Amanda Hocking

I seriously wrote this entire blog on Saturday and set it up to post this morning, but it just disappeared. I’m very frustrated by this. But oh well, there’s not much I can do now.

I’m now writing this new blog from my hotel in New York City, where I will be doing some promo stuff for the release of Switched tomorrow, January 3rd. I’m doing a book signing tomorrow at the Barnes & Noble in Princeton, NJ at 7:00 pm, and if you’re in the area, you should totally check it out. I’ll also be in the USA Today tomorrow, so you should also check that out.

I’m really, really excited and also mind-numbling terrified for Switched to hit bookshelves tomorrow. I can’t wait to hear what people think of the new short story, “The Vittra Attacks,” because nobody’s read that yet.

Also, if you are picking yourself up a copy of Switched tomorrow, you should totally take a picture of yourself with it in the store. (As long as it doesn’t break any laws or store policies). Share it with me via Twitter, Facebook, or email – hockingbooks@hotmailcom, and I’ll post some of my favorites later on this week.

Now with all that rambling out the way, why don’t I go ahead and post the vlog I made? It’s actually a “tutorial” on how to pronounce some of the words in the Trylle books, since I get questions about them a lot.

So.. here it is:

And don’t forget! Tomorrow is the big day! I sincerely hope that you, your friends, and every person you’ve ever had any form of contact with picks up a copy. And if you do, I really hope you enjoy it. I’m really grateful for all the support I’ve gotten so far 🙂

It’s only four days until Switched hits stores. I am sorta freaking out about it, but in a really awesome way.

I had a spectacular if exhausting holiday weekend. I ended up sleeping pretty much all of Monday to catch on the weekend’s festivities, and this whole week has felt like a mess of catching up and getting ready for  Switched to come out and for all the traveling I’m going to do.

I have an idea for a fun vlog where I pronounce all the words in Switched that people seem to trip over, and I’m going to write a blog letting you know some other fun facts about the book. I don’t know for sure when these blogs will post, but I’m going to say one will post over the weekend, and the other will post on Monday.

Oh! Also, I want to issue a challenge to all of you. I’m super psyched about the book being in stores, so if you see Switched in stores and take a fun picture of yourself with it in the store (assuming that this doesn’t go against store policy), and share it with me (via Twitter or Facebook or blogs), I’ll post my favorites on my blog. But I’m going to emphasize – don’t do anything that will break the law or store rules. Fun is fun, but illegal is bad.

I do have some sad news, though. My beloved turtle, Jasper Tortuga, passed away this week. He’d gotten a respiratory infection in early November, and even though he went to the vets and took medication, he never fully recovered from it.

RIP Jasper Tortuga

While I was very sad to see him go and he will be greatly missed, I do have a new addition to my family. He’s a Russian tortoise named Gusgus Tortuga. He won’t replace Jasper, but he’s tough and adorable, so I think he’ll be a good fit for my family.

Gusgus Tortuga

 Also, I have new glasses! Check them out!

So… I’ll blog more later. I hope you all had a good holiday, and that the 2012 is as fun for you as 2011 has been for me!

Happy Christmas Adam, to those who celebrate this semi-nonexistent holiday. (It’s Adam, cause Adam came before Eve.)

I’m only posting real quick, because then I have to be off to finish planning for the first of four holiday extravaganzas that I’m celebrating. But I wanted to tell you a couple of awesome things.

The first is this fancy new website is up – www.worldofamandahocking.com And it’s fabulous. Other people who aren’t me even think so.

One of my favorite things on the new site is Elora’s Gallery. The paintings that Elora make in Switched and Torn are re-created here. There’s three up now, but there’s even more to come!

Other extra rad things include: the Changeling Quiz (see if you’re a changeling), the Five Tribes (definitions of the five major troll tribes), and Videos (links to all kinds of videos about me and the books).

There’s actually way more than that, and there’s more content coming in the future, including the Castle Floorplan. So you should totes check it out, but only if you like checking out awesome things.

Also, I’ve updated all the pre-order information on the Trylle Trilogy to include links to the iBookstore. I also have a widget at the top, if you enjoy buying things through iBooks, as many of you do.

And, just throwing this out there – people are like, “Hey are the Trylle books going to be movies? I’d love to see them as movies! Please make them movies!” So far, I’ve done everything I can to get these into movies. The rest is actually up to you guys.

The best way to help ensure a movie is to sell a ton of books. Studios like numbers, and if the Trylle books are selling like hotcakes, they’ll feel way more comfortable greenlighting the project. So, if you want to see these books as movies, I strongly encourage to buy them and tell other people to buy them. But if you don’t want to, that’s cool too. I understand. But I’m just keeping you in the loop.

Anyhoo, I should get back to preparing for the festivities! And if I don’t talk to you before Christmas (which *fingers crossed* I won’t, and I’ll actually manage to stay off the interwebs for that long) –

I made a tab at the top of the page for events called Events, because I’m clever like that. I thought that would be a good way for people to check out what I have coming up, like book signings and release dates.

Also, I wanted to thank everybody for checking out the Trylle Book Trailer yesterday. It’s already had over 130,000 views, so thanks for spreading the word!

As some of you may know, the Trylle books are about changelings. But not everybody knows what changelings are. Tor posted this really great write up on changelings and what they are and how that relates to Switched and the rest of the Trylle trilogy. So you should check that out: here.

I probably won’t be checking the interweb much over the next few days, since I’m hosting not one, not two, not three, but FOUR Christmas gatherings at my home over the next three days. Yeah. I’m like Vince Vaughn and Reece Witherspoon. Only I don’t hate Christmas or my family.

So I’m deciding to leave you all with a list of my favorite Christmas songs. Why, you ask? I don’t know. I like songs, and I like sharing.

1. “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home” – Death Cab for Cutie

2. “Last Christmas” – Jimmy Eat World

3. “Deck the Halls” – Idiot Pilot

4. “Happy Xmas” – John Lennon

5. “Yule Shoot Your Eye Out” – Fall Out Boy

6. “Ice Dance” – Danny Elfman

7. “Maybe Next Year” – Meiko

8. “Feed the World” – Band Aid

9. “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” – Local H

10. “Thank God Its Christmas” – Queen

Okay, first of all I have some pretty awesome news.

On January 5th, I get the pleasure of being on Anderson Cooper’s new daytime talk show, Anderson. For those of you who don’t know who Anderson Cooper is, you’re silly people, because Anderson is awesome. He’s perhaps most known for his CNN show Anderson 360 and his hard hitting reporting, including that time he got punched in Libya.

But he’s perhaps the most fun when he’s hosting New Year’s Eve with Kathy Griffin or that time he co-hosted Regis & Kelly and he couldn’t figure out what the deal was with the reality television program Living Lohan.

I’ve actually decided to post the video of Anderson talking about the Lohans because I think it’s the funniest thing ever, even though I’ve obviously gone off topic now.

Okay. So back on topic. I’m going to be on Anderson, and I’m tickled pink about it. (You heard me. Tickled. Pink.) But I’m not telling you this just to share how excited I am about it or as a reminder to set up your DVRs to tape Anderson if you haven’t already.

It’s because the good folks at Anderson would like it if any of you in the New York area would like to be on the show to ask me questions or talk about me or something. Here’s actually what the producers suggested I post, so I’m going to do it:

Amanda will be appearing on Anderson Cooper’s daytime TV show this January. If you’re a fan with questions for her or you’ve been inspired by her story, please go to this link. Thanks!
Be On The Show – Request Form | AndersonCooper.com
www.andersoncooper.com

So you should do that. But only if you want to.

Also, I know some people outside of the United States had issues watching the US Trylle Trilogy book trailer when I posted it yesterday. Well, it’s up on the YouTube now, so it should make it easier to see. I’m posting it right now. If you love it, tweet it, post it, share it with your friends and even your enemies!

Here it is again, in case you missed it. The US book trailer for the Trylle Trailer: