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Meet Clare C-Saunders, Author of CHARLOTTE & ARTHUR’S ADVENTURES – THE PUMPKIN PORTAL

October 1, 2024 / Katie L. Carroll

Charlotte & Arthur’s Adventures – The Pumpkin Portal
A Middle Grade Adventure for spooky season!

Thank you, Katie, for asking me to be a guest blogger on your lovely website. I’m happy to introduce my new book Charlotte & Arthur’s Adventures – The Pumpkin Portal to you and your readers. This book cover has been beautifully illustrated by my daughter Rose, who is only 17 years old. Rose has worked together with me as a mother & daughter team on all our books since she was only nine years old, her first illustrations can be seen in, Seven Nights of Snuggles. She’s also done an amazing job of putting our book trailer together along with her dad’s music and my voiceover. Working with my daughter makes author events so much fun, as she often comes along with a craft activity for children. We’ve appeared at the Derby Book Festival, our local libraries and independent bookstores, and we even did a school book talk along with our Newfoundland dog in tow for World Book Day.

The Pumpkin Portal book and cover were inspired by our family trips out to our local pumpkin patch in Derbyshire, UK. Obviously, the book features a fictional version of it with a good dose of artistic licence for entertainment value. This is a beautiful farm near where we live, it has many different varieties of pumpkins and gourds in every size, shape and colour. I hadn’t realised you can get a blue pumpkin until I found one in their patch! Every year we visit together as a family to wander around their fields with the colourful wheelbarrows they provide, and we each pick a couple of pumpkins to decorate our woodland cottage with.

As well as their fields full of delightful colours we also visit the food marquee which is named the Witches Kitchen. Inside is always full of yummy food and drink choices and is surrounded by hay bales that you can sit on. There are also hay bales stacked up outside for children to climb on and fairground rides as well as other food vans and fun activities.

The story came to me when I thought about what might happen if a modern-day teenage girl had her Cinderella fantasy come true. Would she really like it? Or would her dream become a nightmare? Readers will find out as they follow Amara after she is whisked away from child minding Charlotte & Arthur at the Pumpkin Patch. Charlotte & Arthur must once again journey back to The Wheel World to save Amara from the Gnome King and his friend, Tricky Jack (the Pumpkin King). In doing so they learn about the magic of witches, go on death defying broomstick rides, have a close encounter with a mermaid and have fun with a baby dragon. During this adventure they will also unveil a hidden family secret to discover who they really are.

About the CHARLOTTE & ARTHUR’S ADVENTURES – THE PUMPKIN PORTAL:

Charlotte & Arthur are enjoying a day out at The Pumpkin Patch when their friend Amara is whisked away by a pumpkin portal. It’s up to Charlotte & Arthur to rescue her.

Grab your broomsticks for a trick or treat ride into a magical world. Zoom past dangerous mermaid filled waters, dodge flying pumpkins, learn about the magic of witches and fly a dragon.

Can Charlotte & Arthur rescue Amara with the help of their magical friends? Join them for a Halloween adventure on a path to self-discovery, as they unveil a hidden family secret and find out who they really are.

You can order this book through your local bookstore or it’s available in paperback and eBook online at Amazon.

About the Author:

Clare C-Saunders is from Derbyshire, England, UK. Clare has released three books to date, along with her young daughter, Rose, as illustrator. All made it into a top 100 Amazon best sellers chart. Currently she is writing her fourth book under the working title The Crystal Dragon’s Egg, which will be the last in the Charlotte & Arthur’s Adventures trilogy. Yule and the Helter Skelter had originally been a short story intended for her first book, but she decided it could make a better middle grade story. With 25 chapters it makes the perfect gift, not only as a book, but as an advent calendar for the whole family to enjoy in the festive run up. Next book in the series is, The Pumpkin Portal, featuring new character, Amara, who is whisked away by a pumpkin while child minding Charlotte & Arthur. The children must find a way to rescue her from the clutches of the Gnome King and his partner in crime Tricky Jack (the Pumpkin King) in this fairy-tale fantasy gone awry.

Seven Nights of Snuggles is a picture book for younger children. This book has seven delightfully illustrated stories designed to be read to children at bedtime. As well as books Clare has also worked in writing, producing and directing for radio. Her work includes an informative children’s internet safety campaign series entitled, The Internet Wizard and an interactive pantomime style radio play of Snow White. Today, when not writing, Clare can be found recording voice overs in her home recording studio, she voiced her own audiobooks for Seven Nights of Snuggles and Charlotte & Arthur’s Adventures – Yule and the Helter Skelter. You can hear samples of her audiobooks at www.clarecunliffe.com

Look out for more information on upcoming events, book festivals, magazine and blog articles, media interviews and special offers over on the following social media pages:
Facebook: Clare & Rose C-Saunders
IG: @theclarecs
X: @MediaClare
TT: @clare.csaunders

The Charlotte and Arthur’s Adventures series of books are published by Fisher King Publishing Ltd, find out more on their website.

A Guide to Standing Up to Book Bans for Banned Books Weeks 2024

September 25, 2024 / Katie L. Carroll

Earlier this year, I stood up against book banning in my town when a few parents challenged the inclusion of the Heartstopper graphic novels by Alice Oseman in middle school libraries. I spoke and wrote about this experience across all my social media accounts and sent letters to school officials and my local media outlets. You can read my open letter and find links to some of the news coverage sparked by the attempted book ban in my post “Heartstopper by Alice Oseman Should Not Be Banned From Middle School Libraries.”

While the book ban attempts in my town were defeated, there are many towns across the United States where this is not the case. The American Library Association just released their “2024 Preliminary Book Ban Data.” It shows a small decline in book challenges from 2023, but the numbers were still way ahead of the numbers prior to 2020. This data is pulled from reported instances and media coverage, but all book challenges and bans are not given these, so the numbers don’t give the whole picture.

The ALA also noted that data doesn’t take into account soft censorship. They stated, “Additionally, instances of soft censorship, where books are purchased but placed in restricted areas, not used in library displays, or otherwise hidden or kept off limits due to fear of challenges illustrate the impact of organized censorship campaigns on students’ and readers’ freedom to read. In some circumstances, books have been preemptively excluded from library collections, taken off the shelves before they are banned, or not purchased for library collections in the first place.”

They shared this data ahead of Banned Books Week, which is happening right now. But the fight against book bans shouldn’t only be talked about one week of the year. Book challenges happen all the time, and there are ways to combat them.

Get educated about books challenges. Here are some good places to start: ALA Banned & Challenged Books, Banned Books Week, Authors Against Book Bans.
Be Proactive. Write an email to school administration saying you trust the professionals (i.e. school librarians and teachers) to select books for school libraries, even if there are no book challenges in your area. Find out what the policies are in your communities. Show support to your public librarians by mentioning how you appreciate the Banned Books or Pride Week displays. Read banned books, and not just the classics. Check out the banned books lists and support the living authors who are being affected by these bans.
Pay attention and make your voice heard. I was alerted to the book challenges in my town when I happened to come across an article from a local newspaper on my Facebook feed. Then I went to work to educate myself (I had already read the books in question and had lots of resources at hand), so I could respond quickly and share my voice in support of the books. So often, it’s the would-be book banners that have the loudest voice, and those of us in favor of freedom of reading need to be loud as well.
Volunteer or run for office in your community. This one’s a bit harder as it usually means a significant time commitment. But if you do have the ability and time, positions that support schools and libraries include running for a Library Board or Board of Education position or volunteering for your local library group (often called Friends of the Library).

Also, read this Book Riot article by Kelly Jensen “How to Fight Book Bans in 2024.”

The Inspiration Behind the Award-Winning YA fantasy ELIXIR BOUND

August 23, 2024 / Katie L. Carroll

ELIXIR BOUND is the book that made me an author, but it’s so much more than that. This book and its sequel, ELIXIR SAVED, are memorials to my sister Kylene. In ELIXIR BOUND, Katora, who has a sister named Kylene, goes on a quest to become the guardian of a secret healing Elixir. The Elixir Chronicles are like a wish in book form. A wish for more for my sister.

I’ve written about Kylene a bunch of times here on the blog (see “Still Mourning Kylene 20 Years Later”), and her too-short life continues to be a large influence on my writing. One of my works-in-progress is a picture book about a girl who loses her sister.

Mourning is a life-long process. Writing is one of the ways I try and make sense of this wonderfully complex thing we call life. Naturally, my feelings about Kylene come up a lot in my writing.

Yet, the Elixir Chronicles are fantasy quests with magic, whimsy, and adventure. There are deaths — particularly one in ELIXIR SAVED that is a bit devastating — but death and mourning aren’t main themes. The books are more about living. The characters are figuring out what kind of life they want to live and trying to put that into action.

In that way, it’s like giving Kylene — albeit a fictional one — a second chance at life. Second chances are a main theme of ELIXIR SAVED. Yup, these books are big wishes that I know won’t come true. But it still felt good to write them, even when the writing was incredibly hard at times.

The ebook of ELIXIR BOUND is currently on sale for $1.99. It’s part of the Narratess Indie Sale, which officially kicks off tomorrow. There are over 370 fantasy, sci-fi, and horror book by indie authors and publishers on sale or even free.

The “Skin and Bones” inspiration behind GRAMMY’S HALLOWEEN SCARE

July 30, 2024 / Katie L. Carroll

The next book in the Family Holiday Tales series GRAMMY’S HALLOWEEN SCARE is out in the world! Once again, illustrator Phoebe Cho has created an atmospheric setting for characters that pop off the page. We get new characters in Grammy and her black cat Jellybean, but we also get the return of a bunch of spooky kids who you might recognize from the other books in the series. Grammy’s tale is the culmination of many things I love with Halloween, witches, and crows all making an appearance.

GRAMMY’S HALLOWEEN SCARE can be found at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org, and Kobo. It took a surprising amount of research to make this book come together, so here’s the story of what inspired me to write it.

A witchy page from the book THE BEDTIME KNIGHT, written by Katie L. Carroll and illustrated by Erika Baird.

Halloween is my favorite holiday. Anyone who’s ready my middle grade novel WITCH TEST knows I have a soft spot for witches. A “witch” even makes an appearance in my picture book THE BEDTIME KNIGHT.

When it came time to figure out what holiday I wanted to highlight for the third Family Holiday Tales book, I wanted to do something other than Christmas, so Halloween was the obvious next choice for me. I’d already featured a mom and a dad in the other books in the series. A grandparent was a logical next choice, and a witchy grandma felt like a no-brainer!

I also had to figure out what I would use as the rhythmic inspiration for the book. MOMMY’S NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS is based off the famous poem by Clement C. Moore “‘Twas the Night Before Christmas,” and DADDY’S 12 DAYS OF CHRISTMAS can be sung to the tune of the classic Christmas carol “The Twelve Days of Christmas.” For my witchy grandma, there wasn’t anything obvious that came to mind. It also had to be something that was in the public domain.

Then I remembered this song I used to sing in music class around Halloween time. It started with kids singing, “There was an old woman all skin and bones, ooo-ooo-oo-ooo.” It end with a deep-voiced “boo!” for a jump scare. A quick search, and I found the musical version from when I was a kid. There was no YouTube back then, so we didn’t have a video to go with the music.

I loved that silly, slightly scary song. A little more research led me to the book SCARY STORIES TO TELL IN THE DARK by Alvin Schwartz and illustrated by Stephen Gammell. Those books terrified me as a kid…in a way that I loved! The book version (below as performed in the audiobook by George S. Irving ) was even more disturbing than the one I used to sing. It also gave me the important clue that it was from an old folk song.

Even more research led to me to more versions of the song, each one seemingly more disturbing than the last! The different recordings of the song were simply haunting (see “Skin and Bones” sung by Jean Ritchie and scroll down for this unknown singer performing “Skin and Bones”). I wasn’t able to trace the exact origin of the song, but my research showed it was certainly old enough to be safe to use as inspiration for my book.

GRAMMY’S HALLOWEEN SCARE is more fun than scary. It can be sung to the tune of the song I grew up singing, and I included sheet music with my lyrics in the front of the book. I’ve done a couple of read-alouds of the book, and the young audiences have loved singing along on the “ooo-ooo-ooo” part. Here’s a video of me singing the book!

Meet KD Williams Author of THE MYSTERIES OF WOODLAND ACADEMY

June 11, 2024 / Katie L. Carroll

I recently reached out to a bunch of authors while writing an article for Teen Librarian Toolbox called “Self-Published Authors Fill the Gap with Books Featuring Characters Ages 13-15.” Due to the timing of deadlines, I wasn’t able to include KD Williams in the article, so I’m so please to welcome KD and her book THE MYSTERIES OF WOODLAND ACADEMY to the blog today.

About THE MYSTERIES OF WOODLAND ACADEMY:

Natalie Evergreen’s best friend, Samantha Harper, is moving away to attend Woodland Academy, a prestigious private preparatory school in Virginia, far away from Memphis, TN. Natalie is unwilling to break up their friendship, so she agrees to attend Woodland Academy with her, where they encounter supernatural occurrences. Although, Natalie is smitten by the school’s enchantments, splendor, and wonders, Natalie is determined to understand these mysteries with Sam. Natalie learns there’s more to Woodland Academy than meets the eye. Natalie quickly rises to fame when she is elected to participate in the school’s annual games. Things take an unexpected turn when unbelieving Natalie converts to Christianity. However, she finds it struggling to share her newfound faith with her devout atheist parents, who want nothing to do with God. Can Natalie get her parents to accept her faith in time before their fate takes a turn for the worst? Natalie knows every decision she makes is crucial, but one thing is certain, her life will never be the same again. Find out what awaits Natalie in this coming-of-age story of a young girl who learns faith doesn’t come without a price… in The Mysteries of Woodland Academy.

Purchase it at Walmart, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Target.

About the Author:

K. D. Williams is a Christian author who lives in Mississippi with her family. The Mysteries of Woodland Academy is her young adult debut. K.D. Williams earned a Bachelor of Science in History at Mississippi Valley State University and a Master of Arts in Education specializing in Child Development at Ashford University. In her spare time, she enjoys reading, writing, and spending time with her grandchildren. K.D. Williams has a heart for the homeless and wants to start a homeless shelter one day.

You find her on Twitter @KdwilliamsA or Instagram @kdwilliams26.