Category: Creativity (Page 6 of 19)

The Journey of Self-Publishing the Picture Book THE BEDTIME KNIGHT by Katie L. Carroll, Illustrated by Erika Baird

December 7, 2020 / Katie L. Carroll

Surprise! I have a picture book coming out soon. While I wait for all the files to be finalized, I figured I’d share the journey of self-publishing this book and once again giving another one of my titles a second life.

Way back in 2012, my picture book THE BEDTIME KNIGHT, illustrated by Erika Baird, released on an ebook platform. I had entered the manuscript in a contest, and it didn’t win but the publisher offered me a contract all the same. It was really exciting to go through that process and seeing how the illustrator brought my words to life.

It was a positive experience in general, but a few years later when that company got bought out by a bigger publishing company, I opted to have my rights reverted back to me. There were several factors for that, but mostly I didn’t care for the terms of the contract and made the tough decision to walk away.

Fast forward a few years, and I had self-published my middle grade novel PIRATE ISLAND and found I really liked the process. I thought about doing that with THE BEDTIME KNIGHT. But publishing a picture book required design skills I did not have and I would have to get the rights from the previous illustrator or hire a new illustrator. I was also focusing on self-publishing my YA fantasy ELIXIR BOUND and writing the sequel ELIXIR SAVED. So once again, my little picture book about being scared of the shadows in the night was set aside.

Then one day, my sister and I were out on a hike with our families. We got talking about what writing project I was working on, one of which was a picture book inspired in part by her family. The conversation turned to what had ever happened with THE BEDTIME KNIGHT. I don’t remember her exact words, but she said something about how she had really liked the book and hoped it would be available again one day. I know she’s my sister, but we’re not the kind of people to compliment each other and not mean it, so I knew she was being sincere in her praise.

As a traditionally published author turned self-published one, it’s been hard not to doubt myself. Hard not to wonder if my work is good enough. And very hard to find an audience. So many books come out every year, and it’s often hard to find readers even with the backing of a publishing company, never mind when you’re doing it all yourself. So the fact that my sister enjoyed my book and wished it to be out in the world again meant something. It reminded me that my books–even when they’re only reaching a small audience–are important.

So I slowly started thinking about republishing THE BEDTIME KNIGHT. This time I wanted to have a print version, not just a digital one. I eventually reached out the to the illustrator and asked if she’d be willing to negotiate for the rights to use her illustrations. And she was!

We came to an agreement, and I taught myself how to design and format a picture book. This was all done in between other projects, and learning a design program can be a time-consuming process, so writing out the process sounds much less complicated than it felt while doing it. But I did it.

Now I’m super excited to announce that THE BEDTIME KNIGHT will be coming out in paperback and ebook very soon. Stay tuned for links!

Interview With Meg Thacher Author of SKY GAZING

October 13, 2020 / Katie L. Carroll

I’m very excited to welcome fellow New England SCBWI member Meg Thacher to the blog to celebrate the release of her STEM non-fiction children’s book STAR GAZING: A GUIDE TO THE MOON, SUN, PLANETS, STARS, ECLIPSES, AND CONSTELLATIONS. I was very lucky to get an early copy (and the boys were super excited to check it out) and you can read my 5-star review on Goodreads.

Star Gazing: A Guide to the Moon, Sun, Planets, Stars, Eclipses, and Constellations had a bit of an unusual path to publication. What were the circumstances of how you came to write the book?

One day I got an email from Deb Burns, an acquiring editor at Storey Publishing, asking if I’d be interested in writing a book about astronomy for kids. It seemed completely out of the blue, but Storey’s model is to find experts to write books about what they’re experts in. I teach astronomy at Smith College, and by that time I’d written 19 articles for kids’ magazines. So I also had a track record of writing for kids, working to spec, and (mostly) meeting deadlines. Deb and I wrote the book proposal together, she pitched it to her editorial team, and we got the green light. So I highly recommend writing for magazines—it’s a great way to break into the business!

The design of the book is beautiful and it’s filled with so many fun little tidbits. How collaborative was the process of making the book?

Very collaborative. Along with my manuscript, I provided Storey with a list of suggested illustrations—photos, figures from the internet, and little sketches I’d made by hand or (I’m totally serious here) with Powerpoint. After Deb and a copy editor spiffed up my manuscript, my amazing book designer (Jessica Burns) took over. Storey hired an illustrator (Hannah Bailey) to do the diagrams, pictures, and amazing graphic novel sequences. It took three draft layouts and two in-person meetings to get to the final product (this was BC, before COVID). My main job during this process was making sure everything was scientifically accurate. Hannah’s illustrations look SO much better than my sketches, and Jess is just a wizard of putting text and illustrations on a page so that they make sense.

What is your favorite part of the writing process? What is your least favorite part?

I love everything about the writing process except actually writing! I’m a plotter, so I outline like crazy—the only way I can write nonfiction is to know where I’m going at all times. I am a research nerd, of course. And I really like to revise: it’s so satisfying when I find the perfect word or turn of phrase. But my first drafts? Blech.

What is next for you in your writing career? Do you have an upcoming releases or a favorite project you’re working on right now?

No upcoming releases yet. I’m working on a middle grade informational fiction book about a 5^th grade girl who loves astronomy. And like all children’s writers, I have a computer folder full of picture book manuscripts that are slowly making the rounds.

And finally, what is something funny/weird/exceptional about yourself that you don’t normally share with others in an interview?

I’m a really good swimmer. I was never on a swim team, but I lifeguarded and taught swimming from age 18 to 24. I can keep up with people who are in much better shape than I am because I have good form and an efficient stroke. (Just don’t ask me to do the butterfly!)

STAR GAZING blurb:

Sky Gazing is a guide to observing the sky from wherever you are, day or night—no telescope required. Kids aged 9–14 will learn how to find objects in the sky and delve into the science behind what they see, whether they live in a dark rural setting or under the bright lights of the city. Star charts will guide them in spotting constellations throughout the seasons and in both hemispheres while they learn about constellation myths from cultures around the world. Each chapter has guides to special events and binocular observing. Activities engage kids and their grown-ups in hands-on science.

Buy the book on Amazon, IndieBound, Better World Books, or Barnes & Noble.

About the Author:

Meg Thacher has been writing for children’s magazines since 2013, publishing thirty nonfiction features, infographics, scientist profiles, current events, DIY experiments, and a reader’s-theatre-style retelling of a Welsh folktale. Her debut book, Sky Gazing, comes out on October 13. She’s an active member of SCBWI (the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators) and two critique groups. She is now in her twenty-second year teaching astronomy at Smith College, where she has also taught writing. She enjoys singing, knitting, and swimming, and lives in a partially empty nest in western Massachusetts.

Website: megthacher.com

Twitter: @MegTWrites

Facebook author page: https://www.facebook.com/MegTWrites

“Balancing Writing and Parenting” Virtual Event for Indie Author Project Expert Sessions

October 7, 2020 / Katie L. Carroll

A quick announcement today to let you all know that I’m doing a virtual webinar next week for the Indie Author Project’s Expert Sessions. It’s called “Balancing Writing and Parenting” and is from 12 – 1 p.m. ET on Thursday, October 15, 2020.

It was created with the particular needs of parents in mind, but I think there will be some good tips for any writer who’s feeling short on time lately. It’s free, but you do need to register to attend live. It will also be recorded, so you can watch it at your convenience.

What The Fibonacci Sequence & Sunflowers Can Teach Us About The Writing Adage “Show, Don’t Tell”

September 14, 2020 / Katie L. Carroll

I’m going to start today’s post by telling you something.

Lately I’ve been thinking about the Fibonacci sequence (really, haven’t we all…no?). Basically, if you start with 0 and 1, it’s a series of numbers where the sum of the two previous numbers add up to the next number in the sequence: 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, etc… (0+1=1, 1+1=2, 1+2=3, 2+3=5, 3+5=8, etc…).

It’s a tidy little pattern, and with some easy arithmetic (at least in the beginning), you can figure out what the next number is. In a world that seems to be getting more chaotic by the minute, I like the predictability of the pattern.

On graph paper, you can connect the opposite corners of boxes that are the size of each number and you get the Fibonacci spiral. Let me show you that.

By Jahobr – Own work, CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=58460223

It’s a neat little mathematical trick, but you’re probably thinking, so what? It’s a bunch of numbers that form a pattern. Well, there are lots of applications in real life that use this sequence, like computer algorithms. But the ones I’m most interested in are related to nature (for further reading see “How are Fibonacci numbers expressed in nature?” by Robert Lamb).

Take the sunflower. Let me show you this sunflower I grew in my yard.

Notice the spiraling pattern of the seeds in the center of the sunflower. (Have you guessed where I’m going with this yet?) Turns out in most sunflowers–it is nature after all, so with many outside factors, it’s not true for every sunflower–the number of spirals correspond with the Fibonacci sequence. From pine cones to spiral galaxies, this pattern shows up in so many places in our universe.

Yet, there’s a lot more to sunflowers than understanding the pattern of it. What do they smell like? What sound do they make blowing in a late summer breeze? What does it taste like when you pop open the shell of a roasted seed to get to the salty crunch in the middle? What’s a situation where you might think of a sunflower and what emotions might that evoke?

There are as many answers to the above questions as there people in the world.

Now think about if I just showed you the image with the Fibonacci spiral and didn’t tell you about it at all. Or if I just told you about the pattern and didn’t give you a visual. And what if I didn’t add in the bit about the sunflowers? Or what if I did include the part about the sunflowers following the pattern, but I didn’t ask you all those other questions about them?

All this telling and showing is what helps me to figure out the world. Knowing the math behind the nature adds yet another layer to the flower that makes me appreciate it even more. The sunflower helps me understand the Fibonacci sequence and vice versa. In nature writing, all this might be important to include, but in prose writing, it’s probably not.

Sometimes seeing a thing makes more sense than having it explained. But sometimes having a thing explained makes you see it in a whole new way. Finding the right balance between the two and understanding what your end goal is makes all difference in what to include in your writing.

Here, I included a lot. Even though the old writing adage is “show, don’t tell,” I wanted to explain the Fibonacci sequence by telling you about it and showing it in visuals, which included the sunflower. I also wanted to inspire you to think deeper about the sunflower. I suppose you could say I wanted to be academic in the beginning and move into the more poetic as we went along.

For a novel, you certainly don’t want to explain the Fibonacci sequence when describing a sunflower. Unless maybe your narrator is a scientist or a mathematician and that’s important to how they see the world and express themselves through it. But for most narrators that won’t be the case. So to strike the right balance, I find it’s best to see the world through their eyes. What aspects of the sunflower would they observe given their state of mind to convey something important about them and the story?

Also what does the reader need to know and care about? Perhaps simply telling them a thing is a sunflower is enough (sometimes I think as writers we can get too caught up in the showing) and you don’t need to immerse them in experiencing the sunflower. The reader can conjure the image themselves with just the word and no showing is necessary. Or perhaps not. Maybe this is a moment in the story when you really do want to take the time to show them the flower and all that it means.

How do you decide? Of all the above stuff I wrote about sunflowers and all the things about sunflowers that I made you think about, what’s important? The answer to that is it’s all relative. It all depends on who is telling the story and what the person who is reading it is supposed to get out of it. And I’m afraid that is only something you, as the writer, can answer.

New School Year & New Book Teaser

September 1, 2020 / Katie L. Carroll

First off, I know a lot schools started back this week (in one form or another), so I wanted to send good wishes out to all the teachers, parents, and students embarking on this new school year. My kids don’t start until next week, and I’m having a lot of feelings about it, many of which I’m keeping close to the chest because I want to stay as positive as possible for the kiddos. I wrote a post about change back in 2015 and find much of it is relevant to the year 2020.

This was the school year where all three kiddos were supposed to have some form of formal schooling. The year where I would have a little more time to write. The fact that this isn’t happening is a small thing in comparison to a lot of other problems, but I’m still trying to allow myself to feel some resentment about it without wallowing. I’ve had a ton of writing ideas lately, so at least my creativity is flowing again.

In bookish news, I have a secret project I’ve been working on. Some of you may already know this one, and it’s getting a second life! It’s a project I’ve been working on in the in-between spaces. I was stuck on it for a little bit, but now that I’ve solved a particular problem, it’s well on its way. I don’t have the timeline pinned down yet for a release. Maybe I’ll just do a surprise release with it whenever it’s done.