Amanda Hocking

Amanda's Blog

Answers to Questions about Ascend
January 7th, 2011 by
This post currently has 24 comments
Okay, so I went through all your questions and tried to answer them. If questions were repeats or similar to other ones, I answered the first one that came up. And if I didn’t answer your question, it’s because the question will be answered in Ascend.
Will Ascend have a conclusive finish or will there be a door left open for the possibility of a future book or novella down the road?
This storyline is completely wrapped up at the end of the book. I haven’t completely crossed out the idea of spin off yet, but it wouldn’t be with the main characters. I’ve thought a little bit about it, and I’ve considered something possibly with Finn’s little sister Ember. 
Who is your favorite character and why?
I can’t really say out of the boys because that might give something away. But I definitely have a favorite there. I really like Duncan and Elora. I’ve seen some Willa hate lately, but I dig Willa, and she does some growing in Ascend too, so hopefully people will like her more. 
How did you come up with the Trylle Trilogy?
I had a few ideas in mind for something I wanted to do with a paranormal romance, but I wanted to do something that hadn’t been done yet. I was reading a lot of old folklore, and in some Scandinavian folklore, trolls were beautiful and cunning. They had changelings, and they were wild and ill-tempered. So that’s the basis for the Trylle.
How long did you take to write them?
It took me about 3 weeks to write each book. 
I know you can’t tell us who does get killed off, but could you tell us how many (if any)?
Of the characters that have already been introduced in the book that you know, three die. EDIT: I miscounted. Four die. Sorry.
In Ascend, will we find out more about what will happen with her father and the kingdom?
Yes, absolutely. 
Will Akira be a main part of this book?
I’m not sure who Akira is, so no.
As far as a question is concerned, I couldn’t really think of a great one, so I am going with…Is Finn a tea drinker or coffee drinker? 🙂
Tea. Trylle prefer tea to coffee.
Would you be Trylle or Vittra? What kind of power/s would you want? Do you believe in changelings?
I’d probably be Vittra, because I’m short and a little hobgoblin. As for powers, I’d like to move stuff. It would be awesome, and I am lazy. And no, I don’t believe in changelings.
How do you manage to come up with these amazing characters? Do you ever base your characters on people you know?
I don’t know exactly. They’re not really based on people, but they’re mostly based on people I want to hang out with. 
This really has little to do with the Trylle series, but just out of curiosity, do you have a brother? In all your stories, the heroine always has a brother.
Yes, I have a little brother. He’s eleven.

Are there any female trackers? Or are only males able to be trackers?
There are female trackers. Males tend to be trackers more often, because one parent has to stay home and raise tracker children. But sometimes the guys will stay home with the kids, and some ladies don’t have kids. 
If you could pick anyone to play your characters, who would you pick!?
Michael Wincott as Oren, obviously. Anjelica Huston as Elora. Logan Huffman with green contacts as Tove. Blake Lively as Willa. Olivia Thirlby as Wendy. Um… that’s what I’ve got. 
1)If compared to Breakfast Club who is who?
Wendy = Claire
Finn = Andrew
Duncan = Brian
Loki = John
Did I get any of them right?
Ha,  yep. That’s perfect. 
Will Ascend be longer than the other two books???
No, it’s about the same length as the first two books.
So what is Wendy’s favorite meal, and what would be the Trylle version of junk food, especially dessert? Does chocolate envy lie at the root of Trylle hatred for humans?
Wendy loves blueberries. Junk food might be champagne and strawberries? 
OMG I could totally see where you were headed with Matt and Willa but I never thought you’d actually go there – heck yes! And aside from my delight with that pairing, I wanted to know if you had planned to put those two together from day one or did it just kind of evolve and turn into something?
I planned on them being together from the beginning. Willa needed someone to ground her and help her grow. She has potential to be something awesome, but she’d been spoiled a lot in her life. So she needed someone to push her to be better.

I don’t know why you keep adding such amazing male characters to the mix to totally mess with my head! Just when I get my mind totally fixed one way you add another great guy/option/delima, you’re killing me (in a good way)! On that note, did you already know who Wendy would end up with when you started writting the books? And if you were in Wendy’s shoes who would you choose, and why?
I knew how the book would end when I started it. And I can’t tell you who I’d picked. But I can say I agree with Wendy’s choices.

Does Duncan play a big role in Ascend? You made him out to be so cute, silly, kind and loyal I just can’t get enough of him and I’d hate to think that I won’t get a lot of him in the next book.
I don’t know if Duncan’s role is necessarily big, but he is in Ascend a lot. And he’s definitely important.
I was even more impressed when I came upon this website and heard music for each book. If you don’t mind me asking what are the songs called?
If you’re asking the songs from the book trailers, the trailer for Switched is “You Think You Deserve That Pain But You Don’t” by Dance Movie available at http://dancemovie.bandcamp.com, the trailer for Torn is “Leap Year” by Maria Taylor, and the trailer for Ascend is “The Walk” by Imogen Heap.
Is Loki’s personality and/or his actions based on his namesake (the Norse god)?
I definitely chose the name Loki because the character that Loki is. A lot of the mythology from the book is from Scandinavia, and I’ve always the stories of Loki. He’s a trouble maker and he’s fun. 
How do come up with their names?
Wendy  is named after Wendy in Peter Pan. She kind went to a reverse Never Neverland where there are no children and Wendy has to grow up instantly. Elora is the name of the little girl in Willow. Willa is a variation of Willow. Loki was named after the Norse god. Rhys and Rhiannon – I wanted similar sounding names because they have similar positions. Tove was named after a Finnish author who writes books about trolls. The author is a girl, but Tove is a boy. I just like the name Finn. 
Can or when can we preorder Ascend?
No, sorry. The way I publish books, it’s not possible to preorder them. 
I was just wondering why you decided on trolls? Was it just to kind of revamp the image and things like elves are way over done or was there another reason?
I didn’t actually really mean to revamp them. If you look in old folklore about trolls, they were often described as attractive. And in all the stories of changelings, the trolls had to have human appearances to be able to be switched with human children. A lot of the attributes I give to the characters do come from the mythology of changelings – they were ill-tempered, never wore shoes, did not bond with their families, they had hair that couldn’t be tamed, and they were finicky eaters. So I’m actually sticking a lot to the traditional stories about trolls. They’re just not the ones we hear as often.
I have always wondered if there are some characters that are harder for YOU to figure out/get to know as you start a book/series? Is it hard to get into some of your own characters’ heads? Take Finn… did you know his history – his deepest fears – his childhood pets 🙂 – etc – right off the bat? Or did he start out as a mysterious guy to you too at first?
I know all the major stuff about Finn. His age, name, his history, his family, why he treats Wendy the way does. I don’t know every detail of his life – like childhood pets, though.
Is Ascend going to have two possible endings?
Nope, I wrote one ending. Sorry.
And if you could write Switched and Torn again would you change anything?
Um, I don’t know. I cut about 25,000 words out of Switched. I wanted the main action of the story – with the Trylle – to start sooner in the book. But I wonder if maybe I should have left some of that in there. Wendy got to be more tough, and there was more stuff about Wendy and Finn getting to know each other.
Which character do you think you resemble the most in your books?
I don’t know. Maybe… Rhiannon. Yep. 
What will the ISBN for Ascend be?
I don’t know yet. 
I understand that Ascend will be out on January 15th, but I would like to know if it will also be available as an e-book on that date??
It will be out in e-book before paperback. 
If you had to rename Switched and Torn what would you change their names to?
I like the title Switched. But for reasons I can’t remember, Torn was originally called Proxy. I don’t know why. But I changed it. 
Novels on the Run said something earlier about Loki, about him being tempting but not quite getting his attraction to Wendy. I’m curious about this too, I can’t say I was surprised by his wanting Wendy but I didn’t completely understand it and his proposal seemed sudden. Will we learn more about this in Ascend?
Yes, we will. 
Also, what exactly does Finn’s family know about Wendy? His sister made it clear that Finn had mentioned her but what do they know about their relationship? I can understand Finn’s mother’s resentment towards Wendy because of her husband’s affair but I still don’t quite understand why she dislikes Wendy so much. Can you tell us more about that?
Finn and his sister are sorta close, or about as close they can be considering Finn is gone all the time. So I think Finn was a bit more open about his feelings to Ember, but also Ember is excited about the prospect of a princess, so she asked him a lot. But I think Finn still kept his real feelings to himself. As for his mother’s feelings about Wendy, I touch on it a bit more in Ascend. I will say this – her feelings for Wendy aren’t really based on Wendy herself, but rather on the monarchy and the royalty. 
I don’t necessarily think this means Loki is bad; I just wondered, is there any significance to the fact he does not call her Wendy?
I don’t think it’s necessarily a negative significance, but I did do it on purpose. Calling her by her name does denote a level of … closeness. 
Could you possibly maybe tell us all how to pronounce the places and names in the Trylle trilogy?
All the words are based on Scandinavian. So, if you go to Google translate and pick Swedish and put the words in, you can listen to them pronounced. In my mind, that’s how you say them.

it’s all for you, Michael Wincott
January 6th, 2011 by
This post currently has 14 comments

I’m still taking questions about Ascend that I will answer on Friday. But I’m answering one now – Ascend will be out on Kindle and Nook before paperback. I will publish them both at the same time, and they should go on sale about roughly the same time. (With Letters to Elise, I think Nook beat Kindle by about two hours.) 

As some of you may know (or may not), the character of Oren in the Trylle Trilogy was written specifically for Michael Wincott. I’m not saying the trilogy will ever be made into movies – because honestly, I really don’t have much control over that.

But I have been a die hard Michael Wincott fans for years. Ever since I saw Robin Hood: Prince of Theives when I was seven (and subsequently became unnaturally obsessed with Bryan Adams), I said to myself, “That Michael Wincott is for me.” And he is.

Unfortunately, the film industry does not seem to feel the same way as me, and Michael Wincott’s gravelly voice has been absent from the silver screen for far too long. So I decided to do my part, however small it might be, to bring Michael Wincott back.

Hence, the character of Oren. And you may say, “But Oren isn’t really a nice guy. If you love Michael Wincott so much, why didn’t you make a character for him the hero of the story?” Because that’s not how Michael Wincott works. He’s awesome because he does evil so well.

If you’re unfamiliar with Michael Wincott, here’s a scene of him from The Crow. (Warning: This scene does contain some adult language, including the F-bomb twice).

Teaser Tuesday – Ascend
January 4th, 2011 by
This post currently has 26 comments

Quick, before I get into the fun stuff – SouthLAnd season 3 premieres on TNT tonight. Watch it. Tell your friends to watch it.

I have been fighting for this show since it got canceled because it’s the greatest cop drama on television ever. I’ve signed petitions, emailed TV stations, attended Facebook chats, tweeted, blogged, and just generally harassed the world into keeping this show on the air. And I will continue to do that if I have to.

So go watch it, so I can talk about stuff other than saving SouthLAnd, okay? 

Teaser Tuesday is a meme I frequently mutilate for my own purposes, and today will be no different. It’s supposed to be “pick two random lines from a book you’re reading.” I was going to pick two random lines from Ascend, but the part I “randomly” picked really needs more than two lines because it’s short.

So pretty much nothing about this follows the Teaser Tuesday meme rules, but it is Tuesday, and this is a teaser, so it’s not a lie.

Without further rambling, here is the teaser for Ascend:

    “I want you to remember this,” he said, his voice low and husky. 
    “What?” I asked. 
    “You want me to kiss you.” 
    “I don’t,” I lied. 
    “You do. And I want you to remember that.”
It’s not that great. But it’s hard to pick lines. Maybe I’ll come up with better ones later and post them. I can’t really post my favorite lines from the book, though, because I feel like they give away too much. So… that’s what I’ve got.
Well, I guess, my favorite non-giveaway anything line is: “I’m not a bloody cockroach.” 
Also, I’m still taking questions about Ascend. I talked about it on my blog yesterday, and feel free to ask away.
And just as a reminder – Ascend will be out by January 15th.

EDIT: Sorry. I posted this blog a couple hours ago, and I just wanted an episode of “Hoarders” on A&E. They left many animals in the care of a woman who is clearly unwilling and/or incapable for caring for them. I don’t understand why A&E did it, but it is obvious to anyone that the animals left under Hanna’s care will continue to be abused and killed.

Does anybody know who to contact about this? All I know is that Hanna lives in Illinois. And yes, I know that lots of people watched that show and lots of people are probably writing somebody. But it was one of the most appalling things I’ve ever seen, and I want do whatever I can. 

So if anybody has any information about who to contact or something I can, please let me know.

Questions About Ascend
January 3rd, 2011 by
This post currently has 96 comments

The Trylle Trilogy continues to be compared to Twilight, which completely baffles me. Other than the fact it’s paranormal and has romance, I personally don’t see similarities.

Here a list of things that the Trylle Trilogy is more like than Twilight:
–Labyrinth
-Pretty in Pink
-The Princess Diaries
-Star Wars

This isn’t really a fun fact about Ascend, though, and I said I would start today.

Here’s what I’m thinking would be fun. And factual. If you guys have questions about Ascend or the characters, post them in the comments, and I’ll answer them on Friday. I’m not going to answer spoilers, such as “How does the trilogy end?” or “Do Wendy and Finn end up together?”

But if you have questions about the book, the trilogy, or any characters, ask away. As long as it’s not a spoiler, I’ll answer it on Friday’s blog.

And just a reminder, Ascend will be out by January 15th. So… the end.

Happy 2011!!
January 2nd, 2011 by
This post currently has 18 comments

First off, I want to thank everybody for their support and encouragement. It really, really means a lot to me. I hate commenting back to comments on blog, because it’s not like on Facebook, where I can just click and comment directly. And if there’s five people I want to say something to, it seems confusing to me, so I’m just writing a big thank you here, and promising to figure out how to respond to comments in more a timely fashion.

It’s been 2011 for a little over a day, and I’ve already made a few decisions.

But before I get to them, I just want to say: Ascend will be out before January 15th. I don’t know what date exactly, but I will be sure to let you all know the second it goes up for sale. It will be up for the Kindle and the Nook about the same time, and follow very shortly in paperback.

Throughout the next two weeks (starting on Monday), I’ll be posting teasers and fun facts and stuff like that for Ascend.

Now onto my other decisions.

First – my New Year’s resolution is to answer email in a more timely fashion. If you’ve emailed me and I haven’t replied, it’s not because I don’t care or haven’t read it. It’s because I take forever to reply to an email. I feel like that I should be eloquent and witty, and all I can usually come up with is something like, “Thank you.” And that feels too insincere.

I get really hung up on how sincere I sound apparently. I think it’s because when I’m nervous and I talk, I sound really rude. My friends make fun of me for it. And now I have complex any time I do anything when I’m nervous, and I’m afraid I sound disingenuous when I really am being genuine.

Anyway – the next decision concerns my blog. I’m still going to talk about whatever I want. (Today’s blog was almost about how Kickass reminded me a lot of Observe and Report, and then also go on a rant again about how Death to Smoochy  and Mystery Men are really underrated films).

But I did need to decide what kind of blog I wanted to have. More personal, or more business? Because on a business blog, it makes sense for me to talk about sales, the process of writing, and all sorts of writerly business. It would be meant to inform other writers and people interested in that kind of thing.

But if I’m writing a personal blog, it makes more sense for me to ramble about Michael Wincott and talk about what I’m working on and stuff to readers about my books. It would be more aimed at being mildly entertaining and informative to readers.

But I can’t have both. (This it the third paragraph in a row I’ve started with the word “but.” I’m a really good writer). People coming here to read about stats and figures will be bored when I discuss why everyone should be listening to Chris Garneau or how I’m still sore that Jo dumped Laurie in Little Women. And readers coming to find out more about stuff about the Trylle Trilogy will be irritated when they see me posting sales.

So here’s what I decided – this blog is personal. On almost any given day, I would much rather talk about pop culture or my books than about money or figures. So I’m not going to be posting that kind of stuff here anymore.

However, if you are a writer and want to ask questions, feel free. Although, I should warn you, my advice probably isn’t that great. And if you have a blog and you’d like to invite me to talk about facts and figures and things like to inform other indie writers and people in the biz, then I’d be happy to do that.

I’m not going to be secret about what’s happening in  my life. I have no reason to be. But I don’t need to talk about it all the time either. So that’s my feelings on all of that.

On a final note, Oprah now has a channel called “OWN” and I doubt that my gay roommate will ever let the channel change to anything else ever again. But Oprah just said somehing, and I’ve decided to end on that, because she makes it sound deep and meaningful.

“Welcome to 2011. Let’s make it our own.”

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