Colleen Houck's Blog, page 67
August 17, 2010
Making Progress
Hello Everyone,
Congratulations to Monique Crook who won the last Twitter contest. She had to name the three guys Kelsey dates when she got back to Oregon. Her prize was signed posters and a bonus prize of a paragraph from chapter 16 of Destiny that I was working on yesterday. It’s nice to get back into writing which is much more fun than editing.
Speaking of editing we finished our revisions of Tiger’s Curse and I expect to be in the throes of editing Quest in the next few weeks. Curse will look a little bit different than you remember as we’re getting a new cover that I’m really excited about. I’ll be able to tell you more about the artist soon. There will be some new scenes added to Tiger’s Curse and some old scenes removed but we are going to preserve the parts we took out and set up a deleted scenes section on the website so nothing will be lost.
I had an interesting dream last night of another book with a Robin Williams type of character in it and an interesting twist at the end ala M. Night Shyamalan. I wrote it down for future book ideas. I have around 25 book ideas now. Some I like better than others. The recent one I called Redemption. Have a great week and keep watching because big news will be coming soon.
Colleen
Congratulations to Monique Crook who won the last Twitter contest. She had to name the three guys Kelsey dates when she got back to Oregon. Her prize was signed posters and a bonus prize of a paragraph from chapter 16 of Destiny that I was working on yesterday. It’s nice to get back into writing which is much more fun than editing.
Speaking of editing we finished our revisions of Tiger’s Curse and I expect to be in the throes of editing Quest in the next few weeks. Curse will look a little bit different than you remember as we’re getting a new cover that I’m really excited about. I’ll be able to tell you more about the artist soon. There will be some new scenes added to Tiger’s Curse and some old scenes removed but we are going to preserve the parts we took out and set up a deleted scenes section on the website so nothing will be lost.
I had an interesting dream last night of another book with a Robin Williams type of character in it and an interesting twist at the end ala M. Night Shyamalan. I wrote it down for future book ideas. I have around 25 book ideas now. Some I like better than others. The recent one I called Redemption. Have a great week and keep watching because big news will be coming soon.
Colleen
August 10, 2010
My Crazy Weekend
Hi Everyone,
This week was crazy and fun. I attended the Willamette Writer's Conference and met my agent, Alex, for the first time. We visited for just a few minutes then went into a workshop where we presented together along with my movie producer, Raffi. It was a half an hour panel so we only had time for a brief introduction from each of us and then answered a couple of questions. Most of the attendees were unpublished writers who came to the conference seeking representation. Several film producers and agents flew in to listen to authors who wanted to pitch their ideas.
During our panel, I was asked to talk about how I self-published and listed my book on Kindle. Then the moderator asked Alex and Raffi how they found me. We fielded several questions from the audience including: "How much does it cost to publish on Kindle?" and “Does publishing an e-book make it less likely for an agent to pick you up?" At one point I dropped the microphone which is never a good thing. I went out to lunch with Raffi and Alex and we talked business that I still can't share (sorry).
After that I just attended workshops, most of which were geared toward finding an agent, which I don't have to worry about anymore, but there were a few interesting things I learned that I thought you may be interested in.
The first thing that quickly became obvious is this...if you want to sell your book you need to have at least rudimentary social skills. There were people from all walks of life at the conference, from white haired grandmas to middle-aged business men, teen sci-fi nerds, Barbie doll type women, knitters, scrap bookers, professional looking young women, soccer moms, and, yes, a few crazy people. In one workshop the two agents presenting offered to help authors with the opening lines of their books. Writers formed a line and were instructed to share the first sentence with the crowd who were then asked to voice their opinions. This was a constructive criticism bit and anyone who stood up risked getting feedback, which is something authors need to learn to tolerate anyway.
One man with shaggy gray hair, wearing flip flops and a Hawaiian t-shirt, proceeded to read his entire opening paragraph and kept going, reading so fast that no one could make out what he was saying. When he finally quit, after several attempts by the agent to stop him, a member of the audience called out, "Too long," which should have been an obvious comment, but the offended writer grabbed up his manuscript, mumbled an obscenity, and stormed out of the room. At a conference like this you can practically smell the desperation in the room. I almost feel sorry for the agents.
Another thing I learned was in a workshop on Point of View. This was presented by a published author who used examples from several novels to illustrate first person, third person, and multiple third person. She used some sections from the DaVinci Code (which I have read) and she laughed often about the terrible writing as she demonstrated Point of View. She pointed out that silhouettes can't stare and that the point of view shifts from omniscient to third person once in a while which is okay if done briefly and properly but otherwise should never happen. What I took away from this workshop was not really how to maintain proper point of view. I figured out that while great writing is nice and lauded by your peers, a good story is just a plain good story. I loved the DaVinci code and if the bad writing hadn't been pointed out to me, I wouldn't have noticed it. This is not true of everybody, of course, but obviously you can have a novel be a commercial success even though the writing gets picked apart. My guess is that this phenomenon is similar to the Oscars. Popular movies never win Best Picture. I think if I had to choose, I'd rather have a bestseller than something critically acclaimed. But aspiring to both is always a good idea.
The other workshop is one I really took away a lot from. It was taught by Bob Dugoni. I've never heard of him, never read one of his books, but I bought one after the workshop. He's a great teacher and everything he said was right up my alley. I took lots of notes and below you'll find his points.
• Create a great first line for every chapter (this is a big one I want to work on)
• Opening line should ask a question or make reader curious
• Opening line should be a hook
• Keep promise to reader—if book is romance, make it romantic/thriller should scare them, etc.
• Introduce protagonist and tell us why we should care about him/her
• Where is the setting and why did you choose it?
• Set a goal for protagonist-what do they really want?
• Use 5 senses (This is a big one for me-I like the reader to feel like they can hear, smell, taste the adventure)
• Set a goal for the protagonist in each chapter
• Create tension in each scene
• Torture your characters (A man from church asked me what I was doing to that poor girl-It took me a minute to figure out he was talking about Kelsey)
• Create cliffhangers at the end of each chapter/leave reader on the edge
• Prologues should be difference time/place than rest of the book
• Someone interesting should appear immediately in the book
• Layer in the back-story
• Find the booms—emotional highs and lows and build up to them
• Create barriers to protagonist achieving goals
I’ll leave you with the five “P’s” of getting published.
• Passion for your story
• Product should be interesting
• Patience is necessary
• Persistence is vital
• Promote yourself
Have a great week!
Colleen
This week was crazy and fun. I attended the Willamette Writer's Conference and met my agent, Alex, for the first time. We visited for just a few minutes then went into a workshop where we presented together along with my movie producer, Raffi. It was a half an hour panel so we only had time for a brief introduction from each of us and then answered a couple of questions. Most of the attendees were unpublished writers who came to the conference seeking representation. Several film producers and agents flew in to listen to authors who wanted to pitch their ideas.
During our panel, I was asked to talk about how I self-published and listed my book on Kindle. Then the moderator asked Alex and Raffi how they found me. We fielded several questions from the audience including: "How much does it cost to publish on Kindle?" and “Does publishing an e-book make it less likely for an agent to pick you up?" At one point I dropped the microphone which is never a good thing. I went out to lunch with Raffi and Alex and we talked business that I still can't share (sorry).
After that I just attended workshops, most of which were geared toward finding an agent, which I don't have to worry about anymore, but there were a few interesting things I learned that I thought you may be interested in.
The first thing that quickly became obvious is this...if you want to sell your book you need to have at least rudimentary social skills. There were people from all walks of life at the conference, from white haired grandmas to middle-aged business men, teen sci-fi nerds, Barbie doll type women, knitters, scrap bookers, professional looking young women, soccer moms, and, yes, a few crazy people. In one workshop the two agents presenting offered to help authors with the opening lines of their books. Writers formed a line and were instructed to share the first sentence with the crowd who were then asked to voice their opinions. This was a constructive criticism bit and anyone who stood up risked getting feedback, which is something authors need to learn to tolerate anyway.
One man with shaggy gray hair, wearing flip flops and a Hawaiian t-shirt, proceeded to read his entire opening paragraph and kept going, reading so fast that no one could make out what he was saying. When he finally quit, after several attempts by the agent to stop him, a member of the audience called out, "Too long," which should have been an obvious comment, but the offended writer grabbed up his manuscript, mumbled an obscenity, and stormed out of the room. At a conference like this you can practically smell the desperation in the room. I almost feel sorry for the agents.
Another thing I learned was in a workshop on Point of View. This was presented by a published author who used examples from several novels to illustrate first person, third person, and multiple third person. She used some sections from the DaVinci Code (which I have read) and she laughed often about the terrible writing as she demonstrated Point of View. She pointed out that silhouettes can't stare and that the point of view shifts from omniscient to third person once in a while which is okay if done briefly and properly but otherwise should never happen. What I took away from this workshop was not really how to maintain proper point of view. I figured out that while great writing is nice and lauded by your peers, a good story is just a plain good story. I loved the DaVinci code and if the bad writing hadn't been pointed out to me, I wouldn't have noticed it. This is not true of everybody, of course, but obviously you can have a novel be a commercial success even though the writing gets picked apart. My guess is that this phenomenon is similar to the Oscars. Popular movies never win Best Picture. I think if I had to choose, I'd rather have a bestseller than something critically acclaimed. But aspiring to both is always a good idea.
The other workshop is one I really took away a lot from. It was taught by Bob Dugoni. I've never heard of him, never read one of his books, but I bought one after the workshop. He's a great teacher and everything he said was right up my alley. I took lots of notes and below you'll find his points.
• Create a great first line for every chapter (this is a big one I want to work on)
• Opening line should ask a question or make reader curious
• Opening line should be a hook
• Keep promise to reader—if book is romance, make it romantic/thriller should scare them, etc.
• Introduce protagonist and tell us why we should care about him/her
• Where is the setting and why did you choose it?
• Set a goal for protagonist-what do they really want?
• Use 5 senses (This is a big one for me-I like the reader to feel like they can hear, smell, taste the adventure)
• Set a goal for the protagonist in each chapter
• Create tension in each scene
• Torture your characters (A man from church asked me what I was doing to that poor girl-It took me a minute to figure out he was talking about Kelsey)
• Create cliffhangers at the end of each chapter/leave reader on the edge
• Prologues should be difference time/place than rest of the book
• Someone interesting should appear immediately in the book
• Layer in the back-story
• Find the booms—emotional highs and lows and build up to them
• Create barriers to protagonist achieving goals
I’ll leave you with the five “P’s” of getting published.
• Passion for your story
• Product should be interesting
• Patience is necessary
• Persistence is vital
• Promote yourself
Have a great week!
Colleen
August 3, 2010
Challenge
Hi,
Since I'm busy later this week. I'll do my contest a little early and today we will use both Twitter and my Newsletter. The question is, "Name the four houses Kishan and Kelsey must pass through in Tiger's Quest." Email your answer to me at contactme@colleenhouck.com. If you just reply to the email it goes to my brother and I only get it when he feels like sending it which is usually a month later. The prize will be a set of signed hardback books which will go to the seventh person and the eleventh person who emails me the right answer. Oh and it doesn't count if you try to email me eleven times or something. Good luck!
Colleen Houck
Since I'm busy later this week. I'll do my contest a little early and today we will use both Twitter and my Newsletter. The question is, "Name the four houses Kishan and Kelsey must pass through in Tiger's Quest." Email your answer to me at contactme@colleenhouck.com. If you just reply to the email it goes to my brother and I only get it when he feels like sending it which is usually a month later. The prize will be a set of signed hardback books which will go to the seventh person and the eleventh person who emails me the right answer. Oh and it doesn't count if you try to email me eleven times or something. Good luck!
Colleen Houck
August 2, 2010
Monkeys (Oops forgot to post this one)
This week's trivia question and Twitter contest was won by Kellye Storm and Christine Pogon. They won Radish Club T-shirts. The trivia question was, "Which monkey did Kelsey pick that opened up the pool in Kishkindha?" The answer was baboon. The stone monkeys coming alive and chasing Ren and Kelsey is one of my favorite visual scenes in Tiger's Curse. It's frightning but also lends itself well to humor. I can totally picture Ren bouncing through Kishkindha covered in monkeys.
I returned from the Shakespeare Festival relaxed and happy to sleep in my own bed. We were able to chat with the Seago brothers who are Deaf actors. Howie Seago was on a Star Trek the Next Generation episode so I got to ask him about working with the other actors on the show. His sign name for Captain Picard is an initialized "P" merged with the sign for bald and we both agreed that Brent Spiner (Data) though a fantastic actor is not a natural signer. My favorite play was Twelfth Night but my favorite performance was from Dan Donohue who played Hamlet. I saw him as Iago a year or two ago and he's fabulous.
I know I sound like a broken record but an annoucement is coming soon. I promise. The tigers are in good hands. Have a great week!
Colleen
I returned from the Shakespeare Festival relaxed and happy to sleep in my own bed. We were able to chat with the Seago brothers who are Deaf actors. Howie Seago was on a Star Trek the Next Generation episode so I got to ask him about working with the other actors on the show. His sign name for Captain Picard is an initialized "P" merged with the sign for bald and we both agreed that Brent Spiner (Data) though a fantastic actor is not a natural signer. My favorite play was Twelfth Night but my favorite performance was from Dan Donohue who played Hamlet. I saw him as Iago a year or two ago and he's fabulous.
I know I sound like a broken record but an annoucement is coming soon. I promise. The tigers are in good hands. Have a great week!
Colleen
July 22, 2010
Shakespeare Festival
Today's Twitter contest question was, "What were Ren's first spoken words to Kelsey?" The correct answer is, "Is this really necessary?" Thanks to all who participated. Our two prize winners were Christine Pogon and Rebecca Trujillo who won signed sets of paperbacks.
This weekend I'm going to the Shakespeare Festival in Ashland. I have tickets to see The Merchant of Venice, Hamlet, and Twelfth Night. Speaking of Shakespeare, each of my books has a sort of Shakespearean theme. I'd say Curse has a Romeo and Juliet feel, Quest is more Midsummer Nights Dream, Voyage is a bit of Taming of the Shrew mixed in with a little Much Ado About Nothing, and Destiny though I'm only halfway done is half Hamlet and half Twelfth Night. Not sure about Dream yet.
I heard that True Blood had a character shoot lightning from her hand in the last episode. Did anyone see that? Have more information? How do vampires get lightning power anyway?
Still waiting on the big announcement. Thanks for your patience especially as you all see the changes happening on Amazon. I promise good things are coming so don't give up on me yet.
Colleen
This weekend I'm going to the Shakespeare Festival in Ashland. I have tickets to see The Merchant of Venice, Hamlet, and Twelfth Night. Speaking of Shakespeare, each of my books has a sort of Shakespearean theme. I'd say Curse has a Romeo and Juliet feel, Quest is more Midsummer Nights Dream, Voyage is a bit of Taming of the Shrew mixed in with a little Much Ado About Nothing, and Destiny though I'm only halfway done is half Hamlet and half Twelfth Night. Not sure about Dream yet.
I heard that True Blood had a character shoot lightning from her hand in the last episode. Did anyone see that? Have more information? How do vampires get lightning power anyway?
Still waiting on the big announcement. Thanks for your patience especially as you all see the changes happening on Amazon. I promise good things are coming so don't give up on me yet.
Colleen
July 13, 2010
Congrats!
Congrats to Ann Lee who answered the trivia question from my newsletter this morning. Her prize was a Kishan T-shirt and her answer was, "Kishan got Kelsey a blue silk robe from China similar to the the one she wore in the Grove of Dreams, except this one had embroidered flowers on it, not real ones."
That is the right answer. Notice that both my tigers are extremely good at giving gifts. Sigh. If only my hubby could figure that out. When we were dating, I gave him a sweater, a thick book of all Shakespeare's works, and some Eternity cologne (hoping he would take a hint) for Christmas and I got back was a white envelope with eighty dollars in cash.
Who gives their girlfriend cash for Christmas? That's just wrong.
Oh yeah and our first Valentines together I was working at a bakery and had to pipe names on fancy heart shaped cakes and cookies all day long and he not only got me the smallest heart shaped cookie (which I knew cost him about fifty cents) but it was from a rival bakery and the piping wasn't as good as mine! The worst part was he also broke up with me that night. Yes. On Valentine's Day. So he has since been practicing making up for being a bad boyfriend with being a good husband. Still needs gift inspiration or a specific list though. Smile. Have a great day!
Colleen
That is the right answer. Notice that both my tigers are extremely good at giving gifts. Sigh. If only my hubby could figure that out. When we were dating, I gave him a sweater, a thick book of all Shakespeare's works, and some Eternity cologne (hoping he would take a hint) for Christmas and I got back was a white envelope with eighty dollars in cash.
Who gives their girlfriend cash for Christmas? That's just wrong.
Oh yeah and our first Valentines together I was working at a bakery and had to pipe names on fancy heart shaped cakes and cookies all day long and he not only got me the smallest heart shaped cookie (which I knew cost him about fifty cents) but it was from a rival bakery and the piping wasn't as good as mine! The worst part was he also broke up with me that night. Yes. On Valentine's Day. So he has since been practicing making up for being a bad boyfriend with being a good husband. Still needs gift inspiration or a specific list though. Smile. Have a great day!
Colleen
Twitter Contest
This week's twitter contest was: What is the name of Li's grandfather? The answer was Chu-something but he told his class to call him Chuck. Interesting fact: Chuck was named after my paternal grandfather. He was Charles but his wife always called him Chuck. Christine Pogon won the contest again this week and won a Ren T-shirt. She was very generous though about winning twice and shares this piece of advice with others on Twitter...
"I have Colleen's tweets and a few other people that I want to get, delivered to my phone. I make sure that in "settings" the "device updates" option is enabled to receive messages from Twitter. And then, I go to the home page of the person's tweets that I want, and next to the "following" option there's a little cell button that I click."
There you have it. Congrats to Christine and just to be fair to my newsletter followers, we'll do a contest every once in a while through the newsletter too. So if you know the answer to this question, email me at contactme@colleenhouck.com with the right answer. First one with the correct answer will win a Kishan T-shirt.
"What did Kishan give Kelsey for her birthday?"
Good luck.
Colleen
"I have Colleen's tweets and a few other people that I want to get, delivered to my phone. I make sure that in "settings" the "device updates" option is enabled to receive messages from Twitter. And then, I go to the home page of the person's tweets that I want, and next to the "following" option there's a little cell button that I click."
There you have it. Congrats to Christine and just to be fair to my newsletter followers, we'll do a contest every once in a while through the newsletter too. So if you know the answer to this question, email me at contactme@colleenhouck.com with the right answer. First one with the correct answer will win a Kishan T-shirt.
"What did Kishan give Kelsey for her birthday?"
Good luck.
Colleen
July 8, 2010
The End of an Era and the Beginning of Something New
Hello All,
It's the end of an era. I’m gearing up for the re-release of the Tiger series with my new publishing company, and it’s time to move from my self-published books into the next phase of development. I anticipate the Kindle version will be off-line by saturday and the paperbacks soon after. It’s an exciting time for me, and your enthusiasm for Ren, Kelsey, Kishan and their adventures has pushed my career and my life in a new direction. I can’t wait to tell you more about it! Thanks to all of you for your dedication and personal efforts in helping me share the series. Here's to anticipating the future!
Colleen
It's the end of an era. I’m gearing up for the re-release of the Tiger series with my new publishing company, and it’s time to move from my self-published books into the next phase of development. I anticipate the Kindle version will be off-line by saturday and the paperbacks soon after. It’s an exciting time for me, and your enthusiasm for Ren, Kelsey, Kishan and their adventures has pushed my career and my life in a new direction. I can’t wait to tell you more about it! Thanks to all of you for your dedication and personal efforts in helping me share the series. Here's to anticipating the future!
Colleen
July 6, 2010
Giveaway
Congratulations to Christine Pogon who won the recent Twitter contest! Her prize was a signed poster of all three books.
Colleen
Colleen
July 1, 2010
Eclipse
I just saw Eclipse and it was fabulous! Bella was much softer. The dialogue wasn't awkward and stinted. The special effects were much better. The make-up was good. Whew! My favorite book of the series is now my favorite movie of the series. The girls in the audience all squealed when Jacob showed up. Hee Hee. It's always fun having a group experience like that. Nice to drool among friends.
Congrats to Destiny who won the tiger scarf in the giveaway on twitter this week. If you haven't signed up for that yet, I'll be doing trivia and games to give away prizes so sign up if you wanna play. I figure it will help pass the time while you wait for Voyage. I'll be sharing little tidbits of my research along the way too. Hope you all have a happy and safe 4th of July! Take care.
Colleen
Congrats to Destiny who won the tiger scarf in the giveaway on twitter this week. If you haven't signed up for that yet, I'll be doing trivia and games to give away prizes so sign up if you wanna play. I figure it will help pass the time while you wait for Voyage. I'll be sharing little tidbits of my research along the way too. Hope you all have a happy and safe 4th of July! Take care.
Colleen
