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Today I'm going to do something I've debated on doing before: I'm going to talk about what's going on with my books from a writer standpoint. I know that I talk about them a lot, but I always talk about it to inform readers. The reason I debated is because I know people like J. A. Konrath talk about their work in a frank, transparent way, which is wonderful for other writers to read, but I think that he sometimes turns readers off with his business talk. So I'm just going to say up front: I truly appreciate every reader who has bought me book, even the ones who hated it and gave it one star. I write because I love it, not because I see readers as dollar signs. I am very, very passionate about my work, and I take it very seriously that people are inviting me to entertain them every time they buy a book. But two things have happened lately that makes me want to talk about the busissnes aspect of all this: 1. More people are asking me for advice and wanting to know wha...

Today I'm chocked full of good news. It's currently 30 degrees cooler in my office than it was the same time last week. Thank you, Autumn! I can't work in heat. I can only sweat. Now my juices are flowing, work is getting done, life is good. Also in good news: I wrote 10,000 words today. The most I've written in single day was 15,000. I hope to someday beat the record, but really that is a pretty good record, so if I never beat that, that's okay. I watched Purple Rain this past weekend. I watched a lot when I was a kid, but it's been a good ten years since I've seen it. I didn't remember Prince being such a douche. He beats up his girlfriend, twice. He's mean to everybody. Sure, he looks pretty, has great clothes, and the music is phenomenal, but he's most anti-hero I've ever seen. Ever. Anyway, if you've read My Blood Approves , and you're not from the Minnesota area, I highly recommend watching Purple Rain . The whole thing is film...

It's the end of Day 2 and Wisdom is ranked at #52 in the whole Kindle store. My life currently feels like a dream I'm going to wake up from. I have this semi-reoccurring dream about this guy (who shall remain nameless). In this dream, said guy is finally into me, after all my hours of pining after him. And I'm like, "Yes! This is finally happening!" But then something weird happens, like he suddenly grows a third eye, and I go, "Oh, shoot. This is a stupid dream." I try to make the best of it then, but I can't really get into it. Once I know it's a dream, it loses it's appeal. But sometimes, worse times, I don't realize it's a dream. I wake up, and for a brief moment, I think that's all true. Then I realize it's not, and it's actually kinda heartbreaking. At any rate - I'm sorta afraid that's what's happening here. Any minute I'll wake up, and go, "Oh... drat. Foiled again." Until then, I'm go...

Wisdom came out today, and thanks to all your support, it marked the first time one of my books has made it into the top 100 best sellers on Kindle. (It's also #16 in Hot New Release and #3 in Movers and Shakers at the time of this posting.) It topped out at #25, but it's started slipping down to #27. But that's okay. Hell, that's more than okay. That's frickin amazing. It's the kind of thing I've always hoped for, and so far, the response to Wisdom has been overwhelmingly wonderful. So, thanks guys! Eddie Izzard went on a rant once where we use the word "awesome" too much, and he's right. It's hard to describe today except to say: it has been awesome like a hundred billion hotdogs. (Watch the video to understand.) If you haven't had a chance to check out Wisdom , it is for sale on Kindle : here , and at Smashwords : here , and in paperback : here . Also, I do have a contest going now (which no one has entered yet). Check out giveaways ...

Wisdom is now for sale on Amazon! This is what I look like right now: Amazon never told me what the hold up is, but the book's out now, and that's all that matters. I sincerely apologize for the delay, and thank you guys for understanding. I'm currently uploading Wisdom to Smashwords, and I'll let you know when it's up. Also Alex at Teenage Book Lover did a great review of My Blood Approves. Check it out: here . That's all for now. Wisdom is up, and I'm excited. :)

Wisdom is not out yet. A reader emailed them, and Amazon told them that there's a problem with the content, and they're doing testing to correct it.  I don't know what that means, so I emailed Amazon, asking them what that meant and if there's anything I can do to speed up the process. I have not heard back from them yet. I haven't uploaded the book to Smashwords yet. I wanted to wait until after the book was up on Amazon, because I prefer when things are sold on Amazon, because I wanted to see if Wisdom could break into top 100 books on Kindle. However, I'm not going to make people wait around forever since I said it would be out. But I am going to try to wait until Amazon emails me back before publishing at Smashwords. With that in mind, I'll keep you apprised of the situation, but Wisdom will be made available by Tuesday at the very, very latest. It may only be available at Smashwords, but it will be for sale somewhere. I promise. (Unless Smashwords doesn...

News that's almost good: Wisdom live on Amazon! But you can't buy it yet. Why you ask?  I don't know.  Both Flutter and Switched went up for sale within 24 hours of posting them. They were early. But  I didn't care that much, and niether did anybody else. But this time, I really, really wanted it to be up now. By like eight this morning, actually. So it won't be. It's not doing it because I want it. I've learned a valuable lesson today, though. Next time when I realease a book, I'm putting up a week or two before I actually want it up.  I have to go make supper now, so I won't be watching Amazon to find out what's happening. But I'll be back at 7 (central) for the twitter chat. Hopefully, by then, it'll be live. Here's the link for Wisdom, if you want to check out: Wisdom on Amazon . Also, if you want to engage in the chat, you can check that out here: http://tweetchat.com/room/MyBloodApproves 

In exciting news: At approximately 5 p.m., I published Wisdom to Amazon. Amazon tells me it will be 24-48 hours for it to be available (it may take longer for international sites). So far, it's not up, but I'll tell you as soon as I find out. Also the giveaway is now closed. The winner has been notified and has 72 hours to respond. Once they respond, I'll let the 3 runner-ups know that they've one PDF's.  And double also -me and Alex (of Tales of a Teenage Book Love r fame) are having a Twitter party to celebrate the launch of Wisdom tomorrow at from 8-10 pm EST (or 7-9 pm Central - which is me time). I'm @amanda_hocking on Twitter, so be sure to check it out. It'll be a hoot and a holler! Here's a link if you'd like check it out: http://tweetchat.com/room/MyBloodApproves

Lots of stuff I'm gonna try to say in this blog, so stick around if you like answers to questions you might have. First: I've uploaded the first three books in the My Blood Approves series and Switched up to Smashwords . So people who have a Nook or other ereaders can read all the books in the series. I'll get Wisdom up on Sunday on Smashwords too. If you're interested in Smashwords , check it out: here . I've also revamped the covers, for no apparent reason, and the new covers are up on Amazon now. Well, they should be. Soon. Also - the giveaway ends at Midnight tonight, so that's 22 hours left. If you haven't entered, it's pretty much your last chance to win all 4 books in the My Blood Approves series in paperback. It's a good deal. So enter ! Okay - now onto the important business. I've been getting lots of questions about when Wisdom will be out and why it's not available for pre-order and if it will be out in Kindle the same day as ...

Okay, I'm taking a break from plugging my book ( Wisdom - out Sunday) and reminding you to enter the giveaway (it's four books - enter here ) to talk about something even more important. Mark Hoppus. You may know him as the bass player from blink 182, but probably, you don't know him at all. At any rate - he's my all time favorite person that I've never actually met. Mark Hoppus has a show premiering on Fuse September 16. It's absolutely vital that everyone watches it. It cannot get canceled. I still wake up pissed off that Law & Order got canceled, and I like Mark Hoppus way more than I like Law & Order . (But my god - the show was on 20 years and they couldn't even give it a proper goodbye? Oooo I hate you, NBC.) But back on track. Here's another fun story. Last year, I got a haircut, and it looked kinda nice. But when I woke up one morning, with my hair sticking up, I realized I had the exact same haircut as Mark Hoppus. For your viewing plea...

On Tuesday, it was my mom's birthday, and my cat's. So happy birthday to them! This is my cat Shinobi after I shaved his head so he head a mohawk. He's 7 now! The countdown says that it's only three days until Wisdom comes out. The good news is: it's completely ready to go. I just finished some last minute touch ups (everything I do is always last minute), and it's all ready set. I also played around, and I revamped the cover for My Blood Approves . It's not that different, really. But I liked it better, and that's what counts. Old Cover New cover Also, for no real reason, I made a store of My Blood Approves paraphernali a. Right now, it's just a super awesome t-shirt and some magnets. And a really, really cool pair of shoes. Really. You can check out my "store": here . (At the time of this pointing, the shoes aren't showing up yet. But they're awesome.) Which leads me to a follow-up question: What kind of stuff would you like? I...

I'm going through a thing... we'll call it "insanity." It takes me 7 days to adjust to any major changes in my life - good or bad. I'm on day 2, and I'm still deep in the crazies. I'm now a full-time author. No day job. Just writing. This is awesome, terrifying, humbling, and completely surreal. It's both unexpected and expected. This is a quote from my Myspace page (which I wouldn't recommend visiting, cause it's old and dead) from April 27, 2009: The other day, I was in the car, and it was beautiful and I was listening to something on the radio, and I thought, “Wait. This is what life is going to be like.” And I was very excited. Because my life won’t always be winter. Someday, it will be different than this. And it will be very exciting. You’ll see. And today, it was gorgeous out, and I was driving home from my friend Kalli's house listening to Motion City Soundtrack, and I thought, rather startling, "This is my life. This is what ...

I just saw Scott Pilgrim vs The Universe , and it blew my mind even more than I thought it would, and I've been waiting in anticipation for this film for like 2 years. Which in my time is a very, very, very long time. It might as well be forever. What you may not know about me is that I am a massive fan of the Culkin family. Inappropriately obsessed, perhaps. But Kieran is my favorite. Why, you ask? Because he is awesome. The most awesome.  Exhibit A: Igby Goes Down . The best movie ever that's "not" based on Catcher in the Rye . Exhibit B: Lymelife . Two Culkins in that one. And that movie isn't that great. But the part where Kieran fights with Alec Baldwin feels is pretty awesome, in a dysfunctional way. Exhibit C: Scott Pilgrim . Nobody delivered as many awesome one-liners as Keiran Culkin, and the family had a lot of awesome one-liners. Not mention about ten million of my favorite actors. And also Michael Cera. (Side note: Michael Cera is turning into a cotton...

I read that stupid book Charlotte's Web for the first time when I was eight, and I had both pigs and spiders on the farm. I always wanted to save every pigs' life, and I felt it was my duty to pay it to Charlotte for saving Wilbur. So, thanks to Charlotte and her stupid web, I always think, "I will save you and not kill you, you hideously monstrous 8-legged freak. I especially won't destroy your disgusting alien pod of eggs, because that was all Charlotte had left to carry on her legacy." This made the incident tonight involving a faulty cable modem very, very disturbing. Today, my internet went out, and Charter Digital Cable's solution for fixing first involves unplugging the modem. Since the problem wasn't solved easily tonight, it involved me unplugging the modem several times, and yelling into the phone to the automated speaker who could not hear me shouting the word "Continue!" frantically. Because this is what is sitting in front of and al...

Soo... Mary at Sparkling Review asked if she get an early copy of Wisdom to review for her blog. Today she posted her review, and she gave it 20/10, so I'd say she liked it. You can check out the full review over at her site: here . It's only a week and a half until the release, and I'm getting pretty excited myself. I'm also tremendously nervous. I can't wait to hear what everyone thinks of it, while simultaneously being a little afraid of what everyone thinks of it. Putting out a new book in a series is a bit different than putting out just a regular new book. People have enjoyed the first three books in the series, at least enough to read the fourth one, and I don't want to let them down with Wisdom . So far, the responses have been pretty good. Here's hoping you guys dig it.

Teaser Tuesday is a meme hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading , but I'm doing things a little differently. Teasers are usually taken from the book you're reading, but I'm taking them from my upcoming book, Wisdom. Here's how it works: -Grab your current read -Open to a random page -Share two or three "teaser" sentences from somewhere on that page Something in his smile looked sad. "For once, I want to love you the way you were meant to be loved. Without all the... vampire stuff." On a related note, I created a Wordle with the most commonly used from Wisdom , and this is what it looks like: And if you haven't entered the giveaway yet, enter: here .

I'm starting off with a reminder to enter the give away for all FOUR paperbacks in the My Blood Approves series. If you haven't yet, enter: here . Now I'm moving onto important matters. Who would I cast in a movie adaptation of My Blood Approves series? Most of these people aren't the people I necessarily envisioned why writing this, but they are the actors I think embody the characters quite well. Natalie Dreyfuss as Alice Bonham Natalie used to be on the Lifetime series Rita Rocks , and it was still one when I started writing the first book. She was actually who I always envisioned as Alice.  Ezra Miller as Milo Bonham   The eye color is wrong, but Ezra Miller works for me. Plus, I think he could handle the transformation from geek to chic pretty well.    Emma Watson as Jane Kress  I'll be honest with you and say I never would've picked Emma Watson for this. Her real life personality seems completely contrary to Jane's. But when I saw her pic the other ...

First, if you haven't entered the giveaway to win all four of the My Blood Approves . books, you should. Enter: here Now onto everything else I've been forgetting to mention. I did an interview over at Two Ends of the Pe n , which is a fantastic site with lots of cool author interviews. I talk about publishing and Switched , the first book in my new paranormal romance trilogy. You can read it: here . Indie urban fantasy author H. P. Mallory has started this fantabulous site - http://www.indieurbanfantasy.com/ - and she's collaborating with a bunch of different authors to work on it ( myself included .) It's still in its infancy stage, but the idea is to make it easier for readers to find cheap, good indie urban fantasy and paranormal romance. So, if you're into that sorta thing, you should check it out .  Also - you guys, Switched needs some lovin'. I'll be straight with you here, cause I'm a pretty honest person: Switched is a better book than My Bloo...

With the Wisdom release approaching wicked fast, I realized I've got to get my giveaway underway! So what will you be winning?  All four books in the My Blood Approves series. Not only are all four books newly edited, newly revised, and all around newly awesome, but Wisdom  includes an exclusive first look at Letters to Elise: A Peter Townsend Novella due out December 2010.  How do you enter, you may ask? Well, I'm glad you did. Here are the rules: 1. The giveaway runs from Saturday, August 7th until Friday, August 2oth at Midnight, with the winner announced on Saturday, August 21st.  2. To enter: Simply comment on this blog, saying that you want to be entered in the give away and provide a way for me to contact you. (Email usually works). 3. Only one entry per person, BUT you can earn FIVE bonus entry if you tweet or Facebook the contest (and provide proof with a link.)  4. Winners will be chosen by random.org.   5. The winner will be contac...

Teaser Tuesday is a meme hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading , but I'm doing things a little differently. Teasers are usually taken from the book you're reading, but I'm taking them from the book I'm working on - i. e., Wisdom .  Here is how it works: - Grab your current read - Open to a random page - Share two or three “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page So with that in mind, here are two teasers from Wisdom : "I knew that Peter and I couldn’t live together anymore, not if I wanted to make things work with Jack, but I didn’t like the feel of empty space. But it wasn’t just his absence that made the house seem empty."  And there you have it.   

Okay, so people don't frequently ask me any questions, except for release dates about books. But I have heard some questions about Wisdom , and I'm going to answer a few of them.  When is the book coming out? August 22nd, so only three more weeks! What can we expect in Wisdom ? More action, but I don't just mean fighting. Alice is on the move more. A lot of the story took place in the house the last few books, but I think hardly anything happens there this time.  More answers. Hopefully, a lot of the questions you've had over the last few books will be explained. Stuff that's been hinted at in the earlier books comes to fruition. More bodies. People die in this book, and some of them are characters you know.  And of course,  more Jack and Peter. ;) Will this be the last book in the series? When I conceptualized the story, I imagined it as five books, and I still think there's room for a fifth book. However, I haven't written it yet, and I plan on taking a ...