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

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

Stefanie wrote: "Could the mythological worlds in Reawakened and the Tiger's Curse series coexist in the same universe (theoretically), or should they be considered strictly separate?

Also, how did you do your res..."

Yes they could definitely overlap. They don't, at least not yet, but it's possible. The research takes me about a week prior to writing and then I continue to investigate little things along the way and add notes as I go.

Alex wrote: "Hello Colleen I am a huge fan! I have been waiting a long time for a decent Egyptian romance to come along. So how many books will there be? Who inspired the cute and funny brothers? And was Aladdi..."

I love Aladdin! He didn't really inspire my mummies but love him and Jasmine. There are three books and a novella. The brothers just kind of happened =) They aren't based on anyone in particular.

Iris wrote: "I already finished the book, love it by the way! But something in the epilogue make me wonder... Ma'at wanted to judge Amon a little too much. I know she said it was because he had been bound to Li..."

I need an invite to the Caribbean! Yes, Ma'at is very judgy but that is part of her personality. You'll see more of her in book two and if you thought she was a little too much in the epilogue wait till you meet her in Recreated!

Robin wrote: "I was a mess of tears at the end of the last chapter, but when I read the epilogue, I felt hope. Can we expect more Ahmon and Lily interactions? Will Dr. Hassan appear in the future books? How many..."

Thanks Robin! The answer is YES to all of those questions. Recreated will come out next summer or early fall.

Joann wrote: "Will we see more of Ahmose in Recreated?????"

Definitely!

Ana C. wrote: "What is the difference between Kelsey and Lily, did you plan them to be different or did it just come naturally?"

I planned them that way. Lily is much more world savvy than Kelsey and confident outwardly. At the same time they are both very lonely girls who are looking for their path in life.

Kat wrote: "Lily and Amon are such interesting characters! I can't wait for more books so that I can find out more about who they are what makes them do/think/behave certains ways.

Lily is so different from ..."

Lily is very different and I wanted to make sure of that. I still needed to empathize with her and came to love her just as much, especially in Recreated when she is really asked to sacrifice a lot. I'd say in the future you'll get to see Lily really come into her own and go for the life she wants to have.

Heather wrote: "Hi Colleen!

Just finished Reawakened and loved it! My first question is of course, when will Book 2 come out?!

Additional questions:

You clearly did a lot of research about Egyptian mythology - Did you use what you researched as a foundation, and then expanded from there to create the story? I am wondering how much of what is written is true to the mythology, and how much is altered for the story?

Although the Tiger Saga is no stranger to death, this series has death as a much bigger theme. What made you want to explore death more in this book? Is it to show how love and death are related, or that love endures beyond death (the end where Lily had to kill Amon, and the brothers' love for each other throughout the millenniums, both come to mind)?

I can't help but compare and try to draw parallels between your two beloved series. Do you wish this series was considered alone, without comparison to your other work?
"

Book two, Recreated, will be out next summer or early fall. I just saw the cover and its gorgeous!

Egyptian mythology is very complicated since several gods and goddesses were merged together. It took me a long time to wrap my head around them. You'll see a lot more of the gods in book two and the novella is exclusively about them.

As far as how accurate I am, I'd say not terribly. I think my goal isn't to teach you mythology so much as to make you interested in picking up a book and learning more.

You're right that death is a big theme in this series but its a big theme for Egypt so it makes sense. I am not surprised at all by comparisons to the tiger series. I think that's a natural thing. My hope, as is the hope with every author, is that I convert my tiger fans into Colleen Houck fans. It's a hard thing to do but I do want to keep writing and I have a lot of stories to tell.

Miranda (MirandasBookBlog) wrote: "Hi Colleen! How many books will be in the Reawakened series including novellas?"

Three and a novella.

Nathália wrote: "Hi Colleen! How are you now? I've talked to you so many times, and dispite I fell sky about my questions I always apreciate it, because you teach me a lot. Well, about Reawakened, I haven't read it..."

It will be wonderful to meet you in Rio! So excited about that trip! Well, I actually was pitching some sci-fi next but couldn't find a buyer. My editor at Delacorte really wanted to sign me so I sent her a list of my ideas and they picked the Egypt one. I've always wanted to write something about Egypt. The mystery and the danger and the mummies have always fascinated me. In this case I wanted to turn mummy stories on their head and make them the good guys.

Trudy wrote: "Where did you get all your information from?"

I study a lot of world mythology books, then I have huge reference books on dreams, spells, magical creatures, etc. I also search for stuff on the internet and study symbols.

Nicole D. wrote: "When will the 5th book in the Tiger's Curse series be released?"

This is the number one question I get asked. My current plan is to write book three for Egypt since its all in my head and then head back to Tiger's Dream. You'll know when I'm actively writing it cause I'll be putting out teasers on teaser Tuesdays on Facebook. My best guess is that I should be able to get back to writing it in 2016.

Joanna wrote: "When sitting down to write a new book, how much of the entirety of the story do you "know" at the beginning?
...or, is it generally a process in which you have an idea, but decide later to add some..."

I usually plot out the main points and jot down a long list of cool ideas or themes I'd like to use. I know where I want to go but I give myself the freedom to explore different roads along the way if that makes sense. I'm a flexible sort of plotter, I guess you'd say.

Joanna wrote: "How do you come up with the title for a book?

Is the title you select ever kept by your publishers?"

All the tiger books were my titles. For this one, my original title was The Eye of Horus which would make sense for those of you that read the book. We went back and forth on this for a while and the title The Girl and the Golden Prince was suggested. I didn't like that one. I tried out The Temple of the Crocodile but they didn't go for that. We went back and forth for a long time until my editor suggested Reawakened. I agreed to it as long as we had a gorgeous artistic cover that was definitely Egypt. (I didn't want Reawakened to be confused with Sleeping Beauty) Book two, Recreated was my idea. We haven't announced the title of the novella or the third book yet. We'll have to wait and see.

Gretal wrote: "I had the great luck of already reading this book and I thought it was amazing! Who's your favorite of the 'brothers?'"

Actually right now it's Asten. =) I have a serious soft spot for this one.

Makeit wrote: "Hi!!! :) What was your inspiration to write this series?"

The inspiration was the number three. I sketched out pyramids and came up with using the symbols of the sun, the moon, and the stars. Then I researched all the myths based on threes, so this will come up over and over again in the series. The main myth for the tiger series was based in Indian mythology even though I borrow freely from other cultures. I do the same in Egypt but the main story isn't actually Egyptian. Not fully.

Holly wrote: "How has writing this been different than your previous series? Is it hard to get new characters and places in mind when you had so much already figured out as you wrote the end of the series?"

Absolutely. I lived with the tigers in their world for so long that creating a new one felt daunting. Would I love these new characters as much? Would my readers connect with them? One thing I've learned though is that I definitely have a writing style. It becomes obvious when you step into these new books. It was really cool though to explore a whole new world and this time wrap my heads around gods and goddesses. You get to meet them more in book two but they were interesting to flesh out.

Louise wrote: "hi

just wondering if there will be any appearances from Baste, or character crossovers from the Tigers Curse series like Anamika."

Not Baste but it is not outside the realm of possibility for these two worlds to intersect. I'm not saying I'm writing a cross over, just that it's something that might be possible.

Alison wrote: "I'm so excited!!! I love the Tigers Curse series. :) what do Kelsey and the new heroine of your book have in common?"

Wow, okay so I'd say they are both courageous, both girls feel a little bit alone. Kelsey is more like me than Lily but I'd like to think the three of us would be friends, at least after a while. =) Sadly, Lily is not as into chocolate as me and Kelsey. Oh! But both girls had/have awesome grandmas.

Karli wrote: "I can't wait for Reawakened! so excited :-)"

Have you read it yet? Not sure how many of you have already finished the book.