Amanda Hocking

Amanda's Blog Post

Winners, Trailers, & Lullaby Stuff

November 26th, 2012 by
This post currently has 23 comments

Lullaby is coming out tomorrow in the US (and I believe it will be out December 6th in the UK). The contest for copies of Wake and Lullaby has ended, and the winners are being notified (so watch your email if you entered). Thanks to everyone who entered!

So, since Lullaby is officially going to be born, I thought I’d do some fun facts and little known secrets behind the Watersong series. But first here is the brand-new trailer for Lullaby:

*Alex’s character was almost named Fitzwilliam. It was REALLY close. I’ve always wanted to name a character Fitzwilliam, and Alex seemed the right balance of awkward and sweet to carry a name like that. But in the end, I thought it would it would be too distracting and pull people out of the story every time they read, so I went with the more basic Alex.

*The Watersong series is a quartet, and there is emphasis on the number 4 throughout the books. Some are more obvious than others. Like how there’s four sisters, and Penn, Thea, and Lexi all have four letters in their name.  But there’s other more hidden ones in there, too.

*The girl on the cover of Lullaby is supposed to be Harper.  (The girl on the cover of Wake is supposed to be Gemma, and Daniel and Penn are on the cover of Tidal).

*I listened to TONS of Florence + the Machine (mostly “Ceremonials”) while writing Lullaby.

*Lullaby and the third book in the series, Tidal, were written back-to-back. It’s the first time I’ve written books in a series right after each other. I usually take a break between books.

*A main character in each of my books shares a birth date with my friend Valerie (January 9th). Harper shares a birthday with Wendy from Trylle, Remy from Hollows, and Alice from MBA. Many of my characters share birthdays with my friends or my favorite celebrities.

*The town of Capri was partially inspired by Amity in Jaws. There are is actually a reference or allusion to Jaws in all of my series, because it’s one of my all-time favorite movies/books.

*Sawyer’s house in Lullaby was inspired by a documentary I saw about film sets. They used a lot of white in movies and TV shows to represent optimism, especially in the 80s. They talked particular about 1974’s film version of The Great Gatsby and how the sets were all white around Mia Farrow to really represent her innocenance and the optimism, so the viewer was looking at her through Gatsby and Tom’s eyes. Anyway, that really stuck with me, and I liked the idea of Sawyer’s house being this white stark place, so it was like this pure limbo, almost like a blank slate for the characters to reveal their true colors.

*Whenever I finish writing a Watersong book, I have to do a “find and replace” to get rid of all the uses of the word “pop” and replace it with soda or Coke.

Elroy & Sophie

*My dog Elroy is always in my office with me when I’m writing. He used to lay by my feet, but since I got him a dog bed, he just lays on that. I got a new cat Sophie in July, and she’s usually in the office when I write too. My other two cats are not allowed in the office because they just knock things off the shelves and cause trouble.

*On two separate occasions, a spider has fallen on my laptop while I’ve been writing in my office. I didn’t enjoy it either time.

*I was obsessed with Greek mythology as a kid, but my favorite story wasn’t about sirens – it was about Icarus. While Icarus doesn’t make an appearance in the Watersong series, some of my other favorite Grecian characters do pop up in the series.

*I originally intended the short story Forgotten Lyrics to be published between the release of Lullaby and Tidal, so some of the things and characters that come up in it are hints toward what happens in Tidal.

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  • briana banks says:

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  • C.M. Stunich says:

    Can I borrow words from Forrest Gump and not sound lame? Oh well, I’m going to do it anyway. “Writers are like boxes of chocolate. You never know what you’re gonna get.” I love reading this kind of stuff! Post more! =)

    -C.M.
    (New Paranormal Reads @ http://www.cmstunich.com)

  • Bret Wellman says:

    Pop! You must be from Michigan, the greatest state ever!!!

  • I am amazed that you haven’t mentioned JK Rowling and the Harry Potter Series. Did you read them? If so, how did you feel about them?

  • I love to listen to Florence and the Machine when I write. (The new trailer looks great!!!)

  • Jess Mamac says:

    I have yet to read the full series yet but I really love how you have created Lullaby just based of some of the elements mentioned. I love how you have intertwined other parts of your books and movies that moved and inspired you in some way. I really love how The Great Gatsby was one of them 🙂 This book is one of my favorite classics and I really like the element you described by being in a “pure limbo” state so the characters true colors came out. An awesomely creative way to show your readers how characters develop themselves within your story. I can’t wait to read it!

  • I loved all your books and can’t wait for Lullaby! And I didnt realize how ignorant other states were of ways to say soft drink until I was on a mission trip and the people from Pennsylvania didn’t realize what I meant by pop…

  • just bought it and now i’m reading it i’m so exited!!!!

  • J. M. Zuniga says:

    Wonderful trailer!!! As to the spider maybe he heard about the world wide web and wanted to check it out lol (sorry, I couldn’t resist). Congrats on the new book release =)