Back to School Contest Winners

 Hi Everyone!



I am sending all of you students headed back to school today good luck.  It's exciting and scary to start a new year of education but I hope you all enjoy it and have fun.  Just pretend Ren and Kishan are going with you and keeping potential "Arties" at bay.



Here are the long awaited results of the Back to School contest.  I 100% agree with these selections.  They are awesome!



Now I know you're waiting to hear from Suki so here she is...

Wow! This was certainly an experience judging a contest like this. There were 124 entries and it was hard to narrow it down to just a few winners. Unfortunately, not everyone can win so I employed the help of my wonderful husband. I thoroughly enjoyed reading every single entry. I was surprised by how many different ways people came up with as a continuation of the teaser paragraph. Now, onto the winners of the Back-to-School paragraph contest.

 

 

MOST SURPRISING WINNER

 

Holly C. wrote:

 

We turned around to see who was addressing us. The warm breeze continued, blowing out the candles' flames and replacing them with slightly curling tendrils of smoke, like a hand twirling yarn around their finger. Whatever had just arrived and greeted us, it was coming closer. I could hear the padding of huge feet--no, huge paws. "Ren?" I asked uncertainly, feeling somewhat tense. He didn't answer. I glanced at Kishan, who was frowning slightly and listening intently. I squinted my eyes, which were adjusting to the growing darkness, and barely made out the face, shoulders, and front legs of a tiger. "Oh, Ren," I said, relieved. "What--" Kishan squeezed my shoulder. "Wait a minute, Kells. That doesn't smell like Ren." I frowned, confused. "What do you mean? He has smells different than he usually does?" I asked. "No," Kishan whispered. "I don't think it's--" His voiced faltered. I gasped as a tiger stepped into our small circle of candlelight. This tiger was slightly smaller than Ren, and it had slate gray fur, thin, more widely-spaced stripes, and rounder ears. It blinked its amethyst colored eyes, and then I watched in awe as the tiger morphed into a woman--a woman who had tears pooling at the bottom of her eyes. One tear escaped, making a glistening path down her flushing, rosy face. Kishan drew in a breath. "Yesubai?"

 

Suki says:

One of the reasons this won was because it was the only paragraph that wasn't about Kelsey and that really surprised me that "Let. Her. Go." could mean "Back off, strange lady. Kishan's MINE."

 

 

MOST ROMANTIC WINNER

 

Jessica Specht wrote:

 

My eyes fluttered closed, letting the voice soak into my soul. It was like liquid fire coursing through my veins and I never wanted it to stop. Not again. I couldn't lose him again. I opened my eyes and saw golden orbs gazing back. They were filled with a sadness that I couldn't bear to see in my friend's eyes. Even though the entire thing had been Kishan's idea, I knew it still hurt him deeply to see how he couldn't affect me like his brother could. He smiled at me and caressed my cheek softly. "Go calm him down, bilauta, before he hurts himself." He started to turn away, but stopped when he felt my hand still holding his. "I…" I tried to think of something, anything, to say, but my thoughts were clouded. Kishan squeezed my hand tightly and I knew that there was nothing I could say. I'd already made my choice long before we'd even met. He dipped his head and caught my lips for one last, chaste kiss. "Be happy, rajkumari," he whispered almost silently, before he transformed and bounded off into the night. Leaving me to reunite with my tiger. With my Ren.

 

Suki says:

I thought it was so sweet that Kishan loved Kelsey and Ren so much that he took that difficult choice away from Kelsey (having to choose between the two) by choosing to leave and allowing them to be happy.

 

 

MOST HUMOROUS WINNER

 

Melissa Dalton wrote:

 

I spun around at the sound of his voice, my heart beating wildly. Ren stood before us, a look of rage plastered all over his face. I turned to Kishan to see his reaction, but he looked as confused as I felt. What was Ren doing here? "I thought I told you to let her go," Ren said, pointing at his brother. A thrill of fear rushed through me, and I took a step toward Ren to try to buffer the situation. "Listen, Ren, we can explain ..." I started, but he held up his hand to interrupt me. "I don't care about explanations. I just want the truth. Who did THIS?" he said, pointing to an empty tray in his other hand. I don't know why I hadn't noticed it before. "What are you talking about?" Kishan asked. Ren's eyes narrowed as he looked at the two of us. "My cookies," Ren seethed. "I saw you two in the kitchen together, and now I want to know. Who. Ate. My. Cookies?"

 

Suki says:

Honestly… I am STILL laughing over this entry. I love it!

 

 

RANDOM WINNER

 

This winner was chosen by taking all the entries (except for the three paragraphs from above and their other entries) and picking one randomly by a random number generator. There were 319 entries.

 

#159: Gabrielle

 

She won by subscribing to Colleen's newsletter. For her paragraph entry, she wrote:

 

Kelsey wanted to throw herself into Ren's arms and sob at the exact same time that she wanted to pound on him with her fist for coming at the WRONG moment! She didn't expect him to remember her now that she had fallen for Kishan. In retrospect for Kelsey she did say "if i could find love with someone along the way, then so be it. That someone became Kishan, then again she did promise Ren that she would remember his love. All of the happiness Kelsey felt at that moment quickly vanished as she saw the hurt and anger in Ren's cobalt eyes. She couldn't  help but feel scared.  

 

 

Winners: you have received an email from me. Please respond back as quickly as possible!

 

 

OTHER CONTEST INFORMATION

 

Remember we are running two giveaways for the month of September. I wasn't as specific for the Vlogs contest as I was for the Barnes & Noble one. In order for any of your entries to be valid, you MUST submit a Vlog for any of the Tiger Saga books. Any random entries with no Vlog attach to them by the end of the month will be disqualified to win. I have received emails from several people who submitted their entries prior to posting a vlog. Easiest way to do this is to NOT submit any entries until you have your vlog done. However, if you are one of these people, you can email me for assistance in fixing this situation. I don't want anyone to not have a chance of winning!

 

I can be reached at contests@colleenhouck.com.

_________________________________________________________________

Those were fantastic!  Thanks so much to all who participated and congratulations to the winners!



I wanted to add another item on my schedule for the month of September.  On September 13th I will be going to Powell's again to support my publishing brother Gregg Olsen as he signs his new book ENVY.  Click HERE to watch the book trailer.

 

True-crime author Gregg Olsen makes his young-adult debut with a new fiction series for teens based on ripped-from-the-headlines stories — with a paranormal touch. In the deceptively picture-perfect town of Port Gamble (aka "Empty Coffin"), Washington, evil lurks, and strange things happen — and 15-year-olds Hayley and Taylor Ryan secretly use their wits and their telepathic "twin-sense" to uncover the truth about the town's victims and culprits. Envy(Splinter), the series debut, involves the mysterious death of the twins' old friend Katelyn. Was it murder? Suicide? An accident? Envy will take you to the edge — and push you right over.

Preorder a signed edition of Empty Coffin #01 .

 

Tuesday, September 13th @ 7pm Powell's Books at Cedar Hills Crossing 

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



Gregg is the second author picked up for the new YA imprint Splinter that also publishes my books.  This is why I call him my publishing brother.  I'm hoping he'll be joining our next YA Scavenger Hunt in December.  I will also sign any stock of Curse and Quest Powell's has while I'm there.  My husband snuck ENVY away before I could read it but he really liked it.

________________________________________________________________


Inspiration Corner


There are some really creepy trees near a house that belongs to a friend of mine.  They are some kind of pine tree that grow really long branches that look like arms with needle fingers.  When I was writing Tiger's Curse we drove past her house and the idea came to me to use a tree in Kishkindha.  I made my trees a bit more like weeping willows because the branches of willows are thinner and can move around a bit more.  I never really took the idea far enough to explain what would happen to you if you were wrapped up in the branches like the monkeys were.  I don't think the trees would actually eat a person.  It's more likely that they were just doing their job to protect the Golden Fruit.  Once you were dead they'd probably drop you and let you fertilize their roots. Ew, did I just say that?  Here are some pictures of haunted forests I used for inspiration.  I was never able to find a picture of the tree that inspired me.  I looked for it on several websites but never came across one that looked exactly the same.







 





Have a great week everybody!



Colleen Houck