Author: Katie L. Carroll (Page 51 of 142)

How Readers and Authors Connect Poll Results

April 13, 2016 / Katie L. Carroll

I know a lot of you have been waiting for the results of the two polls I conducted on how readers and writers connect. To be clear, though I did take a statistics course in college, I ran no analytics on the statistical significance of the results. My intention was never statistical significance, but merely to see what writers and readers who check out my blog had to say. The poll was open to anyone who happened to stop by the post over the course of time the poll was active, so that means a (very!) limited pool of people.

And, drum roll please….the much-anticipated results:

The wording of the reader poll was “As a reader, I enjoy connecting to authors through…” followed by a list of options, and voters could check as many choices as they wanted. This poll got a total of 70 votes.

Voters could leave a comment and one actually did. “Often find myself Googling authors and going on their pages because [name redacted] likes to see a pic of the author. He also wants to know if they are alive or dead- his obsession currently.” So authors, make sure to have a picture of yourself on your website and your life/death status!

It’s no surprise that Author’s Blog took the top spot as a way readers connect to writers since this poll was conducted on an author’s blog. I also suspected Facebook would be a big one (and one of the reasons I finally created an author Facebook page, which I’d love for you all to check out here).

Wattpad had a poor showing, but that doesn’t mean it’s not a good place to connect, just that the audience for this particular poll doesn’t use it in that way. I’m actually dipping my toes into Wattpad with my collection of soccer shorts TALES FROM THE FIELD: 12 STORIES, 1 CHAMPIONSHIP. You may remember some of these stories from the Lightning Quick Reads blog, but the year ended before the final few stories did. I’ll be posting a story a week until all 12 are up (and they’re free!).

Okay, on to the other poll:

The wording of the writer poll was “As a writer, I’ve had success connecting to readers through…” again followed by a list of options, and voters could select as many they wanted. There were 30 total votes on this part.

Another strong showing by Facebook solidified my choice to create an author FB page. The Other option came out higher than I expected. I asked voters to provide specifics for this, and blog, website, and newsletter were included as answers. I didn’t provide blog and website specifically in this poll because I already have those and have definitely had success connecting to readers through these, so I didn’t feel like I needed proof of that.

I wanted to mention this because even though I wasn’t interested in that response for this poll, I do think it’s very important for authors to have a static website for readers to land on. A blog is nice for authors to have as well. It does require work, but I find it’s worth it for me. I have considered doing a monthly newsletter and am still considering it for the future, but at present I don’t have plans to start one. There simply aren’t enough hours of the day for that right now.

Wattpad is responsible for that pesky 0% at the top there, but again I’m taking all these results with a grain of salt. In both polls, On-line Author Events scored on the low side, and I’ll definitely be taking that into consideration when I plan any future online promotion and blog tours. Not that I won’t be doing online promotion, but I might work to optimize my exposure time vs. how much time I put into preparing them.

School visits was a category I considered including, but ultimately didn’t because I didn’t think it was the right audience for it. Also, I 100% know that school visits are an awesome ways for kidlit authors to connect directly to readers. The trick to school visits is booking them.

Those are my thoughts on the poll results. I hope you found them useful regardless of the statistical implications. I’d love to continue hearing your thoughts on how readers and authors connect. What’s worked for you? What hasn’t worked (which is sometimes more useful to share)? Do you care? (If you don’t why are you reading this?) 😉

Top-5 Japanese Mysteries from S.J. Pajonas Author of THE DAYDREAMER DETECTIVE

April 8, 2016 / Katie L. Carroll

I’m so happy to be able to share a top-five list and an excerpt of THE DAYDREAMER DETECTIVE by S.J. Pajonas with you all today. This blog tour is organized by Lola’s Blog Tours. The blog tour runs from 4 till 8 April, you can view the complete tour schedule on the website of Lola’s Blog Tours. Don’t forget to enter the giveaway and let’s give a big welcome to S.J.!

Since I’m writing a mystery set in Japan for an English-speaking audience (The Daydreamer Detective, out on March 31, 2016!), I thought it might be fun to share my favorite Japanese mysteries, written about Japan or by Japanese authors. If there’s one thing to know about Japan before getting into their mysteries, it’s that they can be pretty graphic and gory. The first few I read were a bit disturbing, but I also couldn’t help but be drawn in by the stories. Maybe there’ll be a few here, you’d be interested in!

Out by Natsuo Kirino – This is the quintessential Japanese mystery book because it’s based on actual events that occurred in Japan in the 1990s. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inokashira_Park_dismemberment_incident This actually happened in my favorite park in Tokyo, Inokashira Park in Kichijoji, and I have since written this park into one of my other novels Summer Haikus (but I was carefull to never mention the incident in that romance!) Anyway, body parts were found in trash bags in the garbage cans in this park and the murder was never solved. Since this murder happened, garbage cans have been removed from the park, and you have to take your trash with you when you leave. Out is murder mystery that uses this same technique to dispose of the body, but that’s only one little twisted piece of the puzzle. I promise you will never look at bento boxes the same way again.
All She Was Worth by Miyuki Miyabe – If you want a real look into Japanese culture, this is a good place to start. The crimes in this novel are mostly missing persons and credit troubles including theft, but you get the chance to see how the Japanese society is laid out and works so that people can game or move around in the system. I found this book fascinating for all the twists and turns along the way to the big reveal.
A Wild Sheep Chase and Dance, Dance, Dance by Haruki Murakami – These two books comes as a pair and the mystery in them is both supernatural and not. As usual, Murakami draws from his background in magical realism to create a fantastical, other-worldly setting without leaving Tokyo. Who is the man in the sheep suit and what does he want? These books drew me in and captured me completely.
The Dragon Scroll (Akitada Mysteries) by I. J. Parker – The Dragon Scroll is only the first book in a 15+ book series that takes place in ancient Japan. I’ve read the first five or six books in this series and really loved them. They’re not only clever mysteries but also give good insight into Japan’s past and the rules, cultures, and castes that shaped that time.
Shinju (San Ichiro Novels) by Laura Joh Rowland – This is the one book on this list I haven’t read but has been on my Kindle waiting for me for a while. It comes very highly rated and talked about from friends, so I’m excited to start it. It also gives a lot of insight into Japanese culture and societal norms, along with a tragic murder of two people drowned in a river together. This is also a first book in a long series, so there’s plenty of reading material here!

These are only a taste of MANY mysteries set in Japan. Other authors you may want to consider in your search would be: Seicho Matsumoto, Keigo Higashino, Barry Lancet, and Sujata Massey (who writes the Rei Shimura Mysteries).

The Daydreamer Detective (Miso Cozy Mysteries #1)
By SJ Pajonas
Genre: Mystery/ Cozy Mystery
Age category: Adult
Release Date: 31 march 2016

Luck? Forget it. Mei Yamagawa is fresh out of it. She’s just been downsized from her 3rd job in five years and her bank account is dry. Now, to keep her head above water, she must leave Tokyo and move back to her rural Japanese hometown. And there’s nothing worse than having to face your old rivals and ex-boyfriends as a failure while starting life over as a farm girl.

But when her best friend’s father is murdered, and her best friend is named the main suspect, Mei turns her daydreaming ways towards solving the crime. Between dates disguised as lunches with the town’s hottest bachelor chef, searching for clues, and harvesting sweet potatoes, Mei has a lot of non-paying work cut out for her.

Will she catch the killer before her bad luck turns worse? Or will she fry in the fire with the rest of her dreams of success?

You can find The Daydreamer Detective on Goodreads

You can buy The Daydreamer Detective here:
– Amazon
– B&N
– Kobo
– iBooks

Excerpt:

Every time I went into the barn during harvesting, I avoided the loft, but at the end of the week, I was finally ready to climb up there and inspect the remains of my past. The stairs creaked as I ascended into the dusty space above the tractor we used in the spring. On the right, under the window, sat the old couch I used to sit on and read, the spot where Tama and I slept together for the first and many times after. A plastic tarp covered it, and I could imagine the upholstery underneath was pristine. Mom was pretty thorough about taking care of this place. My old canvasses, some half drawn on or painted, others blank, leaned against the adjacent wall, next to my easel and tackle boxes of paints. On the left, Mom’s fire-proof file cabinets sat against the wall, carrying her precious documents and other things she needed to run the farm.

The Mount Fuji painting used to take up the space to the rear of my canvasses, but the wide wall stood empty, begging to be filled. I grabbed the top tackle box and popped it open. Tubes of acrylic paint lined the top tray, like I’d left them in there yesterday. Several were unopened and moved when I squeezed them, but a few had seized up. Wow. I was lucky! I’d heard acrylic paint could last ten years or more, especially if they were kept in the fridge, but the temperature fluctuated up here and I expected worse.

I flipped through the few canvasses left and placed one on the easel. I had scratched a few hasty pencil sketches onto it, but nothing seemed familiar. Hmmm. I turned the canvas around 180 degrees and there! Yes. I had planned to paint a lake with a torii gate and a mountain in the background. I never understood this about myself. I loved modern life. I loved my phone, my computer, and the city. Yet, when it came to painting, I only ever wanted to capture the world in its splendor, natural and real. I didn’t paint people. I didn’t paint animals. I hadn’t tried abstract or modern, though I loved to look at both. I was attracted the most to natural landscapes.

I was a host of perplexing contradictions.

About the Author:
Stephanie (S. J.) is a writer, knitter, amateur astrologer, Capricorn, and Japanophile. She loves foxes, owls, sushi, yoga pants, Evernote, and black tea. When she’s not writing, she’s thinking about writing or spending time outside, unless it’s winter. She hates winter. Someday she’ll own a house in both hemispheres so she can avoid the season entirely. She’s a mom to two great kids and lives with her husband and family outside NYC. They have no pets. Yet. When it comes to her work, expect the unexpected. She doesn’t write anything typical. Find her online at http://www.spajonas.com.

You can find and contact SJ Pajonas here:
– Website
– Facebook
– Twitter
– Goodreads
– Tumblr
– Instagram
– Youtube
– Wattpad
– Amazon

There is a tour wide giveaway for the blog tour of The Daydreamer. There will be two winners:
– One US Resident will win: One paperback copy of Adult Coloring Book Japan, One Signed Copy of The Daydreamer Detective, One signed copy of Removed, and a surprise flavor of Pocky!
– One International Resident will win: One ebook copy of The Daydreamer Detective, One ebook copy of Removed, and One ebook of each Rice Cooker Revenge, Washing Statue Wanderlust, and Mamachari Matchmaker

For a chance to win, enter the rafflecopter below:
a Rafflecopter giveaway

April #InkRipples: Playing with Poetry

April 4, 2016 / Katie L. Carroll

Poetry is one of the first types of literature we are exposed to as children. We hear it in songs, in rhyming pictures books, and even in the non-rhyming picture books whose cadence and structure are similar to poetry. One of The Boy’s favorite things to do is pick words (some nonsense ones) and rhyme them. He enjoys doing this activity for what can be an annoyingly long length of time!

One of the first ways young people express themselves both verbally and in written form is through poetry. I think this is because it has an interesting blend of structure and room for creativity and riffing. You can rhyme, but you don’t have to. You can create a haiku (very short and structured) or you can do a free verse poem (pretty much no “rules”). It’s almost instinctual for kids to play with poetry.

Back when I was in college, I applied for an award and one of the questions we had to answer was if you could create a class to be included in the English curriculum, what would it be. In one of my classes from the previous semester, each student had the opportunity to bring in one piece of writing that spoke to us, and almost every single person in the class (a small one of less than 20 students) brought in song lyrics. So I thought it would be cool to have a class called “Song Lyrics as Poetry.” One of my professors who was on the awards committee loved the idea so much, she taught songs lyrics as poems in one of her literature classes.

As an adult, I find myself dabbling in poetry for fun. I included a couple of ballad-style ones in Elixir Bound, I’ve written poems for my kids, and I ink the occasional poem for kids’ magazines. When I used to keep the magnetic poetry (check out this link for some examples) up on my refrigerator, people (of all ages) couldn’t help themselves and would come up with all sorts of poetry fun.

Poetry is a universal language we can all explore and play around with, even if we don’t consider ourselves poets!

#InkRipples is a monthly meme created by Katie L. Carroll, Mary Waibel, and Kai Strand. We pick a topic (April is all about poetry), drop a ripple in the inkwell (i.e. write about it on our blogs), and see where the conversation goes. Be sure to check out Kai’s and Mary’s posts this month. We’d love to have you join in the conversation on your own blogs. Full details and each month’s topic can be found on my #InkRipples page.

#InkRipples Feminism Wrap-Up, Round Up Style

March 28, 2016 / Katie L. Carroll

For my final #InkRipples post for March, here’s a hodgepodge of different, interesting things I’ve come across that can fall under the topic of feminism.

My entire #FemalesInYA series: https://katielcarroll.com/tag/females-in-ya-2/.

UN Women’s #HeForShe campaign: http://www.heforshe.org/en.

Taylor Swift’s Grammy speech:

A little piece of local (for me) history: “The Smith Sisters and Their Cows Strike a Blow for Equal Rights”.

Two links for book lists: “The Best Feminist Books for Younger Readers” and “The Best Feminist Picture Books”.

A fun video the boys and I like to watch:

Shutting down sexism in GIFs: “22 Times Tina Fey And Amy Poehler Shut Down Sexism In The Best Damn Way”.

Quotes from a Supreme Court Justice: “All rise! 9 amazingly feminist Ruth Bader Ginsburg quotes in honor of her new book”.

A serious look at the way women are objectified in ads:

And finally a link to a wrap-up article in this wrap-up post: “35 Inspiring Feminist Moments From 2015“.

#InkRipples is a monthly meme created by Katie L. Carroll, Mary Waibel, and Kai Strand. We pick a topic (next month we’re talking poetry), drop a ripple in the inkwell (i.e. write about it on our blogs), and see where the conversation goes. Be sure to check out Kai’s and Mary’s posts this month. We’d love to have you join in the conversation on your own blogs. Full details and each month’s topic can be found on my #InkRipples page.

Feminism in YA Fantasy: A Study of ELIXIR BOUND #InkRipples #FemalesInYA

March 21, 2016 / Katie L. Carroll

When I started writing ELIXIR BOUND many, many moons ago, I never intended to write a novel with feminist themes. I set out to write a fantasy adventure about two sisters with a structure modeled on the there-and-back-again journey of THE HOBBIT (a very non-feminist book!). Being the third of five children and a woman, it was important to me that the guardianship of the Elixir wasn’t passed down to the firstborn or a son, but I didn’t necessarily think about it in terms of feminism as I wrote the book.

It was only after I finished the first draft that I realized that I had created feminist characters, a feminist mythology, and a general feminist worldview.

At one point in an early draft, I had an older, male character–Hirsten’s father–in a brief scene question the decision to let Katora, a young woman, lead the quest to find the secret healing Elixir. He wasn’t questioning her abilities as leader, but the fact that Katora’s father was comfortable letting her venture into the dangerous Faway Forest. It stemmed from the fact that he only had male children and young women seemed a bit of a mystery to him.

I remember that as I wrote that scene, something about it wasn’t sitting well with me. I couldn’t pinpoint what the problem was until I had a whole draft, and then I quickly realized it didn’t fit in with the worldview I had created in pretty much every other aspect of the story. The world of ELIXIR BOUND wasn’t a place where the gender of a person was a reason to question whether or not they should do something. And it was only then that I was able to consciously recognize the type of world I had created.

The Greater Peninsula is ruled by Mother Nature, an unseen goddess character, whom Katora often refers to in dialogue as the “Great Mother” in way that in our world would probably be considered blasphemy (though it’s okay in her world). A young women leads the quest to find the secret ingredient for the Elixir, and the other women on the quest, though different, are certainly as worthy as any of the male characters, and believe themselves to be so. And so do the male characters…all of them (once I got rid of that rogue scene with Hirsten’s father). The external antagonist is called a witch, but she is really a minor goddess and has three male characters as her henchmen. No shortage of feminism there.

I suppose my own feminist ideas bled into the world I was creating all of their own accord. Once I was able to take a step back from the work and look at what I had done, it clicked that this was the way it was supposed to be. It’s my world, right, so why shouldn’t it have a more idealized version of women’s rights? I’m not saying it’s a perfect world or that I represent feminism in a perfect way, but it sure filled a need in me to create a world that didn’t paint someone like me in an inferior way.

I’ve read a lot of fantasy, and a whole lot of YA fantasy. Adult fantasies and their portrayal of women has generally been a disappointment; I know there are exceptions to this, but as a whole the genre is seriously lacking. There are many amazing female characters in YA fantasy, too many to list here (but for a sampling, Katsa from GRACELING, any of Tamora Pierce’s female characters, Alina from the The Grisha series, and Elisa from the Fire and Thorns series). The thing about a lot of these awesome female characters is that they often are the outliers: women doing things that men usually do or bucking against a world with inherent sexism. (Again, I recognize I’m generalizing here and that there are exceptions to this, but I’m talking about the greater picture I’ve observed in fantasy.)

So it came as a surprise to me that my world might be considered unique. I didn’t really think of it as such (I mean, everything has been done before, so I never consider anything I do as even remotely close to unique), but after thinking about it and noticing the trends in what I’ve read, I was like, “Huh. Maybe I’ve got something slightly out of the norm here.”

Then I thought, “Well, isn’t that kind of sad.” Even in our imaginary worlds, we can’t seem to break out of the sexist mold that we are pegged into in our real world. Even when we have dynamic, interesting female characters that pass the Bechdel Test, we too often put them in a patriarchal world, or worse a sexist one, or worst one that normalizes violence against women. (Seriously, just Google “sexism and fantasy” for a whole slew of articles about the topic.)

I’d love to read more fantasy books with a feminist outlook and not just the so-called “strong” female characters. So please throw some recommendations out there, and we can work on bringing more attention to fantasy books with feminist worlds.

#InkRipples is a monthly meme created by Katie L. Carroll, Mary Waibel, and Kai Strand. We pick a topic (there’s still time to add to the March topic of feminism), drop a ripple in the inkwell (i.e. write about it on our blogs), and see where the conversation goes. Be sure to check out Kai’s and Mary’s posts this month. We’d love to have you join in the conversation on your own blogs. Full details and each month’s topic can be found on my #InkRipples page.