Category: Guest (Page 41 of 43)

SCBWI Poconos Retreat 2012

May 1, 2012 / Katie L. Carroll

I had the pleasure of attending the Eastern PA SCBWI Poconos Conference again this year. With The Boy only being 8 months old and nursing, I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to go, but the hubby stepped up and watched the little guy at the inn all weekend while I ran off and cavorted with the finest the kidlit community has to offer.

How awesome was the conference this year? Three words: Laurie Halse Anderson! Aside from giving what was probably the best keynote speech I’ve ever heard, she was just so accessible to the conference attendees. She shared stories with us, offered us advice on our own personal projects, and was honest, thoughtful, and tough about encouraging us to make writing an imperative part of our lives (and she gushed about how cute The Boy is).

So as is my tradition, here’s some nuggets of wisdom from the conference that I think have some universal appeal (feel free to substitute the word “writing” for the endeavor of your choice):

Word of mouth is a great way to find any professional from an agent to a plumber. (Steven Chudney—How to Find and Work with an Agent)
Whether a thing is a mountain or a molehill depends on how we see ourselves. (Amy June Bates—Keynote)
Take the time and make the space for your writing dreams. (Laurie Halse Anderson—Keynote)
When you create writing time that creates a commitment of the soul. (Laurie Halse Anderson—Keynote)
Dare to get excited, even when you might get let down. We could all get hit by a marshmallow truck tomorrow. (Laurie Halse Anderson—Keynote)
A vital aspect to nurturing talent is to accept and validate your need to create. Honor, cherish, and celebrate it. (Laurie Halse Anderson—Keynote)
You can always make it better. Do not ask, “Is this any good?” Ask, “How can I make this better?” (Laurie Halse Anderson—Digging Deeper to See Farther: Revision Secrets)
Facing your fears and not giving up, that’s what the Teeny Tiny Ghost books are about. (Kay Winters—Keynote)
Being brave is not being scared; it’s being scared and doing it anyway. (Deb Heiligman—Keynote)
The trick about a to-do list is to make it doable. (Deb Heiligman—Keynote)

Stay tuned because the rest of May is all about e-books. And I’ll have another big announcement at the end of the month!

Magnificent Magnetic Poetry

February 18, 2012 / Katie L. Carroll

The poetry has been building up on my fridge. And the poets have really outdone themselves with this round of magnetic verse. Here’s the latest musings:

squirrel breeze

        dream freeze
                 conscious can
                         gray man (nice rhyming scheme and use of spacing here…I have no idea what it all means, but I sometimes wonder if that’s not the hallmark of good poetry…me not understanding it!)

the devil relax ed with a cold drink after a long night of trick er y (I wonder what the devil’s drink of choice is…wouldn’t it be funny if it was an appletini?)
explore a prostitute s body with random electric fruit s (yikes!)
howl that beautiful morning torso noise (this person must have had beans the night before)
dream s create inspiration between cold shadow s and silent thought s (I wish my dreams did this…mostly they leave me feeling a bit puzzled)
live for more than a memory (very deep, very wise)
spark muse speak music green woman green woman (the use of repetition here indicates the author has a great understanding of literary techniques…or an unhealthy obsession with the Green Giant’s girlfriend!)
imagine a friend and she will come a live (kind of cool, but also kind of scary)
emotion s bleed the heart wrench the mind expose our soul and leave us naked (my favorite of the bunch, no explanation needed!)

The Hubby came up with the idea of hiding some of the overused words. “Prostitute,” “Pickle,” “Explore,” “Naked,” “Skeleton” come to mind (and pretty much anything else that can be manipulated into a dirty phrase). Although as we can see from the above lines, those words still offer thought-provoking options. “Prostitute” still should go…not much you can do with that word that isn’t dirty!

Magnetic Poetry: “take only truth make only love”

July 20, 2011 / Katie L. Carroll

The magnetic poetry writers were at it again. Some of the old favorites showed up (I’m looking at you “pleasure puppet”), but this was some of the best poetry ever to be displayed on my refrigerator.

walk like a skeleton look like a gentle little girl (possibly good advice for a skeleton, but sounds a little threatening to little girls)

squirrel play spark s emotion (as long as the squirrels aren’t eating anything out of my veggie garden, their play is okay with me)

please expose the fruit (that’s what she said!)

explore you r mind and dream sweet vision s as you drown in the puddle of my soul (I’d say that’s one deep soul we’re talking about here, but I’ve heard a person can drown in less than an inch of water, so maybe this soul isn’t so deep after all)

he ly no or (I’m not sure these magnets were put together with any specific purpose in mind, but any form of expression–intentional or not–gets included…for better or for worse)

feel that hard monkey s pleasure puppet give tremendous naked sex (the monkey and the pleasure puppet are always up to no good)

essential bosom compel always (the question here is what does the essential bosom compel one to do)

make another memory to warm the cold night s of no moon and dark shadow s (nothing like anticipating the need to stave off a depressing night)

dead experience (quite the intriguing oxymoron)

take only truth make only love (I think I saved the best for last)

Once again, thanks to everyone who chose to expose the fruit of their creativity on my refrigerator. Your musing never fail to entertain me.

Magnetic Poetry: Mother’s Day

May 9, 2011 / Katie L. Carroll

The ladies and I had a lovely brunch yesterday to celebrate Mother’s Day. The weather was gorgeous and several of us kept the festivities going when we walked around the green and checked out a craft fair.

With my status as mother-to-be I got my first ever Mother’s Day presents in the form of cards, flowers, and delicious homemade banana bread (thanks goes out to The Boy…yup, it’s a boy!). The hubby decorated the refrigerator with ultrasound pictures of the little guy, but that wasn’t the only thing that ended up on the refrigerator.

That’s right! As with all the gatherings at my house, the guests were encouraged to express themselves with poetry. There was a whole new crop of words that had been added to the magnetic poetry kit since the last installment and the phrases were flowing. Here’s what the guests had to say:

spring morning garden leave s little want ing (there’s nothing I can really add to this beautiful sentiment…but notice I still added something by pointing that out)

imagine sweet dream s (if only it were as simply as imagining them and they came true)

a spark ly puddle is an inspiration for play time (probably true for most children, not so much for most adults)

easy trick bake good rain love (ummm…that’s what she said? maybe not, but I couldn’t go without saying it)

always taste summer and fear not to drink the gentle breeze (I think the awesome weather really inspired the guests to new levels of poetic beauty)

do squirrel s experience emotion (it’s a burning question that I know so many of us have been wondering and I’m glad someone finally asked it)

As always, thanks to those who contributed. What kind of poetic inspiration have you been experiencing lately?

SCBWI Poconos Conference 2011

April 25, 2011 / Katie L. Carroll

Every year at the Eastern PA SCBWI Poconos conference I learn something new. I always enjoy this conference, but there wasn’t a single speaker or session I attended that disappointed. Here’s some insightful nuggets that resonated with me not only as a writer but as a person (these are not written with quotation marks because I often paraphrase when I’m taking notes, but I think the ideas the speakers intended are all intact):

Even when you think something isn’t relative right now, write it down. You will change. Something extraneous now may be exactly what you need later.
There are no secure boxes. Do whatever you want to do, and do it wildly, purely, uncensored, even regrettable. Do it as hard as you can. ~Donna Jo Napoli

There are so many things out of our control, and we, especially children, are trying to figure things out and how to control our lives.
Write what you want to know. You’ll experience what you never imagined. If you take the chance, something will change, not just your manuscript…you! ~Suzanne Morgan Williams

Don’t worry about how long it takes, worry about making it right.
Nothing can make you feel worse than to compare yourself to someone else. It’s important not to beat ourselves up. We all have our own journey, we should celebrate our own journey.
Never give up because you might be on the one yard line, and you just don’t know it. ~Donna Gephart

Part of the fun for me is when I get to go out with my giant turkey head and do book signings.
They told me you probably shouldn’t show so much penguin butt. ~Lee Harper

This year I also learned that no matter how childish an idea seems (like going on the swings on a lovely spring day), never be too ashamed to share it with others (especially if you are at a conference full of people who create books for children). They might just want to join in on the fun, and you might make a friend in the process.

I think the most important thing I took away from this conference was to live and write with more freedom. As an adult, I think I’ve gotten away from expressing my true self. There isn’t one reason for this that I can pinpoint, but I blame some combination of worrying about what others think of me, trying to follow all the “rules” of society, and in general just being too self-aware.

It’s time for me to let go a little. To do and not think. To write drafts with more abandon. To be more relaxed when I send query letters. To not be afraid to let my true personality show through. What have you been working on lately?