Category: Travel (Page 6 of 14)

Staying Grounded

September 9, 2013 / Katie L. Carroll

Okay, some blog tour stuff first (because I know you all are dying to hear more about my blog tour–hey, quit the groaning!). I’m over at the blog of Stuart R. West (who you all met last month when he guest blogged about Females in YA and his Tex, The Witch Boy books) offering some sage (I hope!) advice about book openings, including my favorite ones.

Now for the actual intended blatherings of today’s post…staying grounded. Earlier this summer I embarked on a mission to ground myself every day. No, not I-stayed-out-past-my-curfew-and-got-grounded kind of grounded. A more literal kind of grounded, as in putting my feet on the earth kind of grounding.

The hubby and I getting grounded in St. Lucia.

There seems to be some legitimate(?) health benefits to this and certain techniques that are supposed to work (here’s one article about grounding techniques and another with some supposed health benefits). It’s all bit new agey for my sensibilities, but try to stay with me here because I think it might be working.

I’m not doing anything crazy, but simply going outside and touching my feet to the actual earth (grass, dirt, sand, etc…) for a few seconds every day. (Admittedly I’ve already missed a day here or there, but it’s more the spirit of the idea than being super strict about it.) I’m going to try and do this for a whole year. That’s it!

And you know what? I have been feeling a bit more grounded lately. Less stressed, more even-keeled, even with a lot going on in my professional life, a toddler to take care of, renovations on our attic, and my allergies going a bit wonky with the change in weather.

If I think about some of the most relaxed people I have ever come across, I go back to Tahiti or St. Lucia and the people of islands. You know what they do? They walk around barefoot a lot (granted they also live in a less stressed environment in general)!

So the only problem is I live in New England. The weather is still pretty nice right now, so it’s not hard to get out there barefoot. But I’m a warm-weather kind of girl…some years I barely make it through the winter without falling into that sun-deprived kind of depression. I like to be warm and get cold pretty easily. So I’m not making any promises come January when the temperatures drop into the 20’s and snow is on the ground.

Though my husband (who has been oddly enthusiastic about this whole thing…probably because he’s not the one putting his bare feet on the grass everyday) says he won’t let me get away with NOT doing it this winter. He’s even offered to keep a little spot of grass in the yard free of snow this winter (how generous of him…notice he hasn’t offered to do this grounding thing with me!). I’m committed but not crazy, so we’ll see how it goes.

What’s the strangest, craziest, weirdest thing you’ve committed yourself to?

New England SCBWI 2013 Conference Gems

May 10, 2013 / Katie L. Carroll

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!

Highlights from SCBWI Conferences

May 2, 2013 / Katie L. Carroll

Tomorrow I’m off to the New England SCBWI conference! YAY! It’s my first conference in over a year, so I’m very much looking forward to it…but it is also my first weekend away from The Boy, so it’ll be hard to leave. We’ll both be fine, though. (That’s what I keep telling myself anyway!)

I’ve been going to SCBWI conferences for quite a few years now and have gathered a plethora of great tips. I’ll certainly be sharing my favorite nuggets about this conference, but in the meantime, here are some highlights from past conferences I’ve attended.

Take the time and make the space for your writing dreams. ~Laurie Halse Anderson
A vital aspect to nurturing talent is to accept and validate your need to create. Honor, cherish, and celebrate it. ~Laurie Halse Anderson
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
Never give up because you might be on the one yard line, and you just don’t know it. ~Donna Gephart
Books take us away from home, so we can actually see our home. ~M.T. Anderson
Human beings need stories; we always have and we always will. ~Gennifer Choldenko
As artists, we need to fill ourselves up to flowing and give it all back. ~E.B. Lewis
In a roller-coaster ride you know exactly where you’re going, end up where you began, and you can a buy a ticket to go on again and have almost the same exact experience; it’s thrilling, but it’s not a journey. A journey takes you where you’ve never been before; it’s pretty scary and the dangers are real. ~Sandy Asher
All stories are based in truth somewhere. Pay attention to those stories and write them down. ~Judy Schachner
Use your very guts to spill out your very best. ~Susan Patron

Enjoy your weekend, everyone. With the likes of Nova Ren Suma, Kate Messner, Sharon Creech, and many other authors, agents, and editors presenting at the conference, I know I will have an awesome weekend.

Transformative Power of the Senses

April 12, 2013 / Katie L. Carroll

I’m always amazed at how a small detail—a sight glimpsed out of the corner of my eye; the whiff of an familiar, but forgotten, smell; a tickle of sound in my ear—can transform me to a different place. And not always a physical place, sometimes a place in time.

Honeysuckle, with its far-reaching sweet scent and sticky nectar, brings me back to early summer during my childhood. When there was always a tree to climb or a brook to explore or a patch of asphalt to skin my knees on. When the sun stayed up late and my parents allowed me to play outside until a late bedtime.

The album Little Earthquakes by Tori Amos transports me to a white mini-van packed to the gills with my family and our luggage. Cruising down the highway toward Florida, scenery rushing by as we drove south to Florida. My siblings and I singing “The Name Game” song: “Chuck, Chuck, bo-buck, banana-fana fo-“. My sisters and I cutting off and then cracking up when my brother—the youngest, who was only three—shouted out the swearword.

The view in Connecticut.

Today as The Boy and I walked to the beach, a puff of white in the space between two houses made me suck in a surprised breath as my mind traveled 6,300 miles to the island of Moorea in French Polynesia. Once we arrived at the beach, I stopped for a better look. Puff up those clouds a little more, change the gray waters of Long Island Sound to a see-through turquoise, substitute Long Island for an island in the South Pacific, and turn the rest of the slightly overcast sky to a pale blue…and I was in paradise.

The view in Moorea, French Polynesia.

Okay, I realize looking at the two pictures, the views aren’t even close to each other, but something about that quick glance set the gears in my mind turning and brought me to another place. Both sights are beautiful in their own ways, don’t you think?

What senses bring you to a memory?

The Liebster Award

December 7, 2012 / Katie L. Carroll

Thanks to Meradeth Houston over at the Write Stuff for passing on the Liebster Award to me.

What is The Liebster Award you ask?
Well, it’s an award given to up-and-coming bloggers who have less than 200 followers. Think of it as a virtual pat on the back. A bit of recognition for doing a good job and encouragement to keep going.
And let’s not forget the bloggers that have been blogging for a while and have great blogs.

In the spirit of the award, let me just take a minute to plug my blog. I’ve added a bunch of sharing buttons all over the Observation Desk, so I encourage you to click on those. Also, note the sidebar where you can subscribe to the blog. All you have to do is type in your email address and you’ll receive an email when a post goes live. I promise I do not use your email address for anything else. Finally, you can click on the RSS feed in the coffee cup up in the right-hand corner to add the Observation Desk to any reader. Okay, on to the questions!

1. If you won the lottery, what is the first thing you would purchase?

Definitely a Ferrari…a red one, like Magnum P.I. drove.

2. Is there something unique about you that you’d like to share with the readers?

I used to be quite the jock. I earned 12 varsity letters in high school for soccer, basketball, and track.

3. Where is your dream place to live and why?

Well, I actually like the small city I live in now (corny, right!). There’s a nice green downtown, lots of beaches, and most importantly my family is nearby. But if I bought a second home, I think it would be in London.

4. What do you find is the most difficult part of the writing process?

For me the hardest part right now is breaking through all the fear and self-doubt and just getting the story written. Writing for publication is a tough, tough business to get into, and it’s hard not to let the fear paralyze you.

5. Tell us something about yourself that we don’t know.

I get very, very nervous about showing my emotions in public.

6. Do you have any pet peeves?

When you smile at a stranger to be polite, and they don’t smile back. So rude!

7. Do you have any special habits you do when you write?

Unlike with sports, I really don’t have any special habits for superstitions when it comes to writing. I do like to have tea while I’m writing, but I don’t absolutely need it.

8. Did you ever write your friends or family members in your books?

Yes. 🙂 *evil laughter*

9. What is your favorite drink?

Well, tea I’ve already mentioned, so I’ll say that Riesling is my favorite wine.

10. Who gives you the best encouragement to keep writing?

My 13-year-old nephew, who is also a writer (and his mom, my twin-not-twin sister).

11. Do you have a critique group or a special author circle?

Yes! I have a local critique group I meet with once a month and a few writer friends online as well.

Okay, the last part of this award is to list 11 random things about myself.

My favorite Harry Potter book is Goblet of Fire. I used to be a puzzle magazine editor. When I was three years old, I told everyone I was a boy because I wanted to play baseball for the New York Yankees. My elbows are double-jointed. I once pierced my own belly button. The last book I read is Kimberly Sabatini’s Touching the Surface. I have really weird dreams all the time, some of them lucid. My favorite artist is Vincent Van Gogh. I could eat pizza every day. I publish under my maiden name. How many is that? Apparently I’m not very good at counting…okay one more. My favorite person in the world is The Boy, of course!

I now have the pleasure of passing this award to two fabulous bloggers and authors: Kay Lalone, author of “Ghostly Clues” (who you met earlier this week on the blog) and Tonja Drecker, author of “In the Shadow of the Eagle’s Eye” in the upcoming anthology “Real Girls Don’t Rust.”

I’ve asked them both to answer the above questions, and instead of giving 11 random things about themselves, share their 11 favorite books!