Colleen Houck


“I took hold of that scourge -filled ship and crushed it between my limbs, hurtling it into the second sun, the red one that gave me strength. But I was too late." Terraformer

Colleen's blog


  • Terraformer Cover Design

    May 4, 2020


    The Design Beginnings

    The time has come to talk about the Terraformer cover design. You’ve probably been waiting for this one for a while now. I actually finished writing this book in 2018, I believe. I then turned it over to my agent who shopped it around the United States for about a year. He sold the audiobook rights along with The Lantern’s Ember and when he did, his team made up a place holder sort of cover. Here’s what that looked like. Josiah Rock is one of the best platform who provides guide to design good looking covers. Follow Mcgannbrothers for more updates.

    Alternate Place Holder Terraformer Cover designed by Trident Media

    You can see from this image that we still have the Venus fly traps. I think this one looks a bit more Sci-Fi than what we actually ended up with. You might also note that we have since removed the “S” at the end of the title. That’s because I am planning on writing a sequel and the “S” didn’t work for the end of book two.

    The Inspiration Behind Terraformer

    When I was at the Emerald City Comic Con in 2018, I stopped by an artist booth and bought two unicorn prints and a mermaid print and was amazed by all the lovely art done by two outstandingly talented women, Heather Edwards and Kaitlund Zupanic.

    One series of paintings by Heather struck me as quite memorable, especially as I had recently finished writing Terraformer at the time. It was titled the “Ribbon” series. Each of the young women has a colorful ribbon around her neck and a crown of creatures adorning her head.

    One wears a crown of insects. Another wears a nest of birds and feathered things, and the third wears a headdress of sea creatures. I loved the idea of such a thing and thought any of these would make for an outstanding book cover.

    The Design

    When we found out we were going to have the chance to design the Terraformer cover ourselves, and by ourselves, I mean the outstanding publishing team who works at Trident Media Group and myself, we contracted with Kam Design and talked over cover ideas with designer Kelly A. Martin.

    Design Element One-Green

    There were a few things I knew I wanted on the cover. The first thing was that I wanted the book to be green. Lots of shades of green. The planet was a green world, covered by trees and it was a huge part of the story so I knew that needed to be reflected in the color palette of the book.

    Design Element Two-The Girl

    The second thing I wanted was a girl. I already mentioned the art inspiration above. One of my YA cover pet peeves is a girl in a dress on the cover of a book. There are a lot, and I mean a LOT, of YA books with girls in fancy dresses. I am totally fine with that if the dress means something. A Cinderella retelling would make sense. The dress is a key point. I know WHY they put pretty girls in pretty dresses on book covers. I like looking at pretty dresses too. The thing for me is, I want the cover to tell me something about the story. Generally speaking, you don’t want to brand your character a certain way either because you want every type of girl to feel like she can identify with your character so that’s why I like dragons and tigers on the cover instead of girls anyway, but I also like art. I like pretty things. In this case we put a girl on the cover to put on a fancy headpiece so we could tell a story with it.

    Design Element Three-The Flowers

    Like I said before, I really love pretty things. Having said that, I also love the idea that pretty things can be deadly. The idea that a butterfly could poison you, a plant could eat you alive, a flower could kill you, or even an unassuming girl could be much more than she appears on the surface, is one that appeals to me and it’s something I wanted to showcase on the cover.

    The Result

    Once we talked over the elements and I described the types of animals I wanted to see in the headdress, we only stumbled a bit over how to make the animals look like animal/plant hybrids. Once Kelly came up with the idea of using topiaries and found a leafy, twisty font, the cover came together quickly.

    The only thing we all would have liked would have been to make the title in gold but that option wasn’t available to us in our hardback print choices so we went with pretty shade of yellow that reflected in the centers of the flowers and along the edges of the Venus fly traps.

    More Details

    If you’re itching for a few more details about the Terraformer cover design, here are some fun book facts I put together on an infographic. You can visit Gallery-k to know the way this kind of making this kind of designs. Take a look and see what clues you already figured out.

    The Terraformer Cover Design Infographic designed by Colleen Houck

    Want to See Other Cover Posts?

    Did you like this cover post? If you’re an author, feel free to create your own or you can take a look at some of my other cover posts here to get some more ideas.

    Check Out the Lantern’s Ember Cover Post

    Check Out the Tiger’s Dream Cover Post

    Check out the Tiger’s Promise Cover Post

    Check out What Else I’m Doing to Celebrate the Release of Terraformer

    Terraformer Countdown to Publication

    Ready to Order a Copy?

    You can get a copy in hardback or a Nook Book in the US from Barnes & Noble or you can get a Kindle copy on Amazon. It’s also available on iBooks or Kobo. Stay tuned for the audiobook release and other languages are to come!

    This entry was posted in Terraformer.

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    Categories
    Archive
    Author Bio
    Colleen Houck

    New York Times Bestselling author Colleen Houck is a lifelong reader whose literary interests include action, adventure, paranormal, science fiction, and romance. When she's not busy writing, she likes to spend time chatting on the phone with one of her six siblings, watching plays, and shopping online. Colleen has lived in Arizona, Idaho, Utah, California, and North Carolina and is now permanently settled in Salem, Oregon with her husband and a huge assortment of plush tigers.

  • TERRAFORMER: Countdown to Publication

    May 1, 2020


    Hello Readers! By now you’ve might have heard the announcement of my new book, TERRAFORMER, to be published in May, and you might be wondering…what comes next? When are the contests and who are the characters? There aren’t enough details. I need more details! Well, you’ve come to the right place.


    Terraformer: Countdown to Publication-What’s That Now?

    First, for those of you who don’t know, TERRAFORMER, is my first ever Science Fiction book! It’s still loosely mythology-based (though I’m going to make you read the book to figure out how it relates to mythology, exactly) and for those of who are worried, it’s still very much a romance. I’ve been teasing little hints about it for over a year now, so I’m very happy to finally be able to talk about it openly. I would suggest you to check cheapmotorhomes for all the latest updates.


    TERRAFORMER: Countdown to Publication-Where and When is it Being Sold?

    Terraformer Book Cover: Countdown to Publication

    TERRAFORMER

    Form: Hardback

    Where: US-Barnes & Noble

    Release Date: May 12, 2020

     


    Oh Man! What About My Country?

    We are working on all our international editions and contracts at the moment and will update the language pages on my blog as soon as they are finalized. In the meantime, make sure you let your local publisher know you’re interested. There will definitely be an English audiobook version that will be released by HighBridge, the same company that released the audiobook of THE LANTERN’S EMBER!


    Okay, So, What’s It About?

    Sheesh, you guys with all the questions. Okay, I’ll tell you this. It’s on the jacket cover anyway so it won’t spoil things too much.


    In the future, a terraforming ship lands on a perfectly green planet.

    Two perfect young men, one a budding colony leader, the other an engineer, compete for the affection of one perfect young woman training as a botanist.

    The only problem?

    She’s not perfect.

    Astra has a secret.

    A big one.

    And somone or some thing just maybe trying to kill her for it.

    Terraformer-Colleen Houck

    TERRAFORMER: Countdown to Publication: Calendar of Events


    THE BLOG TOUR

    The TERRAFORMER Blog Tour will be run by JeanBookNerd from June 8-June 19. Stay tuned for details. If you are a blogger who would like to be involved, please reach out to Jean via her website or Twitter. AND….she will be doing a TERRAFORMER Storytellers Box!

    WEEK ONE – REVIEWS AND GUEST POSTS

    JUNE 8th MONDAY JeanBookNerd PODCAST
    JUNE 9th TUESDAY Movies, Shows, & Books GUEST POST
    JUNE 10th WEDNESDAY Books Less Travelled REVIEW
    JUNE 10th WEDNESDAY TTC Books and More GUEST POST
    JUNE 11th THURSDAY A Court of Coffee and Books EXCERPT
    JUNE 11th THURSDAY J.R.’s Book Reviews REVIEW
    JUNE 12th FRIDAY Twirling Book Princess EXCERPT
    JUNE 12th FRIDAY Gwendalyn’s Books REVIEW 

    WEEK ONE – REVIEWS AND INTERVIEWS

    JUNE 15th MONDAY BookHounds YA REVIEW & INTERVIEW
    JUNE 15th MONDAY Book Queen Reviews REVIEW
    JUNE 16th TUESDAY Wishful Endings REVIEW & INTERVIEW
    JUNE 16th TUESDAY Chrikaru Reads REVIEW
    JUNE 17th WEDNESDAY Nay’s Pink Bookshelf REVIEW
    JUNE 17th WEDNESDAY Author Kelly Riser REVIEW
    JUNE 18th THURSDAY Ya It’s Lit REVIEW
    JUNE 18th THURSDAY Book Briefs REVIEW
    JUNE 19th FRIDAY Insane About Books REVIEW
    JUNE 19th FRIDAY Port Jericho REVIEW
    JUNE 19th FRIDAY Lisa Loves Literature REVIEW 

    TERRAFORMER Storytellers BOX

    For those of you who’ve been waiting for the JeanBookNerd Storytellers BOX, wait no longer. It’s here! Orders may be placed from JUNE 2nd through July 15th 11:59:59 PM Pacific Standard or while supplies last. For more information, go the the website at www.JEANBOOKNERD.com.

    INSIDE THE PROMOTIONAL BOX YOU WILL FIND THE FOLLOWING ITEMS:

    • 1. Book – TERRAFORMER
    • 2. Postcard
    • 3. T-Shirt
    • 4. Bookplate
    • 5. Sticker
    • 6. Notepad
    • 7. Bookmarks
    • 8. Puzzle
    • 9. Mug
    • 10. E-book from previous title.

    THE LAUNCH PARTY

    SPECIAL NOTE:

    LAUNCH PARTY UPDATE: Due to the Corona Virus outbreak, the TERRAFORMER launch party has been canceled. This is very sad but I want to keep all my readers as safe as possible. If you’ve already purchased a ticket, your money will be refunded. Not to worry my friends, we will still have lots of fun online things to do as we get ready to launch the book.

    Now, this is very exciting! If you live in the Salem, Oregon area, or have just always longed to visit, you might want to save the date of May 9th. I’m hosting a TERRAFORMER launch party in my hometown of Salem at my favorite grocery store of all time, ROTH’S! It might sound like a strange place for a party, but trust me, it’s not. This store is AH-MA-ZING. Seriously.

    You might recall that the TIGER’S DREAM launch party happened in the downtown Salem public library. Well, that’s not possible right now because it’s closed for renovations and when I began looking for event space, everyone kept saying, go to ROTH’S.

    It just so happens that I actually wrote most of TERRAFORMER on the balcony of that store overlooking the gorgeous produce department, which is going to make a LOT of sense when you start reading the book.

    Also, they make great made-to-order lunches and have an outstanding salad bar right downstairs. It’s basically a writer’s dream with dozens of interesting characters walking around downstairs who I can easily study from my bird’s eye perch.

    Anyhoo, my launch parties, if you didn’t know, are pretty epic. Those who have attended my events can give a shout out in support. We are planning on some fun and fabulous games. There will be prizes, of course. My mom and I will be dressing up sort of matchers. Then there will be food. Oh…the food. ROTH’s is one of the last grocery stores that still makes homemade donuts.

    Other Posts

    If that’s not enough to tempt you to head in our direction, you are welcome to peruse the other launch party blog posts to help you make up your mind.

    Oh, and did I mention that this was a PRE-launch party? That means that those who come to this one are getting their hands on the book EARLY…as in, BEFORE everyone else!

    TERRAFORMER: Countdown to Publication-Pre-Launch Party Image 5/9/2020 West Salem Roth's

    But be warned. Space is limited. Get it? SPACE?! HEE. HEE. Grab a ticket before they’re sold out! You don’t want to miss your shuttle to paradise!


    TERRAFORMER: Countdown to Publication: The Contest

    So this contest is going to be a little something for everyone. Some of you just like to do click and follow type stuff or review books and I love that. Some of you are the more artsy type and want to do Dress up the Cover creations or love Cosplay or want to participate in our Topiary battle. This is going to be a pick and choose how you want to play.

    Obviously the more effort you put in, the better your chances of winning, but if you’re the type that loves social media and tweeting or shooting Instagram photos, you can do that as often as you like to make up the difference so it should even out in the end.

    We’re going to start the contest a little early to give you creative types, time to come up with your art. Once you create, all you have to do is take a picture and share it once on some social media site and attach it to the Rafflecopter via a link.

    If you want to share it more often, you can, but the big points only count once per art project. Remember, it has to be your original work, not someone else’s. You are also welcome to do all the typical rafflecopter entries if you like as well.

    Ideas for Art/Craft Projects

    • Dress up the Cover
    • Create a Topiary
    • Make a Chia Sculpture
    • Create a Cosplay Costume
    • Fashion a Headpiece
    • Do a Character Makeup Video
    • Write a Poem
    • Make a T-Shirt
    • Instagram Art
    • Draw or Paint a Picture or Scene
    • Create an Alien Flower/Fruit Arrangement
    • Bake a Terraformer Cake

    My Projects

    Personally, I’m planning on making a topiary, a headpiece, a costume, and I might just try my hand at a cake. Dressing up the cover is always fun. I love playing with food and appetizer ideas. We’ll be having some amazing treats at the party including edible flowers! I can’t wait to see what all of you create! Don’t forget to tell me how many points you think your project/s are worth. Rafflecopter only allows up to five, so I’ll have to adjust your numbers manually. Good luck everyone!

    This entry was posted in Contest, Events, Terraformer.

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    Categories
    Archive
    Author Bio
    Colleen Houck

    New York Times Bestselling author Colleen Houck is a lifelong reader whose literary interests include action, adventure, paranormal, science fiction, and romance. When she's not busy writing, she likes to spend time chatting on the phone with one of her six siblings, watching plays, and shopping online. Colleen has lived in Arizona, Idaho, Utah, California, and North Carolina and is now permanently settled in Salem, Oregon with her husband and a huge assortment of plush tigers.

  • Word Clouds: How to Turn Your Books Into Art

    April 29, 2020


    How to Turn Your Books Into Art

    I’ve had a lot of fun playing with word clouds on a website called Tagul. It’s pretty easy to turn your book into art for your readers, and it doubles as an editing tool by letting you see how many times you’re using those pesky repetitive words, such as always, like, and very.

    Here’s How it Works

    Once you finish your manuscript, open the website and click create. Import your text where it says “words” and scan through the list. The program automatically eliminates apostrophes so you’ll have to manually delete all the words like isn’t and didn’t and so forth which won’t be too fun anyway.

    Next, just for fun, I type in the title of the book and assign it to the top number so it appears in the art to identify the book. go and check this for mote information about art.You also have the option to use capital letters or lowercase or capitalize just the first letter. This is a good time to delete small words you don’t care too much about keeping in there like all, they, go, etc. The program should do most of that for you but just in case there’s something you think needs to go, this is your chance to make a change.

    Choose a Shape That Ties in With Your Novel

    Once you’ve settled on the words, it’s time to select the shape your art will take. Tagul provides many choices for you, but you also have the option to add your own shape or you can even add text, such as the title of the book, or your author name, for example, and the words will fill in that shape instead of one of theirs. If you look at my samples below, you’ll see I select a shape that matches the theme of each book, a tiger paw for TIGER’S CURSE, a witch’s cauldron for, THE LANTERN’S EMBER, and so on.

    Select a Font That Fits Your Book

    After a shape, you pick your font. Bold shows up best. You can use one Tagul provides on their website wordart.com or import your own font if you like. Ask your publisher if they can either tell you the name of the font they used on the jacket cover or send you a link to download it and you can add it to the program and use it when you create marketing materials.

    On a side note: If you haven’t had to make your own marketing materials yet, trust me, you will have to at some point. Every author has to become skilled at that trick of the trade. I love using PicMonkey but there are many other programs you can use. These are things no one ever tells you when you start up in this business.

    The Layout of Your Words

    Next is the layout. That one is pretty simple. You choose how you want the words to look. I tend to let the program randomize it and let it auto-fill the amount of words but you can also play with it a bit and define just which words you want to appear and how you want them to look as well as how densely you want the words populated within your shape. If you don’t care that much, you can let the system work its magic on its own.

    The Style and Colors

    Last is the style and colors. I tend to do with the colors that match the book cover. Bold colors usually work best. You have the option of selecting a transparent background or a color. Make sure your word color choices appear vibrantly on the background you choose. For clarity, I’ve discovered that three different color choices for the words are the max you should probably select. It’s up to you, of course, but that’s my recommendation.

    Visualize Your Word Art

    Once you’re finished, click visualize, keeping the style box open. Clicking the CUSTOM button will switch up the word colors to give you more options. You can go back and play with the font or the shape or colors and it won’t affect your words, they just move around inside the shape. When you’re satisfied, download the image to your computer.

    You have the option to create an account and save it on their website if you wish, but it’s just as easy to save it on your computer and head back there again when you have a new book to promote.

    You can scroll down through my books below if you’d like to see some examples, just keep in mind I’m not the most artistic sort. I’m certain you will be much more creative! They will be in order from most recent to my oldest.

    I also added a paragraph to each piece where I describe what I noticed when I finished the art so I can stir more interest from my readers when posting.

    If you have any other ideas or thoughts about how to create quick promotional pieces for your books or if you’ve created any book art of your own and would like to share, please attach a link or comment below!


    Word Art For Colleen Houck Books


     

    TIGER’S TALE

    I was more than thrilled to have not one, not two, but, count them, four very interesting young men in this series. I expected all their names to appear in this royal crown shape and they do. If you look, you’ll find Zakhar, Danik, Iriko and then front and center is Nik. It surprised me how prominent a character this young man is in my story. I wouldn’t be at all shocked to the trend continue in the series. Color me equally amazed to see Veru mentioned much more frequently than her sister, Stacia. They say a parent doesn’t choose favorites but it turns out not to be true. Some new words you might see that I don’t use often are snow, boot, Tsarevna, and Shaman.  I hope all of you will enjoy this new tale!

    TIGER’S TALE

    “Two sisters, desperate to save their mother, refuse a stranger and unwittingly unleash a devastating curse, causing them to flee their home, beginning an adventure unlike anything either of them ever imagined.”

     


    Word Art for Colleen Houck's book, TERRAFORMER

    TERRAFORMER

    There are some obvious words that always show up in my books like kiss and day and head and glance but with TERRAFORMER you’re getting a bunch of new ones. You might notice the word crew, world, plant, air, moon, ship, planet, and colony. All of these are appropriate for space and a terraforming mission, but then there’s murder, harm, body, kill, pain, and death. What’s up with that? My mom said, “Gee there’s a lot of murder going on in this book, Colleen.” I guess I was feeling a bit deadly when I wrote this one. Best prepare yourselves.

    TERRAFORMER written by Colleen Houck

    TERRAFORMER

    “As a terraforming colonist on Crillian IV, Astra can’t listen to the whisperings of her heart, especially when someone or something else on the new planet is whispering to her mind even louder.”


    Word Art for Colleen Houck's book, THE LANTERN'S EMBER

    THE LANTERN’S EMBER

    For The Lantern’s Ember, I chose a witch’s cauldron for the shape which makes sense once you read the book. This book is all about Halloween creatures. Frank is on the top rim. You can guess which Halloween monster he represents. Ember is my heroine who just so happens to be a witch. Jack is the Headless Horseman, only in my book he has a head. We also have two vampires, Delia and Dev. Power is always a big theme in my books. Love is in the mix but it’s much smaller for some reason. Can you find Jack’s pumpkin? I wouldn’t be surprised if he was hanging out with Finney. 

    THE LANTERN'S EMBER written by Colleen Houck

    THE LANTERN’S EMBER

    “Jack, a Lantern, must do everything in his power to get the beguiling witch, Ember, back where she belongs before both the earthly and unearthly worlds descend into chaos.”


    Word Art for Colleen Houck's book, REUNITED

    REUNITED

    With my Reunited word art, I chose the shape of the full moon. This book belongs to the moon god, Ahmose but you can still spot Asten and Amon. Tia is much more of a prominent voice here than Lily or Ashleigh which is interesting. I really like the word ONE being so prominent. It’s a good representation of the book’s theme. What else can you find here that hints of what will happen in the story?

    REUNITED written by Colleen Houck

    REUNITED

    “It is time for Lily to become Wasret: a goddess destined to defeat the evil god Seth once and for all.”


    Word Art for Colleen Houck's book, REALIGNED

    REIGNITED

    For the Reignited word cloud, I chose a tree since Osiris is the god of all growing things and the first kiss he shared with Isis was in a gazebo in his garden. You’ll see my characters prominent on the tree. Other important words are power, star, want, and mortal. You’ll have to read the book to figure out why. Can you find the word sister? That’s a big one in this book as is the word heart.

    REIGNITED written by Colleen Houck

    REIGNITED

    “In a place of celestial marvels, passion and betrayal are intertwined, and an evil ignites that will reign over humanity forever.”


    Word Art for Colleen Houck's book, RECREATED

    RECREATED

    To turn my book, Recreated, into word art, I chose a star to symbolize the novel. You’ll notice that Asten features as prominently as Amon in this book. Heart and Eye are also very important. Arm and Head are coming up more frequently than Hand this time so not as much hand-holding as I usually do. You’ll also notice Tia is very large. Tia is a new character you’ll be meeting in Recreated. Power is back and Feel is usually a big word for me. If you look close, you might find Horus in there somewhere. Nephthys and Isis make an appearance as well. Amun-Ra and Ma’at were kicked out due to punctuation, it seems but they are important in this book as well. Also there a character called the Devourer. The program only kept the word devour so you might see that but not her name. 

    RECREATED written by Colleen Houck

    RECREATED

    “Lily journeys to the Netherworld to free Amon, and their realms from darkness and utter chaos.”


    Word Art for Colleen Houck's book, REAWAKENED

    REAWAKENED

    For this book, I chose a pyramid for the shape of the art piece and added the word Reawakened so you’d know the title. Right away I noticed dark and light which is a theme in this book. Asten and Amon are pretty equal which surprises me. Ahmose is slightly smaller but that’s to be expected since he doesn’t appear until halfway through. Power shows up a lot which is different from the tiger series. I think Lily is about equal to Kelsey in mentions. This book, like the tiger books, is written in the first person, so Lily and Kelsey are the narrators which means their names aren’t used as often. I never realized before that Hassan and Kadam sound very similar. Interesting. I see hair again. Apparently, I have a thing for hair. 

    REAWAKENED written by Colleen Houck

    REAWAKENED

    Lily and her sun prince, Amon, must travel to the Valley of the Kings, raise his brothers, and stop an evil, shape-shifting god named Seth from taking over the world.”


    Word Art for Colleen Houck's book, TIGER'S PROMISE

    TIGER’S PROMISE

    I am exceptionally proud of Tiger’s Promise. If you haven’t read it because it’s a novella, you need to ignore that and check it out anyway. I like that Rajaram is so big, as is the word family. This is the first time Dhiren appears instead of Ren. No black or white here since the princes aren’t tigers yet. “Veil” is a big theme in this book since Yesubai veils her emotions and her father hides her beauty behind veils. I like the words home, girl, and mother. Then you’ll see “flower” and the word garden and beautiful. Yesubai loves flowers. Prince is large and seeing that “wish” is a word I emphasized is cool since this book has a lot to do with wishes.

    TIGER'S PROMISE written by Colleen Houck

    TIGER’S PROMISE

    “As dark forces gather around her, Yesubai must decide if she’s willing to reveal that somewhere deep within her she has the power to change everything.”


    Word Art for Colleen Houck's book, TIGER'S DREAM

    TIGER’S DREAM

    I finally figured out how to add an image of my own so this time you get to see a tiger for the shape of my book word art. Ana is the most used word in the manuscript which might give you a hint about the book. Of course, you see the word “tiger”, Kelsey, and Ren but a big one is the word man. This also makes a lot of sense when you read the book. The word “hand” is huge here. I’m not sure why. Maybe it’s due to the many hands of the goddess. I like blowing up these images and looking at all the tiny words. You’ll get a lot of spoilers that way. 

    TIGER'S DREAM written by Colleen Houck

    TIGER’S DREAM

    ” Kishan must sacrifice the unthinkable to fight the dark forces swirling around the woman he’s charged to defend. As he does, he discovers that love and loyalty create their own magic and accepts that he must decide his destiny once and for all.”


    Word Art for Colleen Houck's book, TIGER'S DESTINY

    TIGER’S DESTINY

    I chose a flame to represent this book but the shape makes it harder to read all the words. Mr. is easy to find but I don’t see Kadam which is strange. Durga and Lokesh are both prominent and for some reason, Li is back in there. Not sure why unless it just needed a short word to fill in. Kiss has been a word that pops up in each cloud which is appropriate. I can’t find Phoenix or Rakshasa. They must be too small for me to see. The green flames don’t seem natural but I wanted to match the colors of the book. 

    TIGER'S DESTINY written by Colleen Houck

    TIGER’S DESTINY

    “The trio’s final challenge pits good against evil, tests the bonds of love and loyalty, and finally reveals the tigers’ true destinies once and for all.”


    Word Art for Colleen Houck's book, TIGER'S VOYAGE

    TIGER’S VOYAGE

    For this one, I used a water drop since water is the main feature of the book. There are a lot of words given equal amounts of weight here but what stands out to me are the words ship, boat, Wes, and water. Dragon is right up there which is appropriate and then there’s hand. I must do a lot of hand-holding or touching in my books for the word hand to be so big. Again I added black just so you could see the words better. Oh and I noticed the word golden is easier to find than green or blue or red. The golden dragon is my favorite.

    TIGER'S VOYAGE written by Colleen Houck

    TIGER’S VOYAGE

    “Kelsey, Ren, and Kishan challenge five cunning and duplicitous dragons while attempting to break the tiger’s curse.”


    Word Art for Colleen Houck's book, TIGER'S QUEST

    TIGER’S QUEST

    Even though I chose a tree shape for this word cloud I had to change the colors to match the book. I think an orange would have matched a bit better but the black is easier to see. I was shocked to see that Li is so much bigger than Artie. Artie has a weight to his character that I feel each time I read about him, but I guess I didn’t showcase him as much as I thought. The word “bird” is big in this one which makes sense and even though I didn’t add Tiger’s Quest on this one, “tiger” is still prominent. The word “date” is bigger than black or white in this book and I like that love is an important word.

    TIGER'S QUEST written by Colleen Houck

    TIGER’S QUEST

    “When her life is threatened, Kelsey is suddenly forced to return to India, where she forges an unexpected bond with Ren’s tiger-brother, Kishan.”


    Word Art for Colleen Houck's book, TIGER'S CURSE

    TIGER’S CURSE

    I chose a tiger paw for this word art shape for obvious reasons. What’s interesting to me about this one is the fact that the gada ranked so high and that Phet is almost up there with Kelsey. Incidentally, the gada is the only weapon in the tiger series I’ve been able to find in the cloud. Black is bigger than white though Ren is more used than Kishan. Hair has been a word I’ve used a lot in the tiger series as well. This is the only one where I can find Fanindra and fruit which is interesting.

    TIGER'S CURSE written by Colleen Houck

    TIGER’S CURSE

    “Packed with magic, action-adventure, and romance, the epic Tiger’s Curse series will keep you breathless and yearning for more.”


    For other book marketing ideas, check out my blog post feature titled, A TERRAFORMER Guessing Game

    Do You Have a Book Art Idea?

    How do you promote or market your new books? What do you put on Instagram? Share links with your ideas or leave a comment below.

    Thanks for visiting my blog. Stop by again sometime to see what new Book Art I’ll be adding in the future.

    This entry was posted in Marketing, Marketing, Reawakened, Recreated, Reignited, Reunited, Terraformer, The Lantern's Ember, Tiger's Curse, Tiger's Destiny, Tiger's Promise, Tiger's Quest, Tiger's Tale, Tiger's Voyage, Writing Tools.

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    Author Bio
    Colleen Houck

    New York Times Bestselling author Colleen Houck is a lifelong reader whose literary interests include action, adventure, paranormal, science fiction, and romance. When she's not busy writing, she likes to spend time chatting on the phone with one of her six siblings, watching plays, and shopping online. Colleen has lived in Arizona, Idaho, Utah, California, and North Carolina and is now permanently settled in Salem, Oregon with her husband and a huge assortment of plush tigers.