Colleen Houck Book Club discussion
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Illuminae
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Colleen
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Nov 19, 2015 10:27AM
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Hi Amie & Jay! What inspired you to write Illuminae? Also, I absolutely adored the illustrations throughout the book, they helped connect me to the characters so much!
What is something that a reader who hasn't read Illuminae (Me A.T.M.) should definitely look out for?
What are some parts that you enjoy doing the most while writing up this book?
What was the hardest thing in co-writing a book?
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Did you know how Illuminae would play out before writing it or did you both just 'go with the flow' so to speak?
Where is your favorite place to write? How do you get your inspiration? How do you overcome writer's block? Any tips for new authors?Thanks!
This pertains more to Amie; which book was your favorite to write? These Broken Stars or Illuminae?
Where would you travel to in your books?
Which character would you bring to life from Illuminae?
Who would you say inspired you to start writing books?
Will the third and final book in the Illuminae trilogy be similar to Their Fractured Light where all of the characters met eventually?
Hello! What's your writing routine like and how long does it usually take for you to complete a book from first word to being published?
Hi! Who was your favourite character/s to write in Illuminae?
Louise wrote: "I have seen an unnamed novel come up on good reads called the andromeda cycle. Any hint as to when that will come out"That's our next series together! We haven't locked down a title, but we pitched it as "The Breakfast Club goes to Starfleet Academy." It's a story about a gang of misfits and discipline cases who end up needing to try and save the universe. They're not the heroes we deserve, just the heroes we got. It should come out a year after book three in the Illuminae files.
Alyssa wrote: "What was the hardest thing in co-writing a book?"Honestly, we absolutely love writing together -- we've never had a fight (we get asked that a lot!) and we love bouncing off each other and building off each other's ideas. We both agree that if you were co-authoring with the wrong person it could be full of clashes, on everything from timing to content, but especially after three books together, we have a rhythm that really works for us.
Elizabeth wrote: "Hi! Who was your favourite character/s to write in Illuminae?"Oooh, that's tough! That's so tough! For me it was Hanna, because she's awesome and kickass, but in many ways quite different from me. (I mean, for a start, I was picked last for sports at school.)
Colleen wrote: "Who designed the space ships?"Our spaceship designer (it's pretty amazing to be able to say 'our spaceship designer' btw) is called Meinert Hansen. He's so talented -- we would describe the ships, and he just brought them to life. you can learn more about him here: https://meinerthansen.com/
Elizabeth wrote: "Will the third and final book in the Illuminae trilogy be similar to Their Fractured Light where all of the characters met eventually?"Yes, that's a great comparison! I don't want to spoil anyone, so what I'll say is this: everyone who survives book two will show up in book three, and they'll be heading for the place where the characters in book three are. So in time they'll all meet up, and every storyline in the trilogy will combine and wrap up together.
Miranda (MirandasBookBlog) wrote: "Hi Amie & Jay! What inspired you to write Illuminae? Also, I absolutely adored the illustrations throughout the book, they helped connect me to the characters so much!"Thank you! The idea for Illuminae originally came from a silly dream I had that we were writing a book together, and it was written all in emails -- though the silly part of the dream was that I'd completely forgotten what the book was about. Later when we were talking about it, we started thinking idly about what would cause a book to be written in email -- why would the couple be separated? And we decided that the answer was that they'd be in space. The plot and the format began to flow from there.
Joanne wrote: "What is something that a reader who hasn't read Illuminae (Me A.T.M.) should definitely look out for?"Oh gosh, good question! I'd say you should keep an eye on the times and dates of the documents (don't knock yourself out tracking them, but notice them), and apart from that, just kick back and let the book take you on a ride!
Joanne wrote: "What are some parts that you enjoy doing the most while writing up this book?"We both enjoyed writing the IM conversations between Ezra and Kady and Nik and Hanna. We actually improv those, so we get into character and write them in real time, and they're always heaps of fun.
Alyssa wrote: "What was the hardest thing in co-writing a book?"Honestly, we know this sounds a bit cheesy, but we just don't have any hardest bits. We both absolutely love co-authoring, and we're a good match creatively. We find it hard to go back to our solo stuff, and to have to do it all without a buddy there to help write the book!
Ashley wrote: "What book are you working on now?"We've just handed in our main edits on Illuminae book three, so soon we'll be copy editing that. In the meantime, Jay's working on Nevernight Book 2, and also working on his new series, LIFEL1K3, which will start in 2018.
I'm working on UNEARTHED, my next book with Meagan Spooner, and also on a solo series called ELEMENTALS. You can click on our profiles to see all our books (and add them to our TBRs, which we'd love!)
Elizabeth wrote: "This pertains more to Amie; which book was your favorite to write? These Broken Stars or Illuminae?"Whaaaat? Not a chance I can answer that one! That's like asking about my favourite limb! They were both very different series to write, in terms of content, process, the whole experience, and I love them both to bits.
Hi I LOVED both Illuminae and Gemina and was wondering when we will get to see a title, cover and/or description for the third book? Thanks :D
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Colleen wrote: "How on earth did you come up with the thousands of names of those who were killed in the war?"It actually took forever! We researched the most common names and surnames from dozens of countries, then learned about their naming customs (in terms of gender, surnames, family lines, etc). We created piles of names that reflected particular cultures and countries, then mixed plenty as well, because the future will no doubt involve as many or more cross-cultural relationships as today. After that, we used some surnames multiple names to create family groupings, making sure some family groupings had folks of different genders and some were all same gender, to reflect the families we imagine in the future. And then finally we killed off a bunch of friends and family... and ourselves >.>
Robin wrote: "Did you know how Illuminae would play out before writing it or did you both just 'go with the flow' so to speak?"I tend more towards plotting and Jay more towards making it up as he goes along (we're both answering this together), but when you're working together you have to plan to a certain degree, otherwise someone ends up killing off a character someone else needed. So we tend to plan about 100 pages in advance in detail, and we also have a few big markers along the way that we know we'll hit.
Kylie wrote: "Where is your favorite place to write? How do you get your inspiration? How do you overcome writer's block? Any tips for new authors?Thanks!"
So many questions! Here are our answers:
1) The couch for both of us.
2) By taking in lots of inspiring things -- travel, music, books, TV, meeting interesting people, asking lots of questions.
3) Do something else for a while -- anything from washing the dishes to walking the dog to working on another story.
4) Back yourself -- and ignore anybody who acts like you're not legit.
Elizabeth wrote: "Where would you travel to in your books?"We both had to think about this! To be honest, there aren't that many great places in our books, and in many of our locations, we wouldn't survive long! We'd travel to the world of the Illuminae Files, but some nice, central world with lots of creature comforts.
Elizabeth wrote: "Which character would you bring to life from Illuminae?"Amie would pick Hanna, because she could totally use a wardrobe consultant, and Hanna would naaaaail it.
Jay would bring to life Ella, because he loves her sass. They would hang out and sass everyone.
Elizabeth wrote: "Who would you say inspired you to start writing books?"We actually both started out in different kinds of storytelling -- Jay playing D&D, Amie in online RPGs. So our storytelling was originally inspired by the fun of sharing stories with other people. And that's really what led us to write books, as well.
Ashley wrote: "Hello! What's your writing routine like and how long does it usually take for you to complete a book from first word to being published?"The answer to both of these is 'it varies'. Our ideal writing routine is spending a few hours on the couch with our laptops, but we've also been known to write on tour, on planes, at the mechanic's waiting for the car to be ready...
Usually it takes somewhere around two years from the first words of the draft to publication, but that varies by author and by book.
Hannah wrote: "Hi I LOVED both Illuminae and Gemina and was wondering when we will get to see a title, cover and/or description for the third book? Thanks :D"We're wondering tooooo! We know what the title is and you'll probably learn it somewhere in early 2017. As for the cover, we're still waiting to see it too, and guessing with everyone else!
Colleen wrote: "Those worm things! Poor cows. Who do I blame for that one? Gave me nightmares."Amie: JAY ALL THE WAY BLAME HIM BLAME HIM FOR ALL OF IT.
Colleen wrote: "So how long is the flight to the US?"You just haaaaad to bring it up, huh? We really don't like to think about that flight. It's about 14.5 hours from Melbourne, where we live, to Los Angeles. A lot of that time's overnight, though, so if you're lucky enough to get to sleep, it's not so bad.
Colleen wrote: "Did you guys have to take extra classes to write the wormhole stuff? It was seriously hard core. Loved it!"Thaaaaank you! We did a lot of research, and we have all our work checked by an astrophysicist, so basically, yes. A lot of classes. Our brains were swimming towards the end.
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