Category: Books (Page 47 of 82)

Reading Wrap Up 2014 or The Year of Change

January 12, 2015 / Katie L. Carroll

This past year marked a big change for me in my reading habits. It was the first year where I read more digital books than print ones. I’ve been reading digital books for years, but 2014 was the year the scales tipped way in favor of digital.

There were several factors for this: one being that I joined NetGalley and started reading digital ARCs, another being digital is a great way for my writer friends to share their books with me for little cost to either of us, and a third being how easy and low-cost it is to acquire digital books. But the overriding factor was definitely my own life. With The Boy having sleep issues earlier in the year and adding The Prince into the mix with all his nursings, I’ve had a lot of time where I’m sitting quietly but where reading a print book would be a bit impractical. So I read on my Nook a lot and on my phone a whole lot.

So much so that early in the year I realized my original goal of reading 67 books (in par with the past several years of reading) was going to be surpassed. I reset my goal to 80 books and exceeded that by 2, for a grand total of (tough math, I know!) 82 books! (You can check out my full 2014 reading list over on Goodreads.) The 82 includes mostly novels and some novellas and short stories. It doesn’t include the many, many, many picture books and board books I read (and reread) to the boys.

It also doesn’t include the quite a few (estimate of about 6 or so) books I did not finish (DNF). Though this may seem like a small number, it’s significant for me because in the past I’ve almost always finished a book once I’ve started it. As in 2014’s DNF list is probably as long as my previous DNF list for many previous years.

Again I think this change has a lot to do with all the digital reading I’ve done. I took a chance on free books and $.99 books, many self-published or with small presses but a significant portion on traditional published book as well. And books across all three publishing models made my DNF list (I don’t actually keep an official list for this, just a mental one). I’ve also found it’s a lot easier to just stop reading a digital book vs. a print one. The reasons behind that could probably be a whole blog post by itself.

Does all my digital reading mean I don’t like print books or that I think print is dead? Absolutely not. In fact, from what I’ve read about book sales in 2014, it seems the digital market has finally flattened out (after years of crazy growth) and the print market surged a little. The market has finally started to settle into a new normal where both print and digital can coexist.

As for my personal tastes in 2014 (again, could be a whole blog post by itself, but I’ll just give you the highlights here), I read lots of really good fantasy. Stand-out titles being THE FALSE PRINCE and the entire Ascendance Trilogy by Jennifer A. Nielsen, THE KISS OF DECEPTION by Mary E. Pearson, and BLUE LILY, LILY BLUE by Maggie Stiefvater.

I definitely had some serious paranormal fatigue by the end of the year. There are still good titles in the genre, but I found many just didn’t stand out enough and hit too many of the same notes. I’ll probably be less likely to pick up these titles this year.

I read more middle grade than in the past and have been really enjoying it. Middle grade books seem to be taking more chances and doing different things, much like YA was doing right before it blew up and became hugely popular. I’ll probably continue to read more MG this year.

And I’ve read lots of good indie/small press authors, including S.J. Pajonas, Mary Waibel, Kai Strand, and Meradeth Houston. (In an attempt at full disclosure, yes, these authors I would consider writer friends, so I want you to check out their writing first because it’s awesome and second because they are awesome people!) Supporting indie authors has become an important part of my reading practices and will continue to be in 2015.

All in all, my bread and butter reading was (and has been for some time) YA, often fantasy. That’s just my personal tastes and I think I will always gravitate toward that age group and the fantasy genre. But I do enjoy branching out and hope to do more of that this year. And I will absolutely keep reading authors I know personally or online (and that list grows every year…it’s getting harder and harder not to know the authors I read). Of course with the boys, I’ll continue reading lots of picture books, old favorites and new ones too. Lately, we’ve even started reading small chapter books, which is a fun addition.

What were your reading habits and favorite reads of 2014?

Yelizaveta P. Renfro on Writing Chapter One of the Great CT Caper

January 5, 2015 / Katie L. Carroll

Writing the First Chapter

by Yelizaveta P. Renfro

The assignment: to write the first chapter of The Great Connecticut Caper, a serialized storybook that would be created by twelve different writers and twelve different illustrators living in Connecticut.

The target audience: children in grades four through seven.

The premise: Gillette Castle is going missing!

The challenge: to create an engaging, fast-paced opening chapter that would introduce sympathetic characters and lay out some basic plot elements. And to do it in under 650 words.

The process: The first step was research. We made a family trip to Gillette Castle in East Haddam where we learned about William Gillette, the eccentric actor who brought Sherlock Holmes to life on the stage and who designed his twenty-four room mansion to resemble the ruin of a medieval castle. We toured the home, looking at hidden passageways and the surveillance system based on strategically placed mirrors, and we wandered the grounds, admiring his personal railroad track as well as his woods and views of the Connecticut River.

But we weren’t done yet. On another weekend, we took a ride on the Essex Steam Train and the Becky Thatcher Riverboat, learning about the Connecticut River, getting a different vantage point of Gillette Castle from the water, and discovering more about William Gillette.

As a writer, I often start projects with research. And as a parent, I often take my kids along. But this assignment was different. I am primarily a writer of books for adults, and this project was writing for children. Luckily, I had my own kids to consult.

So after the research stage, I had a long brainstorming session with my fourth grader (with the first grader listening in and offering occasional advice). We discussed what makes a good story and interesting characters. We talked about mystery books for children. We tossed around ideas for the story and possible character names. The fourth grader taught me how to make a character map, and she created several for possible characters. The first grader made one as well.

We agreed early on that the protagonists should be children, and that there should be two of them—a boy and a girl. (We discussed Ron Roy’s and Mary Pope Osborne’s books as examples.) The names and character traits of the boy and girl kept changing, but we finally settled on Thomas and Li-Ming. And during a long walk through our neighborhood, the fourth grader and I discussed different possible openings. Should the protagonists be touring the castle? Should they be on a riverboat cruise? What other characters should be introduced? What should happen at the end of the chapter?

There would be a cliffhanger, we decided, so readers would want to tune in for the following installment. And we needed to create openings for other writers to build the story—characters who could be further developed, situations that could be interpreted in more than one way.

Finally, once we had hashed out everything, I wrote the chapter. The first draft came in at over 900 words. So then I cut, and I cut some more. And finally, when the chapter was just under 650 words, I read it to my kids. They loved it. But they also had a few suggestions. I revised. I read it again.

It was a process of learning together. I shared what I knew about storytelling with my kids, and they shared what they knew with me.

The outcome: See for yourself at http://ctcaper.cthumanities.org where the first chapter was posted on January 4. And please check back every two weeks as more chapters go live. I am looking forward to seeing where the story goes from here. And so are my kids.

About the Author:

Yelizaveta P. Renfro is the author of a collection of essays, Xylotheque, available from the University of New Mexico Press, and a collection of short stories, A Catalogue of Everything in the World, winner of the St. Lawrence Book Award. Her fiction and nonfiction have appeared in Glimmer Train Stories, North American Review, Orion, Colorado Review, Alaska Quarterly Review, South Dakota Review, Witness, Reader’s Digest, Blue Mesa Review, Parcel, Adanna, Fourth River, Bayou Magazine, Untamed Ink, So to Speak, and elsewhere. She holds an MFA in creative writing from George Mason University and a Ph.D. in English from the University of Nebraska. Currently a resident of Connecticut, she’s also lived in California, Virginia, and Nebraska. To learn more about her work, visit her blog at http://chasingsamaras.blogspot.com/p/writing.html.

The Great Connecticut Caper Starts Today

January 4, 2015 / Katie L. Carroll

Gillette Castle has gone missing! And after all the hype I’ve been giving it on the blog lately, you can now finally join the young sleuths in solving the mystery in The Great Connecticut Caper. Chapter one goes lives today! (You can see I’m speaking in exclamation points!) Follow along at http://ctcaper.cthumanities.org/ as a new chapter is posted every two weeks and for fun activities as well.

The story has been getting some great local press coverage (see these great stories from the CT Post, which includes quotes from the illustrator of chapter two, the one I wrote; the Middletown Press; and NBC Connecticut), but it’s not just for my CT peeps. Any young or young at heart reader will enjoy the CT Caper. Make sure to regularly check out the blog here, too, as I’ll be hosting some of the other authors and illustrators on the weeks their chapters go live.

And if you are local, there’s still time to sign up to attend the launch party at the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford, CT, this Wednesday, January 7 from 4:30 pm to 6:30 pm. There will also be a launch party later in the month in New Haven (details to come).

Cover Reveal for ALLIANCES by S. Usher Evans

December 18, 2014 / Katie L. Carroll

In this last guest post of the year, I’m pleased to host author S. Usher Evans revealing the cover for the second book of the Razia series, ALLIANCES. Make sure to check out the teaser chapter and enter the giveaway!

Alliances_CoverOnly ALLIANCES by S. Usher Evans

Piracy is a Game. Whom do you trust?

Lyssa Peate has found a tenuous balance between her double lives – the planet-discovering scientist and space pirate bounty hunter named Razia. No longer on probation, Razia still struggles to be thought of as more than a chocolate-fetching joke, and Lyssa can’t be truthful to those closest to her. But both lives are turned upside-down when feisty government investigator Lizbeth Carter shows up to capture the same pirate Razia is after.

Lizbeth’s not interested in taking Razia’s thunder; rather, she convinces the caustic bounty hunter to help solve a mystery. Somebody’s hiring pirates to target government ships, and there’s a money trail that doesn’t make any sense. From the desert planet of D-882 to the capital city on S-864, the investigation leads them deeper and deeper into a conspiracy that reaches to the highest levels of the Universal Government – and to one of the most painful chapters in Lyssa’s past.

Pre-orders for Alliances will be available on Amazon Kindle begin January 1, 2015.

Double Life, Book 1 in the Razia Series, is available now on the following stores:

http://www.amazon.com/Double-Life-Razia-Book-1-ebook/dp/B00KXCR422/

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/double-life-s-usher-evans/1119269005?ean=2940045836302

https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/double-life/id864156016?mt=11

Chapter One Teaser:

The room was dark, with a single, dingy lamp hanging over a table where three men sat, each holding a hand of cards. They said little, except for the occasional grunt or movement to tap their grungy mini-computers to up their ante. The first sighed and rubbed the scruff around his chin. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a cigarette and a lighter.

“You hear that Llendo is running for re-election?” he said, cigarette dangling from his mouth.

“What else is new?” The short, squatty man and whose toes barely brushed the floor, threw a few chips into the virtual pile using his mini-computer. “The guy’s a puppet. There ain’t nothin’ that comes out of his mouth that ain’t been sent through the ringer about a million times.”

The other two men chuckled and shuffled around their cards. The third man, with a long face and sallow complexion, pulled two more cards for his own hand and shuffled them together and apart again.

“But who else is there to vote for?” he asked, counting his cards and stacking them together again.

“That general? You know that buffoon Peate works for him. He ain’t getting my vote until I know he’s gonna play along.”

The second shrugged and said, “Nobody’d vote for him in a million years.”

“You and your millions.” The third rolled his eyes. “Everything you say has been done a million times.”

“Bah, can it,” the first barked. “And hurry up and make your move.”

“I’m taking my time. Don’t want to get fleeced again,” the third said. “You’re all a bunch of crooks.”

“Takes one to know one.” The second man peered at his cards through a pair of thick glasses, hunched over.

“I am retired,” the first man said, sitting back and taking a long drag of his cigarette. “None of that piracy crap for me anymore. Getting too dangerous for me.”

“Gonna break a nail?” the second snorted. “Bad enough you got that girl. Whatsherface.”

“I hear she’s doing all right,” the third said. “Kidnapped Jukin Peate’s brother and held him for ransom last year.”

“And what’s she done since then?” the second said.

“More than you’ve done.”

“I’m just saying, it’s unnatural to have a woman out with the men,” the first said. He paused for a moment and began to smile. “Although I can’t say I hate seeing her scamper around ‘882.”

“Shame she doesn’t wear tighter pants,” the second said. “I seen pictures. She wears these baggy things. I bet if she wore something that made her look like a girl, she wouldn’t even have to fight nobody.”

“She could come capture me any day of the week. I don’t care what she looks like,” the third said. “I’d lay down and let her do whatever she wanted to me.”

“Care to test that theory?”

The three looked up sharply at the sound of a distinctly female voice in the doorway.

“Hey, hey,” the first man said, standing up. “We don’t want no trouble. We’re retired here, lady.”

“You are,” Razia said, stepping into the light with a smirk on her face. She turned her eyes on the third man in the room. “He isn’t.”

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New Release CLAUDIA MUST DIE by T.B. Markinson

December 11, 2014 / Katie L. Carroll

I’m happy to welcome T.B. Markinson today as she offers an excerpt of her latest release the thriller CLAUDIA MUST DIE.

Claudia doesn’t feel like herself anymore—she feels like prey. Her husband’s hired goons have stalked her all the way to Boston and will only stop their pursuit once she is dead.

Divorce is not an option. Instead, she has stolen a bunch of her man’s money to disappear into another life.

In order for Claudia to live, someone else must die. A lookalike college student becomes the target capable of freeing her from an awful marriage.

The plan goes horribly awry. Instead of murdering Claudia’s double, the assassins shoot the woman’s lover who is the cousin of a powerful Irish mobster. Claudia becomes hunted by all involved. Can she survive? Should she?

Purchase Links

Amazon (US) / Amazon (UK)

Excerpt:

At first, everything had been roses and wine. When others warned her about Dennis, Claudia laughed it off.

“Use your head,” Claudia’s mother had said. “How could a man in his early thirties make so much money owning a handful of run-down bars in two small towns in the West?”

“What, you think he’s a drug dealer or something?” Claudia had broken into hysterics. “He hardly looks like a gangster, Mother. Dennis doesn’t wear any jewelry. Not even a wedding ring.”

In Claudia’s mind, a gangster would at least wear a gold necklace. And, he had excellent table manners. There was no way Dennis could be a thug. How many scrawny five-foot-six guys were?

They had married after seven months. Neither had intended to marry so quickly, but they had visited Vegas for a long weekend, got drunk, and got hitched. It wasn’t until Claudia moved into Dennis’s house that she started to notice things. He wouldn’t come home for days, and when he did, he refused to tell her where he had been. He racked up a lot of mileage on her car, not his. When Claudia asked about it, his reply was a cold stare that made her legs feel like jelly. Granted, one of his bars was in Greeley, but that was only a twenty-minute drive from their home in Loveland. How did the miles add up so quickly?

After a year, they started to fight constantly. Verbal arguments. After another year, the fights turned violent. Claudia ended up in the hospital—still nothing serious enough for her to walk out. Not yet. Instead, she started hoarding cash. In the beginning, it was a little bit here and there. It was simple. Claudia would request cash back when she used her debit card at the grocery store. Dennis liked her cooking; he never questioned how much his wife spent on food. When she realized her embezzlement plan would take years, not months, The Hunted chose a more drastic solution. The next time her husband crossed the line …

About the Author:

T.B. Markinson is an American writer, living in England. When she isn’t writing, she’s traveling around the world, watching sports on the telly, visiting pubs in England, or taking the dog for a walk. Not necessarily in that order. T. B. has published A Woman Lost, Marionette, and Confessions From A Coffee Shop.

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