It’s finally here! Tiger’s Voyage, book three in Colleen Houck’s Tiger Saga, was officially released today, and we are all incredibly excited here at Bookshelf Banter and Twilight Series Theories! We are celebrating Colleen’s latest book birthday with couple of amazing goodies.

First off, we have an exclusive new interview with Ms. Houck herself, who was kind enough to answer our questions on everything from the release date of Tiger’s Destiny to her favorite TV guilty pleasure. Check out all of her answers in our interview below!

And secondly, thanks to the lovely people at Sterling Publishing, we have a copy of Tiger’s Voyage to give away! Here’s how you enter:

In the comments section, please leave your answer to the following:

If you could go on a voyage anywhere in the world, where would you go, who would you bring with you, and what would you take along for the ride?

That’s it! Want more entries?

Follow and Tweet us your answer on Twitter (@TSTPodcast) or (@bookshelfbanter), comment on TST’s Facebook (or BB’s Facebook), or comment on the giveaway post on Bookshelf Banter. You’ll get an additional entry for each way you enter, up to six entries! Winner will be chosen at random.

Contest ends Monday night at 9 pm PST and is open to US residents only.

Oh, and here are our answers, just for fun 🙂

Kallie~I would go to Italy, it’s always been a dream of mine to go to Venice! I would take my hubby and he could be my personal gondolier!

Kelly~I would go to India and I would take…wait for it…my Husband! *But I might be hoping we would run into Ren while there*

Stefanie~I would go to London with my bff Elsie, and I might try and bring a certain Mr. Robert Pattinson along—there weren’t any stipulations saying we had to actually know the person we’re bringing. *cheshire grin*

Krystal~I would go to London to meet up with some of my bookish friends (you know who you are), then head to Italy and France with my best friends.  Maybe rent a villa and go wine tasting around the countryside.  Oh, and then I’d run away with both Robert Pattinson and Henry Cavill, though the location doesn’t really matter so much ;D

Interview with Colleen Houck

Hi Colleen! Thank you for taking the time to answer our questions here at Bookshelf Banter.

What type of research did you do before/while writing the books? What is your main source?

For research I read a lot. I have several thick mythology books that I use as references and I also use the internet often to look up everything from tiger claws to what types of trees grow in India. I did all the basic research for my series before I wrote it, got the story planned out, and then I do more in depth research as I go along. An example might be incorporating the myth of the four houses and listing what I want in each house—birds, sirens, bats, and gourds, then I do gourd research when I get to that place in my writing.

What inspires you to write when you get blocked?

I don’t really get writer’s block, I get writer’s laziness. Most of the time my laziness is cured when I turn on my computer and open my document. I reread the last little part I just wrote and that spurs me on to keep writing. Google images are something I use often too. Pictures inspire me and I use them to describe creatures or scenes.

I love the covers of your books… What was your first reaction to seeing them?

It’s very exciting to see your covers take shape. The artist who works on them does a fantastic job and when I looked at his portfolio I realized that every book he’s done I’ve wanted to read because the covers are just so beautiful. I really lucked out to get such a wonderful artist.

You share a lot of bonus material with your fans (which I love). I’m curious, do you write that material specifically for the sake of sharing, or are they outtakes you’ve previously cut out during the writing process?

Almost all of the bonus materials I write are extras that I’ve written on the side. They were never created to be in the book. The recent Kishan bonus material was fan initiated. I asked what they wanted to know and they said that they wanted Kishan. I also write a daily quote from different characters perspectives just to keep the story fresh in my mind and keep fans happy and coming back for more. I am planning to write a Kelsey Christmas story for the upcoming YA Scavenger Hunt in December too. Writing the bonus material is fun and its freeing as it doesn’t have to go through the editing process. I can just write what I like.

Where are you at in the writing process? Have you finished Tiger’s Destiny? And is there anything you would like to share with us about the final two books in the series?

Tiger’s Destiny is finished and in the hands of my editor. It will be released July 3, 2012 and I’m very, very excited to see what the artist will do with the cover. This is my longest book and took a year and a half to write. We get to see much more of the villainous Lokesh. There will be a lot of tears and a lot of giggling and some shocking surprises. I tie up many of the loose ends in Tiger’s Destiny to get you ready for the conclusion in Tiger’s Dream where I hope to turn the reader upside down and unravel everything I carefully stitched together.

I can honestly say that since reading Tiger’s Voyage, my feelings toward Kishan have grown, even though I am still Team Ren! How do you think your fans will react to the love triangle in book three? Do you anticipate many conversions or shifting loyalties?

I think I will be making a lot of people nervous. My poor heroine has some hard decisions to make and I’m hoping to make it very hard for readers to pick a side. The truth is that I love both Ren and Kishan and I want them both to have happy endings. Getting there, however, is not going to be easy. I’m already starting to see some shifting loyalties from my fans and that’s as it should be. What Kelsey feels the reader should feel too.

Tiger’s Voyage reminded me of Eclipse because of the fact that there was a ton of romantic tension and I often wanted to strangle Kelsey (hehe). You mentioned in our last interview that Eclipse was your favorite book in the Twilight series. That being the case, was this your favorite book in the series to write? And did you love creating all the banter between the characters?

Tiger’s Voyage was my favorite book to write. The romantic drama really comes to a head in this book but more than that I love the sea creatures. I’ve always been fascinated with the ocean and I hope my love of it is reflected in the book. In some ways, it is like Eclipse because the heroine is put into a situation where she has to decide what she’s going to do about these two men, but Kelsey and Bella think very differently and Kelsey’s decisions are heavily influenced by her tragic past.

When the last word is written in the Tiger Saga series, how do you think you will react? Do you have any plans for when you’ve finished? (I think you deserve that trip to India!)

I will probably cry. It will be very hard to let go of these characters I’ve lived with for so long. A trip to India after all this is said and done sounds like a very good suggestion!

Just for fun:

Favorite TV/movie guilty pleasure?

The Vampire Diaries-Love the show!

Best book(s) you’ve read this summer?

Sophie Jordan’s Firelight and Vanish

If you had to go on one of your characters’ quests, which one would you go on, which magical instrument would you bring, and which brother would accompany you?

I’d bring Kishan and I’d go to Kishkindha because I think that one would be the easiest. I’d bring the kamandal which you will read about in Tiger’s Voyage.

A huge thanks to Colleen for taking the time to answer our questions. 🙂

Interview by Krystal Van Eyk