Category: Books (Page 23 of 81)

2017 Reading Wrap-up: Favorites and Rec’s

January 15, 2018 / Katie L. Carroll

If you use Goodreads, they do a nice end-of-year summary of the all the books you read in a given year (see my 2017 summary on Goodreads). They provide some fun stats on the books and your reading habits, including how many pages (15,327 for me) and books (50 for me, which was my goal–woohoo!) you read. These numbers don’t reflect the many, many, many picture books I read to the boys. I don’t keep track of that; it would be way too onerous.

That’s close to my 2016 numbers (48 books) and a little lower than my highest reading years. Having kids definitely takes away from my reading time, though nursing the baby have proven to be a bit of an equalizer because it gives me quiet time to read (I have both the Kindle and Nook apps on my phone, which is how I do most of my nursing reading).

If you set a yearly reading goal, Goodreads also let you know throughout the year how well you’re keeping up. It was consistently about 2 books behind schedule. I think that’s because I tend to read several books at one time (a book or two on my phone, perhaps one on another device, and print book). I finished up a couple of reads right at the end of the year to reach my goal.

Now for some notable reads (novels only, but I’m thinking about doing a picture book one as well…stay tuned). Let’s start with YA contemporary. The highly-acclaimed THE HATE U GIVE by Angie Thomas lived up to the hype. Inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement, it’s a brilliant read that is timely and classic at the same time. For me, though, it was the characters that put it over the top. It felt like they were real people. I also loved Karen M. McManus’s ONE OF US IS LYING. Pitched as THE BREAKFAST CLUB meets PRETTY LITTLE LIARS with four unreliable narrators, what else do you need to know to want to read this one? For a super sweet romance, WHEN DIMPLE MET RISHI by Sandhya Menon hit all the right notes for me.

Of course I read some great fantasy this year as well. SIX OF CROWS and its follow-up CROOKED KINGDOM by Leigh Bardugo were brilliant heist novels set in a dark fantasy world that is super fun to read about but maybe wouldn’t be so fun to live in. JULIA VANISHES by Catherine Egan was another rich fantasy world full of persecuted witches. For an urban, paranormal fantasy, I really enjoyed HEART BLADE by Juliana Spink Mills. This one takes place in a world like ours but with demons and angels, and definitely had crossover appeal to the adult market.

In the historical fiction category, SALT TO THE SEA by Ruta Sepetys was beautiful and heartbreaking. It follows the tragedy of the refugees fleeing East Prussia at the of WWII and the sinking of the ship Wilhelm Gustloff.

For what might be considered a surprise pick for my favorite read of the year, I chose a non-fiction book: VINCENT AND THEO: THE VAN GOGH BROTHERS by Deborah Heiligman! Okay, maybe this shouldn’t have been a surprise. It’s about my favorite painter and the relationship he had with his brother…I’m a sucker for stories about siblings.

What were your favorite reads of the year?

Brewing up the Research from LA Dragoni Author of AGAIN, FOR LOVE

November 27, 2017 / Katie L. Carroll

LA Dragoni is here to celebrate the release of her time travel romance AGAIN, FOR LOVE. Speaking of love, I love the Matrixy look of this cover. Let’s give LA a big welcome!

Even a fiction author has to do her research. And for my newest book, Again, For Love, a time travel romance, I’ve been doing years of research. And no, I haven’t been time travelling.

I originally got this idea for a book about twenty years ago! I thought it would be cool for a guy who has a crush on a co-worker to save her by time traveling to avoid her death. I started to write it, but I just didn’t get that far. It was stale and boring and I wasn’t an experienced author who could figure out what was missing.

Fast forward to 2016. I read The Troublemaker Next Door by Marie Harte and suddenly I knew what was missing. Her characters are full of sass and snark and chemistry. Honestly, I hadn’t thought about Again, For Love in years, but as soon as I finished reading her book I knew I needed to pull that manuscript out of the cobwebs.

I had originally put the co-workers in an office environment. Yawn. Clearly, to obtain sass and snark, I had to take them out of the office and put them…where? That’s when my years of research came in handy.

I live in a craft beer mecca. Bend, Oregon holds a lot of “best of” titles and many of them have to do with the sheer number of breweries we have, and their success. I’ve been visiting these breweries and enjoying their beers and developing a discerning palette for years. Yet I’ve never actually worked in a brewery. But I’ve toured them. I learned about the beer making process. Different ingredients, methods of aging, bottling…all sorts of things. Then I toured them again. This time I ignored the knowledgeable tour guide and stalked the workers. Watching them move about, interact with each other, heft, direct, etc. When I developed what I hoped was a passible knowledge of what it’s like to work in a brewery I had to do a little (read a lot) more research on the beer itself.

Luckily, here in Bend, Oregon, we have the largest ale trail in the west. My husband and I frequently host friends and family who come to Bend simply to experience the ale trail. I’ve tasted so much beer, I have a trophy! My favorite beer is a winter ale on nitro. I know I don’t like pilsners, I’m always willing to try a new red ale or a stout. It was so much fun being able to weave this knowledge into my story. I hope I’ve represented the craft brewing world well.

Book Blurb:

A life must be lost. Who will make the ultimate sacrifice?

Lawson lives a simple life: a job at a brewery, and his basketball and hockey leagues. Even his eccentric lifelong friend and roommate—who is intent on discovering time travel—doesn’t complicate things. Then Jory appears. Lawson feels an immediate attraction to her, yet their attempts at dating end with him thinking it just isn’t meant to be. But Jory refuses to give up.

When one date ends tragically, Lawson turns to his best friend and the experimental time travel program he’s invented. But, no matter what he does, each time the reset ends with a loss.

It’s clear…a life must be lost, and Lawson is prepared to give his for Jory. But he isn’t the only one playing with time.

Will he spare Jory by forfeiting his own life? Or will someone else make the ultimate sacrifice?

Buy now:

Amazon| Barnes & Noble| iTunes| add on Goodreads

About the Author:

LA Dragoni isn’t too particular about who fallsin love or where they fall in love. She simply considers it her job to capture the story about their love. Whether it’s paranormal, mythical, or time travel, LA will be there to divine their story for you. She lives in Central Oregon with her husband and children, but haunts ghost towns and cemeteries up and down the west, in search of the next adventure to sift through her storytelling brain. Learn more about LA and her work at www.ladragoni.com

November #InkRipples: Finishing That Book (Or Not!)

November 13, 2017 / Katie L. Carroll

It’s no secret here on the Observation Desk that I’m a notoriously slow writer. I’ve expressed how I feel about prolific authors (see Confessions of an Author: Prolific Writers). More recently, I blogged about Why Is It Taking Me So Long To Write The Second Elixir Book. It took almost ten years from when I first started writing ELIXIR BOUND for it to become a published book. I’m not exactly winning any speed awards over here!

via GIPHY

So I am afraid I have no business offering any kind of advice on the November #InkRipples topic of Finishing that Book! I’ve tried NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month, where many writers try to write a complete book, i.e. 50,000 words, in the month of November). Last year I tried a modified version of it (see Gearing up for National Novel Writing Month 2016) and fell short. One year I actually won NaNoWriMo and wrote 50,000 words of a story, but that story has since become a drawer manuscript that will probably never be published.

But you’ll tell me that no words are wasted, even the unpublished ones. Or that the words will come and to take whatever time I need writing them. This is what I tell myself (and those things are both true). But that doesn’t mean it isn’t frustrating to be a slow writer. Couple that with the fact that I never feel like I have adequate time to write, and that makes for a very frustrated writer.

Nevertheless, I’m still plugging along over here at my achingly slow snail’s pace. How about you all–what do you do to get that book finished?

#InkRipples is a monthly meme created by Katie L. Carroll, Mary Waibel, and Kai Strand. We pick a topic (November is all about Finishing that Book!), drop a ripple in the inkwell (i.e. write about it on our blogs), and see where the conversation goes. We’d love to have you join in the conversation on your own blogs or on your social media page. Full details and each month’s topic can be found on my #InkRipples page.

What’s Your Real Story? from Juliana Spink Mills Author of NIGHT BLADE

November 8, 2017 / Katie L. Carroll

It’s always fun when a writing friend has a new story out and I get to share it on the Observation Desk. Let’s give a big welcome to Juliana Spink Mills as she celebrates the release of her latest book, the YA urban fantasy NIGHT BLADE.

What’s Your Real Story?

by Juliana Spink Mills

So you’ve written a novel, or novella, or short story. Well done! Now you get to the fun bit, where everyone asks you “what’s your story about?” Maybe you’ve memorized your blurb, or have a terrific ‘elevator pitch’. Hopefully you’re not like me, and don’t go red and stammer out, “uh, vampires and demons and sword stuff…?”

But what’s your story really about?

Every work of fiction has underlying themes – on purpose or accidentally – and these, to me, are the real story. Perhaps it’s tenacity, or courage, or the power of love. For instance, Harry Potter, for me, is a tale of belief. Believing in yourself, believing in your friends, trusting in the belief that your instincts are leading you in the right direction, no matter what other people say.

On the surface, my new YA urban fantasy novel Night Blade (book 2 of the Blade Hunt Chronicles) is a story of robbery and trickery, of ball gowns and politics. It has sword fights! Magic! A prophecy! Here’s the blurb:

In the aftermath of the Heart Blade’s return, Del and Rose have different roads to follow. One leads forward, the other to the distant past. Rose is on a mission to infiltrate and double-cross the ultimate heist, and retrieve a game-changing prize. Meanwhile, as the Court of the Covenant prepares to meet, Del has a quest of her own. She must untangle her lost identity or risk her entire future.

With the Blade Hunt prophecy in motion, darkness threatens to rise, and a new sword emerges from the shadows.

But halfway through writing Night Blade, I realized something. Both this book and the one before, Heart Blade, are actually about choices. Choosing your own path in life, rather than following the one you were set upon. Choosing right from wrong. Choosing your family, choosing your friends. Hard choices. Easy choices. And things that, at the end of the day, end up being no choice at all.

I didn’t set out to write a book series about choices. I wanted exciting fight scenes, some romance, cool supernatural elements, and maybe a car chase or two. But now that I’ve noticed it, I can see that the theme has been there from the start. Realizing this has given me a whole new perspective on my writing, and when my next project is done, before I begin revising, I plan to have a good hard look at it and figure out what my underlying theme is. That way, I can reinforce it when I get to the editing stage.

A writer might set out with something they want to push from the very beginning. Or, like me, that theme may emerge in a more organic way. However these themes come to permeate a work of fiction, they’re the backbone that the story builds upon.

What’s behind your stories? The ones you read or write? Why not try taking apart some of your personal favorites to figure out what’s beneath the words?

Buy HEART BLADE: http://hyperurl.co/HeartBlade

Buy NIGHT BLADE: http://hyperurl.co/NightBlade

Find NIGHT BLADE on Goodreads

About the Author:

Juliana Spink Mills was born in England, but grew up in Brazil. Now she lives in Connecticut, and writes science fiction and fantasy. She is the author of Heart Blade and Night Blade, the first two books in the young adult Blade Hunt Chronicles urban fantasy series. Her short stories have appeared in anthologies and online publications. Besides writing, Juliana works as a Portuguese/English translator, and as a teen library assistant. She watches way too many TV shows, and loves to get lost in a good book. Her dream is to move to Narnia when she grows up. Or possibly Middle Earth, if she’s allowed a very small dragon of her own. Find her on her website or Twitter @JSpinkMills.

October #InkRipples: Writing Is My Career(ish)

October 23, 2017 / Katie L. Carroll

This month’s #Inkripples of career vs. hobby had me scratching my head. Is my writing a career or a hobby? I’m not sure. I think somewhere in between. Here’s my dilemma: I’m a stay-at-home parent who also works on the side. So family stuff is the first priority, but my main “work” (quotes because raising kids is work in and of itself, but let’s say for this post, it means something not having to do with the kiddos) right now is writing, with a little freelance editing on the side.

But I am not financially independent right now (I have a mini panic attack every time I think too hard about this fact). I depend on my husband’s job to pay the bills, for health insurance, and to make sure my kids are fed. My husband and I made the decision to become a one-income family after lots of thought and careful consideration of whether or not we could make it work financially.

The question remains whether or not writing will become my career once the kids are bigger and I go back to work. I really have no desire to go back to an office job like I had before kids (I was a puzzle magazine editor…I certainly didn’t hate the job, but after doing it for 8 years, it became tedious). And I wand to have the flexibility to be able to support my kids as they grow because even big kids will require my time. I’m not sure I want to commit full-time to a gig economy either.

Do I want to back to school? Do I want to work in a field that isn’t writing and write on the side like I did when I worked full-time? Do I want to just get a job at a bookstore or a cafe or open a tea shop and write in my free time? (Notice writing will likely always factor into the picture.)

The answers to questions definitely depend on what my situation will be when my youngest (now only 3 months old) is big enough for me to have to make a decision. So I have some time to decide. The pie-in-the-sky hope is that I end up with a string of best-selling books and I won’t have to worry about what my job will be because it will be writing. But, honestly, so few people can support themselves this way that if feels irresponsible not to at least think about what else I will do for work.

And thinking about all this right now gives me anxiety. I guess for now, I’ll just try to enjoy taking care of my little ones and being able to squeeze in the writing time when I can.

How about you? Do you have any hobbies that could potentially become a career? Or do you like that your hobbies are just that, hobbies?

#InkRipples is a monthly meme created by Katie L. Carroll, Mary Waibel, and Kai Strand. We pick a topic (October is all about Career vs. Hobby), drop a ripple in the inkwell (i.e. write about it on our blogs), and see where the conversation goes. We’d love to have you join in the conversation on your own blogs or on your social media page. Full details and each month’s topic can be found on my #InkRipples page.