Amanda Hocking

I love listening to music when I write, and the full list of songs I listened to while writing Crystal Kingdom added up to 27 songs. I narrowed it down to the best 14 that fit the feel of the novel. My favorite song on the list is Aston’s cover of “Bulletproof” (originally performed by La Roux, which I also love so much). In Crystal Kingdom, Chapter 51: Dallience was written specifically around that song. It really set the scene so perfectly.

Here’s the YouTube playlist that includes all 14 songs on the playlist, plus a track list below.

1. Aston – “Bulletproof”
2. The Airborne Toxic Event – “Sometime Around Midnight”
3. Blondfire – “Dear In Your Headlights”
4. Broods – “Never Gonna Change”
5. Family of the Year – “Hero”
6. Fauntella Crow – “Delicate”
7. John Newman – “Love Me Again”
8. Jon E. K. – “Cold World”
9. L’anarchiste – “Juneau”
10. Mapei – “Don’t Wait”
11. MisterWives – “Vagabond”
12. of Verona – “Castles”
13. Vitamin String Orchestra – “Change (In the House of Flies)”
14. Meg Myers – “Make a Shadow”

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As you can probably gather by the use of “white rabbit,” this week’s quote is from Konstantin Black. And as you can also tell, this book is darker than its predecessors, with the challenges Bryn faces being much more deadly than before.

Crystal Kingdom will be out on August 4, 2015, and until then, stay tuned for plenty of teasers, giveaways and exclusive materiel.

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As you’ve probably gathered, I love using Pinterest. It’s especially fun to create boards while I’m working on books. The one for Crystal Kingdom is darker than previous ones I’ve made, but that makes sense, because I think the book is a bit darker. You can check out the board below, for hints on what to expect in the finale of the Kanin Chronicles.

Follow Amanda Hocking’s board Crystal Kingdom on Pinterest.If you haven’t preordered Crystal Kingdom yet, and you’d like to, here are some ways you can do it:

iBookstore – for ebook 
Barnes & Noble – for paperback, ebook, hardcover, & audio
Amazon – for paperback, ebook, hardcover, & audio
Indiebound – for paperback, hardcover, & audio 
Powell’s– for paperback
Books-a-Million– for paperback, hardcover, & audio 
Booktopia (Australia) – for paperback 
Waterstones (UK) – for paperback

 

Exciting news! A couple months ago, I wrote a prequel novelette to the Kanin Chronicles called “The King’s Games,” and now it’s available for FREE at Wattpad, for everyone to read. You can read it: here

Here’s the official synopsis:

Set five years before the events in the Kanin Chronicles, Bryn Aven is struggling to find her place in the secret kingdom of the Kanin—a realm as beautiful as it is treacherous. Born of mixed heritage, fourteen-year-old Bryn has never felt like she completely belonged. Now, with the summer sun thawing the frozen province, the yearly King’s Games are about to begin, and an opportunity has arisen to squire for the popular guard, Konstantin Black. Now Bryn can prove herself and earn the respect she craves. With her best friend Tilda by her side, Bryn is more determined than ever to show the Kanin kingdom what she’s made of.

Here’s some questions you might have about “The King’s Games:”

What’s a “novelette?” It just refers to the length of the story. It’s longer than a short story, but shorter than a novel or a novella.

Will I be spoiled if I haven’t read any or only some of the Kanin Chronicles? No. Since it’s a prequel, there are no spoils for the Kanin Chronicles, or even for the Trylle series for that matter.

Where’s Ember? The story takes place in June of 2009, and Ember doesn’t move to the Kanin capital until February 2010 (after the events at the end of Ascend). So she’s just not there yet, but she will be.

Where’s Ridley? He’s only just retired from tracking, so he’s not able to participate in the King’s Games, and he hasn’t yet taken over the Rektor position. So he’s relaxing on the side.

Will this ever be available in print? Right now, I’m going to say no, it will not. But the upside is that it’s for FREE at Wattpad, and you can read it now.

For other fun stuff to go along with the release of “The King’s Games,” I also created a soundtrack for the novelette:

 

1. Arctic Monkeys – “Do I Wanna Know?”
2. Big Data – “Dangerous (feat. Joywave)”
3. Daniel Johns – “Preach”
4. The Echo-Friendly – “Same Mistakes”
5. Echosmith – “Cool Kids”
6. Emily Wells – “Becomes the Color”
7. Florence + the Machine – “What Kind of Man”
8. Lorde – “Ribs”
9. Sia – “Free the Animals”
10. Sufjan Stevens – “No Shade in the Shadow of the Cross”
11. Tove Lo – “This Time Around”

 

You can also check out the Pinterest inspiration board I made for “The King’s Games.” It was fun, because I got to pick more summery images, and that was a nice change of pace after the snowy scenery of the rest the Kanin Chronicles. (Well, more Frostfire and Ice Kissed, because Crystal Kingdom definitely has changes in scenery).

Follow Amanda Hocking’s board The King’s Games on Pinterest.

So check out “The King’s Games” and I can’t wait to hear what you all think. It was a lot of fun to write, and it was great digging more into Bryn’s past and what it was like for her growing up. I hope you all enjoy it 🙂

Here’s the very first teaser quote for Crystal Kingdom, the final book in the Kanin Chronicles. With the ending of Ice Kissed, this one doesn’t come as much of a surprise, but it does show that things are looking very dark for Bryn.

Crystal Kingdom will be out on August 4, 2015, and until then, stay tuned for plenty of teasers, giveaways and exclusives materiel.

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