Colleen Houck (born October 3, 1969) is an American writer known for writing ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' two best selling series, ''Tiger's Curse'' and ''Reawakened''. As an author, she has been largely collected by libraries worldwide.

Personal life

Colleen is a member of

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a nontrinitarian Christian church that considers itself to be the restoration of the original church founded by Jesus Christ. The ch ...

. She served an eighteen month,

American sign language American Sign Language (ASL) is a natural language that serves as the predominant sign language of Deaf communities in the United States of America and most of Anglophone Canada. ASL is a complete and organized visual language that is express ...

mission in Riverside, California for The Church and then later married in the

Salt Lake Temple The Salt Lake Temple is a temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on Temple Square in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States. At , it is the largest Latter-day Saint temple by floor area. Dedicated in 1893, it is the sixth templ ...

in 1994. With her experience in sign language she became an ASL interpreter for seventeen years. After the success of the first two "Tiger's Curse" books, Colleen put down full time interpreting and became a full time writer instead. Colleen has lived in Arizona, Idaho, Utah, California, and North Carolina and is now currently resides in Salem, Oregon with her husband.

Writing history and motivation

Colleen currently has published eleven books with one more, "Terraformer" on the way (as of March 2021). Colleen was inspired by the writers: JK Rowling and Stephanie Myers, as they were both ordinary people without any specific education for writing and publishing. Colleen decided to start writing and then self published ''Tiger's Curse'' and ''Tiger's Quest'' which then gained traction on Amazon's eBook best-seller list and was picked up by Sterling Publishers.

Publications

The Tiger's Curse Saga

Her first book was ''Tigers Curse'' which was originally self-published in early 2011. It was named a best seller by New York Times and received an average rating of 4.09. The book was reviewed by the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the ...

'',

MTV MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...

and ''

Publishers Weekly ''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of ...

''. The main character is Kelsey Hayes, who is just looking for a part-time job, but adventure finds her and finally she goes to India with a white tiger in searching for an ancient legend. ''Tiger's Curse (The Tiger Saga #1'') was published in early 2011. It received an average rating of 4.09. ''Tiger’s Quest (The Tiger Saga #2)'' was published in June 2011. It received an average rating of 4.36. ''Tigers Voyage (The Tiger Saga #3)'' was published in late 2011. It received an average rating of 4.36. ''Tigers Destiny (Tiger Saga #4)'' was published in the middle of 2012. It received an average rating of 4.42. ''Tigers Promise (The Tiger Saga #0.5)'' was published in the middle of 2014. It is a precursor to the main storyline of the Tiger Saga. It received an average rating of 4.23. ''Tigers Dream (The Tiger Saga #5)'' was published in 2018 and it's the final book in the ''Tiger Saga'' series. In 2011,

Paramount Pictures Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film and television production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the main namesake division of Paramount Global (formerly ViacomCBS). It is the fifth-oldes ...

had announced to plans produce ''Tiger's Curse'' into a film.

Reawakened

''Reawakened (Reawakened #1)'' was published near the end of 2015. It received an average rating of 3.88. It was reviewed by ''Publishers Weekly''. ''Recreated (Reawakened #2)'' was published in August 2016. It was by reviewed by ''

Deseret News The ''Deseret News'' () is the oldest continuously operating publication in the American west. Its multi-platform products feature journalism and commentary across the fields of politics, culture, family life, faith, sports, and entertainment. Th ...

'' Reignited (a novella in the series) Reunited (the final book Reawakened #3)

Standalone

*''The Lantern's Ember'' (September 11, 2018)

Awards

Winner of 2011

Parents Choice Award A parent is a caregiver of the offspring in their own species. In humans, a parent is the caretaker of a child (where "child" refers to offspring, not necessarily age). A ''biological parent'' is a person whose gamete resulted in a child, a male t ...

for the fiction genre

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Houck, Colleen 21st-century American women writers 21st-century American novelists Living people 1969 births American women novelists