This is normally the week where I share “Mommy’s Night Before Christmas,” my parody of Clement C. Moore’s poem “A Visit from St. Nicholas.” Unfortunately I’m not doing that this year because I’ve done a slight revision in anticipation of it becoming a picture book! (Don’t worry, you can still enjoy the old version here.)
I’m currently working with an illustrator for a fall 2022 release. So keep an eye out for more news on this!
In the meantime, I want to wish all of you a peaceful rest of the holiday season. I know there’s a lot that makes this time of year stressful, especially these last couple of years, so it is my wish for you all to find the calm in the storm whenever you can. Health and happiness in the New Year!
After a writing whirlwind of a November with a couple of virtual events, my Highlights Foundation writing retreat, and successfully completing NaNoWriMo (you can read about that in my post “The Magic of Highlights Foundation Writing Retreat”), I had planned to take a bit of a breather in December. November left me feeling a bit burnt out, so my plan was to watch some lighthearted movies, catch up on pleasure reading, and maybe bake a little with the kiddos. I also wanted to play around creatively with painting my playing guitar, things that had been put aside last month.
Overall, I’m doing pretty well on those goals. I have just one article due this month, so things are quiet on the freelance side. I haven’t done any fiction writing except for tooling around with one picture book and jotting down a few notes for when I gear up to revise the young adult novel I wrote for NaNoWriMo.
I’ve watched a bunch of movies, done some reading but I’d like to do more, and a little bit of baking with more planned for once the kiddos are on their school break. The painting and guitar playing I’ve been less successful on, but I’m trying to keep those things low-key, so I’m okay with that.
So I seem to be doing well on my goal, except…I got an idea on how to develop one of my writing projects and I kind of ran with it. (I know I’m being annoyingly vague here, but more details will be coming on this.) It’s stretching me in new ways on the business side of things and it’s hit a few bumps along the way, adding some stress to my life. Which wasn’t in the plan for December, and maybe all of this could have waited until after the New Year.
But I also didn’t want to wait on it, so I’m just decided to go for it. It hasn’t really been time-consuming so much as uncomfortable as I do things that are new to me. It’s made me feel unbalanced when I was striving for more balance this month. In the end, I think it’s going to be really good. So while it has put a wrench in my relaxing plans for this month, it always feels good to move feel like I’m making progress.
I guess what I’m trying to say is I’m very good at taking a full break. We’ll call it a break-ish. What are you all doing/celebrating as we close out this year and look forward to a new one?
Quick reminder that there are just a couple of days left to get 10% my entire catalogue of books using code NOVEMBER10. Just go to the Purchase Books page and I’ll ship them directly to you. All books are signed with an option to personalize, and all purchases come with fun book swag!
Then COVID happened and we had to put the trip on hold, but we finally made back early this month! And it was amazing!!! Yes, amazing with three exclamation points.
With this retreat scheduled for early November and me just starting a draft of my latest young adult novel, all the stars aligned for me to attempt National Novel Writing Month. NaNoWriMo (for short) occurs in November and a bunch of writers attempt to draft a book (i.e. write 50,000 words) in 30 days. It’s an intense experience, and one I was not in a position to attempt in recent years.
This year, I stayed in Cooper’s Cottage, which was a bright and airy cabin full of Floyd Cooper’s illustrations and with a view of the hiking path. It was not haunted, though one of the other writers I was on the retreat with stayed in my old cabin, and (spoiler alert) that one is still haunted. I actually didn’t write much in my cabin because I was retreating with three other writers this year and we mostly wrote in common spaces or in one of the other cabins (but not the haunted one!).
As I said, it was an amazing trip, and I highly recommend a Highlights retreat for all of you creative types. I wrote a ton of words and set myself up for successfully completing my NaNoWriMo challenge (as of November 28 when I’m writing this, I’m at 47, 250 words for the month and on track to finish on time). There’s much to be said of having everything taken care of for you so you have the brain space to only think of writing.
As a teaser for what I’m working on, I composed this poem in the Highlights word garden. As you can see, it’s kind of an intense story, but I’m really pleased with how it’s coming out. Though there will be a ton of revisions to come.
dark and light
scream within
the storm
Katie L. Carroll
My retreat mates are all vloggers, so you can check out their videos about the experience below. I kind of hate making videos myself, so I’ll be sticking to this old blog for now.
A question that inevitably comes up when discussing space exploration is why bother at all? People will say that space exploration is expensive, that we should focus on fixing all the bad things here on Earth, and what do we humans really get out of it anyway?
Next, let’s talk about how we should focus on our problems here on Earth rather than exploring space. This one almost doesn’t even require a response because it’s not a this-or-that kind of situation; sending humans to the moon doesn’t keep us from feeding hungry people. But I’ll humor the doubters and give an even more thorough response than that, which also addresses what we here on Earth get out of space exploration.
The work that NASA does can actually help solve our Earthly problems. NASA has a program dedicated to climate change with an entire fleet of instruments and spacecraft orbiting Earth to study climate science. Their scientific data is readily available to anyone on the globe, specifically those in charge of making and changing climate policies around the world.
The agency’s research encompasses solar activity, sea level rise, the temperature of the atmosphere and the oceans, the state of the ozone layer, air pollution, and changes in sea ice and land ice. NASA scientists regularly appear in the mainstream press as climate experts.
Space exploration also pushes the development of cutting edge technology and innovation that leads to applications here on Earth. Ever taken a selfie (the rovers on Mars have…see “Watch (and Hear) How NASA’s Perseverance Rover Took Its First Selfie”)? You can thank space exploration for that. Here’s a video about some more of the technologies that have come out of it, including weather forecasting tools, fire resistant fabrics, and medical applications.
Beyond the tangible benefits of space exploration, allow me to wax poetic for a moment about the intangible. Recent studies have shown that experiencing a sense of awe reduces stress, loneliness, and depression and can even alleviate pain (see “Awe: The Instantaneous Way to Feel Good and Relieve Stress”).
What is more awe-inducing than looking up at the stars and imagining what is up there, thinking about the universe and our place in it? Well, actually knowing what is up there! Because as vast as our imaginations are, the more we explore space, the more we realize that some of it is stranger than we can imagine, like a space cloud that smells like rum or a planet composed of solid diamond.
Space exploration gives us mere mortals a chance to see how far we can go as a species, both in actually going into space and by pushing the boundaries of what our minds can understand. It also puts us in our place. One of my favorite ways to get a sense of awe is watch videos about the scope of the universe.
It reminds me that we are a tiny part of a vast world, barely even a blip in the 14-billion-year history of the universe. Yet (barring any secret alien files the government has) Earth is the only planet we know of that has life on it. And it has a vast array of life, an estimated 8.7 million species, all on this one speck of a planet.
We are insignificant in the scope of the universe, but we are also diverse and important in the complex web of it, probably in ways that we can’t imagine. Understanding our greater place is all part of exploring it. So, yeah, space exploration is important and worth doing.
I’ll leave you with one last quote from NASA before I circle back to those billionaires who want to take control of space exploration on my next post.
Human space exploration helps to address fundamental questions about our place in the Universe and the history of our solar system. Through addressing the challenges related to human space exploration we expand technology, create new industries, and help to foster a peaceful connection with other nations. Curiosity and exploration are vital to the human spirit and accepting the challenge of going deeper into space will invite the citizens of the world today and the generations of tomorrow to join NASA on this exciting journey.
Long-time followers of the blog might remember how I like to do conference round-ups where I share bits of wisdom from writing conferences I’ve attended. You can check out past conference highlights here.
The 2021 New England SCBWI Conference was unlike any other NESCBWI one because it was fully digital this year. I was keeping my expectations low because I didn’t think it could possibly include the same sense of community as the in-person event. In addition to all the amazing workshops and keynote always offered, this particular conference was always about catching up with writing friends I’d usually only see once a year.
But conference co-directors Juliana Spink Mills and Casey W. Robinson and the entire committee managed to bring that NESCBWI vibe to the digital space. The conference included social hours where you could pick what “room” you wanted to be in (broken up into categories like what state your from, what kind of things you write, or just fun things like a witch’s tea room). In one chat, we ended up talking about pirates and I went and put on one of my pirate hats!
Friday night started off with a “Conversation With Two Legends: Nikki Grimes and Jane Yolen” hosted by Heidi E. Y. Stemple. It was packed full of great stories and advice, and these two truly are legends.
The friendship between them was very evident, even through a screen. When speaking about doing a writing retreat at Jane’s house, Nikki said, they were “two friends, two equals, doing the work.” Jane chimed in that when you’re with someone at the same stage as you, you don’t have to explain. Total author friendship goals there!
Jane intro’d herself by talking about “resolved combustion” and having “a place to cradle the nascent flame.” She told us, the fire is set, breathe deep, steady passionate…then blow yourself apart.
Nikki reminded us that “novel” means “new.” She realized she didn’t have to write the way everyone thought she should and that she had to do it the way that was right for her.
Saturday was packed full of workshops. We got to pick four to attend live and all the others were available to to view for a month afterwards. Being able to watch all the workshops offered is a big perk of the digital format.
In her workshop about picture book revision, Charlesbridge editor Julie Bliven said to come back to that spark of what is working and what you like about a manuscript to remind you of why it’s worth the revision.
Author Heidi E. Y. Stemple included a ton of amazing mentor texts when talking about non-fiction voice, resulting in me getting a little out of control with my holds list at the local library. She encouraged us to experiment with telling the story different ways and play with tone and language, and to not be afraid to try and fail when trying something different with a non-fiction manuscript.
Margaret K. McElderry Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, editor Kate Prosswimmer editor gave us a bunch of different guides to approach plot and character together. She said that the heart of a story is in the intersection of plot and character.
Saturday ended with a heart-tugging and joyful keynote from author/illustrator Mike Curato that tied so well into the conference’s theme of finding joy in the journey. His voice has such a soothing tone and I could have spent hours listening to him talk about his personal creative journey.
He talked about how his big break came when he realized he hadn’t made anything for himself in years and the joy was missing from his work. That’s when he created Little Elliot, who embodied so much of his childhood. Mike said that Elliot was his guide and would leave him through the darkness.
On Sunday, we got to pick two Ask-A-Mentor sessions to attend where faculty took questions directly from attendees. Then the conference ended with a keynote from Padma Venkatraman. If you ever get a chance to see Padma speak or teach a workshop, do it. She is so generous with her time and wisdom and is truly a gem to our New England SCBWI community.
Padma advised us to make a note of anytime someone says something kind or that they believe in you and to keep that in a book or somewhere to look at. In a sentiment that she constantly demonstrates, Padma said there is generosity in give away ideas and encouragement and that we should “lift other people.” I’m very much looking forward to her next book BORN BEHIND BARS, which is coming this fall.
And that was only some of the workshops and sessions I attended live. I spent the next month popping in to watch the recordings of the other sessions and filling up my notebook with inspiring advice and stories.
