Author: Katie L. Carroll (Page 100 of 142)

Celebrating Children’s Book Week 2013

May 15, 2013 / Katie L. Carroll

It’s Children’s Book Week and I’m celebrating over here at the Observation Desk (which for those who don’t know is the official name of this blog)! In the words of the CBW website, “Established in 1919, Children’s Book Week is the longest-running national literacy initiative in the country. Every year, commemorative events are held nationwide at schools, libraries, bookstores, homes — wherever young readers and books connect!”

Honestly every week feels like Children’s Book Week in my house because pretty much everyday I do some combination of writing books for teens and kids, editing book for teens and kids, and reading to children. And there’s no doubt that reading and being read to as kid has shaped not only who I am as a reader and writer but as a person.

I can remember my mom reading to me and my siblings before bed. I’m sure she read us picture books (we had many, many, many Golden Books on our shelves), but it’s the novels that stand out in my mind, particularly the Little House books, the Anne of Green Gables books, and Little Women. These books were full of strong girl characters, family relationships, love and friendships, hard work and hardships.

My well-worn copies of Little Women and the Little House books.

It’s the values of these books that have had a huge influence on the way I strive to live my life and the kind of books I write. And no book I read as an adult can really have that same impact on me. So of course I feel the need to celebrate Children’s Book Week…I hope every child can learn to love books and like me find new worlds, people, and loves through them.

What books influenced you when you were a kid?

New England SCBWI 2013 Conference Gems

May 10, 2013 / Katie L. Carroll

The 2013 New England SCBWI conference was amazing (of course it was…these conference are always amazing)! Caught up with old friends, including the very talented Kimberly Sabatini and Jodi Moore, and met some new ones. Left feeling inspired and exhausted, and I’m still brimming with creative juices.

One of the highlights for me was seeing my book covers up on the screen in the ballroom during the downtime/announcements/mealtime in the ballroom!

I’ve collected a few conference gems that resonated with me. A quick note about why I use italics instead of quotation marks…these are not necessarily direct quotes, some may be close to what the speaker actually said and others are my own rewording/interpretation as I scrambled to take notes during the speeches and presentations. So without further ado, here they are:

We should meet the world with all our senses. (Jeannine Atkins)
What’s outside in the setting can reflect what’s going on in the inside of a character, but it can also be in contrast to what’s being felt. (Jeannine Atkins)
How do we access that which we are trying to recreate when we’re sitting at our desks or computers? Sometimes we need a sensory kick in the pants. (Dawn Metcalf)
We work with art and it can evoke an objective response. (Ruben Pfeffer)
It was as if someone else’s words had opened up a whole host of words in me. (Sharon Creech)
As writers we want company; we need company. You come along too, please. (Sharon Creech)
Revision is finding and strengthening the heart of a story, and revision is messier than people want it to be. (Kate Messner)
Maybe I had to stop trying to prove to people I was good enough and just had to do the work I was passionate about. (Grace Lin)
Every story has a message, whether or not the writer was aware of it or intended it. (Chris Eboch)
I come to one little detail that sort of wakes up my mind and then start amassing details like constellations. (Jeannine Atkins)
Writers are somewhat schizophrenic; we hear voices in our heads; we listen instead of conversing. (Padma Venkatraman)
Go down the rabbit hole. (Greg Fishbone)

Personally, I feel like I stretched myself not only as a writer but as a person. I jumped headlong into any writing activities that came up in the workshops I attended, even braving to share some of my raw work in front of others. I dared to act out an emotion for others to write about (and I have terrible stage fright when it comes to acting anything). I drove to the train station by myself in a city I’d never been to and picked up another author. So all in all, a fantastic weekend!

Highlights from SCBWI Conferences

May 2, 2013 / Katie L. Carroll

Tomorrow I’m off to the New England SCBWI conference! YAY! It’s my first conference in over a year, so I’m very much looking forward to it…but it is also my first weekend away from The Boy, so it’ll be hard to leave. We’ll both be fine, though. (That’s what I keep telling myself anyway!)

I’ve been going to SCBWI conferences for quite a few years now and have gathered a plethora of great tips. I’ll certainly be sharing my favorite nuggets about this conference, but in the meantime, here are some highlights from past conferences I’ve attended.

Take the time and make the space for your writing dreams. ~Laurie Halse Anderson
A vital aspect to nurturing talent is to accept and validate your need to create. Honor, cherish, and celebrate it. ~Laurie Halse Anderson
There are no secure boxes. Do whatever you want to do, and do it wildly, purely, uncensored, even regrettable. Do it as hard as you can. ~Donna Jo Napoli
Never give up because you might be on the one yard line, and you just don’t know it. ~Donna Gephart
Books take us away from home, so we can actually see our home. ~M.T. Anderson
Human beings need stories; we always have and we always will. ~Gennifer Choldenko
As artists, we need to fill ourselves up to flowing and give it all back. ~E.B. Lewis
In a roller-coaster ride you know exactly where you’re going, end up where you began, and you can a buy a ticket to go on again and have almost the same exact experience; it’s thrilling, but it’s not a journey. A journey takes you where you’ve never been before; it’s pretty scary and the dangers are real. ~Sandy Asher
All stories are based in truth somewhere. Pay attention to those stories and write them down. ~Judy Schachner
Use your very guts to spill out your very best. ~Susan Patron

Enjoy your weekend, everyone. With the likes of Nova Ren Suma, Kate Messner, Sharon Creech, and many other authors, agents, and editors presenting at the conference, I know I will have an awesome weekend.

Meet Darius from The Shadow of the Unicorn: The Legacy by Suzanne de Montigny

April 29, 2013 / Katie L. Carroll

Today is a very unique interview of Darius, a character from Suzanne de Montigny’s MG novel The Shadow of the Unicorn: The Legacy (see my Goodreads review here). Welcome, Darius!

Interview With A Dinosaur, And No, It’s Not Barney

Today, I have the privilege to interview, of all things, a dinosaur. No, it’s definitely not Barney. This one’s named Darius, and he’s the only dinosaur who survived the great asteroid. Readers, if you leave a comment, you have a chance to win a copy of Suzanne de Montigny’s e-book The Shadow of the Unicorn: The Legacy.

Darius, what was life like before the asteroid struck the earth?

It was beautiful, Katie. There were thousands of us living in this beautiful valley full of rich foliage and a tall waterfall that spilled into the bluest lake you ever saw below. I was happy there with my mother Maresa. Then, one day, we had visitors from another valley. They were the strangest creatures I ever did see. They had thin legs, were pure white, and had a spiral horn.

Do you mean unicorns or white rhinos?

Unicorns, of course. And they came to see me. Saul, our leader, had summoned them because I was having strange spells.

What kind of spells?

It’s hard to explain, really. Something would overtake me and I’d be off in another world – a future world, and I didn’t like what I saw.

What did you see?

Everything had changed. The plants had changed, a lot of animals had died, and there was a new two-legged creature that was more dangerous than the Rexus. Then, one day, not too long after, a huge fireball struck our world, blotting out the sun and creating terrible storms. Most of the plants died and so did my dinosaur friends. I was the only one who survived.

How terrible for you. What did you do?

That’s when the unicorns found me just as my mother Maresa was dying. They took me back with them and raised me up…until the humans came.

What happened when the humans arrived?

I was terrified. I fled because I knew I had a destiny to fulfill and that they’d stop me from doing it.

Where did you go?

Back to my own valley. Sigh…it was so beautiful. Different, but still beautiful, except I was all alone. It was really difficult. I really missed Maresa. Then Azaria, my closest friend found me again.

You must have been very happy.

Only for a brief moment because he told a tale that sent shivers up and down my spine.

What did he say?

He said that the humans had captured one of the herds and was murdering them by using the power of their horns to heal people.

So what did you do?

The only thing I could. I taught Azaria the secret that had kept me alive all this time

What was it?

I can’t say. You have to read the book to find out.

What? Why you meanest dinosaur, you!

Haha! Not really, because for every book that’s sold, 20% of the proceeds go to the Third World Eye Care Society.

The Third World Eye Care Society? What’s that?

It’s a group of doctors who travel to third world countries bringing lots of eyeglasses and performing surgery for free.

Oh, well that’s okay.

Yeah. It’s amazing how they restore the vision of so many people who would otherwise be blind. Anyway, I have to go back now. I’m needed.

Okay, but where can we find the book?

You can buy it on Amazon at http://tinyurl.com/unicorntale

Or:

Muse It Up Publishing at http://tinyurl.com/museunicorn

And if you want to watch the booktrailer, here it is:

http://youtu.be/St9OsyK974o

Awesome. And, BTW…oh my gosh, he just slipped back into the book. Darius? Darius? How did he do that? I didn’t even have a chance to thank him. Anyway, readers don’t forget to leave a comment for a chance to win The Shadow of the Unicorn: The Legacy. Farewell, my friend.

SUZANNE DE MONTIGNY wrote her first unicorn novel at the age of twelve. Several years later, she discovered it in an old box in the basement, thus reigniting her love affair with the unicorns. As a teacher in Vancouver, B.C., she learned she could spin a good tale that kept kids and teachers begging for more. The Shadow of the Unicorn: The Legacy is her first novel. She lives in Burnaby, B.C. with her husband and two boys.

Confessions of an Author: Ideas

April 26, 2013 / Katie L. Carroll

Business first: I’m over at author extraordinaire Kai Strand’s blog today with a character interview of Katora, the main character from Elixir Bound.

Confession #5: I have more ideas than I’ll ever be able to write.

Seriously, though, I’m not even sure where most of my ideas come from. I’ve mentioned this before, but often ideas (or solutions to plot problems) just pop into my head while I’m in the shower. Or maybe I’ll see some random person at the mall or the playground or wherever and *poof* I’ll have a new character with a backstory and goals and conflicts.

While watching the Oscars this year (and admittedly feeling tired in general and very bored with the whole awards/skit thing), my next Great Big Idea appeared. The idea took my obsession with physics (you know how I love black holes and the Large Hadron Collider) and gave it a character. There isn’t quite a fleshed out plot yet, but the character is very clear to me now. Before this moment (literally a very brief moment…no idea one minute, a great idea the next) I only had an intellectual interest in something, and now I have a real, solid character.

Not all my ideas are great either. Some pop into my head and fade away. Some I might think about for awhile and eventually jot down or even work on fleshing out a bit, but they don’t really come together. One of the reasons I don’t like to write my ideas on paper when they first come to me is because I have so many ideas. I know the ones that stay with me, the ones I can’t stop thinking about, are the ones that are good fodder for a story.

I’m not really sure exactly what parts need to come together to make this magic happen. I’ve always been a creative thinker, so part of it may just be my mind is always working in the background, synthesizing input and my thoughts while I’m doing other things. Part of it, too, is because I’m open to new ideas because it’s those Shiny New Ideas are what keep me excited about writing.

Writing a first draft of a novel is tough, revising a novel is tough, editing a novel is tough…the ideas are the fun part…they’re the things that give me the rush of adrenaline, that make me push through a tough middle when drafting, a tough scene when revising, or line edits (which are just plain boring).

So I’m afraid I can’t share what makes me a creative person or where my ideas come from…because I really have no idea. But there are people who know about creativity, who study it. The good news is recent research indicates you can train your brain to be more creative. I’m not sure I’ll be partaking in any of those exercises, though. I just don’t think my brain can handle any more Big Ideas right now!