Category: Events (Page 6 of 17)

CT Authors Trail Event & Little Free Library Summer Reading Update

July 31, 2019 / Katie L. Carroll

I’ve been having so much fun stopping by Little Free Libraries all summer long and leaving copies of ELIXIR BOUND with a code for an ARC of the upcoming second book in the Elixir series, ELIXIR SAVED. I have a pictures to share, but first an event announcement!

My stop on the CT Authors Trail is coming up on Monday, August 5 at 6:00 pm at the Voluntown Public Library, which is located at 107 Main Street, Vountown, CT 06384. In addition to learning about the inspiration behind my books, there will be games, writing prompts, signed books, photo ops, and maybe a sneak peek at ELIXIR SAVED (if I’m feeling brave!).

And now for the summer reading fun I’ve been having with Little Free Libraries and the Elixir series. States visited so far include Connecticut (of course), Virginia, and Vermont, with one on the way in New York. I’ve loved checking out the different themes people and organizations have come up with for their little libraries. We’ve encountered The Lorax, space, and a couple of beachy ones.

The boys have enjoyed picking up a book at a few of our stops as well! I think my favorite one so far was a bright yellow one, not because it looked particularly special but because it was at the soccer field dedicated in memory of my sister, Kylene.

I’ve been posting pictures on all my social media accounts (find me on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter), so you can follow along as I drop off the rest. You can also get the latest updates on my progress on ELIXIR SAVED. I finally finished the big revision I was working on (about a month late), and now I’m getting the final scenes written and the three POVs organized so I can send it out to my beta readers. I’ll also be contacted my cover artist soon to get working on that. Yay! I’ve tentatively set a November 2019 release date, so get ready for another journey into the world of the Elixir!

Summer Reading Giveaway With Little Free Libraries

June 20, 2019 / Katie L. Carroll

Before I get to the summer reading giveaway, I have to give a shout out to all the people who made Pirate Day happen. Thanks the members of the Downtown Milford Business Association for organizing the event. We had perfect weather and a great turnout It was so fun meeting all the little (and big!) pirates and sharing PIRATE ISLAND with them!

On a personal, level thanks to my mom for spending the whole day with me, my sisters for supplies and/or for hanging out, my nephew for stopping by and introducing me to his girlfriend, my mother-in-law for making sure The Prince (my middle kiddo) had a special shopping trip on his birthday, my dad for grabbing lunch, and my husband and kiddos for always being my biggest cheerleaders. It truly does take a village!

Now for the summer reading giveaway! I have some copies of ELIXIR BOUND with the old cover hanging around, so I’ve decided to drop them in little free libraries while on my adventures this summer. As a bonus, whoever finds one of these books will also get a code to claim an ebook ARC (advanced reader copy) of the second Elixir book ELIXIR BOUND when those are ready in the fall!

I’ve chosen most of the little free libraries already, but I’m keeping a few copies open to spontaneous giveaways. Many of the libraries are in my home state of Connecticut, but upstate New York, Virginia, and Washington D.C. are among the other spots where you’ll be able to find copies. I’ll be posting pics of the libraries as the copies are dropped off on Instagram (yup, I finally joined!) @katielcarrollauthor, Twitter @katielcarroll, and Facebook https://www.facebook.com/katielcarrollauthor/.

You can always check out what I’m reading this summer on my Goodreads page, and I’ll probably do a post later in the summer highlighting some of my favorites. What’s on your summer reading list?

PIRATE ISLAND Story Time at Milford Pirate’s Day

May 29, 2019 / Katie L. Carroll

Super busy here with the end of school year stuff for the kiddos, revising ELIXIR SAVED (my read-through revision turned into a full on revise-all-the-things revision), and gearing up for…Milford Pirate’s Day!

The event begins at 9:00 a.m. on Sunday, June 9 at Lisman Landing (37 Helwig Street, Milford, CT 06460) and moves to the green in downtown Milford in the afternoon until 3:00 p.m. There will be pancakes with pirates in the morning, the pirates arriving by ship at noon, and activities and a scavenger hunt on the green in the afternoon. Plus there will be food trucks, music, face painting, and lots of other fun stuff!

I’ll be at Lisman Landing in the morning and on the green in the afternoon. At each location I’ll be giving a family-friendly talk about local pirate history and legends, plus a short reading from PIRATE ISLAND. On the green, I’ll also have a fishing game with sticker prizes (while supplies last) and a pirate ship backdrop for a photo op.

A pirate display, including signed copies of PIRATE ISLAND, at The Canvas Patch in downtown Milford.

Pirate’s Day has already been getting some local news coverage (see the Milford Patch article “Milford Pirate’s Day Returns” and the Milford-Orange Times articles “Milford Gearing Up For Pirate’s Day”)! If you aren’t local and can’t make it to the event, I’ve done a bunch of posts about Captain Kidd history and PIRATE ISLAND (make sure to check out both pages of material). Arggh!

ELIXIR SAVED Update & Author Events 2019

April 29, 2019 / Katie L. Carroll

It’s been all ELIXIR SAVED and author events on the blog lately and today’s no exception. I’ve been compiling the mess of a draft that is ELIXIR SAVED and it’s been slightly terrifying. It’s been 8ish-year process to write this thing, it’s got three point-of-view characters, and it turns out that the manuscript is currently over 117,000 words!!! Yikes!

It’s been a journey to say the least. I haven’t quite written THE END yet, which I was hoping to do before I started the first round of revisions. But I realized I needed to read through what I already have in order to write the ending, which is weird because I’ve known the major events of the end pretty much since I started writing the story. Some things you can’t force, I guess. As I’ve been organizing the draft, the pieces of the end are already starting to come together in my mind.

I’ve also been busy scheduling and planning events for the spring and summer. This Saturday, I’ll be at the Author Expo and Book Fair at the public library in Torrington, CT from 12-4 p.m. That means I’ll be missing the New England SCBWI conference this year. 🙁 Hopefully I’ll get there next year.

Then in June I’ll be part of Pirate Day in downtown Milford, CT. It looks like I’ll be doing two presentations about the local pirate lore, one in morning before the pirates arrive by boat and one in the afternoon on the town green. There are a ton of fun activities throughout the day for the whole family. I’ll have PIRATE ISLAND for sale, games to play, and picture opportunities when I’m not speaking. It’s going to be a really fun (and busy!) day.

I’m also part of the CT Authors Trail this summer. I’ll be at the Voluntown Public Library in August for that. You can check out my Events page for all the updated details on where to find me. And I’m always happy to have people reach out to me for events and school or library visit; check out my Author Visits page for details on that.

As for the boys, we had a fun spring break a couple of weeks ago. We’ve started making our plans for the summer. I’ll have to do a picture post soon, so you can see what we’ve been up to. What have you all been up to lately?

Upcoming Author Events 2019

March 11, 2019 / Katie L. Carroll

It’s been a quiet year for author events so far (which is okay with me, given the lousy weather in New England in the winter and the busy fall I had). I’ve also been a bit quiet here on the blog this year because I’ve been busy writing, writing, writing. But I’m excited to announce two events for this year with hopefully more to come.

The first one is only a couple of weeks away! I’ll be attending the Local Authors Fest at the Public Library of New London on Saturday, March 23 from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. There will be a whopping 50 authors in attendance! Grabbed a signed book, enter the raffle, take a photo with an author, and listen to a select group of authors speak about their books and writing journeys. There will be children’s books and adult books in all types of genres, so something for everyone. I’ll have copies of my YA fantasy ELIXIR BOUNDand my middle grade adventure PIRATE ISLAND, and some book swag too.

I’m please to also announce that I’ve been selected as one of the authors in this year’s Connecticut Authors Trail. I’ll be at the Voluntown Public Library on Monday, August 5 at 6:00 p.m. to talk about my writing journey and PIRATE ISLAND. I’ll have more details about this event soon and CT Authors Trail finale event at Mohegan Sun in September.

If any educators and librarians are interested in booking me for a writing workshop or talk, I have spots open for this year as well. Check out my author visitspage for more details or email me at KatieLCarroll @ yahoo.com (minus the spaces).