Siblings

Siblings
 
Hi Everyone,



 
Inspiration Corner
 

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

 

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



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



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



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



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



|,,/,



Colleen

 

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BACK TO SCHOOL WRITING CONTEST
 




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


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

 

THE RULES:

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


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


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


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


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

The contest ends August 31, 2011

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


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

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

 

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

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

 

And the writing starts… RIGHT NOW!!

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