meomeoim

Letters to Elise is a novella. For those of you, like my roommate, that don't know what a novella is - it's a fictional prose between 17,500 and 40,000 words. While Letters to Elise is still going through edits, it stands at roughly 22,000 words. In comparison, all my other novels range between 70,000 and 100,000 words. Because of the way L to E is written - mostly in the form of letters and a few journal entries - I didn't think it would work as a full length novel. It has a story, but it's not standard narrative. I was very limited in what I could tell, what could Peter could know and do. I tried out a couple different ways of writing it, including juxtaposing Peter's letters with a third person narrative about him. But in the end, I decided the letters alone were the best way to work it. The main purpose of this is to give more insight into Peter, and to give Peter fans a chance to spend a bit more time with him. It also helps tie in some ideas that will come i...

I'm watching Sneakers right now. If you haven't seen it, I don't recommend it. Real Genius and Hackers are of the some vein, and they're both very enjoyable. Also, Val Kilmer and Jonny Lee Miller are fun to look at - respectively. But Sneakers has one thing the other movies don't have, the reason I have watched it 30 times - River Phoenix. I actually just ordered a River Phoenix poster. Because he's just too much fun to look at. And that's why you shouldn't do drugs, kids. Because you'll end up dead outside of a night club when you're only twenty-three, and I'll be pissed off about it for the next seventeen years. And then some, because I'll probably still be pissed off about it next year, and the year after. Also, I finished a boxset tonight. It looks pretty good. I think. I'd take pictures of it, if I knew where my camera is. But I don't. Watching Sneakers makes me wish we were fight with the Soviets again. Remember Red Dawn...

I've recently become aware that facebook tracks all of my browsing activities, even when I'm not on the facebook site. It turns out that every web page that contains a facebook 'like' button is also capable of tracking your visit to the page if you're logged into facebook, even if you haven't explicitly clicked that button. Blocking Facebook I'm not a big fan of giving away information, particularly to large corporations that have loose privacy policies, so I do what I can to prevent this kind of tracking. Step one in this case is always logging out of facebook when I'm done with a session (I've largely stopped posting to facebook anyways), but I've also gone the extra step and added it to my firefox ad blocking plugin. The ad blocker works by filtering out a list predefined URLs in an HTML document that refer to ads, the net result is an ad-free web browsing experience. Adding *facebook* to the list of URLs enables me to ultimately block any c...

I got a good chunk of my Christmas shopping today. On the internet. I'm not gave enough to fight the crowds at actual shopping centers. I wanted to do all my Christmas shopping from the comfort of my home, but some things just aren't available on the internet. Anyway - I've begun working on the boxsets. I looked at several different options for boxes, and I tried to come up with what I thought would be the best bets and most affordable options. So here's the ideas I have so far: 10 "Boxsets" of the first 4 books in the My Blood Approves series, but they won't really be boxsets. They'll be tied together with a ribbon, and they'll come with mini bookmarks and be autographed. They'll be priced at $30 (plus shipping). For 5 Special Edition Box Sets with handmade boxes, bookmarks, stickers, and autographs on all 4 books. I'll even do a personal message, if you want. These box sets will be priced at $50 (plus shipping). I wanted to do them for l...

If you could say that an entire novella could be based on a single scene that lasts less than a minute in a single movie, then that scene would be the one that follows, and that book would be Letters to Elise . That film is Candy starring the late great Heath Ledger. The poem is "i carry your heart" by e e cummings (read his poems, if you haven't). Here's the poem in it's entirety (capitalization and format is his):   i carry your heart with me(i carry it in my heart)i am never without it(anywhere i go you go,my dear; and whatever is done by only me is your doing,my darling) i fear no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true) and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant and whatever a sun will always sing is you her...

I am in love with Dexter Morgan. He's basically Batman, but better because Dexter kills people, which seems like the smart thing since Arkham Asylum has a revolving door. Isn't that what everyone is looking for? A sociopath with a heart of a gold? Or maybe it's just me? Anyway - I'm watching The Big Chill and it's distracting me from whatever important meaningful thing I was going to say about Dexter, so just pretend I did say something while I feel nostaligic for an era that was an embryo through. And as for the box set thing - I'd still enjoy it if you contributed your thoughts. So contribute them. I love Kevin Kline. And Jeff Goldbloom. And Dexter Morgan. Oh! You know what would be awesome? A movie like The Big Chill , but set now. Is that what Grownups was supposed to be? Because that doesn't seem nearly as awesome as The Big Chill . Or Gross Pointe Blank . Or... I don't know. I'm rambling. The point is - I like TV.

I've had a couple people ask about boxsets for the My Blood Approves series, and with the holidays approaching, I was wondering if there would really be an interest in such a thing. I'd have to get them set up myself, so they'd be limited in number. This is all very preliminary, mind you, but I'm feeling out to see if it would be worth the time and effort. I'm not sure exactly how much such a thing would cost. I think it would probably have to be $25 -30 for four paperbacks, plus shipping and handling. And I would probably add a few things, like bookmarks. I'm not sure what I would do for a box yet, but I'm sure I would think of something fun. Like maybe a collage. So each box would be one of a kind. That'd be fun, right? Maybe. But then I'd definitely have to limit the numbers. So I don't know. Also, I don't know if any of you would care. So I'm not sure if I will do anything. It all depends on your level of interest. If I think people ...

Yesterday, I just checked some numbers. I just released a book, and for the first few days after it comes out, I track to see how well it was doing. While I was at it, I added up all the copies I had sold. Just through Kindle, without including my paperback or B&N or any other sales, I've sold over 30,000 books. In 214 days. I literally have no idea what to make of this number. Most of the time when things happen, I've stopped reacting. I don't think I can really fathom what's happening anymore. I keep expecting to wake up and have this all be fake. When you envision something your whole life, and then it actually starts to happen, it's somewhat confusing. When dreams become a reality, it's hard decipher what's real. I think what it makes the most confusing is that I still don't feel like an author. I've started referring to myself as one, but every time I say it, it feels like when I refer to myself as graceful right after I've tripped or sm...

I'm taking a break from plugging my wares to talk about something actually matters. I just read this article (click: here ) about two cougars that were rescued as part of the Big Cat Rescue. It's asking for donations, which I encourage you to do, but that's not the moral. Exotic animals are not pets. Lions, tigers, bears, monkeys, crocodiles... these are not pets. These are wild animals that do not live well in cages with people. The article I posted explains how that a lion that lived with the cougars ended up biting his owner in the leg, causing him to bleed out and die, and then the lion himself was killed. That's how these stories always end. It ends very badly for these animals. Look at Travis the monkey, who was raised as a child and went on to rip off that poor woman's face in Connecticut before the police killed him. I've always wanted a big cat. I thought it would be fabulous to own a tiger, until I really started researching it and realized what it m...

As a developer I've run into this scenario many times - my code won't compile because of a missing reference to some third party class in some JAR file that I can't possibly find. On many occasions I've used findjar . Just pop in the class name that the compiler is complaining about and this handy site will not only tell you which JAR it lives in, but will also provide a link to the location it can be downloaded. But today I ran into a more difficult case. Findjar doesn't work well with proprietary JARs like those found in IBM's Websphere Portal Server. I remember a long time ago reading about a utility that could find a JAR file by loading up a given classpath and quickly finding a class on that path. A quick google search yielded something even better, Jarscan . Jarscan is a utility that will scour a given path on your filesystem, collecting all the JARs it finds and then tells you where your elusive class lives.

A note from Arizona Darley Once upon a time–well, a year ago now!–I suddenly woke up as Arizona Darley, a blonde California cheerleader, which, of course, I’m not. I am actually Arizona Stevens, a varsity ice hockey player from New Jersey. It was confusing to the say the least–I mean really? A blonde Barbie doll... sheesh, not! It turns out that my mom’s time travel  portal was somehow responsible. Anyhow... it’s now a year later and the portal is now active again, which means that I can go home to my real dad.... -Arizona Book Description A whole year has passed. It’s October again… or is it? As California teen, Arizona Darley, contemplates traveling back through the portal to seek out her dad, her life is plunged into a whirlwind ride through the unknown. But this time, she doesn't disappear through the portal. Has Arizona been kidnapped–again? Is Raj Sen to blame? Could Dillard have taken her? As Kellan, David and her parents launch a frantic search with the help of the Wanderer...

I recently encountered a case where I needed to display some repeating xml data that was embedded in a larger xml structure, something that the data page builder doesn't do well. So I decided to take a look at the repeated region builder, and found out that as with many builders, the correct inputs aren't so easy to figure out. The data in a variable builder ( varData ) : <dsixe> <contact> <name></name> <phone></phone> </contact> <order> <item> <id>1234</id> <descr>Item one</descr> <upc>DC88776</upc> </item> <item> <id>3456</id> <descr>Item two</descr> <upc>DC88773</upc> </item> <item> <id>3458</id> <descr>Item three</descr> <upc>DC88774</upc> </item> ...

The heart of any SOA strategy involves web services and the document that makes it happen is a WSDL. Websphere Portlet Factory is an excellent tool for putting together a SOA presentation layer since it easily accepts a WSDL and quickly exposes its operations in a developer friendly IDE (Eclipse/RAD). In previous WPF projects I'd start by building out schema that represent the data needed for display in the tool, but when working with web services the schema is defined in the WSDL document. Since I dislike working with schema, I typically create a sample XML and then use a tool to generate a schema from it. But what about the schema that are in the WSDL? What if I'm also developing the web services that will be ultimately consumed by WPF? I sure don't want to create a schema when something else can do the dirty work. Enter web services metadata annotations (JSR 181). Using annotations and a compatible runtime container like Apache's Axis2, I can throw together a web ser...

EDIT: Torn is now available at Barnes & Noble now, also for $2.99. Torn is now available at Amazon for the Kindle for $2.99 and in paperback at Createspace for $8.99 . Barnes & Noble hasn't gone through yet, but I'll let you know as soon as it is. To get Torn at Amazon , click: here . To get Torn at Barnes & Noble , click: here . To get Torn in paperback, click: here . A reminder: Switched is still 30% off through Createspace if you enter the code PUFRUS43. To buy Switched in paperback, click: here .   Also, I think I'm going to keep Switched on sale for $.99 for a few more days, but it will be going back to it's regular price by the end of the week.  And, in case you didn't know, new books are really lonely without any reviews. So if you enjoyed Torn (or even if you didn't) please leave a review, so other people know that Torn isn't alone. Also, because I've gotten trailer happy, I made a trailer for Torn . (I'm currently working...

So, today, I've made a couple book trailers. I'm not sure how good they are, since I've never made a book trailer before, but I enjoy them. And that's part of what counts. Here's the first trailer for Switched : Here's the second trailer, for Honalee : So.... what do you think?

The giveaway to win paperbacks of Switched, Torn, and My Blood Approves ends TOMORROW, so enter while you can: enter here . Switched will be on sale for $.99 for a few more days, at both Amazon and Barnes & Noble . For a limited time, get 30% of Switched when you enter the code PUFRUS43at Createspace . Naming characters is important and hard. With the Trylle Trilogy, I took special care in naming the characters in certain ways. A lot of the names and words in the trilogy are Scandinavian influenced. Because of the basis of the story is based on Scandinavian folklore, I thought that made sense. I can't find the exact article I read, but it was about "vitterfolk" and talked of trolls as being beautiful and ill-tempered and cunning. The article then went on to talk about changelings, and that's the start of the trilogy.  "Wendy" is named after Peter Pan , the way she is in the book. (As is Peter in My Blood Approves . Also, Wendy's n...

Reminders at the top: The giveaway to win paperbacks of Switched, Torn, and My Blood Approves ends in a few days, so enter while you can: enter here . Also, Switched will be on sale for $.99 for a few more days, at both Amazon and Barnes & Noble . On the subject of Barnes & Noble , I have a favor to ask you. I have been slow at B&N , and I suspect it's partially because of lack of reviews. So I'm asking if any of you want to, and have a spare a minute or two, would you please leave reviews for any of my books at Barnes & Noble ? If you left a review at Amazon or Goodreads, just copy and pasting would be great. I feel sorta slimy for asking (I don't know why exactly) but I'm only asking for honest reviews. And only if it's not too much trouble. I guess probably the reason I feel so bad because you readers have already been so good to me that I feel bad for asking for anything more. But I had to ask. And you can say no. Alright - enough of that. I'...

I don't think I would fare well in a zombie apocalypse. Although I am constantly thinking about how I should get guns and provisions (ala Michael Gross and Reba McEntire in Tremors ), I don't think it would matter. I've been suffering from a stomach virus (henceforth to be known as "the plague") for the last few days, and I can barely get anything done. An form of actual antagonist would certainly do away with me without much effort on their part. Anyway - I'm not blogging to talk about my imminent demise. Here are few early reviews of Torn: "In Torn , Wendy is once again being pursued by the Vittra – a rival Kingdom. The story reveals why she is so sought after, what her true capabilities are, and the choice she is forced to make – between love and her duties as Princess to the Trylle. With a new love interest, a better understanding of her position in Trylle society, and a firmer grasp on her powers of persuasion, seventeen-year-old Wendy Everly h...

Keeping The Faith When Amanda approached me about guest blogging, I was mired in the depths of a deep, black pool of suck.  My words sucked.  My story sucked.  My job sucked.   My life sucked.  This is, of course, an exaggeration, but it felt really true at the time.  And you know, sometimes, when life has you down, you come across the right message at the right time.  In the midst of all the suck, I stumbled across a guest post at Adventures in Children’s Publishing written by Myra McEntire called Why You Gotta Believe .  I read it.  I cried.  Then I read it again.  Then I pulled myself, hand over hand, out of the mire of the suck because she reminded me of why it’s so, so important to keep the faith. Writing is a tough business.  We all start out as starry-eyed dreamers with stories in our hearts that we simply have to share.   We scribble in secret, staying up nights, losing sleep, slaving over our opus. ...

First off - don't forget to enter the big giveaway I have going on now. Enter: here . Second - if you're interested in beta or ARCs for Torn , read: this . Third - Switched is currently on sale for $.99 at both Amazon and Barnes & Noble for the next week. Also, the paperback is discounted 30% at Createspace if you use this code:  PUFRUS43 Fourth - I have a new tab of Witches of Honalee at the top. You might ask yourself, what is this? It's for my new series, and the first book Honalee comes out next month. Also, the cover is super sexy (from Phat Puppy Art .) So check that out. Fifth - I love my readers. I really, really, really, really love you guys. You make everything possible. You're all awesome. I think I'm going to run some Reader's Appreciation thing early 2011. I don't know what yet. But rest assured, I'll try to make it as awesome as you guys are. Sorry the blog is brief. I haven't slept yet, and my sleepiness ...

With Torn 's release imminent, I'm looking for people interested in advanced copies. Readers open to checking for mistakes, both grammatical and plot-wise, are encouraged to do so, but it's not necessary. Are you interested in getting an ARC? Answer me these questions three- Have you read and enjoyed Switched ? Do you read ecopies of books (either PDF, .doc, or some other electronic way)? Do you have a review blog? If you answered yes to those three questions, then I'd probably like to send you an ARC. If you're interested in a paperback ARC of Torn , I will be getting some out, but not for a few weeks. So, if you're interested, let me know. Either leave you're my email or email me at: hocking_amanda@hotmail.com. If you haven't read Switched , but you answered yes to the other two questions, let me know, and I'd probably enjoy if you reviewed an ARC of Switched. I say "let me know" a lot. I hope you like me anyway. Thanks in advance!

My friend had a baby in June, and she asked me to the godparent. I accepted, because I like her, and because there a lot of grandparents actively involved in said baby's life, so the odds of me having to raise the child ala Kate Hudson in Rasing Helen , or Ted Danson, Steve Guttenberg, and Tom Sellick in Three Men and a Baby , seemed unlikely. Anyway, this will be Kaycee's first Christmas. (Kaycee is the baby). I've been trying to think of what to get her, and Kaycee's mom has frequently said that she didn't watch the normal kids movies when she was little. She hasn't seen most Disney movies, for example. And only vaguely knows what a Muppet is. And Kaycee really enjoys watching TV. She cries when the credits come up at the end of her Baby Einstein video. So I decided to compile a list of my favorite movies from when I was a kid and get her them. Because of Disney's stupid vault where the only release certain movies at certain times, I won't be able to g...

Don't forget to check out the big giveaway for paperbacks of Switched and Torn . - enter here . Also, Stacey Wallace Benefiel's giveaway is only going on until Friday, and she has a lot of great prizes there, so be sure to enter her giveaway! Yesterday, I posted the new covers for the Trylle Trilogy. Thanks to your feedback, I made some changes to the font color to make it pop more. Hopefully it worked. I also put an excerpt for Torn . You can read it: here . I decided to go with the second chapter because the first chapter kinda works as a bridge between the two books. I think the first chapter is necessary to the overall story, but there's more action in the second one. So there you have it. Also, I posted a teaser two months ago from Torn . You can read that: here . I think I've changed some things grammatically from the teaser in the past two months, but it's otherwise intact. What you don't know is that I had a character named "Ian" in Torn . In ...

I'm having a big giveaway for the upcoming release of Torn . Be sure to check to check out the giveaway: here . So as you may or may not know, I've had issues with my cover art for the Trylle Trilogy. For the first cover, I used my friend Jenna Petersen, who is a part time model and ultra hottie. That's the original cover for Switched . I like her. She's pretty. But the cover didn't feel magical enough. I went on to talk to different cover artists. The first one did really amazing fantasy work, and while I totally loved her stuff, it didn't feel right for my books.  The second cover artist I actually hired and paid for. His name is Ronnell Porter , and he does really fantastic covers. I actually don't have complaints about his work. He had a girl on the cover, and it ended up opening debates about Wendy looked like it. So I finally decided to just make my own covers without a person on them. I purposely kept them similar to the My Blood Approves series, bec...