Colleen’s Comments (group member since Apr 21, 2014)

Colleen’s comments from the Colleen Houck Book Club group.

Cody325rocks wrote: "At the end of book four, why did Kelsey leave Kishan for Ren? Kishan seemed to be better for her and even waited for her to be over Ren before he kissed her but she still left him. Why? "

As Selena says, "The heart wants what it wants." =)

Louise wrote: "Colleen wrote: "Jrose wrote: "Where do you get inspiration for your amazing character's names?? Also when you begin to write a new book how long does it take to to finish and perfect it?"

It takes..."

I get really attached to my names. I choose them very carefully so I have a hard time even thinking about changing them.

What's your next big YA project? Can you tell?

Imasha wrote: "The end of Tiger's Curse was irritating as i couldn't believe she left him! In this book i was waiting so long for the kiss and just when it happened he left! That killed me! Yay!! I can't wait to ..."

It's so funny that you use the words irritating, and, it killed me, and then yay. Love it!

Jrose wrote: "Where do you get inspiration for your amazing character's names?? Also when you begin to write a new book how long does it take to to finish and perfect it?"

It takes me about 20 weeks to write a full length novel. As to character names, I, like many authors, use Babynames.com for inspiration.

Karli wrote: "I know you probably get asked this a lot, but do you have any advice for an aspiring writing? like about outlining or editing?"

Each author does this differently. Find out what works for you and then stick with that. For me I loosely outline and edit as I go along then do a final edit once I'm done and send it out to my publisher.

Imasha wrote: "Dear Colleen
I've just finished reading Reawakened and I must say it was absolutely phenomenal. I loved every sentence!!!
But The ending was the worst cliffhanger i've ever had to deal with! Howe..."

Was it worse than the tiger books? This was one of my tamer ones I thought. I love leaving you wanting more. Recreated will be out summer or early fall 2016. SO glad you liked the book!

Angel wrote: "What do you do if you have been given great compliments on your novel (work in progress) and you feel the pressure to make it perfect and you get anxiety and feel like you'll never be good enough, ..."

At some point you have to let it go and just move on to the next project. Nothing you write will ever be "perfect" since that's just not possible. All you can do is the best you can under the circumstances. Every author looks back on work they did ten years ago or five years ago and finds things they can improve upon. The fun thing is that often you find things that you marvel that you wrote. That just comes with the territory. But finish it you must and then you begin the next project. =)

Do you think you might ever head back to your YA Steampunk series again?

How many books do you plan to write in this series?

Louise wrote: "just in case anyone is interested, there is a rumour at the moment that they are going to redo the mummy movie."

I heard!

I love that Lark makes her own shoes. You've done this too! What does your latest pair look like?

I love the idea of twins separated at birth still being able to connect somehow. Can you tell us where this idea originated?

Karli wrote: "just finished Reawakened last night! Loved it!
Have you always had an interest in Egypt?
What is your favorite mummy/Egyptian movie?
Did you just make up all the powers and abilities your three mu..."

These are all great questions! Glad you loved Reawakened! I've always been fascinated with Egypt. There's so much mystery surrounding it that I think the world has been enraptured with Egyptian stories for quite some time. I haven't watched a lot of mummy movies but I guess the original Mummy with Brendan Frasier is my favorite. As far as powers go, I pretty much made them up. Not sure Egyptian gods and goddess have a lot of powers assigned. I think if I had to choose between a vacation in India or Egypt, I'd probably pick Egypt since I'm actively working on the series at the moment.

Dang it! My computer froze up and I could only log on after the chat. Thanks so much to Marissa for this awesome chat! She's fantastic, isn't she? Also she has the best taste in foot wear. Trust me ;) So our winner tonight for the chat is Cynthia! Congrats and I will msg you on Goodreads right now to get your mailing address to ship out your prize. Thanks so much for joining us and check back next month where my featured author will be Kady Cross!

Marissa wrote: "I also outlined all four books before I started writing. I wanted to be able to drop lots of hints and subtle references to other characters and secrets and things that were coming up in later books, so I wanted to start with a strong idea of where everything was going. Now I love hearing from readers who get excited when they realize the little easter eggs I left in Cinder that don't pay off until the later books - it makes me feel like all that early planning really paid off!"

This is something I greatly love about your writing. You can really tell as a reader if a writer has a plan. It fosters a level of trust that the author will tell me everything if I am patient enough :) I really appreciate this as a reader.

Marissa wrote: "I adore the idea of writing a love story for Iko"

Ooh I second that! I'd love for her to get a chance at love. =)

Marissa wrote: "We're looking into livestreaming the launch party again, but it's unfortunately looking like it probably won't happen. "

I have never heard of this being done. I'll have to pick your brain about it. It sounds so cool!

Marissa wrote: "And oh, thanks for asking about my new mom status! For those in the chat who may not know, my husband and I are adopting twins who are now 11 months old and just about to start walking."

This is amazing news! Congrats!

Marissa wrote: "Then, some time later, a genetic deformity resulted in the first true Lunar, a man named Cypress Blackburn - who used his powers of mind-control to assert himself as a king and change the democratic country into a monarchy. And it's history from there! "

That would be an awesome novella! Just sayin' ;)