Category: Creativity (Page 16 of 19)

January #InkRipples: The Allure of a Book Cover

January 2, 2017 / Katie L. Carroll

Welcome to #InkRipples 2017! It looks like it’s going to be a big year for #InkRipples with lots of new bloggers joining Kai Strand, Mary Waibel, and me (Katie L. Carroll) in our monthly meme. We’re starting off the year by talking about book covers.

The rise of online shopping and ebooks have changed the way I view a book cover. It’s a much less tactile experience than it used to be. Often my first exposure to a book is a small picture of the cover on a screen. Any kind of texture it might have is not evident, and the small details are hard to discern.

This creates a new challenge for cover designers. How do you simultaneously create a cover that pops on a bookshelf and stands out in a small picture on a screen? Well, I’m no cover designer, so that’s not a question I can answer. I can, however, share some of my favorite book covers and why I like them.

Silver Phoenix (Kingdom of Xia, #1) The hardcover of Cindy Pon’s YA fantasy SILVER PHOENIX immediately grabbed my attention the first time I saw it. The colors are bold and gorgeous (something about the combo of the pink and blue hit all the right aesthetics for me), and the yellow/gold color in the background makes it looks like the cover is glowing. I get a strong sense of character from the cover model and hints of the fantasy world I’m about to delve into.

Froi of the Exiles (Lumatere Chronicles, #2) Another favorite YA fantasy cover is Melina Marchetta’s FROI OF THE EXILES. The colors are subtle, but, again, the use of color to convey light is so effective in catching my eye. The somber expression of the cover model and the sword hilt in layered in front of his face give it a dangerous feel, and the mountains at the bottom provide a sense of mystery. Looking at these two first examples, I’m noticing they both have clouds and a sunset (sunrise?) in them. Not sure what to make of that similarity, but felt worth pointing out.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (Harry Potter, #1) I have the Harry Potter books in the British and U.S. versions, but for me, nothing tops the covers of the U.S. hardcover editions. The illustrations of Mary GrandPré are superb. It’s hard to pick a favorite (maybe Half-Blood Prince), but the first book serves as a beautiful example of a magical middle grade cover. The movement of Harry, the sense of wonder every detail evokes, the magical elements to it, the iconic font of Harry’s name…I could go on, but let’s just say these covers are among my all-time favorites.

So many of my favorite covers are fantasy ones, but I wanted to include something more contemporary. Nova Ren Suma’s IMAGINARY GIRLS has fantastical elements to it but is also deeply rooted in a more contemporary world. The calmness of the girl underwater creates so much drama and intrigue. Is she drowning? If she is, why is she so calm? And again, it comes back to color. The tranquil blue juxtaposed by the pop of red ribbon, and the utter paleness of the girl. Well, this cover totally made me want to read the book!

What aspects of a book cover grab your attention? What are some of your favorite book covers? Next week, I’ll be posting about how the cover of my YA fantasy ELIXIR BOUND came to be.

#InkRipples is a monthly meme created by Katie L. Carroll, Mary Waibel, and Kai Strand. We pick a topic (January is all about book covers), 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.

Announcing the 2017 #InkRipples Themes

December 14, 2016 / Katie L. Carroll

I’m pleased to announce that #InkRipples will be back in 2017 with a brand new set of topics! #InkRipples is a monthly meme created by Kai Strand, Mary Waibel, and Katie L. Carroll. We’re all authors, but you don’t have to be to participate.

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The idea of #InkRipples is to toss a word, idea, image, whatever into the inkwell and see what kind of ripples it makes. We provide the topics and will be blogging about them on the first Monday of the month. I often post on the topic on subsequent Mondays as well. You can spread your own ripples by blogging about the topic any day of the month that fits your schedule, just be sure to include links back to the three of us please (Katie, Kai, and Mary).

Or you can simply share your thoughts on social media using the hashtag #InkRipples. You might comment on one of our posts to pay along. Tag us and we’re always happy to share your posts and thoughts to keep those ripples going and intersecting.

There is no wrong way to do #InkRipples (with the exception of following basic human decency!). It’s about having a conversation, sharing ideas, and connecting. So if this sounds at all interesting, please do participate in whatever way you can. And feel free to use any of the meme’s images above or below (created by the wonderful Mary Waibel).

The 2017 topics are:

January – Book covers
February – Genres #InkRipplesblueandgreen
March – Tropes
April – Revision
May – Fairy Tales
June – Blurbs
July – Heroes/Villains
August – Author Options in Publishing
September – World Building
October – Career vs Hobby
November – Finishing that Book!
December – Goals

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Gearing up for National Novel Writing Month 2016

October 31, 2016 / Katie L. Carroll

November is National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo or NaNo). The idea is that crazy writers set aside the month of November in an attempt to draft 50,000 words of a novel. That’s approximately 1,667 words a day, including weekends and holidays.

Before I had kids I actually did NaNoWriMo one year, the whole 50,000 words. And it sucked. The process of writing that many words in one month sucked. The words themselves sucked. The story sucked. And it sucked the life out of me! It’s a manuscript where I really liked the initial idea, but when I revised it, nothing was working. I tried different point of views, shifting tenses, reworking the plot. Let’s just say I’ve moved on from this story and it kind of soured me on the whole NaNoWriMo thing.

Elixir Bound by [Carroll, Katie L.] But I’ve been in a bit of a writing funk the last few months, since summer really. I’ve done lots of “smaller” writing things (writing a new beginning for a finished manuscript, working on a picture book idea, and the usual parenting articles and such). I had a few spurts of productivity, but not a lot of new words flowing. And I really have been wanting to get a draft done of ELIXIR SAVED (a companion to ELIXIR BOUND). Like I’ve been working on a first draft of this manuscript for years and it’s really starting to weigh on me.

Now it’s a tough manuscript to write because one of the point-of-view characters is based on my sister Kylene (and even has her name) and can be emotionally draining. So I’ve been lenient on myself when I’ve had to take breaks, but it’s time to get this one done. I decided to come up with a plan to finish. Earlier this month I took a look at how much I’d actually written, and it was a lot more than I thought I had–over 50,000 words. To put that into perspective, the completed novel of ELIXIR BOUND is a little over 55,000 words.

Now I knew that SAVED, with its multiple points of views and more epic scale, was going to be quite a bit longer than BOUND, but it was a nice surprise to see that I had accumulated so many words. It was heartening, and it made me feel like I could actually finish this first draft…and soon. That’s was when I was like, “I could use NaNo to get this done.”

With so many words already, I don’t need to set the (unrealistic for me) goal of 50,000 words in a month. I’m going to halve it for a goal of 25,000 words, which would be about 834 words a day or 1,137 words a day if you only count weekdays. That seems doable to me, and it should be enough to finish off the draft. And you know what, even if I don’t meet my exact goal, it’s going to serve as a framework to get me to the finish.

I’ve spent the last few weeks outlining the plot I already have and listing out the scenes I still need to write. I’ve written, formatted, and scheduled all my November blog posts (with only a few updates needed when the dates get closer), so I don’t have to worry about those. I dusted off my old NaNo profile (for anyone else who is doing NaNo, my username is ktlc1113 if you want to look me up on their site) and got it all up to date. I’ve squared away all my other freelancing, etc… work. (The kiddos will still be around all month bugging me, but not much I can do about them!)

I’m ready to start…tomorrow. And hopefully by the end of the month, I’ll have a finished draft of ELIXIR SAVED. Wish me luck!

Getting Excited About Science with Julie Murphy Author of GILLY’S TREASURES

October 19, 2016 / Katie L. Carroll

Today I have a great guest post from Julie Murphy, author of the picture book GILLY’S TREASURES. I always love seeing how people’s day jobs or passions influence what they write, and Julie’s post is full of wonderful pictures. Let’s give her a big welcome!

Thanks for hosting me on your blog, Katie, and helping me to celebrate the October 11 release of my new fiction picture book for children (4-8), Gilly’s Treasures.

Some writers say they always wanted to be an author, but my journey to Gilly’s Treasures was a little more roundabout. I always loved animals, so after finishing school I went to university and studied to become a zoologist – a scientist who studies animals.

The mornings were cold, but living close to a seal colony for a couple of weeks was a wonderful experience. (There’s a baby seal on the rock behind/between us.)

I was especially drawn to animal behavior, and studied how guide dog trainers assess the temperament of their trainee guide dogs for my Masters thesis. It was a great project, but city-based, so I made a point of helping friends with their projects in the field which got me out into nature from time to time. Among other things, I helped to collect sea cucumbers (which, despite their name, are actually animals!), and sea stars, and observed a population of fur seals on a restricted stretch of shoreline for ten precious days. That last project was especially amazing – and liberating. Can you imagine? Three young women on our own, camping along the coastline next to a colony of hundreds of seals. Our only outside contact was a radio call to the local ranger every afternoon to say we were okay. It was fantastic!

With a baby wombat in my zookeeper days. Wombats are still one of my favorite animals.

Later on, I worked as a zookeeper for ten years. But even then I couldn’t resist doing voluntary research projects in my spare time. One project involved rigging up time-lapse cameras to film the nocturnal behavior of native Australian mammals. I wanted to find out when they were active, what they did, and how they got along with each other in their mixed-species enclosures. Of course, doing the research is only half the job; the other half is sharing the results with others who could benefit from them. So I wrote my results into an article for a zoo journal, and presented them at a conference. This is how my published writing list began.

I view science as having a healthy curiosity about the world and trying to answer some of the questions we have about it. I believe that curiosity is something we should actively encourage in our kids, which is one reason why I love writing for children. It’s my chance to encourage children to be excited by nature, and life in general. Not only is it enriching for the child, but the more that children learn about animals and the environment, the more they will care about conservation.

My daughter (3) has always enjoyed exploring nature, and I’m sure she benefits from it in many ways.

It wasn’t until I became a stay-at-home mom that I focussed on writing for children. Reading picture books every day to my daughter taught me about the kinds of books that were being published, and through which publishers. I was able to use my science training to get a foot in the door with some publishers with work-for-hire, which involved writing non-fiction books about animals and the environment to specific briefs provided by the publisher.

It was a steep learning curve, but doing writing courses (some on-line), joining organizations such as the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI), and finding some trusted critique partners to provide honestfeedback all helped me to improve – and still do! And it turns out that the skills I learnt from working in science – objective observation, critical thinking, research, and concise writing – have all come in handy too.

Some of my non-fiction books about animals.

I am extra excited to welcome Gilly’s Treasures into the world because it is my first fiction picture book that began as my own idea (as opposed to from a publisher’s brief). Here’s the blurb: While out fishing, Gilly the seagull finds a beautiful, shiny treasure. He loves it so much he can’t help searching for more…and more. Will he ever be satisfied with what he has? The story has the feel of a traditional fable, which illustrator Jay Fontano has done a wonderful job balancing with fun, friendly illustrations. I especially love the new character he introduced – an adorable little crab. I am sure children will love spotting him (or her!) on each page.

I hope that readers of Gilly’s Treasures will be inspired to visit the beach for themselves, and maybe find a treasure or two of their own. (I for one can never leave a beachcombing session without a pretty shell or two in my pocket!) And it might even spawn a conversation about what they hold most important in their own lives.

A “family portrait” from one of my beach holidays.

About the Author:

Julie Murphy is a children’s writer of both fiction and non fiction. She trained as a zoologist and zookeeper, and is never far from animals and nature. Her favorite place to be is at the beach. She lives in Melbourne, Australia – a country surrounded by beach – with her husband and daughter.

Julie Murphy’s web site – (not working) www.juliemurphybooks.com

P.S. On a sad note, my website host has gone missing in action. True! I have set up an interim web site, in case anyone is interested. You will find it at http://www.members.optusnet.com.au/~julieamurphy/

Twitter: @juliekidsbooks

Facebook page with book preview: www.facebook.com/GILLYSTREASURES

Gilly’s Treasures is available from many on-line book stores, including Cedar Fort’s sales site, Books & Things (free postage to most states in the US): www.booksandthings.com

Feast for the Senses at WaterFire Providence

October 12, 2016 / Katie L. Carroll

A few weekends ago, the hubby and I snuck off for a night away from the kiddos! We headed to WaterFire Providence. Basically WaterFire is a cultural event centered around specially made fire braziers (created by artist Barnaby Evans) that float in the water. They are placed all along three rivers in downtown Providence and accompanied by a musical program.

It’s a pretty simple concept, but it’s beautiful, inspiring, and a feast for the senses. There are boat rides available, but we stuck to walking along the rivers this time around. There are street performers, food, lots of people watching, and this year there was a torch ceremony that preceding the lighting.

I first stumbled upon WaterFire when I was in Providence for a concert quite a few years ago. The concert got cancelled at the last minute and we ended up wandering around downtown and came across a crowd…and fires…in the water! I’ve been back a bunch of times since then (check out my post “Rivers of Fire” for a look at one past visit). I hope you enjoy the pictures from my latest visit!