Category: Travel (Page 5 of 14)

New England SCBWI 2015 Conference Gems of Wisdom

May 5, 2015 / Katie L. Carroll

20150425_131300 As promised, I have the New England SCBWI 2015 Conference gems of wisdom and terrible pictures (seriously, I think the only decent picture I took all weekend is this one with the view from my hotel room). First, though, a reminder that the handout for my “Something Borrowed, Something New: Mining Myths, Legends, and Fairy Tales to Write Fantasy” workshop is available for download as a PDF here: Something-Borrowed-Workshop-Handout.pdf.

And now for the gems of wisdom. I always note that I use italics instead of quotation marks because these are not necessarily direct quotes. Some may be close to what the speaker actually said and others are my own rewording/interpretation as I scrambled to take notes during the speeches and presentations. So here they are!

Agent/Editor Panel: Slushpile Duds to Superstar Clients with Jennifer Laughran, Jill Corcoran, Carter Hasegawa, and Alison Weiss:

If I like something, I will Internet stalk you. ~Carter Hasegawa
Don’t be crazy on the interwebs. ~Jill Corcoran
Things take a long time because they take a long time. ~Jennifer Laughran
Often what I don’t think I’m looking for is what I fall in love with. ~Alison Weiss
I was led to believe that social media was key to making you great. There are things that can work, but it has to be what works for you. ~Carter Hasegawa
Protect yourself so that there’s room to create. ~Carter Hasegawa

Opening Ceremonies featuring Stephen Mooser and Jane Yolen:

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Taking a chance, isn’t that what all of us do when we send out a manuscript? ~Stephen Mooser
You are my tribe. ~Jane Yolen
Books make the world a little smaller for people to reach out to each other. ~Jane Yolen

Keynote with Dan Santat:

Taste–the one word to leave this conference with. ~Dan Santat
“Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit…” Ira Glass quote referenced by Dan Santat (See the full quote on Goodreads.)
Don’t be biased or censor yourself in what you like and read and how you form your taste. ~Dan Santat
Be aware of your tastes and interests. This is your voice. Your voice is you writing on a piece of paper uncensored. ~Dan Santat
Trust yourself; know that you have something inside of you. Trust that what you have to say has value. ~Dan Santat
The hardest part of finding your style is trusting your own instincts. ~Dan Santat

Crystal Kite Award Ceremony with 2014 Winner Deborah Freedman:

My skin needs to be thin because I don’t want to protect myself from feeling things. ~Deborah Freedman

Special Guest Speaker Kwame Alexander 2015 Newbery Award Winner:

I’m just a guy who writes poetry. I’m just a dude. This is not happening (on winning the Newbery). ~Kwame Alexander
You never expect to win, but somewhere in the deep crevices of your mind, you’re always hopeful. ~Kwame Alexander
The answer is always yes! If I say yes and walk through the door, I will figure it out. ~Kwame Alexander
I believe we have to get the nos out of the way to get our yes. ~Kwame Alexander

Keynote with Jo Knowles – Be True:

Everyone has a story. It’s the reason why everyone acts the way they do. I saw my world differently and I was different (after reading THE CHOCOLATE WAR by Robert Cormier). ~Jo Knowles
The more I read, the bigger my world became. ~Jo Knowles
Even if I was afraid to use my voice out loud that didn’t mean I didn’t have one. ~Jo Knowles
Kids understand love…hate and discrimination are what they learn from adults. ~Jo Knowles
The moment we open a book and start reading, we change. ~Jo Knowles
Your book does not belong in a box. Allow yourselves to find the truth and tell it. Open the box and tear down the sides. ~Jo Knowles

Diversity Panel: Authors & Illustrators Agree – We Need Diverse Books, with Mike Jung, Grace Lin, Justina Ireland, Dhonielle Clayton, Sona Charaipotra, and Cindy L. Rodriguez:

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People think diversity is a fad and that’s really offensive. I’ll still be brown tomorrow. ~Justina Ireland
Authenticity is hard. Once a book is with a reader, it may not feel authentic to them. Make something that is authentic to you and make it universal. Make things that feel real. ~Grace Lin
Build from an emotional core and that is what is authentic. ~Dhonielle Clayton
Even in a family that is entirely Hispanic, each one of them is different. You still have a lot of work to do to make it real, even if you have a diverse background. ~Cindy L. Rodriguez
Every kid wants to be the hero. ~Sona Charaipotra

And here are a few from my workshops that made the Interwebs (!):

Be brutal with your work, but kind to yourself. ~Katie L. Carroll
Write with your heart and soul, but revise with your head. ~Katie L. Carroll
There’s no silver bullet to making your manuscript better. You have to put in the hard work. ~Katie L. Carroll
Go beyond the Cinderella story when searching for inspiration. Think and read outside your comfort zone, and find what resonates with you by mining your own mind and heart. ~Katie L. Carroll

That was only two days’ worth of conferencing as I wasn’t able to attend the final day on Sunday. Imagine how long that post would have been if I had gone all three days! Seriously, I can’t overstate how much I needed that weekend. I spend so much time being a mom and squeezing in the writer part of myself that it felt so amazing to be fully immersed in the writing part of my life for a couple of days.

And to have people come up to me and thank me and say they enjoyed my workshops, it really meant a lot. I came to the conference feeling like a no-name, small-press author, and I came out of it feeling like I had actually contributed something to a creative community that means so much to me. Now to finish that WIP…and count the days until next year’s conference!

Looking Back on the 2013 New England SCBWI Conference

April 21, 2015 / Katie L. Carroll

As I gear up for the 2015 New England SCBWI conference (#NESCBWI15), I thought I’d share some highlights from the last one I attended (I missed the 2014 conference due to being very pregnant!). And in the next couple of weeks, look for my gems from this year’s conference. Enjoy!

The 2013 New England SCBWI conference was amazing (of course it was…these conference are always amazing)! Caught up with old friends, including the very talented Kimberly Sabatini and Jodi Moore, and met some new ones. Left feeling inspired and exhausted, and I’m still brimming with creative juices.

One of the highlights for me was seeing my book covers up on the screen in the ballroom during the downtime/announcements/mealtime in the ballroom!

I’ve collected a few conference gems that resonated with me. A quick note about why I use italics instead of quotation marks…these are not necessarily direct quotes, some may be close to what the speaker actually said and others are my own rewording/interpretation as I scrambled to take notes during the speeches and presentations. So without further ado, here they are:

We should meet the world with all our senses. (Jeannine Atkins)
What’s outside in the setting can reflect what’s going on in the inside of a character, but it can also be in contrast to what’s being felt. (Jeannine Atkins)
How do we access that which we are trying to recreate when we’re sitting at our desks or computers? Sometimes we need a sensory kick in the pants. (Dawn Metcalf)
We work with art and it can evoke an objective response. (Ruben Pfeffer)
It was as if someone else’s words had opened up a whole host of words in me. (Sharon Creech)
As writers we want company; we need company. You come along too, please. (Sharon Creech)
Revision is finding and strengthening the heart of a story, and revision is messier than people want it to be. (Kate Messner)
Maybe I had to stop trying to prove to people I was good enough and just had to do the work I was passionate about. (Grace Lin)
Every story has a message, whether or not the writer was aware of it or intended it. (Chris Eboch)
I come to one little detail that sort of wakes up my mind and then start amassing details like constellations. (Jeannine Atkins)
Writers are somewhat schizophrenic; we hear voices in our heads; we listen instead of conversing. (Padma Venkatraman)
Go down the rabbit hole. (Greg Fishbone)

Personally, I feel like I stretched myself not only as a writer but as a person. I jumped headlong into any writing activities that came up in the workshops I attended, even braving to share some of my raw work in front of others. I dared to act out an emotion for others to write about (and I have terrible stage fright when it comes to acting anything). I drove to the train station by myself in a city I’d never been to and picked up another author. So all in all, a fantastic weekend!

Visiting Gillette’s Castle for the Great CT Caper

September 23, 2014 / Katie L. Carroll

Last week I dragged the whole family up to the Connecticut River Valley for a trip to Gillette’s Castle. Okay, there wasn’t really any dragging involved. I mean, who wouldn’t want to visit a medieval-style castle overlooking a gorgeous river valley? And the kiddos are still too little to protest much over what family activities we do. 🙂

I was there to do research for writing my chapter of the Great CT Caper, which starts next week! So far all I know for the story is that the castle is going to go missing…and the rest is up to us writers to create.

There’s nothing quite like physically experiencing the place you are writing about, so off we went. The morning rain scared away all the tourists (plus it was a Tuesday), so we had run of the place almost to ourselves. I had already done 664 (1) some research on William Gillette who designed and lived in the castle.

Gillette is probably best known for portraying Sherlock Holmes on stage. Seems he had quite the sense of humor and was a natural entertainer because his home was set up to simultaneously awe his guests and tease them. He had strategically placed mirrors so he could spy on his guests from other rooms, one of which he used to observe his guests struggle with a trick liquor cabinet that Gillette designed. He also had a secret shortcut on his main stairway so he could beat his guests up to the great room and surprise them.

All in all I took a million pictures (many a little blurry because The Prince was strapped to me via the Moby wrap and it made it hard for me to keep my phone steady) and learned way more information than I’ll ever be able to cram into a whole story never mind a single chapter. But I also got really inspired and earned a whole new sense of the castle that I never would have gotten from pictures and descriptions of it. I do hope I get to incorporate a little of that into my small part in the story.

Top Ten Places to Visit in Asia from S.J. Pajonas Author of Face Time

April 30, 2014 / Katie L. Carroll

S.J. Pajonas is back on the blog to celebrate the release of her contemporary romance Face Time (Love in the Digital Age #1) (see my 5-star Goodreads review here). On this stop of the tour, organized by Lola’s Blog Tours, catch the travel bug with the top ten places to visit in Asia.You can view the whole blitz schedule here. And don’t forget to enter the giveaway!

I’m really in love with Asia, which will come as no surprise to anyone who knows me or has read my books. Japan is my first love, and I have traveled there, studied their culture and language, and now written three books in a series that’s Japan-inspired. But other parts of Asia are interesting to me too, and I’m dying to travel to most of the places in this list. Parts of FACE TIME take place in Seoul, Korea, and I hope that’s my next stop in East Asia someday. Laura spent a good deal of time in Thailand in her early twenties, and I think I’m actually jealous of her! Yes, it really is possible to be jealous of your own characters.

1. Tokyo, Japan (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokyo) – This would be my first choice in East Asia even though I’ve already been there. Tokyo is so big, so dense, that you could live there your entire life and still only see a fraction of it. It may feel very foreign or it may feel like a second home. Tokyo is polarizing city. Go to Tokyo for the clean and orderly sidewalks and public transportation, the technology, the food, and the absolute in crazy and weird. Where else will you be able to go to a cat cafe or a cafe where you can sleep next to someone for the night (no touching)? http://www.tofugu.com/2012/10/05/japans-weird-themed-cafes/

2. Bangkok, Thailand (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bangkok) – I’ve been to Bangkok, and it is an amazing city. It’s definitely not as clean or orderly as Japan, but Thailand has a lot going for it. The Buddhist culture is peaceful and easy to get along with (as long as they’re not in the middle of an uprising). The King of Thailand is benevolent. The food is incredible, and, if you love summer, it’s always hot there. Go to Bangkok for the edge-of-your-seat tuk tuk rides, the giant golden reclining Buddha, the easy access to Southern Thailand and its beaches. Also, your US dollars will go far in Thailand. It’s possible to live cheaply and comfortably there for a long time on very little cash.

3. Seoul, Korea (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seoul) – Just across the water from Japan is Korea, so if you visit one, it’s easy to visit the other. Seoul is another huge metropolis which grew after it hosted the Olympics in 1988 and the FIFA World Cup in 2002. It is also clean and orderly and the public transportation is easy to use. Seoul is one of those cities that blends old and new really well. Ancient temples stand next to office buildings, and there’s always something going on worth watching or visiting. Go to Seoul for the kimchi, the coffee, the soju, and the possibility of being a background extra in a K-drama. Ha! You know you want to.

4. Macau, China (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macau) – Macau is actually in a Special Administrative Region of China like Hong Kong, and I really want to go to Hong Kong as well, but Macau draws my attention because of the gambling. Supposedly it’s bigger than Vegas, and I’m totally intrigued by gambling overseas. The food here is a mix of Chinese and Portuguese, and then there’s also a distinct Macanese cuisines as well. Go to Macau for the unique mix of consumerism, Old World China, baccarat, and clash of cultures.

5. Kyoto, Japan (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyoto) – If you want more of the Old World Japan then Kyoto is a better bet than Tokyo. Time has come to a standstill in many areas of Kyoto. This is the city where you can see geisha (known as geiko) walking in the streets to and from parties, ancient Japanese temples and castles, Noh plays and festivals. If you can make it here during hanami season to view the cherry blossoms, you’re in for a treat. Go to Kyoto for a ten-course traditional kaiseki meal, a party with a geisha, and stay in a ryokan. You won’t regret it.

6. Taipei, Taiwan, China (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taipei) – Taipei seems like a fun city, full of fast-moving people and Chinese tradition. It’s well known for its temples, festivals, and food, shopping, and easy public transportation. Go to Taipei for the excellent seafood, the Chinese New Year celebrations, and the hour-long hair washing boutiques. It’s supposedly better than a massage.

7. Beijing, China (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beijing) – I suppose if you visit one place in China, this should be it. As the capital of PRC, it holds a lot of treasures including access to the Great Wall of China and the Forbidden City. Beijing is further to the north in China, so if you don’t like cold weather, you shouldn’t travel in winter. Go to Beijing for the Peking Opera, the chance to stare at Qing Dynasty treasures, and the Beijing Zoo Panda House for pandas!

8. Hanoi, Vietnam (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanoi) – I’m dying to visit Vietnam. Modern Hanoi is colorful and chaotic, and filled with easy things to see and do. We did fight a war there in recent memory, but tourists are still welcome in the country. Vietnam still feels like a closed book to me. My cousin went there a few years ago with his wife who’s Vietnamese, and he was charmed by the people, the food, and architecture of temples and what wasn’t bombed into the ground. Go to Hanoi for the history, the pho and bahn mi, and the chance to ride a scooter with thousands of others through the streets at breakneck speed.

9. Manila, Philippines (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manila) – I don’t know much about the Philippines but I hear it’s awesome there. The capital city of Manila is rich with museums, gorgeous Catholic churches, and a fine array of cuisine from all neighboring regions from China, Thailand, and Malaysia. Watch the sunset on the bay from a rooftop restaurant and then hit the clubs in Makati for dancing and drinking all night long. Go to Manila for the Filipino home cooking at Cafe Juanito, halo-halo, and the Marikina Shoe Museum dedicated to all of Imelda Marcos’s shoes. Yes, a shoe museum.

10. Singapore (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singapore) – Singapore is its own city-state (as my husband says, like the Vatican) and it’s situated on the Malay penninsula. I know Singapore gets a bad rap for its harsh laws, but I have known people to live there and it’s quite a pleasant and happy place to live. There’s hardly any crime, the streets and surrounding area are clean, the people are hospitable, and the food is amazing. They have these large food courts full of delicious Asian meals (meat, noodles, rice, seafood, you name it). Singapore has plenty of sights to see and lots of religious festivals each year to witness. Go to Singapore for the Merlion, the fish head curry, and the extremely hot climate (if that’s your thing.)

Want to get on a plane now? Tell us where you’d go!

Face Time blurb:

After the best first date ever, Lee thought Laura was funny, intelligent, and impulsive; a whirlwind of bright laughter and happiness. Laura loved Lee’s sweet smile and the way he expertly filled in every awkward pause. He held her hand and then pulled her in for the most perfect kiss she’s had in years. What could possibly be wrong? Just the 7000 miles that separates them the next day.

Even though Lee has gone home to Seoul, Laura can’t stop thinking about him. What starts as an innocent text thanking him for their dinner date becomes something much more: someone either of them can’t live without. But Laura’s got a live-in mother going through a midlife crisis, and Lee’s stressful traveling schedule means they’ll be apart for some time. Life, family, and a complicated past also get in the way, and they’re both going to need actual face time to figure it out.

You can find Face Time (Love in the Digital Age #1) on Goodreads. Purchase Face Time on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, iBooks, All Romance ebooks, or Smashwords. Or request a review copy of Face Time through Netgalley: https://www.netgalley.com/catalog/show/id/45757.

Want to know more about Face Time?

– You can listen to the playlist: https://soundcloud.com/spajonas/sets/face-time-a-love-in-the

– Visit the visual inspiration Pinterest board: http://www.pinterest.com/spajonas/face-time-love-in-the-digital-age-1/

– View a teaser trailer from Laura’s point of view: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQeJY3CLLBA

About the Author:

S. J. Pajonas loves all things Asian and has been in love with Japan and the East for as long as she can remember. Writing about Asia and Japan came naturally after studying the culture and language for over fifteen years. She studied film and screenwriting first and eventually segued into fiction once she was no longer working a full-time job.

Face Time is the first novel in the Love in the Digital Age series, and Pajonas’s first foray into Korean culture and families. Along with Removed and Released in the Nogiku Series, she continues to take the cultures of Asia and weave them into stories that appeal to people from around the world. Her writing is described as unique and unpredictable. Expect the unexpected.

Stephanie lives with her husband and two children just outside of New York City. She loves reading, writing, film, J- and K-dramas, knitting, and astrology. Her favorite author is Haruki Murakami and favorite book is The Wind-up Bird Chronicle.

You can find and contact her website, Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads, Pinterest, Flickr, Instagram, or Tumblr.

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Book Signing at Bank Square Books Wrap Up

April 8, 2014 / Katie L. Carroll

So as I’m sure you all know, I had my first book signing event at Bank Square Books in Mystic, CT last Saturday. Mystic is a fantastic town and I was thrilled my first signing was there and at a great indie store as well.

Admittedly, this photo is from last September when I was in Mystic on vacation, but it gives a good sense of what the town is like.

Admittedly, this photo is from last September when I was in Mystic on vacation, but I didn’t take nearly as many pictures on Saturday as I should have and this gives a good sense of what the town is like.

I brought along my trusty entourage of my brother (the muscle to carry all my materials) and my mom (moral support extraordinaire). I talked to lots of people (including catching up with my 2nd cousin once removed who lives in Mystic), gave out a bunch of bookmarks, and sold some books (some even to complete strangers!). All in all, I’d call it a successful event.

My display of books and bookmarks…lovely bookmark fan the creative work of my brother (now he can’t say I never give him credit for anything!).

A new reader and the baby bump making an appearance as well!

We even made it home in time to watch the UConn men’s basketball team win their Final Four game! I know it was a little far for my some of local friends to make it, and I’m hoping to book a signing a little closer to home, but baby time is fast approaching so we’ll have to see about that. And I’ve got to admit it kind of exhausted me a bit…took a nice long nap Sunday afternoon.

How was your weekend?