Category: Books (Page 24 of 83)

Double Cover Reveal UNSEEN EVIL & EVIL UNLEASHED by Kelly Hashway

March 16, 2018 / Katie L. Carroll

Today I welcome Kelly Hashway back to the blog for a special double cover reveal of her latest YA paranormals UNSEEN EVIL and EVIL UNLEASHED. Welcome, Kelly!

Cover Reveal: UNSEEN EVIL and EVIL UNLEASHED are both coming your way April 3rd! Check out these awesome covers and preorder your copies today!

UNSEEN EVIL blurb:

How can you fight what you can’t see?

Seventeen-year-old Kaylan Bradford has no idea what she wants to do with her future, but dying sure as hell isn’t on top of her list. Yet everywhere she goes, strange accidents happen, each one nearly taking her life. Someone or something is after her.

Reese, the sexy new guy in town, immediately takes an interest in Kaylan, and something about him makes Kaylan feel more alive than ever. Reese isn’t the only new face in Kaylan’s life, though. Riley is beyond gorgeous, and he saves Kaylan’s life more than once.

But Reese and Riley are both keeping secrets—secrets about Kaylan’s future. The more Kaylan discovers about herself, the more the attempts on her life begin to make sense.

Kaylan is desperate to change her fate, but when she discovers the identity of the one who’s trying to kill her, she may not have a future at all.

→Amazon: http://amzn.to/2D7mdDG

→iBooks: http://bit.ly/UnseenEviliBooks

→B&N: http://bit.ly/UnseenEvilBN

→Kobo: http://bit.ly/UnseenEvilKobo

EVIL UNLEASHED blurb:

Kaylan Bradford thought having her boyfriend decide her future for her was the worst thing ever. She couldn’t have been more wrong. Discovering the truth about her past sets in motion a slew of events that unleash evil on the world.

Determined to fix her mistakes, Kaylan resorts to traveling through time, but every move she makes only creates new problems for her to deal with. People are dying, and she’s to blame.

She’ll need to figure out how to battle the ultimate evil…even if it means battling herself.

→Amazon: http://amzn.to/2D7Kppy

→iBooks: http://bit.ly/EvilUnleashediBooks

→BN: http://bit.ly/EvilUnleashedBN

→Kobo: http://bit.ly/EvilUnleashedKobo

Join Kelly’s VIP Reader Group, Kelly’s Coven: https://www.facebook.com/groups/KellysCoven

About the Author:

Kelly Hashway fully admits to being one of the most accident-prone people on the planet, but that didn’t stop her from jumping out of an airplane at ten thousand feet one Halloween. Maybe it was growing up reading R.L. Stine’s Fear Street books that instilled a love of all things scary and a desire to live in a world filled with supernatural creatures, but she spends her days writing speculative fiction and is a USA Today bestselling author. Kelly is also USA Today bestselling romance author Ashelyn Drake. When she’s not writing, Kelly works as an editor and also as Mom, which she believes is a job title that deserves to be capitalized.

Author Links:

Website: www.kellyhashway.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kellyhashway/

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/KellyHashway

Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/khashway

Newsletter: http://forms.sendpulse.com/323115810a

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/AshelynDrake & http://www.goodreads.com/KellyHashway

Amazon: http://bit.ly/AshelynDrake & http://bit.ly/KellyHashway

Ashelyn’s BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/ashelyn-drake

Kelly’s BookBub:

https://www.bookbub.com/authors/kelly-hashway

PIRATE ISLAND Book Launch Party Is Coming!

March 5, 2018 / Katie L. Carroll

My middle grade adventure PIRATE ISLAND came out way back in October, but I wasn’t able to plan a proper launch party for it…until now! Connecticut friends and beyond, join me at the Milford Public Library on April 17, 2018 from 2-4 p.m. for what I think will be a really fun party celebrating my latest book. All ages are welcome and there will be something for everyone, from the littlest library patrons to the oldest.

I’ll talk a little about the local lore that inspired the story and do a short reading. Then we’ll have a fun fishing game where everyone wins a prize (sneak peek of the prizes in the picture below), coloring pages, cookies, a pirate ship photo booth, and, of course, the opportunity to pick up signed books. And it’s at the library, so there’s all the usual goodness of a trip to the library.

I hope to see some of you local friends there! It’s during my kids’ April break, so it’s perfect for parents looking for a fun activity for the kiddos.

Where Do I Find The Time To Write?

February 5, 2018 / Katie L. Carroll

I often get asked the question of how I find the time to write. The short answer to this–and every single writer you know will also have this answer–is that I make the time to write. It’s important to me; it’s part of who I am and how I navigate the world. So no matter how busy I am, I make sure there is time for writing.

I’m lucky to have help from relatives a couple days of weeks with the kiddos. I have a husband who financially supports me, so I don’t have to work for money. Do I have as much time as I’d like to write? Nope. Do I find myself distracted when I do have writing time? You betcha (I’m looking at you, social media!). Is it hard to write when the country feels like a pile of garbage? It sure is. Do I sometimes have to put the writing aside to deal with the business of being a writer? Of course (there’s submitting to do, marketing to plan, chasing people down to get paid, and lots of other stuff that’s not actually writing). Do I write every day? Nope, not even close.

But I do it. With help. I recognize the privilege I have. I think it’s important to point out my privilege because it’s not something writers always talk about. It’s easier to be a writer when you have support. That’s not to say I don’t have my own struggles. I have trouble balancing writing time and taking care of the kids (which is my primary responsibility in life right now). I worry about money, my retirement, and how to pay for the kids to go to college. Now that the boys are growing, I worry about having to go out and get a job just to feed those growing little bodies. Yet, I still make the time to write.

Here’s the thing, I know writers who work full time, have kids, and don’t have the kind of help I have. They make time to write. They do it because it’s important to them. They find a way to create, even when it’s hard, even when it’s done in the wee hours of the night when it feels like everyone else is asleep. They do it even though they’re bone tired. They do it because it’s important to them.

I find the time to write because it’s important to me. So when people ask me about how I find the time to write. I usually say something like, “Oh, I have help with the kids a couple of days a week.” Though the real answer feels far more complicated than that. Or maybe it’s not. Maybe it all comes back to the short answer. I find the time to write because I make the time to write. I’m a writer. I don’t know how not to be one…so I write (but not every day!).

Announcing a School Visit Special

January 29, 2018 / Katie L. Carroll

This offer for local schools has been extended to include the 2018/19 school year. If you’re not local and are willing to pay travel expenses, email me and hopefully we can set something up. My email is KatieLCarroll (at) yahoo (dot) com.

I’m offering a school visit special for the first time ever! If your school or organization purchases 30 or more of my books directly from me (at $10.00 each, either ELIXIR BOUND or PIRATE ISLAND), I’ll do a free writing workshop or assembly. Some of workshop topics include writing fantasy, revision, and generating ideas. I’m also open to working a specific writing topic to fit your needs.

This is for school’s I’d be able to visit without an overnight stay. So that means pretty much anywhere in Connecticut and extending out into parts of Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and possibly New York. If you’re not sure, just contact me at KatieLCarroll (at) yahoo (dot) com, and I’ll do my best to work something out.

Check out my School Visit Brochure here or my Author Visits page for testimonials. And here is the free Pirate Island Curriculum Guide that includes reader questions, a writing prompt, a nature lesson and activity, and a history of Captain Kidd and activity.

This offer is good for what’s left of the 2017/18 school year, though if I get interest for the fall as well, I might be able to accommodate you. If you know any educators who might be interested in this, please feel free to share my info with them.

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.