Amanda Hocking

On the internet, I found a list of the 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die. It was a very long list. I went through it, but I hadn’t seen that many movies before 1950, and it had several movies I suspect were fake.

So then I found the list 101 Movies You Must See Before You Die, and I’ve seen 93 of them. What does that prove? That I watch a lot of movies.

I, for one, am glad Kevin Williamson is so busy lately.

I watched The Faculty tonight, and let me tell you something – I love that movie. I have it on VHS somewhere, and the soundtrack is tucked away in box of CDs (probably near the VHS). I just got the Bluray for it, and it’s an excellent choice.

Do you ever watch movies when you’re a teenager, think they’re totally awesome, then go back and watch them years later and go, “Wait. What?” (*hint hint nudge nudge* Reality Bites *cough cough*) Well, thankfully, The Faculty wasn’t one of those movies. It’s as fantastic as I remember it being, and it’s always a pleasure to seen Bebe Neuworth and her never ending gams.

If you’re not familiar with Kevin Williamson, he made a few popular gems in the late 90s and early 00s, like Dawson’s Creek, the first two Screams, I Know What You Did Last Summer, The Faculty, and Cursed.

He also did Teaching Mrs. Tingle, which I believe was loosely based on Killing Mr. Griffen by Lois Duncan. Mrs. Tingle had a lot of issues though because it was set to release right around the time that the Columbine shootings happened, and then everything changed, and I think it suffered because of that.

But anyway – the moral is Kevin Williamson has been working on The Vampire Diaries and Scream 4 – both of which I’m very excited about, and I’m thrilled to see him so busy lately because I love his work.

When he first started getting a name, I remember a lot of people criticizing him for his similarities to John Hughes, which I think is just crap. I do think he built on the platform that John Hughes created, but what’s wrong with that?

I enjoy Kevin Williamson. I’m looking forward to Scream 4 (not as much as my roommate, who is literally counting down the days at this point). And that’s all I have to say about that.

Tonight Christian Bale won a SAG award for his role in The Fighter, and as he was walking up to the stage, he was hugging a whole buncha people, and my roommate Eric said, “I wonder if he’s going to hug the sound guy,” and I laughed for a good ten minutes. Really loudly.

I eat peanut butter with frozen cheese pizza because it tastes awesome. I know all the words to every song ever written by Fall Out Boy. I’ve seen pretty much every movie made in the 80s (and most of them from the 90s and the 00s too). I really, really love Michael Wincott. I try on shoes a lot, but I rarely buy them. I’m obsessed (unhealthily so) with possessing Sharpies. I live in the same house my parents bought twelve years ago, and I live with the same guy I’ve been friends with for the past ten years.

Last night, my friends threw me a surprise party at a bar.(Thanks everybody!!!!) My mom, my roommate Eric, and my good friend Pete did most of the planning, along with my friend Fi would made me a really neat plaque and a clock (and some of my writerly friends wrote some very nice things about me, thanks guys 🙂 :)).

At the party, these are people I’ve been friends with for years. And they are truly, awesome, quirky, funny people. They know who I actually I am, and they like me anyway. And most importantly, they’ll call me out on my crap. And that’s the point. I’m still Amanda Hocking. I still have my same fantastic friends and family, my same life, and I’m grateful for it everyday.

Because as much as I love everything’s that’s been happening with my writing, the things that really make my life what it is are the people (and pets) I have in it.

So what has all this been leading up to? I have a fact that I’m about to share with you, and I thought this fact would change something. I thought that I would be a different person when these things happened. And the last six months have been so confusing to me because I’m not a different person, so I kept feeling like something’s wrong. Something should have changed.

But then I realized that that’s the point. It hasn’t changed. And I don’t want it to change.

Anyway – here’s the long meandering moral. According to what Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Createspace is reporting, I’ve sold 486,018 books total. But that’s without sales from Apple and the My Blood Approves series from B&N reporting to Smashwords yet. Assuming that I’ve sold at least 14,000 books (which I’m inclined to think I probably have) – that means I’ve sold half a million books.

I hate saying “I sold” books, because you know what, I didn’t. You did. I wrote the books, but you the readers, along with the good folks at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Apple did all the work. You’re the ones writing reviews, blogging about it, telling your friends. You’ve done so much for me, and I’m not going forget that or stop being grateful for it.

But I’m not going to let that change me. I’m still gonna drink orange Hi-C from a juice box, and I don’t care what anybody thinks.

I got this email today, and I like rhinos, so I’m spreading the word. They have an option to donate as little as $8 a month, plus there’s options to donate one time, and you can use PayPal, your checking account, or a credit card. PLUS when you donate money, some employers will match or double the amount you donate.

You’ve probably heard the grim report already: An astonishing 333 rhinos were killed illegally in South Africa in 2010–the highest rate ever experienced in the country. Ten of these were critically endangered black rhinos, of which only about 3,500 individuals still remain. Help WWF protect rhinos and other wildlife and habitats around the world from threats such as poaching–make a monthly donation today.

White rhino horn being transported to a secure holding facility. © Michel Gunther/WWF-Canon Free gift when you make a monthly donation to WWF in honor of rhinos.

Why are so many rhinos being killed?

The recent rhino crime wave is largely due to a rising demand for rhino horn, which has long been prized as an ingredient in traditional Asian medicine. Its popularity increased in Vietnam after claims that rhino horn possesses cancer-curing properties, despite any medical evidence.

Today’s wildlife poachers are well coordinated and employ advanced technologies. Their sophisticated criminal networks use helicopters, night-vision equipment, veterinary tranquilizers and silencers to kill rhinos at night–attempting to avoid military and law enforcement patrols.
How can we stop this?

WWF and TRAFFIC, our global wildlife trade program, are working to combat the crisis on a global scale. Locally, we support anti-poaching operations, introducing transmitters in rhino horns, facilitating regional dialogues on security and raising awareness among the public. WWF’s Black Rhino Range Expansion Project in South Africa aims to increase the overall numbers of black rhino by making breeding lands available–with the goal of reaching a national target of 5,000 black rhinos. Globally, we are focusing on reducing demand in consumer nations and stopping wildlife trafficking through such initiatives as aiding enforcement officials to detect rhino horn in transit.

The rate of threatened wildlife poaching cannot continue unabated. We need your urgent help to protect these and other animals and their habitats.

Donate today to support WWF’s global conservation work, and we’ll send you a free rhino plush as a thank-you gift. Your monthly support will help preserve and protect our world’s majestic species–like rhinos–and the habitats in which they live.

Together we can help protect the future of nature for generations to come.

Sincerely yours,

Terry Macko
Vice President, Membership

P.S. This new year has already begun with five more rhinos lost to poaching. Help us stop poachers and other threats to nature–please support wildlife and their habitats today.

Jason Letts has a new book that just came out. It’s a young adult paranormal romance called Inevitable that I did some editing on it. I don’t know if that’s technically enough for me to be considered a co-author, but there you have it. Here’s the description…

Every choice is played out in a world unto itself, and so the only Nathan who needs to be saved is the only one who can’t be.

A supernatural spirit holds all of these worlds together, bending fate from her place outside of time. When eighteen-year-old Nathan Wheeler sacrifices himself to provide for his orphaned sister, this entrancing spirit goes back to when the death of his mother forced him to quit college and attempts to make his life better before his inevitable death.

But for all she knows about the future, assuming human form is not as easy as she thought it would be, and getting close to Nathan comes with consequences she could never expect.

Inevitable is available at both Amazon and Barnes & Noble.