Author: Katie L. Carroll (Page 124 of 143)

Being a Sun Junkie

December 18, 2010 / Katie L. Carroll

I have a confession: I’m something of a sun junkie. And living in New England, I find myself jonesing for some of those good, warm rays as winter rolls around. By the time winter ends, I’m sure I’ll be “looking all pale and tragic” (five stars for the first person to comment with the correct movie reference!).

When the sun is actually shining this time of year, I try to get outside for what I call my “15 minutes a day.” It doesn’t always happen, and when it does, it’s not always in optimal conditions because I often have my head covered. I’ve read (and I can’t for the life of me remember where I read this) that the back section of your head near the crown is the most absorptive part of the body.

There’s just something about being out in the sun and fresh air a little bit everyday that invigorates me. And let’s be honest, my self-esteem gets a nice boost when I have at least a little bit of a tan (as opposed to the aforementioned pale-and-tragic look). It’s not only anecdotal evidence that supports my “15 minutes a day” theory, either.

Actual science backs this claim (and I’m not talking about overexposure to the sun…we all know skin cancer, sun spots, and wrinkles are bad…moderate exposure is key). The aptly named SAD (seasonal affective disorder), which can make you moody, tired, and depressed (admittedly, similar to the symptoms of PMS), usually occurs in conjunction with the lack of sunlight in the winter. Proper sun exposure also helps your body produce vitamin D, which is important for strong bones.

Okay, is this starting to sound too much like a commercial for sun? Well, I don’t care. I really do love the sun. Without it, we don’t have plants, food, animals, earth, life. I’d say it’s about tied with water as the most essential element of life, so you really can’t over emphasize its importance.

All this talk about the sun has made me a little twitchy. Unfortunately it’s night right now. I hope it’s not cloudy tomorrow. I need to get my fix before I start to go through withdrawal! My sun, my precious (please tell me someone knows this book/movie reference!).

Gathering Book Ideas From Song Lyrics

December 5, 2010 / Katie L. Carroll

I may be stating the obvious here, since all my blog titles are song lyrics, but music is important to my writing. Sometimes it’s just a lyric or two that inspires me, but other times a whole song speaks to a scene on which I’m working or a character I’m developing.

In my story Elixir Bound, there’s a scene where the main character, Katora, floats above the forest via a magical binding (yup, it’s a fantasy). Katora normally can’t fly and it’s a malevolent creature that binds her, but for a minute she feels a rush of adrenaline that gives her an intense high and sense of freedom. When I think about this part, I always hear the long musical beginning of the live version of Naveed/Life by Our Lady Peace (pretty much my favorite band of all time). This song gives me the same kind of feeling I imagined Katora having when I wrote that scene.

In my reimagining of The Little Mermaid, one of the main characters Poe is in love with his best friend, but he thinks she’s never going to love him back. Naturally, his song is Jason Mraz’s If It Kills Me. The lyrics “Well, all I really want to do is love you/A kind much closer than friends use/But I still can’t say it after all we’ve been through” are such a perfect description of how he feels.

And then there’s this new idea that’s been percolating in my imagination for a few months now. This one is rife with musical inspiration. The original idea popped into my head while I was listening to Godsmack’s song Voodoo. I heard the lyric “Never did I wanna be here again/And I don’t remember why I came” and a whole scenario played out in my brain like a mini-movie.

Then I realized (as I often realize when I think I’ve had an inkling of an original thought) that my idea was just a YA dystopian ripoff of The Bourne Identity with a female teenager as Bourne. So I decided to actually read the book instead of watch the movie yet again (really, who can get enough of Matt Damon as a reluctant assassin?).

Anyway (I do digress), that’s not the only song that has inspired this new story. The main character (who may or may not have a name that was inspired by the lead sing of the aforementioned favorite band…I haven’t decided if it’s the right one…but who does have a nickname of Black Butterfly) has a past that she can’t remember, but may somewhat be described by Civil Twilight’s song Soldier.

And seeing as the opening scene of this story was inspired by a song, it’s fitting that the closing scene was also inspired by a song: Linkin Park’s Waiting for the End. Mind you, I’ve done a lot of thinking about this new story, but I only have bits and pieces of it scribbled in some notebooks. The rest is all in my head…for now. I have a couple off other projects that are taking priority over this one, but it’ll get written down one day soon.

To Kill or Not to Kill Off Characters in YA

November 29, 2010 / Katie L. Carroll

One thing I like about young adult books is that the authors aren’t afraid to kill off main characters. It’s not that I like it when fictional characters die (although I’ve gotta admit, I did give a little cheer when Renee Walker from 24 kicked the bucket…she was pretty freakin’ annoying!), I think it makes YA books more authentic, more unpredictable, and more suspenseful.

Let’s face it, in real life people die, and not just the ancillary ones (one of my pet peeves about movies is how dispensable the ancillary characters are…who cares when a character dies when you had absolutely no emotional attachment to him?). At some point in your life, someone you care about, and sometimes even love, will die. And really, any of us could die pretty much anytime. That’s life, and books should reflect that.

I get that fiction–whether it be books or movies or whatever–is supposed to be an escape, but I subscribe to the thought that a piece of work that stirs my emotions and surprises me is better than one where all things turn up roses. I’ll never forget when I first read the part in Little Women when Beth dies. It was terrible and heart-wrenching, but it was so good too because it’s real. It’s one of the things that keeps that book on the top of my favorite list.

Here’s the book trailers for three books I’ve read over the last year that deal with the possibility of the main character dying (don’t worry, I promise no spoilers below!).

If I Stay by Gayle Forman deals with the most fundamental question of all: Do I choose to live or die today? In a way, we all deal with this question each and every day of our lives, maybe not on the scale that Mia does or with the same stakes or while facing a tragedy, but it is still the most basic choice we face day in and day out.

In Before I Die by Jenny Downham, Tessa doesn’t have the choice to live or die; she’s terminal. Imagine having to complete your bucket list by the age of 16? The end of this book had me silently sobbing (and it takes a lot to make me cry) so hard that I scared my husband when he looked up from his laptop and saw my face. I had so many tears in my eyes, I couldn’t even read the words on the page.

Samantha dies right at the beginning of Before I Fall (yeah, pretty similar title to the previous book…there is theme going on here) by Lauren Oliver and gets seven chances to live her last day. An interesting thing about Samantha–and I found this to be true of Tessa too–is that she isn’t always likable. She was even cruel at times, but that made her all the more real.

I would definitely recommend all three of these books…just make sure you have a box of tissues nearby. What books or movies do you like where there’s a real chance the main character dies?

The Large Hadron Collider Hasn’t Destroyed All of Humanity (Yet!)

November 15, 2010 / Katie L. Carroll

It’s about time for an update on my favorite science project, the Large Hadron Collider. Seeing as we’re all still here, I don’t think I need to tell you that it hasn’t opened up a black hole. Phew!

Actually, the LHC has been working so well that scientists have started smashing lead ions together instead of just plain-old protons. What does this mean? Basically, smashing lead ions at super speeds creates tiny Big Bangs that will shed some light on what happened immediately after the Universe was created by the big Big Bang. (Something you’ve all been dying to know about!)

Aside from the fact the the LHC studies very, very, very, very, very small particles, everything else about this project is big: the price tag ($10 billion), the number of countries involved (34), the temperatures created by the collisions (a million times hotter than the sun), the speed the particles move (just slightly below the speed of light), etc…

Scientists have not found the elusive Higgs boson (a.k.a. the God Particle) yet, but once they start smashing protons again in February, they hope that by the end of 2011 they will have proof that this particle exists.

Aside from unlocking the great mysteries of the Universe, the LHC could find additional dimensions beyond the four known ones. (What happened to the good old days when there were only three dimensions?)

The Rally to Restore Sanity in Washington D.C. with Jon Stewart

November 2, 2010 / Katie L. Carroll

Today I exercised the nineteenth amendment and voted. I think it’s important to vote every chance we get because not everyone has that opportunity, and I’m always disappointed at the low voter turnout (seriously, our 40 year high in 2008 was 61.6 percent…what was the remaining 38.4 percent doing that day that was so much more important than voting?).

I think the perception of apathy in the nation (and in particular, in those my own generation) was what compelled me to exercise my first amendment rights and join the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear this past weekend. Apparently, I wasn’t the only one because about 215,000 other sanity/fear-seeking people attended.

If I had to pick one word to describe the rally: crowded. Above is a small portion of the line to get tickets for the metro. The hubby, the bro, and I waited over an hour and a half to get our tickets and then we had to wait on the platform until we could find a car with enough room to literally squeeze onto the train (note to self: next time buy tickets in advance!).

(Here’s my view on the train. I particularly enjoyed the pithy advertisements for deodorant, which included a handy odor-meter.)

Once we finally made it to rally (fashionably late), the crowds just got denser. There were lots of fun signs; people off all shapes, colors, sizes, and beliefs (I picked up some interesting Communist literature); and yes, there was the occasional waft of pot.

My favorite sign of the day was a campaign ad for Palin/Voldemort 2012. I’m of the short variety so I mostly heard the rally and didn’t so much see it. I did see a black guy selling t-shirts that had a picture of George W. Bush on them and said “I SCREWED YOU ALL…BUT THANKS FOR BLAMING THE BLACK GUY.”

Yes, it was crowded and overwhelming at times, and the truth is, I wasn’t really sure why I went. I originally thought it was to have an experience and to observe (which is what I do), and I carried no real expectations at the start. But deep down, going to the rally was more than that; I just wasn’t sure what.

Even Jon Stewart, when he took a step back from the jokes and had a moment of sincerity, admitted, “I’m really glad you’re here, even if none of us are really quite sure why we are here.”

As Jon Stewart spoke his mind, my own mind became clearer. He said, “This was not a rally to ridicule people of faith or people of activism or to look down our noses at the Heartland or passionate argument or to suggest that times are not difficult and we have nothing to fear. They are and we do. But we live now in hard times, not end times.”

Regarding the media and the 24-hours news channels, he said, “If we amplify everything, we hear nothing…the inability to distinguish terrorists from Muslims makes us less safe, not more. The press is our immune system. If it overreacts to everything, we get sicker.”

And then he ended on a positive note (oddly enough, just as most YA novels do), “We know instinctively as a people that if we are to get through the darkness and back into the light, we have to work together. And the truth is, there will always be darkness. And sometimes the light at the end of the tunnel isn’t the Promise Land; sometimes it’s just New Jersey.”

And I think that summed up my whole compulsion to attend: a chance to work together with others, no matter what their beliefs, to see through the darkness to the light at the end of the tunnel.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart

Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c

Indecision 2010 – Republicans Can Go to the Back of the Car

http://www.thedailyshow.com/

Daily Show Full Episodes

Political Humor

Rally to Restore Sanity

After the rally, we had a rowdy and fun dinner with my two aunts and cousins (when we finally found them in the crowd…note to self: 200,000 cell phones in a small area will compete for service and none of them will work). It’s weird how sometimes it takes over 300 miles of travel to spend some quality time with the people you love. And then the hubby, the bro, and I were ‘on the way’ home.

Check out the rally’s live feed for more coverage of what I saw (or more accurately, heard).