Category: News (Page 1 of 14)

Spring Fling Writing Contest “Voice of the Wildflowers”

April 1, 2025 / Katie L. Carroll / 5 Comments

I’m participating in the Spring Fling Writing Contest. The rules are simple: write a children’s story of no more than 150 words using a spring-themed gif as inspiration. Post it between April 1st and 3rd and add your post to the entry form. Here is my entry!

Voice of the Wildflowers
by Katie L. Carroll

As the mist of night lifted, a voice rose in the distance.

It danced through the meadow, over the hills, up into the puffy white clouds.

All the little blooms in the meadow lifted their sleepy heads.

Their petals opened wide, drinking in the sun and that voice…that beautiful voice!

The flowers had no ears to hear the song, but somehow it flowed into their stems and vibrated right down to their roots.

The voice drew closer and with it came a little girl in a pink polka-dot dress.

She skipped through the meadow, spreading wildflower seeds while she sang.

The flowers had no eyes to see the girl with her dress and her seeds, but somehow they knew her.

For she had been there before, spreading the seeds that would become those flowers.

The flowers had no hearts, but somehow they loved the girl and her voice.

“Whatever the [redacted] I Want” for Writing & Life in 2025

January 31, 2025 / Katie L. Carroll

It’s that last day of January 2025. I haven’t written a 2024 writing or reading wrap-up. My partner traveled a lot this month, so that meant lots of solo parenting on my part. We finally took the Christmas tree down this week. The world is a mess, and my brain is feeling that way, too. It’s a chaotic start to the year!

And to throw you all for a loop, my current work-in-progress is a novel for adults. It’s tentatively called Sunflowers at the End of the World and it’s a cozy dystopian novel about joy. Yes, that feels like a contradiction, but it’s all plays into my theme for 2025. Which is…

“Whatever the f%$@ I want!”

That’s not to say I’m shirking my responsibilities or being frivolous. I’m simply choosing to use my precious time and energy on the things I want to do. That means working on writing projects I’m passionate about, even if they deviate from my previous plans. That means leaning into causes that I’m passionate about. That means staying informed but also taking steps to filter out what and how much I consume when it comes to current events.

My work as an author, as a Board Member for my local library, and as a member of Authors Against Book Bans puts me in a position to double-down on protecting access to books and information in the face of a government who is actively trying to dismantle these things. This is one of the foundational principles of U.S. democracy, and I’m ready to fight for it.

There are a lot of other horrific things the U.S. government is trying to do, but I personally can’t fight them all without burning out. I also don’t have the know-how or resources to fight on every front. I’m picking a few and devoting myself to them. I’m also actively letting my Senators and other government officials know how I feel about the many issues plaguing the country. I’m finding 5 Calls a helpful tool for this.

I can’t and won’t try to do all the things. But there is a lot I can and want to do. I’m going all-in on those things and filtering out the rest.

What’s your word, mantra, or theme for this year? What causes are you fighting for?

New Children’s Nonfiction Book THE GREAT VOYAGERS: EARTH’S INTERGALACTIC AMBASSADORS

November 13, 2024 / Katie L. Carroll

Guess what? I have another new book out. It technically came out yesterday, but we’ll just pretend that I’m organized and have been properly marketing my new book release. It’s called THE GREAT VOYAGERS: EARTH’S INTERGALACTIC AMBASSADORS. If you or your kids enjoyed SELFIES FROM MARS, you’re gonna like this one too.

This book takes readers on a journey through the solar system all the way to interstellar space. The Voyager space probes are the farthest reaching human-made objects are have been out in space for more than 45 years! And wait until you read about the Golden Records. They really are quite the incredible NASA mission.

I’m really excited to have another STEM nonfiction books for kids to get excited about space. I recently did a school visit where I talked all about Opportunity’s incredible journey on the Red Planet and my process of writing, revising, and publishing SEFLIES FROM MARS. I can’t wait to bring THE GREAT VOYAGERS to classrooms as well.

What space mission should I write about next? I have a couple in mind, but I’d love to know what your favorites are.

Book blurb:

Take a grand tour through the outer planets and beyond the solar system with the NASA Voyager space probes. Launched in 1977, Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 were the first spacecraft to explore all the outer planets and the first human-made objects to reach interstellar space. They each hold a golden record with the sights, sounds, music, and languages of Earth. These great Voyagers continue to reach for the stars as Earth’s intergalactic ambassadors.

Purchase THE GREAT VOYAGERS at Bookshop, Barnes & Noble, or Amazon.

A Guide to Standing Up to Book Bans for Banned Books Weeks 2024

September 25, 2024 / Katie L. Carroll

Earlier this year, I stood up against book banning in my town when a few parents challenged the inclusion of the Heartstopper graphic novels by Alice Oseman in middle school libraries. I spoke and wrote about this experience across all my social media accounts and sent letters to school officials and my local media outlets. You can read my open letter and find links to some of the news coverage sparked by the attempted book ban in my post “Heartstopper by Alice Oseman Should Not Be Banned From Middle School Libraries.”

While the book ban attempts in my town were defeated, there are many towns across the United States where this is not the case. The American Library Association just released their “2024 Preliminary Book Ban Data.” It shows a small decline in book challenges from 2023, but the numbers were still way ahead of the numbers prior to 2020. This data is pulled from reported instances and media coverage, but all book challenges and bans are not given these, so the numbers don’t give the whole picture.

The ALA also noted that data doesn’t take into account soft censorship. They stated, “Additionally, instances of soft censorship, where books are purchased but placed in restricted areas, not used in library displays, or otherwise hidden or kept off limits due to fear of challenges illustrate the impact of organized censorship campaigns on students’ and readers’ freedom to read. In some circumstances, books have been preemptively excluded from library collections, taken off the shelves before they are banned, or not purchased for library collections in the first place.”

They shared this data ahead of Banned Books Week, which is happening right now. But the fight against book bans shouldn’t only be talked about one week of the year. Book challenges happen all the time, and there are ways to combat them.

Get educated about books challenges. Here are some good places to start: ALA Banned & Challenged Books, Banned Books Week, Authors Against Book Bans.
Be Proactive. Write an email to school administration saying you trust the professionals (i.e. school librarians and teachers) to select books for school libraries, even if there are no book challenges in your area. Find out what the policies are in your communities. Show support to your public librarians by mentioning how you appreciate the Banned Books or Pride Week displays. Read banned books, and not just the classics. Check out the banned books lists and support the living authors who are being affected by these bans.
Pay attention and make your voice heard. I was alerted to the book challenges in my town when I happened to come across an article from a local newspaper on my Facebook feed. Then I went to work to educate myself (I had already read the books in question and had lots of resources at hand), so I could respond quickly and share my voice in support of the books. So often, it’s the would-be book banners that have the loudest voice, and those of us in favor of freedom of reading need to be loud as well.
Volunteer or run for office in your community. This one’s a bit harder as it usually means a significant time commitment. But if you do have the ability and time, positions that support schools and libraries include running for a Library Board or Board of Education position or volunteering for your local library group (often called Friends of the Library).

Also, read this Book Riot article by Kelly Jensen “How to Fight Book Bans in 2024.”

The Inspiration Behind the Award-Winning YA fantasy ELIXIR BOUND

August 23, 2024 / Katie L. Carroll

ELIXIR BOUND is the book that made me an author, but it’s so much more than that. This book and its sequel, ELIXIR SAVED, are memorials to my sister Kylene. In ELIXIR BOUND, Katora, who has a sister named Kylene, goes on a quest to become the guardian of a secret healing Elixir. The Elixir Chronicles are like a wish in book form. A wish for more for my sister.

I’ve written about Kylene a bunch of times here on the blog (see “Still Mourning Kylene 20 Years Later”), and her too-short life continues to be a large influence on my writing. One of my works-in-progress is a picture book about a girl who loses her sister.

Mourning is a life-long process. Writing is one of the ways I try and make sense of this wonderfully complex thing we call life. Naturally, my feelings about Kylene come up a lot in my writing.

Yet, the Elixir Chronicles are fantasy quests with magic, whimsy, and adventure. There are deaths — particularly one in ELIXIR SAVED that is a bit devastating — but death and mourning aren’t main themes. The books are more about living. The characters are figuring out what kind of life they want to live and trying to put that into action.

In that way, it’s like giving Kylene — albeit a fictional one — a second chance at life. Second chances are a main theme of ELIXIR SAVED. Yup, these books are big wishes that I know won’t come true. But it still felt good to write them, even when the writing was incredibly hard at times.

The ebook of ELIXIR BOUND is currently on sale for $1.99. It’s part of the Narratess Indie Sale, which officially kicks off tomorrow. There are over 370 fantasy, sci-fi, and horror book by indie authors and publishers on sale or even free.