Try to Remember the Kind of September

Hello!





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

Oregon Shakespeare Festival

Medford, Oregon

September 2nd-4th

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

 

 

 

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The Creative Connection Event

St. Paul, Minnesota

15th-17th

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Here's my schedule at the conference.



Thursday, September 15

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

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



Friday, September 16

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

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

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



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

 

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National Book Festival

Washington D.C.

The National Mall

September 24th-25th

 

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

Presentation


The Cutting Edge

Sunday, September 25

3:45 pm - 4:30 pm


Book Signing


Sunday, September 25

1:00 pm - 2:00 pm

 




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

 

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Smart Chicks Kick It Tour

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




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



 

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

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



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Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association

Portland, Oregon

Airport Holiday Inn

October 13th-15th





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



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

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Tucson, Arizona

October 20th-24th

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

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Inspiration Corner

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

 

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



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



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





Barnes & Noble Contest

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




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

 

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Puzzle Contest Winners
 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

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





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Whew that was a lot of information! 



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



Until next time,

Colleen