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

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

Kimberly wrote: "Valerie wrote: "i enjoyed the transformation of Brooklynn's character and her role in the revolution. How she was more than she appeared in the beginning. And also how there wasn't the typical, cli..."

Brooklyn is one of my favorite female characters. Also I love her name.

Kimberly wrote: "That's when she has to find out where she's been and what happened to her.

Like all of my books, it's a little dark...and there's a little kissing ;) "

Ooh the theories are already spinning. I'm thinking it's either body snatchers or alien abduction.

Kimberly wrote: "I know it's scary and dangerous, but I LOVE the idea of a world where women hold all the cards. And as long as Sabara's not queen...it can't be all bad, right??? "

I'd have a hard time living without AC. ;) Unless they have it. It seems like a dystopian world though without a lot of technology so I'm assuming they don't. Still, I'd prefer that to serial killers. =)

Kimberly wrote: "Colleen wrote: "Why don't the males get powers too?"

My world, my rules...and I didn't want them to have any ;)

Honestly, I didn't want the women to be physically more powerful/Amazonian necessar..."

Ah but except in the case of Niko. Right? He has royal blood or is he just different?

Kimberly wrote: "Colleen wrote: "The glowing skin thing...is that a part of the essence (trying to keep it vague) or is that a result of Charlaina's sister's power?"

The essence never glowed BEFORE Charlie. The gl..."

I love the whole idea of it. It's freaky cool to have glowing skin that responds to emotion and touch.

Kimberly wrote: "Mother Tongue being one of the suggestions!)....somehow I just couldn't handle the idea of a book with "tongue" in the title, lol, so thankfully, we landed on The Pledge."

I'm with you there. I wouldn't want tongue in the title either. I love the title of The Essence. It's perfect. But actually the other two fit really well. I was just curious if you had something else in mind when you began.

Kimberly wrote: "Their class is ranked right up there with the Royals, so even those of the Counsel class would have to follow that rule"

Ah that's interesting and a different answer than I would have guessed. Cool!

Kimberly wrote: "Shara wrote: "I'm a fan on long names that you can shorten and have options open for your whole life. I also like girls that have boy's names, they seem tough and cool. Is that what you were goin..."

I want to know the story of Maximillion and Carlotta from Mexico now.

Kimberly wrote: "Valerie wrote: "i loved how you explored the concept of segregating people by language and i just wanted to say that i would probably have been one of the first executed for violating the whole eye..."

I also would have a huge problem with the eye contact thing. The interesting thing about American Sign Language (which is the only other language I know) is that eye contact is a must. It's considered rude to look away. So the concept is pretty foreign to me which makes it even more interesting.

Okay I am like the lamest host ever! I actually took a nap today, something I almost never do and slept through Kimberly's chat! I'm very mad at myself. Especially because I'm such a big fan. Reading through the whole chat now though. Didn't want to miss anything.

Even from just reading the first few pages I can see a lot of research in the books. I wouldn't even have known the place where Rocky ran up the steps in the movie. Do you research prior to writing or during or both? For me it's both.

I always get asked this question since I write about far off places, but I'm asking anyway...have you been to Greece?

What can you tell us about The Taking?

Now that you've written several different worlds, which one would you want to visit the most?

Do you know more than one language?

And it's not just the language either. When a language you aren't supposed to understand is spoken you look down, right? Can you tell us more about that?

So with the language thing, do the upper class citizens understand the lower castes language as well? Meaning the more royal your blood the more languages you speak or do they just ignore those who don't speak their language?

Why don't the males get powers too?

Do all queens have power?

The glowing skin thing...is that a part of the essence (trying to keep it vague) or is that a result of Charlaina's sister's power?