Category: Travel (Page 7 of 14)

Eleven Days Until Elixir Bound!

August 20, 2012 / Katie L. Carroll

Eleven days and counting until the release of Elixir Bound! That means you only have eleven days left to pre-order it at a 20% discount! Yes, I’m speaking all in exclamation points! What else would you expect when my book comes out in eleven days?

What have I’ve been doing in the eleventh hour leading up to the release? Mostly working (even while I’m on vacation in Newport this week…okay, I have been having a little fun too!).

Yesterday we took a walk around Fort Adams in Newport and I took this picture of the Claiborne Pell Bridge. The weather has been very pleasant…almost like fall. We saw a little rainbow in the evening as we were eating dinner on the deck of our suite.

I had bookmarks made up for Elixir Bound, but there was a “cutting error” and they images were all off-center, so they’re being remade. Hopefully they’ll be ready for my first in-person appearance as an author at my local library on October 13.

The blog tour officially starts next week, so I’ve created a sidebar with all my stops listed. I’ll hopefully have some reviews to share with you all soon (don’t worry, I’ll only share the good ones!).

Talking about vacationing in Newport has made me think of all those essays you used to have to write when you got back to school in the fall about what you did over the summer. So please comment in 250 words or less what you did this summer!

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!

Life is a WIP

April 20, 2012 / Katie L. Carroll

Today isn’t Wednesday nor is it the second week of the month. Oh well, you’re getting my WIP update anyway!

I finally opened up a Word document and typed out the beginning page of a certain project that has been developing in my mind for quite some time now. This one has been making my skin prickle with excitement. It’s mostly some scribbles in my notebook. I hope I can keep the excitement up about it now that it has it’s very own document on my computer. I have notions of trying to do a fast draft with this story, but so far in my writing career nothing has been fast!

The working title is a color followed by an animal. I’d love to hear your guesses about what it is?

This weekend I’m off to the Poconos for my favorite small conference with the Eastern PA SCBWI (and no, I won’t be hanging out in one of those wine glass hot tubs). I love catching up with my Poconos friends. And the amazing Laurie Halse Anderson is a keynote speaker! I signed up for her revision class too…maybe that’ll get my butt in gear on revising my MG novel Pirate Island.

What are looking forward to this weekend?

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?

NYC Teen Author Festival 2011

April 6, 2011 / Katie L. Carroll

A few weekends ago, my twin-not-twin sister and I took a trip to the publishing capital of the world for the NYC Teen Author Festival. There was a week’s worth of workshops and readings, but we were only able to go for the massive book signing that featured more than 45 authors at Books of Wonder.

My sister is an avid YA reader, so she was super-excited to meet some of her favorite authors. I was excited as not only a reader but also as a YA writer because the kidlit world is full of such generous people who are always willing to talk and offer encouragement.

Australian YA author (trust me when I say that there is some seriously awesome kidlit coming from down under) Melina Marchetta admitted that she was nervous that no one would know who she was, which was so surprising because she wrote the 2009 Michael L. Printz Award winner Jellicoe Road. I mean she has some serious U.S. fans, one of whom is my sister…I think the main reason she wanted to trek all the way into the city was to see Melina. I picked up a signed copy of her new book The Piper’s Son.

Two authors who “I know” from Verla Kay’s blueboards that I was looking forward to meeting were Maggie Stiefvater and Danette Vigilante. I have been dying to read the final installment of the Wolves of Mercy Falls Trilogy, which is called Forever. Unfortunately, it isn’t out until July 12th (which just happens to be my b-day), so I had to settle for having two books I’ve already read signed: Shiver and Lament. Maggie wanted to know which one I liked better and I copped out on my answer by citing reasons why I like both…Shiver because of the fantastic love story and Lament because of all the fantastical elements.

(There’s my sister, Maggie, and me…picture courtesy of the person standing behind us in line!)

Danette signed The Trouble with Half a Moon for me. She commiserated with me over the fact that I’m on the agent hunt. Surprisingly, Maggie told me that she actually like the process of subbing to agents. I don’t know that I’ve ever heard another author say this (maybe she’ll switch places with me for a little while…that way I can try my hat on as a best-selling author and she can wait on pins and needles to get e-mails–mostly rejections–from agents).

(Here’s Danette and me…this one my sister took.)

I also had a really nice chat with Sarah Beth Durst, who I didn’t really know that much about, except that she wrote a retelling of East of the Sun and West of the Moon called Ice. She signed my copy as my “future reader.

Finally, I met the tired-looking and prolific David Levithan (he organized the Festival) and had him sign Will Grayson, Will Grayson (now I just have to track down his co-author John Green and get him to sign it too) and Emily Lockhart, who signed The Boyfriend List (I didn’t remember to bring my copy of The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks, so I’ll have to catch up with her another time).

Events like this always make me dream about the day I get to do a book signing in NYC…it’ll happen someday…or at least I keep telling myself that! And don’t forget to check out my tsunami post and comment to help raise money for Japan.