Category: Witches (Page 1 of 3)

Path to Publication: ZADIE AND THE WITCH’S TEA

July 11, 2023 / Katie L. Carroll

I’m excited to have author Gayle C. Krause on the blog today to talk about her latest release ZADIE AND THE WITCH’S TEA, written by Gayle and illustrated by Kate Talbot. I love Halloween books, and this one looks adorable. Welcome, Gayle!

Katie, thank you for having me on the observation deck.

I’m happy to share my latest picture book news with you and your readers. ZADIE AND THE WITCH’S TEA, a reimagining of the classic Cinderella tale, with a Halloween twist and no prince, has just released. Here are the links to Barnes & Noble and Amazon if you know a child who would love the fanciful illustrations of Kate Talbot and the whimsical Halloween story of little Zadie’s kindness.

My favorite holiday is Halloween and my favorite genre to read and write is fantasy. So, it’s easy to see the inspiration for this book. Also, my sisters were a huge influence. We often tease each other about our “witchy” powers. (When one calls, the other already has the phone in her hand.) So to celebrate our sisterhood and our sibling thought waves, we gather every summer for fun, food, wine, and of course, ‘dress-up.’ We call it our Witchy Weekend.

Add to that my love of fairytales, which I absolutely adored, as a child, and still do. My teaching career, training prospective educators for the Pre-K and Elementary classrooms, (I taught Children’s Literature at the secondary and post-secondary levels), and my Fairytale Seminar – BEYOND THE FAIRYTALE – which teaches prospective children’s writers how to reimagine a traditional fairytale and make it their own, and you can see how I love this little witch.

Book blurb: When Little Zadie’s sisters dash her hope of attending the biggest event of the Halloween season because she has no “witchy” magic, her determination and a surprising Fairy Godspider enchantment sends her as a special guest. The adult witches try to outdo each other by casting spells and chanting charms to become the assistant to the most powerful witch in the land. But a kind gesture from Zadie wins the night and the title, and her sisters learn that kindness proves stronger than any magic they possess.

Zadie’s path to publication took many turns. First written in 2016, it had too many words. Then I tried to illustrate it myself. I drew my version of the pictures but could do nothing else beyond that. In 2018, I signed with an agent, and she loved it. But when she subbed it to publishing houses, they said it was too long, and they’d like to see it in prose. So, reluctantly, I revised to write less words and no rhyme. But it hurt my heart to do that. Picture books come to me in rhyme. Asking me to write them in prose is like asking me to write them in another language.

I’m aware of good rhyme vs. bad. I belonged to The Poets’ Garage for six years, was the assistant poetry editor for Beneath the Juniper Tree, and served on Angie Karcher’s Rhyme Revolution Committee, helping to write the rhyme rubric, and select the “BEST” Rhyming picture book in the U.S. for three years. And they wanted me to write it in prose! So, I took a break and used my creative time to design and sew Zadie, her sisters, and the Grand Witch.

During my time at the agency, Kate Talbot and I were agency sisters, in fact, we shared the same agent. Since then the agent left the business and Kate and I left the agency. But it was easy to reach out to her because her whimsical illustration style was perfect to bring Zadie’s story to life.

Kate’s work is beautiful.

If I have any advice for children’s writers, it’s to write what’s in your heart. If it’s rhyme, so be it. If it’s non-fiction biographies, go for it. If it’s board books or novels, the only rules to follow are know your craft, and give it your all.

ZADIE AND THE WITCH’S TEA is published by Trowbridge Books, a small, independent, traditional publishing house. www.trowbridgebooks.com

I am offering a signed copy of ZADIE AND THE WITCH’S TEA to one of your readers who comments on Zadie’s story, and shares news about my little witch on social media (please list where you shared). I also have Zadie swag that will accompany the book. (USA only)

Thank you for having me and letting me share Zadie’s story with your readers.

Happy Book Birthday to WITCH TEST by Katie L. Carroll and Bonus Playlist

September 13, 2022 / Katie L. Carroll

Jump for joy! Throw confetti! It’s release day for WITCH TEST!!! I’ll be live on TikTok (@katielcarrollauthor) today at 11:00 a.m. (ET) to celebrate.

@katielcarrollauthor
Witch Test! #witchtest #booksforkids #mgbooks #witchbook #bookquotes #halloweenvibes #fallbooks
♬ Halloween, horror, spooky cinematic background music(852258) – domino

It feels really good to be releasing a book after what feels like forever since the last one…and to have another coming next month with MOMMY’S NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS.

I recently said that writing WITCH TEST was like giving a hug to my 11-year-old self, and I can’t think of a better way to describe how I feel about this book. It’s about finding yourself in the saddest place you’ve ever been in your life and feeling like the only way to get through the day is to put yourself in a bubble of protection. And how do you find your way out of that mindset?

As I mentioned in my post “The Historical and Personal Inspiration Behind WITCH TEST,” it’s also about long grief and about mourning someone you never really knew. Chapter 40, titled “Ritual,” makes me cry every time I read it, and I’m not a crier!

Some of my favorite things about the book are the crows, the Halloween night corn maze, the trio of witches, and tea time at Mother Goose Apothecary.

Anyway, thank you for all the support of this book and my author career in general. If you do end up reading the book (or a young person in your life reads it), please leave a review on Amazon. You don’t have to have bought the book there to leave a review. It helps boost the visibility of the book to help it find more readers.

Here’s a little playlist I put together of songs that I think Liza, the main character, can relate to. It includes a couple from my two favorite bands: “Are You Sad” by Our Lady Peace and “Good Grief” by Bastille. My new favorite song “W.I.T.C.H” by Devon Cole is the first on the list because this should totally be Liza’s theme song!

About WITCH TEST:

Liza is sinking in a bubbling cauldron of middle school rumors.

When the entire eighth grade begins studying the Salem witch trials, it seems everyone is on a witch hunt…with Liza as target number one. Worst of all, her ex-best friend is the one who started a rumor that Liza bewitched a boy with a love potion.

As the bullying intensifies, Liza’s loneliness grows. More than ever, she wishes her mother were still alive. A glimmer of hope arrives when Liza finds her mother’s diary…until she actually reads it. Turns out Liza’s family connection to witches goes back for centuries. So much for the witch stuff being rumors!

If Liza can channel her inner witch at the Halloween night corn maze, she might find the strength to stand up for herself. If not, she risks losing a piece of herself to a growing depression and any hope of happiness.

WITCH TEST is an upper middle grade Mean Girls meets The Craft novel for pre-teens and young teens.

Get it now from my Purchase Books page for signed copies, or find it on Bookshop, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Google Play, IndieBound, Apple Books, Book Depository (for international folks), and many of your favorite book retailers!

WITCH TEST Cover Reveal & ARCs

June 23, 2022 / Katie L. Carroll

It’s here! The cover for my upcoming middle grade WITCH TEST is such a mood. I love Liza’s stance and the glowing moon reflecting off of everything. It’s got the corn maze and the crows, which are so important to Liza’s story. Big shout-out to MiblArt for creating the cover!

WITCH TEST will be out on September 13, 2022. I’m working on getting it up for pre-order on all the usual book retail sites and scheduling events for the fall. In the meantime, ARCs (advanced reader copies) will be going out in the next few weeks. If you’re interested in receiving an early copy to read and review, you can fill out the ARC form here.

WITCH TEST blurb:

Liza is sinking in a bubbling cauldron of middle school rumors.

WITCH TEST is an upper middle grade Mean Girls meets The Craft novel for pre-teens and young teens.

Doesn’t it look so pretty next to PIRATE ISLAND? I love how my two middle grade book babies complement each other.

WITCH TEST Book Announcement & ARC Reader Search

March 29, 2022 / Katie L. Carroll

I’m very excited to announce that my middle grade novel WITCH TEST will be coming out later this year! I don’t have an exact release date, but look for it in September. Of course, I’ll have all the details here on the blog as things move forward. You can make sure you’re subscribed to the blog by entering your email address on my website homepage https://katielcarroll.com.

I talked a little about this book in my post “WIP Update: Witchy Middle Grade & a Fear of Asking for Help.” Think of it as an upper middle grade Mean Girls meets The Craft.

Not the real cover…just something I was playing around with.

Liza thought her summer fight with her ex-best friend, Abby, would blow over, but a month into eighth grade and the rumor firestorm has reach a whole new level of awful. And everyone believes that Liza is a witch! Even as a rekindled passion for art leads to new friends, Liza retreats into a bubble of depression. All these feelings get tied up in the never-ending grief of having lost her mom at a young age.

A glimmer of hope arrives when she finds her mother’s diary…until she actually reads it. Before Liza was born, her mom and aunt performed a ritual to conjure an ancestor persecuted in the town’s witch trials. So much for the witch stuff being rumors! As Liza digs into her witchy ancestry, everyone else is making plans for the Halloween night corn maze. If Liza can channel her inner witch on Halloween, maybe she can find the strength to stand up to Abby. If not, she risks losing not only her new friends but also a piece of herself to the growing depression.

I’m currently working on edits and developing a cover with the cover artist (not the real cover above, just a fun visual I put together myself). Some of my favorite things about this novel are the crows, the Halloween night corn maze, Liza’s aunts, her aunt’s shop Mother Goose Apothecary, and all the tea drinking! And the ending of this story never fails to get me all choked up, no matter how many times I read it.

I’ll be looking for ARC (advanced reader copy) readers soon, so let me know in the comments if that’s something that interests you. What is an ARC reader? That’s someone who gets an early copy of the book (these will be in ebook form) in exchange for a honest review.

Katie’s 2021 Year of Reading

January 4, 2022 / Katie L. Carroll

Goodreads can be kind of a nightmare for authors (I generally don’t read reviews of my books there), but I enjoy it as a reader. In particular, I like keeping track of the novels I’ve read (I don’t track my picture book reading) and for the yearly reading challenge with the handy wrap-up they give you at the end of each year. That’s where the screenshots in this post came from.

My 2021 reading goal was 50 books, which has been pretty typical of my reading habits of the last few years, and I came in at 51. Yay for consistency and meeting goals! Most of my reads were young adult or middle grade novels. In addition to that, I’m positive I’ve read hundreds of pictures books.

One of my goals was to read more graphic novels. My kids are obsessed with them! It was fun to share a lot of these with my 10-year-old and chat about them. I was quite successful on that front. A few stand-outs in that category were Séance Tea Party by Remena Yee, which was beautiful on so many levels, and Witches of Brooklyn and the sequel What the Hex?! by Sophie Escabasse. I did a lot of witchy reading, so it’s no surprise that these ended up as favorites.

I also read more romance than I usually do because I found those easy to read at times when I was having trouble concentrating. Helen Hoang and Jasmine Guillory are two of my favorite romance authors.

I read less non-fiction than usual, probably because those can require heavy concentration and I was lacking that in my reading this year. The End of Everything (Astrophysically Speaking) by Katie Mack was fascinating and not as heavy a read as the title suggest. Though I didn’t read a ton of adult non-fiction, I made up for that in how much non-fiction I read to the kiddos. We read lots of science books, particularly space-related ones.

Reading a diverse list of authors has been an important reading goal for me for years now, and I think I did a good job with that. This is also an important factor in what my kids are reading, so I make sure that they have books with all different kinds of people in them and written by diverse creators. Dr. Rudine Sims Bishop introduced the phrase about children having “windows, mirrors, and sliding glass doors” in their literature. My boys have plenty of mirrors in their reading, so I make sure they are also getting windows into other peoples’ lives.

Malinda Lo’s historical YA novel Last Night at the Telegraph Club won the National Book Award, among many other awards and starred reviews, and totally lives up the hype. I’ve enjoyed reading her stories ever since her first book Ash came out over ten years ago, and I was really happy to see her have such a successful year.

I’ve gotten to a point in my life where I don’t really read books that I don’t enjoy. So if you see a book end up on my read list that means I’ve enjoyed it. I also don’t buy as many books as my reading habits might suggest. The boys and I are big patrons of the public library, and I stop by there pretty much every week. Borrowing books from the library is a great way to support literacy, your community, and authors.

Unfortunately I still haven’t been able to get into reading audiobooks. Seems the efforts I talked about in my post from 2019 “Training My Brain to Read Audiobooks” haven’t worked. I continue to enjoy podcasts, so at least something came of that attempt.

What did you enjoy reading this year? Did you face any challenges or try anything new?