Author: Katie L. Carroll (Page 99 of 142)

Stuck in the Infinite Loop (or Why I’m Not on Twitter)

June 7, 2013 / Katie L. Carroll

(Update: I have since joined twitter @katielcarroll and while it certainly does add to my Infinite Loop, well it’s proving to be entertaining and a good networking tool.)

So there’s this thing that sometimes happens to me when I get on the Internet…on those days when I just can’t focus on my WIP or my editorial work. When I log on (okay, really I just click on b/c my whole house is set up for wireless connection and I don’t have to really ‘log on’ anymore…and my smartphone is always tapped into the Internet), I find myself what I like to refer to as ‘quagmired’ in the Internet.

The first thing I generally do is check my personal email: read all my new messages, delete most of them, respond to a few, and file a few for future reference. Then I often check Facebook…just for a few minutes to see what people have posted since the last time I was on or to maybe jot down an update of my own.

Then I check my second email account. This one is more of an authorial/editorial account where I correspond with many of my author friends (some of this is done on the personal account as well), get my update feeds for several Yahoo groups I’m in, and for all my general editorial stuff with the Muse. Usually a quick Facebook check happens here, and perhaps an update on Goodreads.

My third email account is strictly for edits/correspondence with authors whose books I’m editing. (Oh, and this is the one that’s linked into my blogger account, so when I subscribe to receive comment notifications from a blog feed, it gets sent here.) At any point along here stick in a stats check on my book on Amazon rankings.

If I have a blog post up for the day, I will usually go in and check out my stats and then reply to any comments. Or I’ll work on a post for the next day. Then I might peruse some of the blogs I follow. Then I’m likely to head over to Verla Kay’s—soon to be in conjunction with SCBWI—blueboards (if you’re a kidlit writer, you should totally be on these). Of course, then I check Facebook.

And forget about productivity if I have anything out on submission; whatever email account is the contact will incessantly get checked all day like I have some sort of nervous tic.

But that’s not where it stops. No, because by now so much time has passed that I need to start the whole cycle over. Personal email account: check. Facebook: check. Authorial/editorial email account: check. Editing email account: check. Facebook: check. Website: check. Amazon: check. Blueboards: check. And then I’m back at the beginning and I do it all again. If eyes could get whiplash, well, I’d have to go see a specialist at this point.

I call this getting stuck in the Infinite Loop.

So I try to imagine if I was more involved in other social media sites, like Twitter and Pinterest. Sites that maybe would help me market my writing platform if I used them. But then I panic about the thought of adding more into the Infinite Loop. What if the Loop got so big it didn’t just suck me in on the occasional day? What if it starting eking into a second day? What if the loop snatched up a whole week? What if I never wrote another word because I couldn’t get out of the Loop, days disappearing in a haze of 140-character snippets?

Then I take a deep breath and remind myself that I control the Infinite Loop. With just one click (or maybe a few, depending on how many windows I’m rotating through), I can vanquish the Loop from my day and stick to being on the Internet a reasonable amount of time. I am only a slave to the Loop if I allow myself to be. The emails, the Facebook feed, the discussion board will all be there when I have time to get to it. And it’s not likely that I’ll miss anything really important.

Sometimes I just have to realize I don’t need to do everything. Stick to the things that reward me either personally or professionally and forget the rest (Twitter be damned).

I’d ask you what sucks up your precious time, but, umm, I’m getting little twitchy and have to go check my email…

Meet Lauren Boyd Author of Baking Love

June 5, 2013 / Katie L. Carroll

I’m very pleased to welcome Lauren Boyd author of the contemporary romance Baking Love (see my Goodreads review here). She is sharing some great advice on what to do before submitting…welcome, Lauren!

What You Should Know Before You Query Your Manuscript

So your manuscript is finished and ready to query? Congratulations! Before you do, here are a few helpful hints you might want to keep in mind:

Make sure to follow the guidelines of the literary agents and publishers you’re querying. Agents and publishers generally lay out what they are—and are not—looking for on their websites. Submitting your work to an agent/publisher who doesn’t specialize in your genre, submitting your work to more than one agent at a literary agency, and/or submitting your work to an agent/publisher who is currently closed to queries could all result in a rejection letter. Which leads me to my next point…

In this business, rejection is common—dare I say, the norm. If you’re a writer, it’s almost a certainty that you will meet rejection in one form or another along the way (and quite possibly, on multiple occasions). I know I did. Back when I wrote for kids, Highlights for Children accepted four of my stories for publication—but rejected more than twenty others. I submitted almost as many children’s picture book manuscripts to agents and publishers. A couple of those manuscripts came close to being accepted for representation or publication, but ultimately, none of them were. Rejection is a tough part of the game, but totally worth it when that agent or publisher accepts your work.

Don’t call a literary agent (or a publisher, for that matter) to check on the status of your query. You’ll find this statement on the website of most literary agencies and publishers. The good news is that these websites also normally tell you how long you can expect to wait before hearing from them with their decision. Based on my research, if you haven’t heard from them within the time frame they request, a follow-up email is reasonable. A phone call, however, is not.

I wish you the best of luck along your path to publication!

Any advice you can add? Any experiences you’d like to share?

Baking Love blurb:

Three years ago, Kate Sullivan fell in love with her best friend, Eric Wagner. Before she could tell him, he abruptly ended their friendship. Now Eric has walked into Kate’s bakery and back into her life—but why? Is he here to confess his love for her?

No. He’s here to order his groom’s cake. He’s getting married…to another woman.

Baking Love is available as an ebook at the MuseItUp bookstore, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple, and other ebook retailers, and in paperback from Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

About the Author:

Lauren Boyd writes romance that entertains and provides escape from daily life–and sometimes, you might just learn a thing or two. Connect with her at www.laurenboyd.webs.com.

Meet K.L. Pickett Author of Seventh Grade (Alien!) Hero

May 29, 2013 / Katie L. Carroll

In case you missed it while busy at your Memorial Day barbecue, I had my first post up at the Enchanted Inkpot, discussing female heroines and naming trends. Today K.L. Pickett, author of Seventh Grade (Alien!) Hero and the upcoming Maybe It’s Magic! is guesting on the blog today. Welcome, K.L.!

Science Fiction vs. Nonfiction

Science fiction is a passion of mine. That’s why I wrote the middle-grade novel SEVENTH GRADE (ALIEN!) HERO. Science fiction fills a yearning inside of me, a longing to create a world based on what we as human beings know, but goes beyond that knowing. Science fiction takes us a step closer to what might be, as opposed to what is.

On any given evening, you’ll most likely find me reading a good science fiction novel. My husband, on the other hand, would be engrossed in a nonfiction book. “Why read about imaginary things,” he asks, “when the real world is so interesting?”

Yes, the real world is interesting. But getting involved with intriguing characters and their wants and needs – in other words, connecting with them – is the most important part of any writing, be it science fiction or other genres. The main character of SEVENTH GRADE (ALIEN!) HERO is a middle-grade student that kids can relate to. Dustin’s a normal seventh grade boy whose life has been turned upside-down. His parents have gotten a divorce, his dad’s remarried, and his mom has moved her and him out to the middle of the desert, away from the suburban life he’s always known. He has no friends. Middle-graders can understand him because they all know how hard making friends can be, even if they haven’t moved to a new home themselves.

Besides great characters, there has to be a captivating plot. Being compelled to turn the page to find out what happens next – that just doesn’t happen to me when I read nonfiction. Don’t get me wrong, I love learning new information, but I’ve never stayed up half the night because I couldn’t put a nonfiction book down. Yet there have been many, many mornings when I’ve gotten up groggy from lack of sleep, because I just had to finish a great science fiction story.

That was my goal when I wrote SEVENTH GRADE (ALIEN!) HERO. Dustin encounters one problem after another, each more urgent than the one before. I wanted to create a story that a reader wouldn’t want to put down until he or she had read the last page.

Like all good science fiction, the story involves technology. Dustin and the alien character, Bok, communicate by means of a holographic image. Now I’m sure reading about holographic images – how they are produced, who designed the first ones, how they are used – would be informative and interesting. However, I’d never lose sleep reading about them.

Both science fiction and nonfiction can be full of adventure. Reading about a dangerous and exhilarating trek to the top of Mt. Everest or to the bottom of the sea floor can be stimulating and informative. However, I’m never sitting on the edge of my seat while reading a nonfiction book.

I’ve never ‘lost’ myself in a nonfiction book, the way I do when I’m reading a good fictional story. Becoming totally immersed in a novel is a pleasure I’ve never had with a nonfiction book. My hope is that readers of SEVENTH GRADE (ALIEN!) HERO will become absorbed with the story and ‘lose’ themselves in it.

Many people, like my husband, may prefer nonfiction over science fiction. But for me, there’s nothing better than a compelling science fiction story, with great believable characters, an interesting setting, driven by an action-packed plot. Reading a great science fiction story is something worth losing sleep over.

Seventh Grade (Alien!) Hero Blurb:

Seventh-grader Dustin Cotter dreams of being the first human to make contact with an alien species. After watching a meteorite crash-land on Earth, he discovers it’s a miniature spaceship and becomes determined to catch it.

But first a dog grabs it. A dog that happens to be owned by Randie, the cutest girl at his new school. Then it’s stolen by another kid on horseback: Max, the school comedian/magician/cowboy.

And making matters worse, a dangerous motorcyclist saw the meteorite crash, too. Now he wants it and will stop at nothing until it’s in his possession. One dark night, he catches Dustin alone out in the desert – and Dustin’s dream turns into a life-threatening nightmare.

About the Author:

K.L. Pickett was born in Southern California. Her first job as a young teenager was collecting eggs on an egg ranch. She’s had many occupations since then: preschool teacher, real estate salesperson, special education teacher’s assistant, loan officer, furniture salesperson, and agricultural biologist. She currently teaches fourth grade in a tiny rural elementary school.

Over fifty of her stories and articles have appeared in national magazines such as Boys’ Life, Highlights for Children, Humpty Dumpty, and Ladybug under the name Karen Troncale.

She’s rescued dozens of cats, dogs, and birds in her life including a pelican, a pheasant, and several crows. An avid animal-lover, she’s a volunteer for the Tombstone Small Animal Shelter, designing their flyers each week and writing their public radio announcements.

Currently she resides in Tombstone, Arizona, along with her husband, dog, and mule. When she’s not writing, reading, or teaching, she’s riding her mule along the same desert trails that Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday rode upon.

SEVENTH GRADE (ALIEN!) HERO is her first book. It is available at the MuseItUp bookstore, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other ebook retailers. MAYBE IT’S MAGIC!, her second book, releases in August 2013.

Please visit her website: www.klpickett.weebly.com. Every month she features a free children’s short story to read and an inexpensive art activity to do at home.

Meradeth Houston on Ending The Chemistry of Fate

May 25, 2013 / Katie L. Carroll

Let’s give a warm welcome for returning guest poster Meradeth Houston. Her new adult novel The Chemistry of Fate (see my Goodreads review here), a companion to her YA novel Colors Like Memories, recently released from MuseItUp. The Chemistry of Fate Is on sale for $2.99 for the duration of the blog tour. And as if that wasn’t enough, there’s also a giveaway! (Whew…)

The Way It All Ends

Thanks so much for hosting me Katie! I thought it would be appropriate to talk about novel endings here today, especially after you helped me figure out what to do with the ending of The Chemistry of Fate :).

When it comes to novels there area few different types of endings:

The happily ever after (HEA), where all, or at least most of the main plot threads are tied up and there’s the promise that things are going to go well for everyone at all. Think most harlequin novels and Disney movies.

The cliffhanger, where there’s another book where things will (hopefully) be tied together. Usually some of the main plot threads are undone and the reader is usually left tearing their hair out waiting for the next book. The Hunger Games had some good cliffhanger endings.

The question mark ending (I’m inventing terms—there are probably official words for these, but what’s the fun in that?), where the reader is left thinking about what happened and is still wondering about it days later. Some important thread isn’t totally tied off, either intentionally or not. This happens in movies like The Graduate, Inception, and Primer.

The what-the-heck-just-happened ending, where there’s a dues ex machina ending that kind of leaves the reader wondering just what happened. I felt like the last book in the Fallen series by Lauren Kate did this (literally!) and it’s often not totally satisfying. Or there’s the kill-everyone-off version too (Hamlet…).

These are some of the common endings, though I know there are more (I’d love to hear more examples!) and it varies from person to person what kind of ending works best for them. (I even know someone who prefers the “everyone dies” ending.) Personally, I love an ending that leaves me thinking, so long as some of the threads are neatly tied off. The ending of Inception was utter perfection to me.

With Chemistry, I originally had an ending that left things really hanging. While I knew who survived and who didn’t, I purposefully left it ambiguous. Which was fine, until I started discussing the next book with my editor :). She made the very valid point that what I was doing wasn’t going to work, as the book wasn’t resolved enough to flow with book #3 (which is based on two very different characters). So, I went back to the drawing board (and emailed writing friends to beg support!).

The ending that currently stands is what I came up with. I won’t give anything away, but it works a whole lot better :). (Though if anyone’s read it, I’d love to hear what kind of guesses you have as to what originally happened at the end!) But, there is something to be said about leaving your readers feeling really uncomfortable with the ending, and I’d rather heed my editor’s wise advice!

Of course, this makes me really curious. What is your favorite novel or movie ending? What kind of ending do you prefer?

The Chemistry of Fate blurb:

“They are everywhere, can be anyone, and are always the last person you’d expect.” When Tom stumbles across his grandfather’s journal, he’s convinced the old man was crazier than he thought. The book contains references to beings called the Sary, immortals who are assigned to save humans on the verge of suicide. They certainly aren’t allowed to fall in love with mortals. Which the journal claims Tom’s grandfather did, resulting in his expulsion from the Sary. As strange as the journal seems, Tom can’t get the stories out of his head; especially when he finds the photo of his grandfather’s wings.

Tom’s only distraction is Ari, the girl he studies with for their chemistry class.

Ari has one goal when she arrives in town: see how much Tom knows about the Sary and neutralize the situation. This isn’t a normal job, but protecting the secrecy of the Sary is vital. If Tom is a threat to exposing the Sary to the public, fate has a way of taking care of the situation, usually ending with the mortal’s death. While Ari spends time with Tom, he becomes more than just an assignment, but how far can a relationship go when she can’t tell him who she really is? When she finds out just how much Tom actually knows about the Sary, Ari is forced to choose between her wings, and her heart.

THE CHEMISTRY OF FATE is a companion to COLORS LIKE MEMORIES and is set before the latter takes place. It is geared toward an upper YA, or New Adult audience. Buy it at MuseItUp Publishing, Amazon, iBooks, Barnes and Noble, and other ebook retailers.

About the Author:
MeradethHouston
Meradeth’s never been a big fan of talking about herself, but if you really want to know, here are some random tidbits about her:

She’s a Northern California girl, but now lives and teaches anthropology in Montana.
When she’s not writing, she’s sequencing dead people’s DNA. For fun!
She’s been writing since she was 11 years old. It’s her hobby, her passion, and she’s so happy to get to share her work!
If she could have a super-power, it would totally be flying. Which is a little strange, because she’s terrified of heights.

Find more about Meradeth and her books on her website, her blog, Goodreads, Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest.

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Meet Kai Strand author of Beware of the White

May 20, 2013 / Katie L. Carroll

Today I’m doing an interview over at the new MuseItUp Young and YA blog. In my absence, please welcome fellow Muser Kai Strand, author of the middle grade fantasy Beware of the White (check out my Goodreads review), as she discusses her editorial process.

DO THE HARD WORK

Hi everybody! I’m Kai Strand, author of the newly released middle grade fantasy adventure, Beware of the White. I’m thrilled to be on Katie’s blog. Katie was my content editor for Beware of the White and she helped me SO much!

I have a love/hate relationship with editing. I cannot stand the initial revisions, the first pass review that follows the creative high of the first draft. As painfully boring as those revisions are to me, I understand they are crucial to the process. I have great critique partners and I don’t want to jeopardize our working relationship by sending them work I haven’t done due diligence in. It is disrespectful of their time and expertise to send sloppy work.

Once I get their input, I enjoy the editing process again. I like to see how they suggest improvement to the storyline or character development. I love to see where they melt over a character or shake a fist in frustration. I even find the occasional question mark (the ‘what-exactly-do-you-mean-here’ question mark) challenging. As an author, it isn’t my job to defend my work, it is my job to make the story and characters clear to the reader so that no defense is required.

After that, I usually go into another funk of ‘this is so boring’ as I prepare the manuscript for submission. Once I get an editor assigned from the publisher I fall back in love again. I love when an editor really challenges me to improve the book. I love wanting to tear my hair out because it feels like so much work after having put in so much work already. Because I know that will make it a stronger story that will resonate with the reader.

So here comes my last hateful relationship with the editing process. The hard work. Ah, you thought I already mentioned the hard work above, huh? There is one more crucial step. When a content editor reads your work, she examines the story for logic, gaps, motivation. She notes if the pace falls off, mentions an awkward dialogue exchange, points out where your heroine suddenly jumps out of character. You fix the things she mentions and the two of you exchange the manuscript a few times to tweak and refine your words. The line editor points out all of your misuse of commas, grammatical errors, and tweaks to the formatting.

But wait…who is making sure that after all these changes, the words still flow? OH! The author. Before those final edits are turned in, do the hard work and read your story aloud. When you are micro-editing it is so easy to edit in duplicate words or phrases, awkward transitions or a different writing voice. The only way to make absolutely certain the edits are a success is to start at the beginning and read all the way to the end. And do it OUT LOUD! Don’t cry. I know it’s a lot of work, but your story will be stronger for it. I promise.

About Beware of the White:

As is tradition, Terra learns on the Saturday past her twelfth birthday that she is a Natures Spirit. It is her legacy to serve in the peaceful underground city of Concord. Learning she is named in a prophecy and being threatened by the leader of the death tribe…that part breaks tradition.

The Trepidus are the death janitors of the Underworld, responsible for delivering fatalities with a smile and cleaning up after themselves until Blanco, recent leader of the Trepidus, decides the day of reckoning for his species is coming. He begins organizing the creatures and leads them toward an uprising. The prophecy says there is one person who can stop him. Terra.

With Spirit of Security, Frank, protecting her, Terra attempts to complete her training and discover her Spirit talents. Together, they go on a rogue investigation to learn how to defeat Blanco. In the end, it comes down to a battle of the minds. The future of Concord is at stake. Will Blanco, the older, more experienced being win? Or will Terra, the young, new Spirit earn back the peace of the city?

Buy It:

MuseItUp Publishing

Amazon

Barnes & Noble

To celebrate the launch of BEWARE OF THE WHITE, Kai Strand has awesome book related prize packages. Be sure to enter to win. And return again and again to claim entries as you qualify. Kai will also have Spontaneous Giveaways during her book tour. Those giveaways won’t be announced so be sure to follow Kai’s tour. Only virtual stalkers will have the opportunity at all the fun!

About the author:

Kai Strand writes fiction for kids and teens. Her debut novel, The Weaver, was a finalist in the 2012 EPIC eBook Awards. She is a (very lucky) wife and the mother of four amazing kids. The most common sound in her household is laughter. The second most common is, “Do your dishes!” She and her family hike, geocache, and canoe in beautiful Central Oregon, where they call home.

To find out more about Kai’s books, download companion documents, find links to her published short stories and discover all the places to find Kai both virtually and in person, visit her website: www.kaistrand.com. She loves to hear from readers, so feel free to send her an email or visit her facebook page, Kai Strand, Author.

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