Amanda Hocking

Earlier today, Wil Wheaton posted this pic on twitter:

I’d never heard it before, but now I’m totally in love with it.

I think so many people take for granted that we went to the moon, especially my generation and the ones following. I was born 15 years after we landed on the moon, and 8 years after Star Wars came out. So by that time, adventures in space already felt somewhat commonplace.

With all the CGI and special effects, all the fake outerspace, we’ve forgotten that we’ve really been there. We didn’t just make it up. We were there.

People stared up at the stars for centuries, making up stories, monitoring time, imagining all the grand adventures that go on up there. And we went there, after centuries of mankind dreaming about it.

The impact of that had been lost on me until today. I saw this really awesome movie about the Hubble telescope in the omnitheater a few months back, but in a way, these are things I’ve been seeing my whole life, either in text books or in summer blockbusters.

I forgot how totally fricking insane is that we traveled thousands of miles in outer space, in an atmosphere we can’t even breathe, to a giant lifeless rock floating in the sky.

Not only does it make everything I’ve ever done seem really inconsequential, it reminds me that everything is possible. We hold the power to shape our lives, our dreams, our worlds to be whatever we want them to be – no matter how far fetched they may seem.

The point is we went to the moon because we decided to go there. We worked hard to make it a reality. If we can do that, then what’s stop us from doing anything else? The biggest obstacle between a man and his dream is himself. 

I don’t know. I just feel really re-energized and inspired by that. The simplicity and almost obviousness of Jim Lovell’s quote. “We just decided to go.” So I thought I’d shared it with you.

The new covers for the Trylle Trilogy were revealed on USAToday.com! Their whole piece is up: here.

And in case you don’t want to click that link, here are the covers:

Coming January 24, 2012

Coming February 28, 2012

Coming April 24, 2012

Aren’t they fancy? I love them! ARCs should be going out for Switched soon, but it won’t be in stores until January 24, 2012. There’s going to be a ton of stuff going on in January to promote it, too – all of which I’m incredibly excited for.

AND I have another announcement about the books. Readers are always telling me how they want me to continue the series – and while I have no plans to do that – I do like new content. So for fans of the series, I wanted to give them a little something extra. Each of the books will contain a never-before-seen short story set in the world of the Trylle.

I don’t want to give away too much about the stories except that each is set in the time frame the book takes place. The first short story is set during the time that Switched takes place, and so on. I will also say this: Both the short story for Switched and Torn do not take place from Wendy’s POV.

But anything else, I don’t want to say. We’re trying to keep it a surprise. The short stories aren’t even going to go out in the ARCs.

In other fun news – I’m picking out the models for the covers of Wake. It’s neat, and it makes me feel fancy that I get to look at models portfolios. That cover probably won’t be released for quite awhile, I imagine, since Wake isn’t set to come out until fall 2012.

And I also wanted to thank everybody for their input on my new turtle, Jasper Tortuga. It was very helpful. I have him set up in a ten gallon tank with water and a floating land barge. He also has a filter and a heat lamp.

I ordered him new food and a UV light, but right now, he’s eating the food I got at Walmart fine. I just made sure to get more enriched food for hatchlings, since he needs more stuff because he’s going to be doing so much growing.

He hides every time I walk by his aquarium, but the turtle books said that’s a good sign. It means he’s alert and active. So he’s doing good, even if he hates me.

Today, I went to our county fair. They had a game where you could win live turtles, live iguanas, and live hermit crabs. I still find this concept weird that you can win animals that require specialized cages and lighting. It would make more sense to win a puppy or kitten, since most homes are already equipped for them.

In reality, I don’t agree with the practice of the animals as prizes. But that’s another story for another day. The long and the short of it is – I’m a sucker for animals of any kind, and I always think I should adopt everything so I can be certain it’s taken care of. The fact that I walked away with only one turtle and not a whole slew of reptiles shows an extreme level of self restraint on my part.

Anyway – I digress. Meet Jasper – the newest edition to my family:

The picture’s a bit blurry, but rest assured, Jasper’s face is perfectly clear in real life.

That’s Jasper running away from a Dixie cup. He’s insanely fast. I’m starting to think the Tortoise and the Hare was a total lie.

 From what I can tell, Jasper is a red eared slider. I’m not sure of his age, but he’s small enough to easily fit in a Dixie cup. (I didn’t put him in one. I just put him next to one for a size comparison.).

There’s a chance that Jasper isn’t a boy, but I don’t know how to tell the difference, and I figure that Jasper won’t care if I refer to him as a “he” even if he’s a she, as long as I take proper care of him and give him food and lots of clean water to swim around in.

I’ve never had a turtle before. I’ve had iguanas and frogs and toads, but never a turtle. This didn’t occur to me until I got home, and I begun to panic that I would somehow kill him.

Jasper’s currently set up in a ten-gallon tank that has water about half way up and a resting rock thing designed for turtles such as himself to hang out on. He also has a heat lamp and turtle food that I bought at Walmart. Walmart was the only store open that sells turtle food after I got Jasper, but tomorrow, I’ll go to the pet store to see what else the recommend.

My aunt has three turtles, so I asked her how to take care of them. She said that she feeds her turtles minnows sometimes, but I think Jasper might be a bit too small for that right now. Unless minnows are smaller than what I think they are. She also said she feeds them greens (I think she said lettuce).

I also ordered some books on turtles. And I expect I’ll talk to my aunt more about how not to kill Jasper and keep him happy.

The point is – Jasper is very, very cute. He might be the cutest thing I’ve ever seen. I know some things about turtles – like that have salmonella and they need a habitat with land and water. But if any experienced turtle owners have tips, feel free to throw them my way.

Just a quick reminder, folks: I’m unpublishing Torn and Ascend tonight at midnight (Central time), and they go down almost immediately. So this is your last chance to buy them until February and April 2012, respectively.

If you miss them today, it’s not that big of a deal, because they will be out in a few months, which a much shorter amount of time then George R. R. Martin fans have to wait for the next book to come out. So comparitively, it’s not big thing.

Plus, the new editions of the Trylle Trilogy coming out with St. Martin’s in early 2012 have a little something extra with them that I think fans of the series will dig. I’ll explain more about that next week.

Sometime next week, there should be a big cover reveal for all three books. It was going to be Monday, but we’re doing some last minute cover changes, so it might be at the end of next week or possibly the week after. I will let you know as soon as I get the exact date. But trust me, the covers are worth the wait. 

For those of you wondering why I’ve unpublished the Trylle Trilogy, please read these blogs, which explain it all:

And Yet Another Announcement (from May 5, 2011)
Good News, Everyone (from July 26, 2011)
A Bit More on My Decision… (from July 28, 2011)

In conclusion: I’m sorry for any inconvenience this has caused any of you, and I appreciate those of you that bear with me through this transition.

But the fact is: I’m really excited. Not just about what this all means for the books, but what’s going on for you, the readers. I literally cannot wait for you guys to see what we have up our sleeves. I’m going to start revealing a bit more next week, but until you guys get the books in your hands next year, I’m going to be sitting on pins and needles.

And I’m leaving you with this awesome song that I’m sorta of obsessed with right now:

EDIT: Based on my previous experience with unpublishing Switched last week, Torn and Ascend will NOT disappear from your Kindle or nook if you’ve already purchased them. (One reader did recommend backing them on your hard drive, just be on the safe side, because apparently, Amazon can and does very rarely remove books from you device wirelessly, but it cannot remove them from you hard drive.)

The books are however unavailable for lending. I was unaware that this would happen before unpublishing Switched. When questioned about it, Amazon basically stated that they couldn’t do anything about it and it was up to the publisher. Since I am the publisher, and I’m fine with them them being lended, I’m not exactly sure who it is up to then. I apologize for that.