flame. Seriously read the menu and tell me why this place isn’t franchised all over the United States. It’s just not fair!
After the taxi driver used the jaws of life to pry our plumped bodies from his cab and rolled us in the direction of our bell boy, he drove off and left us to stumble to our rooms moaning about chocolate overload. Raffi said that he had picked the place with mom in mind and she was very impressed. Guess who gets an invite to Thanksgiving dinner this year. Move over, son. Raffi’s my new favorite. We had a great time with him and his girlfriend who we found delightful.
Saturday, October 16th
This was my day off. A photo shoot had been scheduled but the photographer couldn’t make it so I got the day off and spent most of it with my mom. We headed to Times Square and went shopping for all her friends at work and browsed all the cool stores, saw the New Year’s Eve Ball and Times Square Historical Museum, shopped the M&M store which we could easily have spent another hour in, then we went to see The Lion King and had a fabulous time there. That is one amazing show and another one that gives me goose bumps when the music starts. The costumes were fantastic and the actors were fabulous. Our husbands met us outside the theater and we went to Central Park and took a buggy ride through the park with a charming driver. We had our last dinner near our hotel and asked if they happened to have cheesecake. They did. It was light and lovely and delicious. We checked off that last item on our list and retired early.
Sunday, October 17th
A driver picked us up and took us back to the Newark, NJ airport. The streets were dead quiet. It was eerie almost like in the Will Smith movie I Am Legend. The driver said, “Of course. It’s Sunday.” After all the noise and waking up to multiple honking cars and garbage trucks beeping as they picked up their loads, the silence was a little strange. The flight was nice and I ended up watching Avatar on my laptop and finishing a book.
That’s it for my crazy week in NYC. Now I have to go step on the scale and assess the damage. =)
Colleen
Pictures on my website.
November 10, 2010
My Crazy Week in New York Part Two
Hi!
Thank you everyone for all your patience as we update and make changes to just about everything tiger. Here is part two of my NYC blog. For pictures see my website http://www.tigerscursebook.com
Tuesday, October 12
This was the longest working day for me. While my husband and parents went on the Circle Line tour, a three hour tour around Manhattan, I was busy with Sterling. We started the day at a breakfast meeting with representatives from Barnes & Noble. I met the national buyer for YA fiction, a representative from B&N.com, and the vice president of children’s merchandising. The restaurant was called Olive’s which is a Todd English place and if you go, I would suggest you get their Benedict Flatbread. We had a great lunch and I especially bonded with Shimul who is the Manager of National Accounts at Sterling. She could totally be Nilima in the movie. She’s so pretty! We talked hot Bollywood men during breakfast, after the meeting was over, of course.
After breakfast I headed over to Sterling and met several employees who have all worked on the book in various ways and made another new friend, Derry, who is the Manager of Children’s Publicity. I got a peek at the new book trailer and was brought the revised cover and shown the interior maps etc. I went out to lunch with Derry, Cindy, and Judi, at an Italian place called I Trulli. There was a sweet little woman rolling homemade gnocchi as we walked in. I ordered the Malloreddus which is saffron dumplings with sausage and tomato and managed to spill saffron pasta down my new shirt when I had a video shoot that afternoon. Luckily I was prepared with two other shirts.
After lunch I went into a three hour video shoot that will be shared all over the internet. They said the shoot went well. I hope so. You can all be the judges and tell me if I look too nervous on video. I told the camera guy, who was very good looking by the way and all the employees wanted his phone number, to make me look as skinny as possible and if he wanted to soften my aura to diminish wrinkles like they do with Cher and Hillary Clinton, all the better.
When the shoot was finished, I had a brief rest before I met my agent, Alex for dinner. We went to the Mesa Grill which is a Bobby Flay restaurant. He has tons of cookbooks for sale in his store but, alas, he wasn’t there that night. Our group was me, Alex, Frances, Cindy, and Judi and we were gifted with a table full of appetizers because someone knew someone who worked there. The theme was blue corn. We had blue corn tortilla chips to dip in cheese, blue corn muffins, and my favorite was a blue corn crepe filled with BBQ duck. I got pork tenderloin for my entrée which they suggested should be cooked medium which I didn’t know you could do with pork. It was rolled in ancho chili sauce which was a bit too spicy for me but it came with a sweet potato tamale with crushed pecan butter that was to die for. We shared coconut cake and churros with chocolate sauce for dessert.
I have no idea how these people stay so skinny. It must be all the walking they do in NYC.
Wednesday, October 13
I got to sleep in which was good since I didn’t get back from dinner until eleven or so. A car arrived at our hotel to take all of us, my parents and Brad included, to a special celebration brunch at Sterling. About fifty employees showed up and some came who weren’t even invited. Marcus gave a speech and then asked me to say something. I can’t remember exactly what I said. I think it was something to the effect of, “heartfelt thanks for all their hard work and for welcoming me with open arms.” I added that it was humbling to know that all of them were taking a risk on me and promised that I would do my best to write them a fabulous story. My dad started bawling which made me cry too. We watched the new book trailer and there were collective oohs and ahhs when it was finished. The table was filled with fruit, cream cheeses, and NYC bagels, which was another item to check off our list, but I was so busy meeting people and signing galleys, each employee got a free galley, that they had to shuffle people out the door and I only had time to grab a bagel and run to my next meeting.
I met with Chris who is the Director of Library Marketing who picked my brains about which libraries have my old versions of the book and we talked the library systems of Oregon. Then I met with Elizabeth who some might recognize from the Facebook and Twitter pages. She is the manager of Online Marketing and she’s fabulous! I met Emily who knows everything about Twitter and looks young enough to be in HS so I believe her. I also met Buzz whose real name is Meagan who is going to be arranging all kinds of crazy fun events for fans, like…having all the fans in Chicago go to a park with a Kelsey ribbon at 5 pm. She’s fun to brainstorm with and totally wants to be Kelsey in the movie.
I ate lunch with Judi in her office. We had mozzarella, tomato, basil sandwiches on pretzel bread. Yummy. Then we met Stephenie who is the National Account Manager for B&N.com and drove over to their offices for an exclusive video shoot for B&N. We lucked out and got another handsome camera man who once again promised me he’d make me look good and we went through the interview pretty fast. I found out all the B&N author videos are shot there and I asked about Leonard Nimoy who they shot recently for his new photo book. The interviewer said all the Star Trek geek employees kept walking casually by the studio trying to catch a peek.
Went back to Sterling to meet with Emily who is my Twitter mentor and Elizabeth who is in charge of the website. We took some pictures and they sent me home. My parents took me to a place for a slice of NYC pizza which was really, really good.
At nine that night, Raffi had flown in to town and took me, mom, and Alex to dinner at the Gramercy Tavern. He wanted to try the tasting menu which is the most expensive thing. We keep telling him Denny’s is fine but he insists. One of these days we’ll arrange an eight course Denny’s meal. “And right here you have your buttermilk short stack of pancakes with your pat of margarine that has been chilled to exactly forty-five degrees. Your maple syrup has been placed on the side in this convenient server and should you require more paper napkins, they will of course be provided free of charge. And here is your palate cleanser, an assortment of fresh melon and berries shaped as a garnish. Enjoy!”
So instead of Denny’s we got a Taste of Autumn which included a fluke tartar with orange caviar, crab soup, smoked trout, squab, which I didn’t know what was until mom started sharing a story of pigeon pie back on the farm, venison with blood sausage, and then dessert, along with various in between courses. The venison came with bone marrow which is an inside joke with Raffi. He loves the stuff so we tease him about it constantly. That and his hair (see below). We had a nice dinner and mom and I returned to our hotel at midnight to find both of our husbands waiting up for us to hear all about it.
Thursday, October 14
I got to sleep in again though I still had to set the alarm to do my hair. It takes forever to straighten it and when I complained about it to Judi she brought me a bag full of her favorite hair products. This was the most special day of the week because it was the day I met the press for a special luncheon. We met at a restaurant called Tabla which is kind of an Indian restaurant fused with something so it doesn’t really taste that Indian. They had fabulous naan bread with three chutneys, a tomato, a pear, and a lemon. Yum! We had the entire upper floor of the restaurant to ourselves and I was flanked by my trusty sidekicks—Cindy, Frances, and Judi.
In attendance were representatives from School Library Journal, Seventeen Magazine, the Associated Press, and RT Book Reviews, formerly known as the Romantic Times. Lunch was fabulous! I talked libraries and books with the SLJ blogger, favorite romance authors with the RT reporter, baseball, not really my thing but I can fake it well with AP, and Justin Beiber and Vampire Diaries with the reporter from Seventeen. Somehow during all the conversations I was actually able to eat too. It felt a bit like I was being interviewed for a job at four different companies and I had no idea what the jobs were or what they were looking for.
I followed my Sterling gang back to the office and met with Elizabeth to craft the announcement for the cover release and to work on the website and then with Emily who gave me a crash course in all things Twitter and Hootsuite. We were interrupted by a stream of Sterling employees who wanted their books signed which was really cool and Emily was very patient at the constant stopping and starting of her lesson. They eventually had to close the door so I could get some work done.
More pictures and then I was excused for the rest of the day. Went with my family to a place called Jackson Hole Burgers, home of the 7 oz burger. Then we went to see The Phantom on Times Square. I loved it. I still get goosebumps when the music starts. If you have never been able to see Phantom live, it's worth the experience and if you just can't make it to a theater, the movie is really well done and you can stare at Gerard Butler.
That's it for part two. Part three, the conclusion, coming soon.
Colleen
Thank you everyone for all your patience as we update and make changes to just about everything tiger. Here is part two of my NYC blog. For pictures see my website http://www.tigerscursebook.com
Tuesday, October 12
This was the longest working day for me. While my husband and parents went on the Circle Line tour, a three hour tour around Manhattan, I was busy with Sterling. We started the day at a breakfast meeting with representatives from Barnes & Noble. I met the national buyer for YA fiction, a representative from B&N.com, and the vice president of children’s merchandising. The restaurant was called Olive’s which is a Todd English place and if you go, I would suggest you get their Benedict Flatbread. We had a great lunch and I especially bonded with Shimul who is the Manager of National Accounts at Sterling. She could totally be Nilima in the movie. She’s so pretty! We talked hot Bollywood men during breakfast, after the meeting was over, of course.
After breakfast I headed over to Sterling and met several employees who have all worked on the book in various ways and made another new friend, Derry, who is the Manager of Children’s Publicity. I got a peek at the new book trailer and was brought the revised cover and shown the interior maps etc. I went out to lunch with Derry, Cindy, and Judi, at an Italian place called I Trulli. There was a sweet little woman rolling homemade gnocchi as we walked in. I ordered the Malloreddus which is saffron dumplings with sausage and tomato and managed to spill saffron pasta down my new shirt when I had a video shoot that afternoon. Luckily I was prepared with two other shirts.
After lunch I went into a three hour video shoot that will be shared all over the internet. They said the shoot went well. I hope so. You can all be the judges and tell me if I look too nervous on video. I told the camera guy, who was very good looking by the way and all the employees wanted his phone number, to make me look as skinny as possible and if he wanted to soften my aura to diminish wrinkles like they do with Cher and Hillary Clinton, all the better.
When the shoot was finished, I had a brief rest before I met my agent, Alex for dinner. We went to the Mesa Grill which is a Bobby Flay restaurant. He has tons of cookbooks for sale in his store but, alas, he wasn’t there that night. Our group was me, Alex, Frances, Cindy, and Judi and we were gifted with a table full of appetizers because someone knew someone who worked there. The theme was blue corn. We had blue corn tortilla chips to dip in cheese, blue corn muffins, and my favorite was a blue corn crepe filled with BBQ duck. I got pork tenderloin for my entrée which they suggested should be cooked medium which I didn’t know you could do with pork. It was rolled in ancho chili sauce which was a bit too spicy for me but it came with a sweet potato tamale with crushed pecan butter that was to die for. We shared coconut cake and churros with chocolate sauce for dessert.
I have no idea how these people stay so skinny. It must be all the walking they do in NYC.
Wednesday, October 13
I got to sleep in which was good since I didn’t get back from dinner until eleven or so. A car arrived at our hotel to take all of us, my parents and Brad included, to a special celebration brunch at Sterling. About fifty employees showed up and some came who weren’t even invited. Marcus gave a speech and then asked me to say something. I can’t remember exactly what I said. I think it was something to the effect of, “heartfelt thanks for all their hard work and for welcoming me with open arms.” I added that it was humbling to know that all of them were taking a risk on me and promised that I would do my best to write them a fabulous story. My dad started bawling which made me cry too. We watched the new book trailer and there were collective oohs and ahhs when it was finished. The table was filled with fruit, cream cheeses, and NYC bagels, which was another item to check off our list, but I was so busy meeting people and signing galleys, each employee got a free galley, that they had to shuffle people out the door and I only had time to grab a bagel and run to my next meeting.
I met with Chris who is the Director of Library Marketing who picked my brains about which libraries have my old versions of the book and we talked the library systems of Oregon. Then I met with Elizabeth who some might recognize from the Facebook and Twitter pages. She is the manager of Online Marketing and she’s fabulous! I met Emily who knows everything about Twitter and looks young enough to be in HS so I believe her. I also met Buzz whose real name is Meagan who is going to be arranging all kinds of crazy fun events for fans, like…having all the fans in Chicago go to a park with a Kelsey ribbon at 5 pm. She’s fun to brainstorm with and totally wants to be Kelsey in the movie.
I ate lunch with Judi in her office. We had mozzarella, tomato, basil sandwiches on pretzel bread. Yummy. Then we met Stephenie who is the National Account Manager for B&N.com and drove over to their offices for an exclusive video shoot for B&N. We lucked out and got another handsome camera man who once again promised me he’d make me look good and we went through the interview pretty fast. I found out all the B&N author videos are shot there and I asked about Leonard Nimoy who they shot recently for his new photo book. The interviewer said all the Star Trek geek employees kept walking casually by the studio trying to catch a peek.
Went back to Sterling to meet with Emily who is my Twitter mentor and Elizabeth who is in charge of the website. We took some pictures and they sent me home. My parents took me to a place for a slice of NYC pizza which was really, really good.
At nine that night, Raffi had flown in to town and took me, mom, and Alex to dinner at the Gramercy Tavern. He wanted to try the tasting menu which is the most expensive thing. We keep telling him Denny’s is fine but he insists. One of these days we’ll arrange an eight course Denny’s meal. “And right here you have your buttermilk short stack of pancakes with your pat of margarine that has been chilled to exactly forty-five degrees. Your maple syrup has been placed on the side in this convenient server and should you require more paper napkins, they will of course be provided free of charge. And here is your palate cleanser, an assortment of fresh melon and berries shaped as a garnish. Enjoy!”
So instead of Denny’s we got a Taste of Autumn which included a fluke tartar with orange caviar, crab soup, smoked trout, squab, which I didn’t know what was until mom started sharing a story of pigeon pie back on the farm, venison with blood sausage, and then dessert, along with various in between courses. The venison came with bone marrow which is an inside joke with Raffi. He loves the stuff so we tease him about it constantly. That and his hair (see below). We had a nice dinner and mom and I returned to our hotel at midnight to find both of our husbands waiting up for us to hear all about it.
Thursday, October 14
I got to sleep in again though I still had to set the alarm to do my hair. It takes forever to straighten it and when I complained about it to Judi she brought me a bag full of her favorite hair products. This was the most special day of the week because it was the day I met the press for a special luncheon. We met at a restaurant called Tabla which is kind of an Indian restaurant fused with something so it doesn’t really taste that Indian. They had fabulous naan bread with three chutneys, a tomato, a pear, and a lemon. Yum! We had the entire upper floor of the restaurant to ourselves and I was flanked by my trusty sidekicks—Cindy, Frances, and Judi.
In attendance were representatives from School Library Journal, Seventeen Magazine, the Associated Press, and RT Book Reviews, formerly known as the Romantic Times. Lunch was fabulous! I talked libraries and books with the SLJ blogger, favorite romance authors with the RT reporter, baseball, not really my thing but I can fake it well with AP, and Justin Beiber and Vampire Diaries with the reporter from Seventeen. Somehow during all the conversations I was actually able to eat too. It felt a bit like I was being interviewed for a job at four different companies and I had no idea what the jobs were or what they were looking for.
I followed my Sterling gang back to the office and met with Elizabeth to craft the announcement for the cover release and to work on the website and then with Emily who gave me a crash course in all things Twitter and Hootsuite. We were interrupted by a stream of Sterling employees who wanted their books signed which was really cool and Emily was very patient at the constant stopping and starting of her lesson. They eventually had to close the door so I could get some work done.
More pictures and then I was excused for the rest of the day. Went with my family to a place called Jackson Hole Burgers, home of the 7 oz burger. Then we went to see The Phantom on Times Square. I loved it. I still get goosebumps when the music starts. If you have never been able to see Phantom live, it's worth the experience and if you just can't make it to a theater, the movie is really well done and you can stare at Gerard Butler.
That's it for part two. Part three, the conclusion, coming soon.
Colleen
November 5, 2010
My Crazy Week in New York Part One
(For Pictures see the new website http://www.tigerscursebook.com/)
Hi Everyone,
Welcome to the new website. Have fun exploring and keep coming back because we'll be adding some cool stuff as we get ready to launch Tiger's Curse. For those of you who have been asking about the movie, Raffi has given me permission to invite you to his Facebook and Twitter pages for his production company called Ineffable Pictures. For those of you wondering what ineffable means like I did, he said that it means that something is so cool you can't even talk about it.
I recently met a foreign rights agent I'm working with. Her name is Kate and she sold my books to Thailand. She was traveling through Oregon and stopped by to say hello. She also brought me a present from Thailand-a beautiful scarf made from Thai silk. Just before she left she handed me a second scarf to give to my mother because she saw pictures of my mom with the tigers in LA. I told mom that she's famous now. Here's a picture.
Now on to my New York Trip
My Crazy Week in NYC
Part One
I was invited along with my husband and my parents to come to NYC to meet my new publishing team from Sterling. I had already met four of them when they flew to Oregon the first week of August. So let me backtrack and tell you about that visit first. The four who came to see me were the ones I am working with the most—Marcus, the overall president of the company, is a Brit expecting his second set of twins. He’s a man who thinks outside the box and he’s also a man willing to take risks. Then there’s Frances, who is the president of the Children’s book division. She’s a smart lady who loves children, is soft spoken, and is head over heels for their new children’s book called The Secret Lives of Princesses which I fully intend to buy. Gorgeous book.
I met Cindy who is not only the Editorial Director but the editor for the Tiger Series. She’s full of bubbly energy, loves the tigers, and she was married in two dresses, a traditional white one and a red dress just like Li described at the Chinese wedding in Tiger’s Quest. My last visitor to Oregon was Judi who is the marketing director at Sterling. She has announced that she will be my second mom on the road, even though I think she’s younger than me, and she loves to lecture me on staying hydrated. She has crazy fun ideas for promoting the series and kept me organized the entire time I was in New York.
So the whole group of them came to visit me in Salem and took me out to lunch. Marcus flipped over a paper menu and drew an org chart on the back, showing me who’s who in the company. We talked favorite books and the book business and Marcus made a bet with me on book sales for the first year. If we sell a certain number of books he said he’d take me to India. I fully intend to win that bet. After lunch I took them on a tiger tour. We visited the Polk County Fairgrounds where we met up with Raffi the film producer and we then shocked the manager of the Western Oregon Bookstore as our group, who were obviously not students, descended upon her and asked her all kinds of questions about books and sales. She was grinning from ear to ear, since she is a fan, and proudly showed off her tiger section in the wolf themed school. After that we headed to Burgerville for milkshakes and talked tigers. We finished the night at the DaVinci restaurant in Salem where my husband joined us and we talked about marketing and cover design.
They left telling me they planned to fly me out to New York which I agreed to do with enthusiasm, but as I drove home, I wondered if my week in NYC would be as tiring as the single day they’d spent with me in Salem. I was right to wonder.
Now that you know the backstory and the players, I’ll tell you about what happened in New York.
Sunday-October 10
Our trip started out bad when my parents realized that they’d left a bag at home after we’d driven all the way to the airport. Fortunately, my father likes to arrive at airports three hours early so he drove back home and was able to return in time so we could board, though we were the last ones on the plane. We landed in Newark, NJ and were met by a driver and taken to our hotel called the Indigo-Chelsea which is in the flower district of NYC. I received a lovely bouquet of flowers from Sterling as well as a large fruit basket. We ate dinner at a Chinese restaurant down the block from the hotel and walked down to Penn Station and Madison Square Garden.
Monday-October 11
We went walking in the morning and headed for the Empire State Building. When we got in line, the worker said it would be about twenty minutes until we could get to the top. Forty minutes later we hadn’t progressed except to get through security and decided to duck out since we had to meet with my agent. All along the walk we were bothered by guys wanting to sell us tour bus tickets. There was a guy every five feet or so and they’re hard to deter. We got to Alex’s building just in time and met his assistant, Kate.
Trident Media Group is on the 36th floor in a tall brown building next to Madison Square Park and adjacent to a famous New York building called the Flat Iron. Their lobby was full of books. Their front office was full of books. The conference room was full of books. Their bathrooms were full of books. New books, old books, all the books they’d sold lined shelf after shelf after shelf. We met in the conference room with Alex, my agent, Libby, who sells audiobook rights, and Jessica who just returned from the International Book Fair in Frankfurt, Germany, who sells internationally. My parents were able to ask Alex questions and he talked about what stages my books were in, then he took the four of us out to lunch at a restaurant called Eleven Madison Park.
This was the craziest restaurant we ate in that week. They have a large tree with cut roses attached to it so they probably change the flowers every other day. Waiters watch your every move and if you leave to go to the restroom your napkin is folded and your dinnerware is replaced. It’s themed sort of like Iron Chef except you choose the secret ingredient and then they make you whatever they’re inspired to. The menu looked like this.
BEET PRAWN SOLE FOIE GRAS
ENDIVE SWEETBREADS TOMATO LOBSTER
PORK CHICKEN BEEF VENISON
CHEVRE CHOCOLATE APPLE HAZELNUT
We had a three course lunch which means we chose one word from the top two rows and then one entrée from the third row and one dessert from the last row. This meal came not only with bread on the side, there were several add-ons as we waited between courses. We started with a large potato chip served in slits on a wooden plank. They were salted and had a dollop of sour cream and chive. We also had a row of eggs in little cups brought out. The tops were sheared off and we were given tiny spoons that just fit inside. In the eggs was a sturgeon cream with chive oil on the bottom. I didn’t think I’d like it but it was delicious. We also had a palate cleanser before dessert which was a malt ice cream, crumbled malt, a malt wafer, malt sauce, and cracked black pepper. The entire dish was white except for the pepper. This restaurant was fun and delicious and mom had a fun time taking pictures of everything we ate.
After our three hour lunch, Alex hailed us a taxi and we went to Ground Zero. There is a museum out there that sells books, T-shirts, and postcards to raise money for the memorial that’s under construction. It should be beautiful when it’s done and it’s supposed to open on Sept 11, 2011. Where the two towers stood they are building a park and two water features will outline the dimensions of the building.
Finishing there, we boarded a tour bus and you have to be pushy and time it right to get to the top which is where a tourist wants to be. The top is open air and you can see everything, hear the guide, and take pictures. Inside the bus is hot and you can’t see anything. I was the first to the top and was able to see Trump Tower. They said that those who work or live on the top floors of Trump Tower can feel the wind rock the building back and forth. We all finally got to the top of the bus as we neared Times Square where we all had to disembark and then board again when they flipped the sign to night bus.
The night bus wasn’t as full and we all agreed it was the best thing to do in New York. The buildings are beautiful at night and the guide was fun. I saw Parson’s School of Design which is where they film Project Runway. Mom and Dad never heard of it and didn’t know why I was excited. We went into Brooklyn over the Brooklyn Bridge and drove through Chinatown and Little Italy. The guide told us that every visitor to New York had to try four things—New York cheesecake, a bagel, pizza, and a hot dog. He also explained his theory as to why NYC style pizza cannot be replicated in other places. He said it’s all in the water. “NYC has a very special tasting tap water which makes the bagels and pizza taste different.” After spending a week there, we agreed with him.
It started raining towards the end of our tour and we were let off the bus about six or seven blocks from our hotel. We found a Nathan’s Hot Dog and decided to make a dent in our list. The hot dogs are thin and long and have a sort of snap to them. Then, on our walk home, we had to duck under the ever present construction awnings as we were pelted with pea sized hail. The streets filled with water as it began to rain heavily and we ducked and ran from shelter to shelter finally arriving at our hotel soaked and laughing. Helpful tip: If you’re walking in NYC in the rain, move as far away from the street as possible. A taxi plunged into a large puddle near the curb without slowing down and I was soaked from my waist down and I mean soaked. I might as well have jumped into the ocean.
That's is for my crazy week in New York Part One. Stay tuned for part two and part three coming soon!
Colleen
Hi Everyone,
Welcome to the new website. Have fun exploring and keep coming back because we'll be adding some cool stuff as we get ready to launch Tiger's Curse. For those of you who have been asking about the movie, Raffi has given me permission to invite you to his Facebook and Twitter pages for his production company called Ineffable Pictures. For those of you wondering what ineffable means like I did, he said that it means that something is so cool you can't even talk about it.
I recently met a foreign rights agent I'm working with. Her name is Kate and she sold my books to Thailand. She was traveling through Oregon and stopped by to say hello. She also brought me a present from Thailand-a beautiful scarf made from Thai silk. Just before she left she handed me a second scarf to give to my mother because she saw pictures of my mom with the tigers in LA. I told mom that she's famous now. Here's a picture.
Now on to my New York Trip
My Crazy Week in NYC
Part One
I was invited along with my husband and my parents to come to NYC to meet my new publishing team from Sterling. I had already met four of them when they flew to Oregon the first week of August. So let me backtrack and tell you about that visit first. The four who came to see me were the ones I am working with the most—Marcus, the overall president of the company, is a Brit expecting his second set of twins. He’s a man who thinks outside the box and he’s also a man willing to take risks. Then there’s Frances, who is the president of the Children’s book division. She’s a smart lady who loves children, is soft spoken, and is head over heels for their new children’s book called The Secret Lives of Princesses which I fully intend to buy. Gorgeous book.
I met Cindy who is not only the Editorial Director but the editor for the Tiger Series. She’s full of bubbly energy, loves the tigers, and she was married in two dresses, a traditional white one and a red dress just like Li described at the Chinese wedding in Tiger’s Quest. My last visitor to Oregon was Judi who is the marketing director at Sterling. She has announced that she will be my second mom on the road, even though I think she’s younger than me, and she loves to lecture me on staying hydrated. She has crazy fun ideas for promoting the series and kept me organized the entire time I was in New York.
So the whole group of them came to visit me in Salem and took me out to lunch. Marcus flipped over a paper menu and drew an org chart on the back, showing me who’s who in the company. We talked favorite books and the book business and Marcus made a bet with me on book sales for the first year. If we sell a certain number of books he said he’d take me to India. I fully intend to win that bet. After lunch I took them on a tiger tour. We visited the Polk County Fairgrounds where we met up with Raffi the film producer and we then shocked the manager of the Western Oregon Bookstore as our group, who were obviously not students, descended upon her and asked her all kinds of questions about books and sales. She was grinning from ear to ear, since she is a fan, and proudly showed off her tiger section in the wolf themed school. After that we headed to Burgerville for milkshakes and talked tigers. We finished the night at the DaVinci restaurant in Salem where my husband joined us and we talked about marketing and cover design.
They left telling me they planned to fly me out to New York which I agreed to do with enthusiasm, but as I drove home, I wondered if my week in NYC would be as tiring as the single day they’d spent with me in Salem. I was right to wonder.
Now that you know the backstory and the players, I’ll tell you about what happened in New York.
Sunday-October 10
Our trip started out bad when my parents realized that they’d left a bag at home after we’d driven all the way to the airport. Fortunately, my father likes to arrive at airports three hours early so he drove back home and was able to return in time so we could board, though we were the last ones on the plane. We landed in Newark, NJ and were met by a driver and taken to our hotel called the Indigo-Chelsea which is in the flower district of NYC. I received a lovely bouquet of flowers from Sterling as well as a large fruit basket. We ate dinner at a Chinese restaurant down the block from the hotel and walked down to Penn Station and Madison Square Garden.
Monday-October 11
We went walking in the morning and headed for the Empire State Building. When we got in line, the worker said it would be about twenty minutes until we could get to the top. Forty minutes later we hadn’t progressed except to get through security and decided to duck out since we had to meet with my agent. All along the walk we were bothered by guys wanting to sell us tour bus tickets. There was a guy every five feet or so and they’re hard to deter. We got to Alex’s building just in time and met his assistant, Kate.
Trident Media Group is on the 36th floor in a tall brown building next to Madison Square Park and adjacent to a famous New York building called the Flat Iron. Their lobby was full of books. Their front office was full of books. The conference room was full of books. Their bathrooms were full of books. New books, old books, all the books they’d sold lined shelf after shelf after shelf. We met in the conference room with Alex, my agent, Libby, who sells audiobook rights, and Jessica who just returned from the International Book Fair in Frankfurt, Germany, who sells internationally. My parents were able to ask Alex questions and he talked about what stages my books were in, then he took the four of us out to lunch at a restaurant called Eleven Madison Park.
This was the craziest restaurant we ate in that week. They have a large tree with cut roses attached to it so they probably change the flowers every other day. Waiters watch your every move and if you leave to go to the restroom your napkin is folded and your dinnerware is replaced. It’s themed sort of like Iron Chef except you choose the secret ingredient and then they make you whatever they’re inspired to. The menu looked like this.
BEET PRAWN SOLE FOIE GRAS
ENDIVE SWEETBREADS TOMATO LOBSTER
PORK CHICKEN BEEF VENISON
CHEVRE CHOCOLATE APPLE HAZELNUT
We had a three course lunch which means we chose one word from the top two rows and then one entrée from the third row and one dessert from the last row. This meal came not only with bread on the side, there were several add-ons as we waited between courses. We started with a large potato chip served in slits on a wooden plank. They were salted and had a dollop of sour cream and chive. We also had a row of eggs in little cups brought out. The tops were sheared off and we were given tiny spoons that just fit inside. In the eggs was a sturgeon cream with chive oil on the bottom. I didn’t think I’d like it but it was delicious. We also had a palate cleanser before dessert which was a malt ice cream, crumbled malt, a malt wafer, malt sauce, and cracked black pepper. The entire dish was white except for the pepper. This restaurant was fun and delicious and mom had a fun time taking pictures of everything we ate.
After our three hour lunch, Alex hailed us a taxi and we went to Ground Zero. There is a museum out there that sells books, T-shirts, and postcards to raise money for the memorial that’s under construction. It should be beautiful when it’s done and it’s supposed to open on Sept 11, 2011. Where the two towers stood they are building a park and two water features will outline the dimensions of the building.
Finishing there, we boarded a tour bus and you have to be pushy and time it right to get to the top which is where a tourist wants to be. The top is open air and you can see everything, hear the guide, and take pictures. Inside the bus is hot and you can’t see anything. I was the first to the top and was able to see Trump Tower. They said that those who work or live on the top floors of Trump Tower can feel the wind rock the building back and forth. We all finally got to the top of the bus as we neared Times Square where we all had to disembark and then board again when they flipped the sign to night bus.
The night bus wasn’t as full and we all agreed it was the best thing to do in New York. The buildings are beautiful at night and the guide was fun. I saw Parson’s School of Design which is where they film Project Runway. Mom and Dad never heard of it and didn’t know why I was excited. We went into Brooklyn over the Brooklyn Bridge and drove through Chinatown and Little Italy. The guide told us that every visitor to New York had to try four things—New York cheesecake, a bagel, pizza, and a hot dog. He also explained his theory as to why NYC style pizza cannot be replicated in other places. He said it’s all in the water. “NYC has a very special tasting tap water which makes the bagels and pizza taste different.” After spending a week there, we agreed with him.
It started raining towards the end of our tour and we were let off the bus about six or seven blocks from our hotel. We found a Nathan’s Hot Dog and decided to make a dent in our list. The hot dogs are thin and long and have a sort of snap to them. Then, on our walk home, we had to duck under the ever present construction awnings as we were pelted with pea sized hail. The streets filled with water as it began to rain heavily and we ducked and ran from shelter to shelter finally arriving at our hotel soaked and laughing. Helpful tip: If you’re walking in NYC in the rain, move as far away from the street as possible. A taxi plunged into a large puddle near the curb without slowing down and I was soaked from my waist down and I mean soaked. I might as well have jumped into the ocean.
That's is for my crazy week in New York Part One. Stay tuned for part two and part three coming soon!
Colleen
November 1, 2010
Goodreads Contest
There is a contest to win a copy of the new Tiger's Curse going on right now! Search for Tiger's Curse or click on the link under my author profile and when the page comes up, click on the button that says enter contest. Good luck!
Colleen
Colleen
October 26, 2010
Grandma Poem
I wrote this poem for my mom's 60th birthday party. We got her a Kitchen Aid mixer and a giant bowl filled with cookie stuff and each grandkid shared their favorite cookie with a recipe. It makes me think of her mother, my grandmother, too. Thought I'd share since it also reminds me of the holidays.
Grandmas are Sweet
by Colleen Houck
Grandmas are sweet
Their cheeks are dusted with flour
Their hair is made from powdered sugar
They give strawberry kisses
And vanilla bean hugs
They pat bread dough into pretty white rolls
And give me dough to play with
They keep caramels and chocolate in their pockets
Frilly aprons are tied around their waists with bows
They have cinnamon bun hair
Their houses smell like fresh baked bread and apples
They have raspberry lips and sugar plum cheeks
Their skin is fragile like butter cookies
Grandmas make gingerbread at Christmas
And pumpkin rolls for Thanksgiving
When I visit grandma, I get to see her snicker doodle smile
A grandma’s house is full of flowers—
On the tablecloth, on the napkins, on the curtains, and on her dress
Grandma makes me feel special
As if I were her favorite dessert
Grandmas are Sweet
by Colleen Houck
Grandmas are sweet
Their cheeks are dusted with flour
Their hair is made from powdered sugar
They give strawberry kisses
And vanilla bean hugs
They pat bread dough into pretty white rolls
And give me dough to play with
They keep caramels and chocolate in their pockets
Frilly aprons are tied around their waists with bows
They have cinnamon bun hair
Their houses smell like fresh baked bread and apples
They have raspberry lips and sugar plum cheeks
Their skin is fragile like butter cookies
Grandmas make gingerbread at Christmas
And pumpkin rolls for Thanksgiving
When I visit grandma, I get to see her snicker doodle smile
A grandma’s house is full of flowers—
On the tablecloth, on the napkins, on the curtains, and on her dress
Grandma makes me feel special
As if I were her favorite dessert
October 21, 2010
THIS IS IT!
THIS IS IT!
The big announcement you’ve all been waiting for went out this morning at 8:00 am Pacific Time. You can read the announcement here but I’ll sum it up for you too and give you the highlights. My new publisher, which some of you have already figured out, is Sterling.
They are primarily known for producing fabulous children’s books but they have a risk taker at the helm named Marcus and a while ago he encouraged his employees to start thinking bigger. They decided that they wanted to expand and begin producing books for Young Adults. They hired some new people with great ideas and started searching for something special to kick off their new wing which, in the book business, is called an imprint.
They put out feelers to everyone they knew that they were looking for something and Cindy, my editor, contacted a friend at Paramount Studios. She wasn’t expecting much because Paramount doesn’t usually have anything they haven’t already acquired but a few days later someone made a call. “Hey Cindy, this book just came across my desk. Another co-worker handed it to me and I think it may be what you’re looking for.” That other co-worker happened to be a friend of Raffi's which is how he had a copy.
Cindy emailed me to see if the series had been sold. I said it was still available and referred her to my new agent by a few days, Alex. He sent her the book which she read literally overnight and started passing around the office. Within a very short time, Alex had hammered out a deal and what happened next was an explosion. The president of the company got his hands on it and met with my agent. The original plan was to launch the new imprint in September of 2011. I was slightly disappointed knowing that fans would have to wait so long for book three. Normally it takes a year or two to get books published and that would put Voyage’s release somewhere in 2013 at the earliest, but then something amazing happened.
The team at Sterling decided to launch earlier. They went into a flurry of work and had dozens of meetings to get ready. A very aggressive plan was created to edit and prepare my books not in years, but in a few months. They held a company-wide contest to come up with their new name and Splinter was chosen. It still resonates with the tree theme Sterling uses but it’s harder and edgier. My dad says that Splinter is a perfect name for Young Adult books because teenagers are like splinters stuck in your finger. They give great pain until they get yanked out. He should know, he had seven teenagers he had to live with plus a parade of best friends and the boyfriends/girlfriends of the teenagers along the way.
So now you know why we had to keep everything under wraps for so long. They had a lot of work to do, in fact a year’s worth of work in just a few months. It’s a big deal in the publishing world to launch a new imprint and for an author it’s an amazing opportunity to be the lead out series. They are literally depending on my tigers to carry the weight of this new imprint and make it successful, but I think Ren and Kishan can handle it.
So I now proudly announce that Tiger’s Curse will be published January 11, 2011, Tiger’s Quest will have a release date of June 1, 2011, and Tiger’s Voyage will be on the shelves just in time for Christmas shopping on November 1, 2011. The first print run for Tiger’s Curse will be 250,000 books with a marketing budget of $250,000. To give you an idea of how crazy that is, Alex told me that an author is considered successful if they sell 10,000 hardbacks their first year. I’ve been looking for other debut author’s first print runs to compare and haven’t found anything near that number yet. Having a print run so large shows the publisher’s faith in their product and their commitment to stand behind the author. It’s just an overwhelming feeling to see something you love so much have that kind of potential. I imagine it’s like seeing your baby become President of the United States.
I will be going out on tour with each book next year and I hope to see as many of you as possible. My absolute favorite part of all this is meeting you. There’s nothing I love better than talking tigers. Barnes and Noble has committed to do something very special for Tiger’s Curse at the big release and I’m dying to see it.
The new website will launch any minute with the new book trailer for Tiger’s Curse. Please send me your feedback and keep in touch. My goal is to stay as connected to my fans as I can. =) If you have more questions send them to me and I’ll try my best to answer them.
Warm regards,
Colleen Houck
The big announcement you’ve all been waiting for went out this morning at 8:00 am Pacific Time. You can read the announcement here but I’ll sum it up for you too and give you the highlights. My new publisher, which some of you have already figured out, is Sterling.
They are primarily known for producing fabulous children’s books but they have a risk taker at the helm named Marcus and a while ago he encouraged his employees to start thinking bigger. They decided that they wanted to expand and begin producing books for Young Adults. They hired some new people with great ideas and started searching for something special to kick off their new wing which, in the book business, is called an imprint.
They put out feelers to everyone they knew that they were looking for something and Cindy, my editor, contacted a friend at Paramount Studios. She wasn’t expecting much because Paramount doesn’t usually have anything they haven’t already acquired but a few days later someone made a call. “Hey Cindy, this book just came across my desk. Another co-worker handed it to me and I think it may be what you’re looking for.” That other co-worker happened to be a friend of Raffi's which is how he had a copy.
Cindy emailed me to see if the series had been sold. I said it was still available and referred her to my new agent by a few days, Alex. He sent her the book which she read literally overnight and started passing around the office. Within a very short time, Alex had hammered out a deal and what happened next was an explosion. The president of the company got his hands on it and met with my agent. The original plan was to launch the new imprint in September of 2011. I was slightly disappointed knowing that fans would have to wait so long for book three. Normally it takes a year or two to get books published and that would put Voyage’s release somewhere in 2013 at the earliest, but then something amazing happened.
The team at Sterling decided to launch earlier. They went into a flurry of work and had dozens of meetings to get ready. A very aggressive plan was created to edit and prepare my books not in years, but in a few months. They held a company-wide contest to come up with their new name and Splinter was chosen. It still resonates with the tree theme Sterling uses but it’s harder and edgier. My dad says that Splinter is a perfect name for Young Adult books because teenagers are like splinters stuck in your finger. They give great pain until they get yanked out. He should know, he had seven teenagers he had to live with plus a parade of best friends and the boyfriends/girlfriends of the teenagers along the way.
So now you know why we had to keep everything under wraps for so long. They had a lot of work to do, in fact a year’s worth of work in just a few months. It’s a big deal in the publishing world to launch a new imprint and for an author it’s an amazing opportunity to be the lead out series. They are literally depending on my tigers to carry the weight of this new imprint and make it successful, but I think Ren and Kishan can handle it.
So I now proudly announce that Tiger’s Curse will be published January 11, 2011, Tiger’s Quest will have a release date of June 1, 2011, and Tiger’s Voyage will be on the shelves just in time for Christmas shopping on November 1, 2011. The first print run for Tiger’s Curse will be 250,000 books with a marketing budget of $250,000. To give you an idea of how crazy that is, Alex told me that an author is considered successful if they sell 10,000 hardbacks their first year. I’ve been looking for other debut author’s first print runs to compare and haven’t found anything near that number yet. Having a print run so large shows the publisher’s faith in their product and their commitment to stand behind the author. It’s just an overwhelming feeling to see something you love so much have that kind of potential. I imagine it’s like seeing your baby become President of the United States.
I will be going out on tour with each book next year and I hope to see as many of you as possible. My absolute favorite part of all this is meeting you. There’s nothing I love better than talking tigers. Barnes and Noble has committed to do something very special for Tiger’s Curse at the big release and I’m dying to see it.
The new website will launch any minute with the new book trailer for Tiger’s Curse. Please send me your feedback and keep in touch. My goal is to stay as connected to my fans as I can. =) If you have more questions send them to me and I’ll try my best to answer them.
Warm regards,
Colleen Houck
October 19, 2010
And The Winner Is
And The Winner Is...Story # 3.
The sad teen who got nothing for her birthday is the winner of our contest. Here are a few extra stories that didn't make it on our list.
_____________________________________________________
My worst Christmas gift was also from my husband. Our 1st year of marriage he got me a Terry Redlin screen saver. I can appreciate that he is a talented artist but not my cup of tea. This was at a time when we couldn't afford much (ie. living in a studio apartment, looking in cabinets trying to figure out what you could have for dinner that could be made from rice, jello and hawaiian punch mix.) and he went on and on about how broke we were and that was all he could afford was this screen saver (by the way, the artist I liked was Thomas Kincaid but that was to much to remember I suppose). A few days later as I'm vacuuming our apartment/shack, I bump a box that happens to be a new hard and faster hard drive for my husbands computer. A sizable chunk of change at that time. So for his birthday a few weeks later, I wrap up the empty box just to see his reaction. A little passive aggressive but what can I say, we were newly weds.
__________________________________________________
My sweet husband is an obstetrician who spends many hours at the hospital with laboring patients. Sadly, he discovered Home Shopping Network. (I've wondered if I could hold the hospital liable for having such a channel????!!!!!). My present was a Wolfgang Puck deep fat fryer! I don't even deep fry things when I cook!!
It ended up in the next garage sale! I told him to start watching the jewelry programs in the future!!
____________________________________________________
Thanks to everyone who participated in the contest!
Colleen
The sad teen who got nothing for her birthday is the winner of our contest. Here are a few extra stories that didn't make it on our list.
_____________________________________________________
My worst Christmas gift was also from my husband. Our 1st year of marriage he got me a Terry Redlin screen saver. I can appreciate that he is a talented artist but not my cup of tea. This was at a time when we couldn't afford much (ie. living in a studio apartment, looking in cabinets trying to figure out what you could have for dinner that could be made from rice, jello and hawaiian punch mix.) and he went on and on about how broke we were and that was all he could afford was this screen saver (by the way, the artist I liked was Thomas Kincaid but that was to much to remember I suppose). A few days later as I'm vacuuming our apartment/shack, I bump a box that happens to be a new hard and faster hard drive for my husbands computer. A sizable chunk of change at that time. So for his birthday a few weeks later, I wrap up the empty box just to see his reaction. A little passive aggressive but what can I say, we were newly weds.
__________________________________________________
My sweet husband is an obstetrician who spends many hours at the hospital with laboring patients. Sadly, he discovered Home Shopping Network. (I've wondered if I could hold the hospital liable for having such a channel????!!!!!). My present was a Wolfgang Puck deep fat fryer! I don't even deep fry things when I cook!!
It ended up in the next garage sale! I told him to start watching the jewelry programs in the future!!
____________________________________________________
Thanks to everyone who participated in the contest!
Colleen
October 17, 2010
Tiger's Curse Cover
Hi all!
This is the first of several announcements that will be going out in the next few weeks. You all get an exclusive peek at the new cover. The artist's name is Cliff Neilson and he's done some amazing stuff including the Cassandra Clare series and some cool Star Trek art. If you'd like to read more about him and see his work visit my website and click on the link.
To see the new cover and get a peek at the first chapter go to the new Facebook page called Tiger's Curse. You all are invited to the party and feel free to invite everyone else to come along!
Colleen
This is the first of several announcements that will be going out in the next few weeks. You all get an exclusive peek at the new cover. The artist's name is Cliff Neilson and he's done some amazing stuff including the Cassandra Clare series and some cool Star Trek art. If you'd like to read more about him and see his work visit my website and click on the link.
To see the new cover and get a peek at the first chapter go to the new Facebook page called Tiger's Curse. You all are invited to the party and feel free to invite everyone else to come along!
Colleen
October 9, 2010
Contest
Go to my website now www.colleenhouck.com to vote for the worst gift story. The winner gets a signed set of hardbacks, a t-shirt, and Ren or Kishan M&M's.
Colleen
Colleen
