Amanda Hocking

Last Updated 7/15/2015

This film rights for the Trylle series have reverted back to me, which means that at this time, there will not be a movie or TV show about the Trylle. Things in development got very close a few times, and Terri tried to very hard to get things going, but unfortunately, the film industry can be very finicky. There was also a succession of paranormal teen films that didn’t well as movie studios had hoped, and now the tide is turning towards more contemporary YA like John Green and Gayle Foreman. (Which is still a good thing for fans of well made young adult books and movies).

What all this means is that for the foreseeable future, I do not see any of my books being adapted for film. As much as I would like to make it happen, I don’t have the connections or the capital to make the films myself, and I don’t have enough clout to get a studio to back them.

If you would like to see a film of any my books, and you’re wondering what you can do to help that happen, the only thing that you as a reader can do is buy my books and talk about my books. Tell all your friends about them. The better the books sell, the more likely the possibility of someone buying the rights for a movie in the future.

For now, I’m just going to keep writing books and focusing on moving forward. If things do change and a movie becomes a possibility again, I’ll be sure to let you all know. Thank you for all your support and interest. Without readers like you, there never would’ve been a chance of a movie in the first place.

Previous Updates Below

This is a question I get asked a lot, so I decided that it needs to get its own page.

Here’s the deal: In early 2011, Terri Tatchell (the co-writer for District 9) approached me about adapting the books for a movie, and I told her yes. As a fan of her movie, I was especially excited about her working on it.

She contacted Media Rights Capital, and they bought the rights to all three books in the trilogy. (Here is the article in the NY Times talking about the deal: here.) I’ve talked to Terri via email a few times since then (and she’s terrific and very funny). That is about all I know.

I get a lot of questions like, “When will the movie be out?” “Who will be starring in it?” “Where are auditions being held?” As well as statements such as, “This person should star in it.” “I should star in it.” “I’d make a perfect Wendy.” “I want to audition.”

So I’m going to answer all those questions right now: I don’t know, and I don’t have any control over any of it.

I’m not in charge of any of it anymore. I sold the rights to other people who are in charge of things. I’ve done all I can possibly do to help ensure a movie gets made thus far. As an author, I don’t have as much control over the film adaption as many of you may think. (As in I have no control over it at all from this point on).

And I’m not complaining about it. That was absolutely my choice. When it comes to the film version, I want to be as hands of as possible. I’ve never made a movie before, and I don’t want to get in and muck it up.

Besides, in my emails with Terri, I feel like she’s the absolute best person to adapt it, and she understands my vision for the series. She’s far more brilliant than I am, so my involvement could only hinder things. I sold my rights to MRC because I trust them and Terri, and I’m certain they’d do a better job on it than I ever could.

Hollywood is very finicky, so at any moment, the movie could go into production, or it could set dead on the shelves for another ten years. It may get made very soon, or it may never get made. That’s the nature of the business, and there’s nothing that I can really do about it, no matter how much you or I would really like to see the films be made.

So, as of this moment, I have no idea if/when a film will be out, if/when/where auditions will be held, nor do I have a say in casting. But I trust Terri and MRC, and I am cautiously optimistic about things. Whatever they come up with, whenever they come up with it, I’m sure it will be amazing.

UPDATED: 4/14/2015

A fan recently emailed Terri Tatchell asking if there was anything they could do to help get the films made, and Terri suggest that she drum up support online. So, she started a Facebook Fanpage called Trylle Trilogy Movies. The link is here, if you’d want to like the page: www.facebook.com/pages/Trylle-Trilogy-Movies/ I’m not sure if it will help make the Trylle film reality, but it certainly couldn’t hurt. 🙂

Grim – the dark, fun anthology I wrote a short story – is out today. They’re all short stories based on Grimm Fairy Tales, and the one I did is called “The Pink.” Since it’s a more obscure story, I decided do a retelling in the way that the Drew Barrymore film Ever After is a retelling of Cinderella, and less the way Clueless is a retelling of Jane Austen’s Emma. It was fun to write, and all the other stories in the anthology are dark, twisted, and entertaining, so it’s definitely worth checking out.

In case you missed the info on it, here it is:

Grim

Inspired by classic fairy tales, but with a dark and sinister twist, Grim contains short stories from some of the best voices in young adult literature today: Ellen Hopkins, Amanda Hocking, Julie Kagawa, Claudia Gray, Rachel Hawkins, Kimberly Derting, Myra McEntire, Malinda Lo, Sarah Rees-Brennan, Jackson Pearce, Christine Johnson, Jeri Smith Ready, Shaun David Hutchinson, Saundra Mitchell, Sonia Gensler, Tessa Gratton, and Jon Skrovron.

You guys won’t believe it. I’ve actually updated things on my blog. I had links about pre-ordering Elegy, and that came out like six months ago. It actually just came out in paperback on Tuesday (it was out only in hardcover and ebook before). So yeah, I needed to update stuff.

So here’s some stuff that’s new:

–FAQs are updated with new questions and expanded answers

–Watersong tabs are updated, with correct links, and Elegy has finally has the awesome trailer up (if you haven’t seen it, you really should check it out)

–Hollows Graphic Novel is updated. The entire series is out digitally now, and there’s links to get each issue. The ten-part series should be out in paperback form sometime this year, but I don’t know exactly when yet. I think soon-ish, though.

-There’s a tab for the Kanin Chronicles. I don’t have a lot of info under it yet, but there will be more info coming soon. I am super psyched for you guys to check them out.

–Upcoming Projects. It has more on the anthology I contributed a short story to, Grim, which is coming out in a couple weeks. That was a lot of a fun, and lots of amazing authors contributed great stories, so you should definitely check it out when it comes out.

-I even updated the About Me. So that’s fun.

I guess those are the big things. It doens’t sound that exciting, but it took awhile. Longer than it probably should.

I’m feeling very excited about things. Writing is going well, and I am genuinely very excited to start sharing things about the Kanin Chronicles with you.

And to end things, here’s a pic of my dog Isley from when she first met my cat Sophie (Isley is much, much bigger now):

I haven’t blogged in long awhile. In large part because I didn’t feel like I had anything interesting to say.

Well, maybe not in large part, but that’s definitely part of it.

The other part of it is…

Kiersten White (who is a fabulous YA author & all around neat person, if you’re not familiar) once said she keeps the best parts and the worst parts of her life private – the in between things is what she shares with friends and readers in the public forum.

And that made total sense to me. Everybody needs to decide for themselves how much they want to share with other people, be it in real life or online, whether ten people follow your blog or a million. And I’ve been trying to find that balance for myself.

But blogging has gotten in harder for me because I don’t really know how much of myself I want to share, how much of my life I want to talk about. As of late, I’ve mostly tried to keep it my books or general pop culture. Stuff that I think people interests people the most.

But then some things happened this summer. In July, my life became busier with good things (one of which was my new puppy Isley, who I totally intended postings pics and a blog about because she was/is so cute, it’s not even fair). Then August, life took a different turn, one that ended up being much darker, and really I didn’t want to blog about any of it.

But then to blog about other things felt disingenuous. It still does feel that way to me. Being anything other than myself – whether that’s happy or sad or excited or insane – feels fake to me. But sometimes, I think I’d rather not be seen. I’d rather keep myself to myself, and in the interim, I don’t want to post happy blogs reminding you that my books are out and you totally buy them (even though they are out, and you totally should buy them).

It’s been hard for me to be me lately, I guess. That sounds so pretentious and existential, but I don’t know how else to define it.

Being me – much like being literally any person on the entire planet – has always had its ups and downs. But now it feels like I’m not entitled to downs. So many things in my life have worked out so well and I’ve been afforded more opportunities than most people that it feels unfair and unjust for me to complain or ever feel any unhappiness about anything ever again.

This past year has been very a difficult year for me personally. I’ve struggled with my own mortality and reevaluated my life, my career, and everything about myself, trying to figure who I am and who I want to be and what I want to accomplish before I die. It forced me to face some very hard truths and make some very big changes, which even when they’re good are still terrifying. I have had some truly amazing joys this year, but also some incredible heartbreaks that I’m still dealing with. And then I’ve had bouts of anxiety and depression that happen without any just cause, as well as bouts of anxiety and depression that do have some just cause.

I’ve always tried to be candid. I may be many awful horrible things, but at least I’m honest. And I think I have been avoiding the blog because I couldn’t be candid. There are things that I don’t want to talk about it. Things that I can’t talk about it.

I know I could blog about other things -like Isley – or how many times I watched Jaws this summer (27). And I did start writing blogs like that. Many times.

But then I just went, “Why am I writing this? Who gives a shit?” and I stopped.

I also had some struggles writing this summer – I think in large part to where my head and heart have been – and I thought about talking about that, but somehow it seemed unfair. It seemed like a complaint I shouldn’t levy.

Because I feel like because people know how many books I’ve sold and how much money I’ve made that I’m just always supposed to be smiling and laughing, or people will think I’m ungrateful. And I’m not ungrateful. I’m so incredibly overwhelmed by it, it’s suffocating. I can never do enough or give back enough or do anything enough, because I don’t deserve anything that’s happened to me, and other people deserve it more than me.

I think I have survivor’s guilt, because so many people worked harder and wanted it just as much as I did, but I’m the one here with my life, and there’s no reason why I should be here and other people aren’t, but here I am. And I’m sorry that you’re not here too.

I’m sorry that everyone isn’t happy and healthy, and I’m sorry that I can’t make everyone happy and healthy. And that probably sounds like I’m being glib, but I’m genuinely distressed by the fact that people and things are hurting and I can’t fix it. It’s some kind of weird God complex, where I feel like I should be able to fix the world, when that is totally insane, and yet I end up feeling that way all the time. Like it’s my fault that bad things happen. Like everything in the whole world is my fault. That’s an extreme form of narcissism, and I know it. But I can’t change it.

Anyway. I’m just blogging to let you know that I haven’t stopped blogging because I forgot about you or because I thought I was too good for you. I just didn’t want to bore you or annoy you, and I didn’t know how to say the things I wanted to say.

Writing is going better, now, and I would very much like to talk about that when things are more concrete. And also probably when I’m feeling a bit better.

The reality is that I’m at a place know where I’ve realized that I can’t will things to just go away or to feel better, and  I can’t just pretend that problems or feelings don’t exist, and it’s now to the point where I don’t think I can’t deal with them on my own, because in reality I haven’t been dealing with a lot.

I haven’t actually being dealing with anything in a very long time. I just cocooned myself inside a world of familiarity and pop culture, and now I’ve left the cocoon because I decided that I’d rather live my life than hide from it, and it’s equal parts awesome, amazing, terrifying, and painful.

So things are good. And they’re going to be good. And I’ll try to blog more. But I’ll still only blog when I feel like I have something to say that might interest you. That’s the best I can do.

Yesterday we finally announced the new series I’ve been dying to tell everyone about. There was a nice little blurb on the NYT blog, but it didn’t actually say much about the books themselves. So I’m going to tell you about them now.

The new series is a YA paranormal romance trilogy called The Kanin Chronicles. If you read the Trylle trilogy (or if you’re Scandinavian), you may be thinking that the word “Kanin” sounds familiar. As you may recall, the Kanin are another tribe of trolls, who are mentioned in the Trylle book but not really seen. You may also recall that in Ascend, Finn’s mother and younger sister Ember were going to stay with relatives in the Kanin tribe.

So putting those pieces together, you may feel its safe to assume that the Kanin Chronicles are a spinoff series from the Trylle about Ember Holmes. And in that you’d be both correct, and not correct. Ember is a part of the Kanin Chronicles, but the focus is actually on an entirely new character, Bryn Aven. Other prominent characters from the Trylle series do make appearances in the Kanin  series, but I want the primary focus to be on new characters with new story lines.

I’m not exactly sure when the first book of the Kanin Chronicles will be out, but I’d guess somewhere in mid-to-late 2014. And I think the books will be published in a relatively quick succession (similar to how St. Martin’s published both the Trylle and Watersong series).

Other fun facts about the Kanin Chronicles: It’s set four years after the events in Ascend (the final book in the Trylle series). There is plenty of romance. You do not need to have read the Trylle series to understand the Kanin series, although there will be some references and allusions to things that happened in the Trylle books.

That’s about all I can say for now. There will obviously be more of a description and more info about the books in the future.