Author: Katie L. Carroll (Page 9 of 144)

World Wide Writeathon Fundraiser & NESCBWI Conference Registration

March 18, 2022 / Katie L. Carroll

Lots of irons in the fire going on here! I’ll be making a very exciting book announcement soon, so stay tuned for that. I’m also getting very close to being able to share illustration and cover news for my upcoming picture book MOMMY’S NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS. I also have a lot of book release news cooking for next year (I know it’s only March, but publishing thinks ahead!).

Today, I’m highlighting two upcoming events that are of interest to fellow writers. Tomorrow, Saturday, March 19, 2022, at 10 a.m. (ET), you can join me, Julie Zantopoulos, Katlyn Duncan, and Amber McManus for the World Wide Writeathon Fundraiser Sprint. Grab you WIP and get some work done with us!

The charity for the sprint is Rescue.org and our fundraiser will help the fleeing families of the Ukraine. Learn more about the charity here: https://help.rescue.org/donate/ukraine-acq.

The second event is the New England SCBWI 2022 Regional Conference , which takes place April 29 – May 1, 2022. Registration opens today! The theme is “find your star, let it shine.” This conference is once again virtual, so you can attend from anywhere (and in your pajamas if you’d like).

I’ll be teaching an intensive workshop called “What to Expect When You’re Self-Publishing.” I’m really excited to share what I’ve learned about this booming sector of the publishing world and give attendees a guide to start their own self-publishing journey.

There are a ton of other amazing workshops and keynotes from a distinguished group of kidlit creators, including Jane Yolen, Padma Venkataraman, Tara Lazar, Heidi Stemple, Rajani LaRocca, and John Parra. Check out all the workshop options, faculty bios, and registration on the NESCBWI conference page.

You can always check out my Events page for all my upcoming author events and don’t forget you can now buy ebooks and signed print books directly from me on my Purchase Books page. What have you been working on lately?

Ebook Redistribution and Author Updates

February 28, 2022 / Katie L. Carroll

Quick announcement about ebook availability. I’m redoing how I distribute some of my ebooks, so there’s a chance those titles won’t be available on some retailers for a limited time. I am now selling all my ebooks directly on my Purchase Books page, where you can also order signed paperbacks, and none of those listings will be affected. The Amazon listings also shouldn’t be affected, so you can find them there as well.

Is it just me or is this year quickly flying by in a big ball of stress? Let me be honest on here for a second (I’m always pretty honest here), I have felt very stressed out this year. The world is feeling ugly and I’m constantly worried about keeping my family healthy, and I’m guessing I’m not the only one feeling this way. It makes it hard to focus, so I keep telling myself writing books for young people is always important–maybe even more so in trying times.

So I’ve been doing my best to take the moments I have for work and keep my head down to make the most of them. Still, I’ve hardly written anything new this year. I have so many solid ideas waiting in the wings. Lots of projects in the works, though. One of these weeks, I’m going to dig into revisions of that NaNoWriMo book of mine, the young adult Hamlet-inspired tale of a teen mourning the loss of her sister. Here’s a little mood board I put together for it.

The illustrations for my upcoming picture book MOMMY’S NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS are coming along. Soon I’ll be able to share some of what the very talented illustrator Phoebe Cho has been working on for that book. I’m also working on fun marketing and release details for the October publish date.

Events for 2022 are coming along as well. I have a few writing workshops lined up to teach, and I’m hoping to have some in-person books events and festivals lined up for when the weather warms up. I recently did a virtual author visit for my son’s 5th-grade class, and they wrote me the sweetest thank-you letters, many of them sharing the story ideas they came up during the guided writing exercise I did with them.

Believe it or not, I’m making publishing plans for 2023 already. I have one other book that might come out this year and even more planned for next year. So I guess it’s okay that I haven’t been writing much. I’m working…in between sick days and snow days and stressing out about war. Also taking a moment to appreciate how lucky I am…always important to practice gratitude.

What’s on your mind lately? I’d love to hear from you in the comments.

A Geriatric Millennial Joins TikTok

February 8, 2022 / Katie L. Carroll

It’s been a weird start to the year where I can’t seem to get into any kind of rhythm. My husband had to travel for work in early January and there have been lots of interruptions to the kids’ school schedules, so it’s not surprising that I feel this way…it’s just annoying. These last two years have been so all over the place!

I did manage to join TikTok (find me here @katielcarrollauthor) , which I’ve been hearing can be an important marketing tool for authors. It’s too soon to say if it’s helping me actually sell any books, but I am having fun…even though I’m a “geriatric millennial” and therefore old in social media terms!

This super short one is my most viewed video:

@katielcarrollauthor
Love long YA fantasy! #EpicFantasy #booktok #YAbooks #authortok #ElixirSeries #ElixirSaved #books #yafantasybooks
♬ Our Conversations Aint Long – Your Friend

These two longer ones don’t have a ton of views, but they are more personal regarding my journey as a writer, so I’m partial to them.

@katielcarrollauthor
Elixir Saved read through in memory of my sister Kylene.#authortok #bookdedications #elixirseries #ElixirSaved #booktok #WhyIWrite #yafantasy
♬ original sound – Katie L. Carroll

@katielcarrollauthor
Shimmer passage of Elixir Saved in memory of my sister Kylene#Booktok #bookquotes #authorsoftiktok #ElixirSeries #ElixirSaved #Inverted
♬ original sound – Katie L. Carroll

Anyone else on TikTok? Share your info in the comments and I’ll make sure to follow you.

Katie’s 2021 Year of Reading

January 4, 2022 / Katie L. Carroll

Goodreads can be kind of a nightmare for authors (I generally don’t read reviews of my books there), but I enjoy it as a reader. In particular, I like keeping track of the novels I’ve read (I don’t track my picture book reading) and for the yearly reading challenge with the handy wrap-up they give you at the end of each year. That’s where the screenshots in this post came from.

My 2021 reading goal was 50 books, which has been pretty typical of my reading habits of the last few years, and I came in at 51. Yay for consistency and meeting goals! Most of my reads were young adult or middle grade novels. In addition to that, I’m positive I’ve read hundreds of pictures books.

One of my goals was to read more graphic novels. My kids are obsessed with them! It was fun to share a lot of these with my 10-year-old and chat about them. I was quite successful on that front. A few stand-outs in that category were Séance Tea Party by Remena Yee, which was beautiful on so many levels, and Witches of Brooklyn and the sequel What the Hex?! by Sophie Escabasse. I did a lot of witchy reading, so it’s no surprise that these ended up as favorites.

I also read more romance than I usually do because I found those easy to read at times when I was having trouble concentrating. Helen Hoang and Jasmine Guillory are two of my favorite romance authors.

I read less non-fiction than usual, probably because those can require heavy concentration and I was lacking that in my reading this year. The End of Everything (Astrophysically Speaking) by Katie Mack was fascinating and not as heavy a read as the title suggest. Though I didn’t read a ton of adult non-fiction, I made up for that in how much non-fiction I read to the kiddos. We read lots of science books, particularly space-related ones.

Reading a diverse list of authors has been an important reading goal for me for years now, and I think I did a good job with that. This is also an important factor in what my kids are reading, so I make sure that they have books with all different kinds of people in them and written by diverse creators. Dr. Rudine Sims Bishop introduced the phrase about children having “windows, mirrors, and sliding glass doors” in their literature. My boys have plenty of mirrors in their reading, so I make sure they are also getting windows into other peoples’ lives.

Malinda Lo’s historical YA novel Last Night at the Telegraph Club won the National Book Award, among many other awards and starred reviews, and totally lives up the hype. I’ve enjoyed reading her stories ever since her first book Ash came out over ten years ago, and I was really happy to see her have such a successful year.

I’ve gotten to a point in my life where I don’t really read books that I don’t enjoy. So if you see a book end up on my read list that means I’ve enjoyed it. I also don’t buy as many books as my reading habits might suggest. The boys and I are big patrons of the public library, and I stop by there pretty much every week. Borrowing books from the library is a great way to support literacy, your community, and authors.

Unfortunately I still haven’t been able to get into reading audiobooks. Seems the efforts I talked about in my post from 2019 “Training My Brain to Read Audiobooks” haven’t worked. I continue to enjoy podcasts, so at least something came of that attempt.

What did you enjoy reading this year? Did you face any challenges or try anything new?

Exciting News About Mommy’s Night Before Christmas

December 23, 2021 / Katie L. Carroll

October 2022 Update: If you this poem, check out the newly revised and illustrated picture book MOMMY’S NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS by Katie L. Carroll and illustrated by Phoebe Cho.

Available now from Bookshop, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, IndieBound, Kobo, and more! Find signed copies on the Purchase Books page.

This is normally the week where I share “Mommy’s Night Before Christmas,” my parody of Clement C. Moore’s poem “A Visit from St. Nicholas.” Unfortunately I’m not doing that this year because I’ve done a slight revision in anticipation of it becoming a picture book! (Don’t worry, you can still enjoy the old version here.)

I’m currently working with an illustrator for a fall 2022 release. So keep an eye out for more news on this!

In the meantime, I want to wish all of you a peaceful rest of the holiday season. I know there’s a lot that makes this time of year stressful, especially these last couple of years, so it is my wish for you all to find the calm in the storm whenever you can. Health and happiness in the New Year!