Colleen Houck's Blog, page 70

Study Group Questions

I posted a new topic in the forums today. I want to create a list of study questions about the books for book clubs and student reading groups. I'd like some suggestions and ideas to come from my fans. If you'd like to submit a question, go to forums, general discussion of the series, then study group questions. Add the name of the book if it's title specific.

In other news, I'm in the final contract stages of selling the translation rights to Mainland China, and Korea. Once I have a designed cover, I'll add it to the books pages so you can see them, though they don't expect to publish for over a year. The (simplified) Chinese version will only be available in China due to export fees but the Korean version will be available worldwide so if you know anyone who reads Korean that will be coming. Thailand has also shown interest and we are working on the contracts now.

We sold out all of our copies of the hardbacks and had to go take all of my sisters copies to fill the demand. I still have a few of hers left I think so let me know if you want them. Voyage was officially due back from the editor last friday which means they're late. I hope we can make up the time in the design portion of production because we already have a template to follow. The good news is that I'm ahead of my timeline for Destiny. I'm almost done with chapter 8 and will be researching helicopters today.

I've also written book trailers for Quest and Voyage and my brother Jared and his wife Suki will be putting those together. We might redo the first trailer as well because I wasn't entirely satisfied with it. I kindof wanted it tricked out and they couldn't do it but my brother can (no pressure Jared). I wrote the trailers from other peoples' perspectives mostly to give the fans a taste of what might have been going on behind the scenes. Trailer 1 is Mr. Kadam as he searches for a way to break the curse. Trailer 2 is from Ren's perspective as he reflects on life without Kelsey. Trailer 3 is Kishan's perspective between books two and three. I haven't written the trailer for Destiny but I know it will be from the perspective of Lokesh.

Have a great day everybody!
Colleen

Hardbacks

I have come into possession of a limited number of hardbacks. They are the original versions with some of the old flaws but who knows, maybe they'll be collector editions someday. They're $20 each (pricey but I paid $27 for the author price-sheesh) and they retail at like $45 which is ridiculous. Amazon won't sell them online because they claim they can't get a hardback created in time to comply with their 5 day shipping policy. I think they could put a disclaimer and still sell it but whatever. If you want them signed, let me know who to make it out to and the correct spelling and where to ship them. Again, I only have a couple dozen or so, so don't be mad if you don't get one! Grin. First come, first served. Email me at contactme@colleenhouck.com if you want some copies. One of the fans from Alaska (sorry I can't remember your name) was asking about this so I hope you see this message!

We've had over 340 people respond to the survey so far and 9 of them were even boys! Who woulda thunk? Thanks for all the good feedback and responses. If you haven't taken the survey yet please do so! Have a great day!

Colleen

Listopia

I added Curse and Quest onto several listopia lists so vote on the ones you like so I'm not the only one voting. I'm working on chapter 7 of Destiny. Don't forget to take the survey on my website if you haven't already. Also just to let you know the paperback version of Curse is offline this week while they're updating the files. The good news is that I should be able to lower the price when they're done. Quest will go through the same process soon. Voyage is still with the editor.

Colleen

Pictures

For those of you anxiously awaiting the pictures from the book signing, click the Past Events tab under events to the left of this message, then click on pictures. The links are highlighted in blue. Sorry it took me so long to get them up.

Colleen

PS My brother and I have worked on setting up a picture gallery with all of your actor suggestions. Go to books, then Tiger's Curse movie. Warning there are pictures for characters from book three but other than the actor's names and the name of the character, there is no other information posted there and there really shouldn't be any surprises. If there are other actor suggestions you'd like to make, email my brother at webmaster@colleenhouck.com and send him a picture and the name of the character if it's not obvious.

Survey

Yesterday, I had an interesting conversation with a producer from Los Angeles. He is very interested in bringing Tiger's Curse to the big screen. Part of the process in shopping the script to potential investors is convincing them that people want to see it. He was impressed that many of your reviews on Amazon mentioned this and he said it would really help if we had a demographic on who is buying my books. We both feel that the Twilight fan base would be similar to mine but I wanted to ask all of you. I've created a demographic survey and would like to ask all of you who are willing, to participate. Try to ask everyone that you know has read the books to take the survey because the more people we have participating the more accurate it will be.

Thanks everybody and if you have other ideas for questions Hollywood producers might want to know, let me know asap.

Here is the link http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/GZ3CNYD

Colleen

Various Things

Someone asked me about posters. I do have smallish posters 11 X 17 that are just the two book covers. They are $1.50 each plus S & H. Email me if you want those and if you want them signed. Others have asked me about giving donations for publishing. If you want to make a donation just buy a T-shirt or something from the store. I earn 4% of whatever you buy from the store and maybe $6-$7 on the T-shirts. That way you get something for your donation. I haven't made any bookmarks yet but a friend of mine makes beautiful beaded bookmarks in golden tiger's eye for Kishan or cobalt blue for Ren. The link to her store is right above my amazon section and she actually has much more than she shows there.

I wrote an article in response to critics that I decided not to post as a blog. If you want to read it, it's in the article section under the books tab. I think most of the time it's better to ignore critics than to respond but I had a lot of things to say one day and just vented.

I'm now on chapter 6 of Destiny and something has become clear to me as I move through the story. There will definately be a 5th book and it won't be from Kelsey's perspective. I can't tell you anything about what it will be exactly because that would give away the story line. It will be called Tiger's Dream. Kelsey's story will be over for sure in book 4 but book 5 will include characters from the series so you will still be familiar with them. I'm very excited about it and I've already outlined what will happen in my mind. I think it will be super cool and may become my favorite of the series.

Don't freak out or anything because nothing's for sure and I think its much too early at this point to know one way or another but...I've been contacted by my first movie producer. Giant grin.

Colleen

T-shirts

I found some radish tees on Amazon and added them to my store. They are on the last page of the clothing section. Also I've listed the tiger t-shirts on Ebay. You will see they are modeled by my handsome husband. I'll paste the link at the bottom. I intend to sign all the tiger shirts, I just need to find some permanent fabric pens at Michael's if you have any suggestions on that, let me know.

Colleen

http://shop.ebay.com/prissyhouck/m.ht......

Quotes Addendum

I'm done putting on the Voyage quotes. There are a couple I'm holding back on because they give away too much of the plot so I'll add those in after Voyage comes out. There are several so that will have to tide you over during March and April. The cowboy sounding ones are from a new character called Wes. He's a Texan diving instructor. My early reading group liked him so much, they'd like to see him in his own book. I like him too. Honestly, I could have put in all his quotes because he's so cool. I'm thinking of a western ghost town story for him.

Other news is that the series will be published in China, Korea, and Thailand. They will be designing their own covers which I will add to the website when I get them. I'm very excited about this because one of my big worries throughout the series has been to make sure I don't offend people of Eastern cultures.

Don't forget to vote on your favorites and vote on the booklists too on Goodreads. There are all kinds of categories to choose from. The higher the books move on the list equals more books sold equals I get to keep writing for a living. Grin. Have a great day!

Colleen

Quotes

I spent some time loading my favorite quotes from Curse and Quest on Goodreads so you can vote on your favorites. If I've forgotten your favorite feel free to add it in. If you don't recognize the quote it's probably from Voyage. I'll add more Voyage quotes tomorrow. I think there's only one Curse one you might not know. I added it in the current revision. There are definately some good choices for a young Lokesh, thanks for all your feedback there.

Colleen

A Young Lokesh

I need to find a guy who would make a good young Lokesh. I'm interested in Huang Xiaoming but open to suggestions. I'm going to be giving a presentation to the entire 6th grade class of a middle school in April. If I remember correctly, kids never asked questions during presentations in middle school. I'll let you know how it goes. Just finished chapter 3 of Destiny and if I keep plugging away at it, I may finish by this summer. Then I'll have to figure out what to do next which will probably be harder than finishing the series.

Colleen