I have a fun book announcement coming up next week (check out my site’s header for a hint of what it’s about). Quick post today to let you know that at 3:00 p.m. I’ll be on the Indie Author Day Children’s Authors Panel with the Norwalk Public Library.
Carol Gordon Ekster, Allia Zobel Nolan, Amy Oestreicher, Eric Sondergeld, and Frederick Thurber, and I will be on the panel discussing indie children’s publishing and our books. I’ll be reading from my latest YA fantasy ELIXIR SAVED. This will be the first time I’ll be doing a reading of this book! And this is a good opportunity to check out my virtual author visit space live, which I recently blogged about setting up.
Last order of business is to share that ELIXIR BOUND is on sale for $0.99! Also, if you have purchased any of my paperwork books, I’m happy to send you a signed bookplate. Signed books make great holiday gifts. Just send me an email.
I’ve been working hard getting my new virtual author visit space up and running in my attic office. I’ll be offering a variety of programs through Talkabook when it launches soon. You can also book a program directly through me by sending me an email at katielcarroll @ yahoo.com. Check out my Author Visits page to get an idea of my offerings.
The recent “Balancing Writing and Parenting” webinar I presented for the Indie Author Project Expert Sessions was recorded there. You can view that now on demand. The office space isn’t visible because the video is only my presentation, but it was a nice way to break it in.
I know not all the little details will be obvious in a virtual setting (and the yellow wall is what I see when I’m presenting), but I really wanted a space that would also make me happy. I made small posters to give some interest to the slanted ceiling. My books are displayed with skull and corvid bookends. The characters on top of one of the bookshelves were painted by my grandmother. I also have a special pirate ship backdrop for PIRATE ISLAND themed presentations that’s not pictured.
I’ll be making adjustments as necessary (and I have to make up a new poster for a secret upcoming book!), but I’m pleased with it so far and I’m very much looking forward to connecting with readers there.
Star Gazing: A Guide to the Moon, Sun, Planets, Stars, Eclipses, and Constellations had a bit of an unusual path to publication. What were the circumstances of how you came to write the book?
One day I got an email from Deb Burns, an acquiring editor at Storey Publishing, asking if I’d be interested in writing a book about astronomy for kids. It seemed completely out of the blue, but Storey’s model is to find experts to write books about what they’re experts in. I teach astronomy at Smith College, and by that time I’d written 19 articles for kids’ magazines. So I also had a track record of writing for kids, working to spec, and (mostly) meeting deadlines. Deb and I wrote the book proposal together, she pitched it to her editorial team, and we got the green light. So I highly recommend writing for magazines—it’s a great way to break into the business!
The design of the book is beautiful and it’s filled with so many fun little tidbits. How collaborative was the process of making the book?
Very collaborative. Along with my manuscript, I provided Storey with a list of suggested illustrations—photos, figures from the internet, and little sketches I’d made by hand or (I’m totally serious here) with Powerpoint. After Deb and a copy editor spiffed up my manuscript, my amazing book designer (Jessica Burns) took over. Storey hired an illustrator (Hannah Bailey) to do the diagrams, pictures, and amazing graphic novel sequences. It took three draft layouts and two in-person meetings to get to the final product (this was BC, before COVID). My main job during this process was making sure everything was scientifically accurate. Hannah’s illustrations look SO much better than my sketches, and Jess is just a wizard of putting text and illustrations on a page so that they make sense.
What is your favorite part of the writing process? What is your least favorite part?
I love everything about the writing process except actually writing! I’m a plotter, so I outline like crazy—the only way I can write nonfiction is to know where I’m going at all times. I am a research nerd, of course. And I really like to revise: it’s so satisfying when I find the perfect word or turn of phrase. But my first drafts? Blech.
What is next for you in your writing career? Do you have an upcoming releases or a favorite project you’re working on right now?
No upcoming releases yet. I’m working on a middle grade informational fiction book about a 5th grade girl who loves astronomy. And like all children’s writers, I have a computer folder full of picture book manuscripts that are slowly making the rounds.
And finally, what is something funny/weird/exceptional about yourself that you don’t normally share with others in an interview?
I’m a really good swimmer. I was never on a swim team, but I lifeguarded and taught swimming from age 18 to 24. I can keep up with people who are in much better shape than I am because I have good form and an efficient stroke. (Just don’t ask me to do the butterfly!)
STAR GAZING blurb:
Sky Gazing is a guide to observing the sky from wherever you are, day or night—no telescope required. Kids aged 9–14 will learn how to find objects in the sky and delve into the science behind what they see, whether they live in a dark rural setting or under the bright lights of the city. Star charts will guide them in spotting constellations throughout the seasons and in both hemispheres while they learn about constellation myths from cultures around the world. Each chapter has guides to special events and binocular observing. Activities engage kids and their grown-ups in hands-on science.
Meg Thacher has been writing for children’s magazines since 2013, publishing thirty nonfiction features, infographics, scientist profiles, current events, DIY experiments, and a reader’s-theatre-style retelling of a Welsh folktale. Her debut book, Sky Gazing, comes out on October 13. She’s an active member of SCBWI (the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators) and two critique groups. She is now in her twenty-second year teaching astronomy at Smith College, where she has also taught writing. She enjoys singing, knitting, and swimming, and lives in a partially empty nest in western Massachusetts.
It was created with the particular needs of parents in mind, but I think there will be some good tips for any writer who’s feeling short on time lately. It’s free, but you do need to register to attend live. It will also be recorded, so you can watch it at your convenience.
I wasn’t planning on bringing attention to the fact that abortion plays an important role in my latest young adult fantasy novel ELIXIR SAVED. It’s a little bit of a spoiler for one of the storylines, but it also felt like bringing attention to it would come off as me taking a controversial topic and using it to market my own book, which is not my intent at all. So I was content to be confident in my choice to include the abortion because it was right for the character and the story, but I would let readers come across it organically.
All of this on top of years of states passing laws—some of which were later overturned by the courts—that eroded access to birth control and reproductive rights for women and people with uteruses.
I am firm in my belief that abortion is healthcare. Denying people who seek safe and affordable ways to manage their sexual health, including abortion, is denying them agency over their own bodies. It’s a tool of oppression that has been used against women throughout history and is more about control than it is about saving lives (see “Abolishing Abortion: The History of the Pro-Life Movement in America” by Jennifer L. Holland and “The Pill and the Women’s Liberation Movement”).
So when I was continuing to develop the matriarchal world in the second book of the Elixir Chronicles and an unwanted pregnancy became a storyline, there was no question about whether that character would have access to an abortion. I put a lot of thought into what her decision would be, but the access part was never an issue.
I also don’t think it’s inappropriate for birth control or abortion to be in a young adult novel. Some teens are having sex and certainly most of them are thinking about it. Some teens are on birth control. Some teens have had abortions. I hope any teens—or any person for that matter—who read ELIXIR SAVED feel safe using it as a starting off point to discuss and understand reproductive rights. They deserve to be educated about it.
So this is me using my blog as a platform to say that I support the right to choose for anyone with a uterus, and one of the ways I’m showing my support is by having abortion as a right in my young adult fantasy novel.
