Amanda Hocking

Look at this you guys:

In case you don’t know, Doug Jones played the thing the with the hands in Pan’s Labyrinth, which I dubbed the scariest thing in the scariest movie. Some other terrifying thing he’s played includes: the scary zombie at the end of Quarantine, the ice cream man with the arms in Legion, and Billy Butcher in Hocus Pocus. (Okay, Billy Butcher isn’t scary but he is neat.) He’s also played Abe in Hellboy. So anyway, Doug Jones is awesome. And that’s my favorite tweet ever.

Rick Springfield is playing at the Mayo Civic Center next week, and I’m debating on whether or not we should go see him. I love Rick Springfield. But… well. I guess it’s not much of a debate. I don’t really have a “con” for not seeing him. I mean, it’s flippin Rick Springfield, right? I have an actual album (as in vinyl) of Working Class Dog. That album came out 3 years before I was born.

Also in fun news – James Franco was nominated for an Oscar. What fun for James Franco! He’s like the most fascinating person in the whole world. I literally have no clue what he’s going to do next. Ever. And I love that.

Today, I did a phone interview with USA Today. They said it should be out sometime next week. I mostly talk about publishing and ebooks, but it’s fun. So if you’re into things that I say, you might enjoying checking that out.

And I forgot to post this the other day. I’m having a giveaway at Goodreads for a signed copy of Ascend. To enter, click on the link on do what Goodreads says.

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Ascend

by Amanda Hocking

Giveaway ends January 30, 2011.

See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.

Enter to win

If you haven’t watched Tuesday, January 25th’s episode of SouthLAnd, and you plan to, DO NOT read this blog. It will be very spoilery. Because I don’t know anybody that watches SouthLAnd (ridiculous), and I need to vent.

The thing is that I love SouthLAnd. And I did right off the bat. I seriously worked my tail off to keep it from getting canceled. I’ve done more work promoting that show than I have my own books. That’s how much I love it and believe in it.

But tonight’s episode was the most traumatic viewing experience of my life (aside from real tragedies, such as footage of the 9/11 attacks or that ASPCA commercial with the Sarah Machlachlin song).

Tonight on SouthLAnd was a fairly normal episode. It always starts with an ending scene. It was Det. Sammy Bryant (Shawn Hatosy) , sitting in a waiting room, his clothes covered in blood, then a woman screams. The voice over says “Most of us go to work every day with a pretty good idea of what’s gonna happen. As Det. Bryant will be reminded of today, cops never do.” Then at the bottom it says: 20 hours earlier, and the show goes starts at the beginning.

As the story unfolds, I assume that the witness of one of the crimes that Sammy and  his partner Nate will be killed. Similar things have happened before. I’m also becoming annoyed with how Sammy has been acting this season. He’s a good cop, but this season he’s too focused on his upcoming divorce and he’s making mistakes. But Nate (Kevin Alejendro – as seen on a couple episodes of True Blood and an episode of Psych) is reeling him back. Nate is always grounded and does the right thing, and I’m pretty sure he’s the only latino guy I’ve seen with blue eyes.

Anyway – throughout the series, I always think about how unbelievable it is that these guys do these things. These cops walk into these dangerous situations knowing that they could be shot or killed at any moment. I think of that particuraly with Sammy and Nate because they work with the gang task force or whatever, and they situations filled with gang bangers. I’ve always admired and appreciated the way they interact with them, Nate especially.

So tonight, Sammy and Nate go about the episode trying to catch a murderer. Regina King solves another crime, and Ben Mckenzie is randomly also a really shitty copy now. But Cudlitz is still funny.

But it isn’t until the last 5 minutes of the show that I understand the beginning of the episode. A gang banger throws a bottle at the cop car, and Nate stops. Sammy and Nate get out to deal with it, and it was that moment I realized it wasn’t the witness’s blood on Sammy’s shirt.

And I have to be honest – from an objective standpoint, this is really artful, intense storytelling. Because suddenly, I know what’s going to happen. I know how horrible this will turn out. And my heart is pounding out of my chest, and I’m shouting at the TV, “No! Nate get back in the car!”

There’s like fifty gang bangers in a crowd, and Nate is teasing them, talking to them, and I think for a brief second, that maybe I’m wrong. Maybe everything will turn out okay. Then Nate turns around to get back in the car and they hit him over the head with something (a bat? a tire iron?)

And then the scene gets so utterly horrific and intense. It’s just Sammy and Nate alone on the street. And now Nate is down, and these gang bangers swarm Nate. They’re kicking him and stomping on him, and Sammy is trying to save his partner. He literally has to climb on top of Nate and shoot in the air to keep the gang bangers from swarming Nate like vultures.

Help finally comes, and Sammy gets Nate in the car, but he’s not moving.

The next scene is the one from the beginning. Sammy in bloody clothes at the hospital. And then you hear the woman scream, only this time, we know it’s Nate’s wife, who only recently gave birth to their baby. And then she comes out and she and Sammy break down sobbing, and so do I.

Hey, did you guys ever see that movie where Billy Zane taps his sister? It was supposed to  be some kind of noir thing. It was called like First the World, Then the Fireworks or something.

On a related note, did you ever see The Grifters? That movie is MESSED up. It was nominated for like four Oscars. And I don’t get it. I love Anjelica Huston and John Cusack, and the movie actually was interesting and enjoyable. It was just John’s relationship with his mom that was totally… crazy.

Anyway – I had my first television interview today. It was actually a lot of fun. I wasn’t really nervous, and Tom Overlie is a really swell guy. For those of you interested in watching, it will air on KTTC (the NBC affiliate out of Rochester, MN) sometime next week probably. Tom said he’ll drop me an email when he knows when it will air. He also said that it will be up online, so people out of the viewing area will be able to see it too, and see what a total goon I am.

Onto a clarification – people have wondered if the hold up with the fifth My Blood Approves book and/or Honalee is because of the stuff that I’m not talking about it. It’s not, exactly. I do have other things that I’m working on that have been prioritized above those things for various reasons. 

But here is my explanation for the Honalee and  book five of MBA that I’ve lifted from my FAQs:
 
What’s the deal with Honalee?
Honalee was almost ready for publication when I decided to rewrite the ending. I haven’t done that yet. I’ve tried, but something is off. So I’m stepping back from it for a little bit and working on other things.

Will there be another book in the My Blood Approves series?
There will be five books total, plus one novella about Peter. I don’t know when book five will be out, because I haven’t written it yet.

All the info on my FAQs is up to date. So if you have other questions, and you’d like an instant answer, that is a good place to check.

Onto things that make me angry – the Oscars have once again snubbed Chris Nolan for Best Director. Yes, Inception did got some much deserved nominations (including Best Score – which it seriously HAS to win), but Nolan wasn’t. The man is brilliant. Beyond brilliant. Even though Inception pissed me off, his direction of the film is spot on. And it always is. He’s way better than the Coens.

It was nice to see Christian Bale nominated. Because I worship the ground he walks on. I don’t know that I’ll ever watch The Fighter because I’m under the impression that I won’t enjoy it, even though I love listening to Mark Wahlberg talk. But still. Yay Christian Bale!

The Oscars are like the Superbowl in my house. This is what we get all excited for. We do our Oscar picks and take bets. We buy special snack foods for it even. It’s probably never been more apparent that I live with a gay man.

Also, I’m looking for a new car because my car is dead. I found a really nice, surprisingly low priced 2005 Cadillac SRX. Does anybody know anything about them? Pros? Cons? I’ve done some research on the internet, but I wanted to know if anybody had actual experience with them.

But here is something I’m pretty sure I can talk about: I’m having my first television interview tomorrow. It’s for a local news station (KTTC out of Rochester), and it should be fun. It’s with Tom Overlie, and  I’m secretly a big fan. He sang at a telethon last year, and I had it on my DVR for like a week. (I think it was “Unforgettable.”)

So that’s fun. It’s at the Coffee House on Main which has the single greatest iced cappuccino drink ever. Is that what’s it’s called? I don’t remember. I just know it’s a cold cappuccino with raspberry syrup added, and it is probably the greatest beverage I’ve ever had in my life.

I probably won’t be putting out a new book until March or April at the soonest, and the next book I will be putting out will be Lost Without You. I’ll have more info about that as I get closer to releasing it. I am planning to work on the sequel to Hollowland too, but I have no clue when that would be out.

There is a lot of stuff going on, and it’s hard for me to gauge when things will be ready or when I’ll really be able to work on what.

And if you haven’t heard this song,  you should listen to it immediately:

I’m no longer on vacation! I had a ton of fun in New Mexico, and I miss my friends already. (And I missed an episode of Jersey Shore 🙁 ). Sorry this blog is short. I just have a couple things I wanted to say real quick.

I updated the FAQs section of my blog, so you can check that out if you want.

If you ordered a signed book from me, but haven’t received it yet, email me: hocking_amanda@hotmail.com. I’m at war with the postal service.

Oh, and how excited are you about Anne Hathaway playing Catwoman in the new Batman? I’m like a 20 on a scale from 1-10. 

Here are some fun pics from New Mexico (all courtesy of my friend Valerie):

Mountains in Albuquerque (I think the Sandeas?)

The sun setting over Albuquerque

My friend Greggor admire the sunset from the top of mountains

Mountain view from my friend Val & Greggor’s apartment