Category: Anecdote (Page 20 of 31)

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…

Spring 2013 in Pictures

May 31, 2013 / Katie L. Carroll

As the unofficial start of summer kicked off this past weekend, I thought I’d take a look back at what I did this spring. As seems to be the usual lately in coastal CT March weather was crappy, May proved far rainier than April, and June looks to be starting out hot, hot, hot. But you know what they say about weather in New England…if you don’t like it, just wait a few minutes.

So what I have been up to lately (other than writing Elixir Saved and editing other poeple’s books)? Mostly hanging out with The Boy. Here’s a picture essay of my spring.

Our first trip to the zoo…checking out the wolves.

Now looking at The Boy’s favorite animal…tiger!

Cousins hugging during out trip to the Poconos.

Hiking to the waterfall in the Poconos.

More hiking, this time at Sleeping Giant.

Walking (mostly running) to the top of the castle at Sleeping Giant.

One of many times climbing the dinosaur stairs at the park after library story time.

Mother’s Day tea tasting.

Our second trip to the zoo…this peacock may or may not have stolen my sweatshirt. It’s still a bit of a mystery what happened to the sweatshirt.

Baby goat at the zoo (we also got to see baby hogs)…too cute!

Beach time!

Footsteps in the sand…Mommy’s aren’t that much bigger than The Boy’s!

First backyard fire.

I’m sure summer will bring lots more zoo, park, beach time. Maybe some fireworks thrown in there. Perhaps a completed draft of Elixir Saved. A weekend trip to upstate New York for the end of the summer. The Boy’s 2nd birthday. I’m trying to plan a low key family trip for early September, but not making much progress on that. What are your plans for the summer?

Celebrating Children’s Book Week 2013

May 15, 2013 / Katie L. Carroll

The 2013 CBW poster, illustrated by Brian Selznick.

It’s Children’s Book Week and I’m celebrating over here at the Observation Desk (which for those who don’t know is the official name of this blog)! In the words of the CBW website, “Established in 1919, Children’s Book Week is the longest-running national literacy initiative in the country. Every year, commemorative events are held nationwide at schools, libraries, bookstores, homes — wherever young readers and books connect!”

Honestly every week feels like Children’s Book Week in my house because pretty much everyday I do some combination of writing books for teens and kids, editing book for teens and kids, and reading to children. And there’s no doubt that reading and being read to as kid has shaped not only who I am as a reader and writer but as a person.

I can remember my mom reading to me and my siblings before bed. I’m sure she read us picture books (we had many, many, many Golden Books on our shelves), but it’s the novels that stand out in my mind, particularly the Little House books, the Anne of Green Gables books, and Little Women. These books were full of strong girl characters, family relationships, love and friendships, hard work and hardships.

My well-worn copies of Little Women and the Little House books.

It’s the values of these books that have had a huge influence on the way I strive to live my life and the kind of books I write. And no book I read as an adult can really have that same impact on me. So of course I feel the need to celebrate Children’s Book Week…I hope every child can learn to love books and like me find new worlds, people, and loves through them.

What books influenced you when you were a kid?

New England SCBWI 2013 Conference Gems

May 10, 2013 / Katie L. Carroll

The 2013 New England SCBWI conference was amazing (of course it was…these conference are always amazing)! Caught up with old friends, including the very talented Kimberly Sabatini and Jodi Moore, and met some new ones. Left feeling inspired and exhausted, and I’m still brimming with creative juices.

One of the highlights for me was seeing my book covers up on the screen in the ballroom during the downtime/announcements/mealtime in the ballroom!

I’ve collected a few conference gems that resonated with me. A quick note about why I use italics instead of quotation marks…these are not necessarily direct quotes, some may be close to what the speaker actually said and others are my own rewording/interpretation as I scrambled to take notes during the speeches and presentations. So without further ado, here they are:

We should meet the world with all our senses. (Jeannine Atkins)
What’s outside in the setting can reflect what’s going on in the inside of a character, but it can also be in contrast to what’s being felt. (Jeannine Atkins)
How do we access that which we are trying to recreate when we’re sitting at our desks or computers? Sometimes we need a sensory kick in the pants. (Dawn Metcalf)
We work with art and it can evoke an objective response. (Ruben Pfeffer)
It was as if someone else’s words had opened up a whole host of words in me. (Sharon Creech)
As writers we want company; we need company. You come along too, please. (Sharon Creech)
Revision is finding and strengthening the heart of a story, and revision is messier than people want it to be. (Kate Messner)
Maybe I had to stop trying to prove to people I was good enough and just had to do the work I was passionate about. (Grace Lin)
Every story has a message, whether or not the writer was aware of it or intended it. (Chris Eboch)
I come to one little detail that sort of wakes up my mind and then start amassing details like constellations. (Jeannine Atkins)
Writers are somewhat schizophrenic; we hear voices in our heads; we listen instead of conversing. (Padma Venkatraman)
Go down the rabbit hole. (Greg Fishbone)

Personally, I feel like I stretched myself not only as a writer but as a person. I jumped headlong into any writing activities that came up in the workshops I attended, even braving to share some of my raw work in front of others. I dared to act out an emotion for others to write about (and I have terrible stage fright when it comes to acting anything). I drove to the train station by myself in a city I’d never been to and picked up another author. So all in all, a fantastic weekend!

Confessions of an Author: Ideas

April 26, 2013 / Katie L. Carroll

Business first: I’m over at author extraordinaire Kai Strand’s blog today with a character interview of Katora, the main character from Elixir Bound.

Confession #5: I have more ideas than I’ll ever be able to write.

Seriously, though, I’m not even sure where most of my ideas come from. I’ve mentioned this before, but often ideas (or solutions to plot problems) just pop into my head while I’m in the shower. Or maybe I’ll see some random person at the mall or the playground or wherever and *poof* I’ll have a new character with a backstory and goals and conflicts.

While watching the Oscars this year (and admittedly feeling tired in general and very bored with the whole awards/skit thing), my next Great Big Idea appeared. The idea took my obsession with physics (you know how I love black holes and the Large Hadron Collider) and gave it a character. There isn’t quite a fleshed out plot yet, but the character is very clear to me now. Before this moment (literally a very brief moment…no idea one minute, a great idea the next) I only had an intellectual interest in something, and now I have a real, solid character.

Not all my ideas are great either. Some pop into my head and fade away. Some I might think about for awhile and eventually jot down or even work on fleshing out a bit, but they don’t really come together. One of the reasons I don’t like to write my ideas on paper when they first come to me is because I have so many ideas. I know the ones that stay with me, the ones I can’t stop thinking about, are the ones that are good fodder for a story.

I’m not really sure exactly what parts need to come together to make this magic happen. I’ve always been a creative thinker, so part of it may just be my mind is always working in the background, synthesizing input and my thoughts while I’m doing other things. Part of it, too, is because I’m open to new ideas because it’s those Shiny New Ideas are what keep me excited about writing.

Writing a first draft of a novel is tough, revising a novel is tough, editing a novel is tough…the ideas are the fun part…they’re the things that give me the rush of adrenaline, that make me push through a tough middle when drafting, a tough scene when revising, or line edits (which are just plain boring).

So I’m afraid I can’t share what makes me a creative person or where my ideas come from…because I really have no idea. But there are people who know about creativity, who study it. The good news is recent research indicates you can train your brain to be more creative. I’m not sure I’ll be partaking in any of those exercises, though. I just don’t think my brain can handle any more Big Ideas right now!