Category: Writing (Page 29 of 72)

FAMILY SECRETS with Author Kay LaLone

October 2, 2015 / Katie L. Carroll

Another fellow MuseItUp author is stopping by today. Let’s welcome Kay LaLone as she dishes on her YA paranormal mystery FAMILY SECRET. Hi, Kay!

Where did the idea for FAMILY SECRET come from?

Family Secret is not based on a secret from my past or from my family. The idea for Family Secret came from a picture I saw for a writing class. We had to look at a picture and develop a story from it. I asked the question, What if? What if this boy was running away from something? What if he felt like he wasn’t wanted? What if a secret was being kept from him? Asking what if gets the imagination flowing. Over the years (it took fifteen years before Family Secret became published) I just let my imagination run wild and soon it developed into the book it is today.

FAMILY SECRET blurb:

On the road to solving his mother’s murder, sixteen-year-old Thomas Patrick Henry discovers a secret his father has kept from him for years. Tom thought Dad’s secret put him in danger, Mom’s secret is far worse. Magic. Witches. Ancient Book of Spells. Magical Amulet. Ghosts. Demons. Tom never thought these things existed until he is face to face with them. There is nothing else to do but destroy the demons before someone else Tom love dies. He already lost his mom and a close friend because this secret was kept from him. No one else will die. No one else will be possessed. Tom faces his demons. A mother’s love gives Tom the strength to slay his demons.

Find FAMILY SECRET at Amazon and the MuseItUp Publishing bookstore.

Excerpt:

“Ow.” Tom yanked the chain and dragged the burning amulet from under his shirt. Even the chain was warm, but there was no way he was going to take the stupid thing off. He let it drop to his chest and rest warmly on the top of his shirt as he stared at the demon.

“It’s not your grandfather,” Tom whispered. Anger rolled around inside him because of what this thing did to Sarah.

The dark figure stepped out of the shadows causing the boys to take two steps back. The demon looked like a man dressed in thunderous storm-like clouds from head to toe. Even his face was black and the eyes a dimly puke-yellow that churned Tom’s stomach. He felt Rob’s heavy breathing just inches behind him, but it didn’t stop a chill from shimmering up his spine like fingernails on a chalkboard.

“I know who you are.” Tom tried to sound confident even though his voice shook with fear. He swallowed hard. “What do you want?”

The demon raised a shadowy arm and then his stormy cloud-like body started to swirl like a mini tornado. In a gust of black smoke, the demon shot up into the air and zipped right over Tom and Rob’s heads. The boys ducked and laid flat on the wet grass, afraid the demon would consume them.

Tom turned his head to see the black smoke head toward Mr. Watson’s house. Tom got to his feet while Rob remained on the ground. The black smoke swarmed over the house and then drifted back down. It slithered around the house like a snake looking for a place to sneak in, circling several times before seeping through the crack in the window and disappearing inside.

Rob scrambled to his feet. “That thing is inside my grandfather’s house.” His voice was high-pitched in fear. “My…” He glanced toward the empty driveway. Then he sighed. “Mom must still be at the hospital.”

Tom touched Rob’s arm to prevent him from doing something crazy. He didn’t want another one of his friends to get hurt by this thing.

“We need to do something, but I don’t know what.” Tom glanced over to the tents in Granddad’s backyard, hoping Matt or Granddad would come running to save the day. But there was no movement over there.

Inside the house, Jake growled and then started to bark wildly. Before Tom could stop him, Rob dashed upon the back porch and flung the backdoor open. Jake continued his wild barking as if protecting Rob and the house. If only the dog could save the day, but Tom feared nothing would save them.

A cracking noise caught Tom’s attention, and he turned his head toward what he assumed was Mr. Watson’s bedroom window. The glass appeared pitch black at first, and then a face appeared. The same puke-yellow eyes stared at Tom and gave him an evil grin.

About the Author:

I’m Kay LaLone author of Ghostly Clues, my first MG novel. Family Secret is my first YA novel. Both published by MuseItUp. I live in Michigan with my husband and teenage son (two older sons and a daughter-in-law and my first grandbaby live nearby) and two dogs. I love to get up every morning and write about ghosts, the paranormal, and things that go bump in the night. I write PB, MG and YA novels. No matter the books I write, I want my readers to feel like they have met a new friend. I’m an avid reader of just about any type of book (mystery, paranormal, and ghost stories are my favorites). I do reviews and post them on my website and blog. I love to collect old books, antiques, and collectibles. You can find many of my antiques and collectibles selling on ebay and at fleamarkets.

Find Kay on Facebook, Amazon, her blog and website, Twitter, or Goodreads.

Busy Living Life

September 28, 2015 / Katie L. Carroll

As the days get shorter and shorter, I always have this impending sense of urgency to get out and enjoy the sun and fresh air before winter comes. Which means I’ve been busy, busy, busy getting outside with the boys and living life in general.

Plus I’ve been working on planning out my last (I hope) big revision of my YA thriller BLACK BUTTERFLY. I’ve also been really introspective in my thinking and haven’t felt the need to put my thoughts down here or anywhere on the web. I may blog about this next week, but in the meantime, what have you all been up to lately? Here’s what we’ve been up to (in pictures!).

Oh, and I almost forgot, I’ve got a local event coming up in a couple of weeks at the Farmington, CT Library. Details on my homepage.

Updates, Getting Back into the Writing Groove, and a Call for Guest Posts

September 9, 2015 / Katie L. Carroll

First off, my guest blog schedule is pretty wide open for the fall, so I’m definitely looking for guest posts to come my way. If you have a book coming out or an older one you’d like to promote, I’d love to have you on the blog. I prefer a post with some original thoughts (though it could be a post that’s been posted elsewhere) as opposed to something purely promotional.

You don’t have to be published or even a writer to guest post either. I’d love some short, fun posts about anything to do with writing, reading, the creative process, or whatever interesting ideas you might have. Hit me up on my contact page if you’re interested or mention it the comments with an easy way to contact you!

Okay, back to our regularly scheduled post…

So technically it’s still summer (and it certainly feels like summer this week here in CT), but school’s already back in session and the air and earth are starting to get that fall feel and smell to it. That means my non-summer schedule has started and with it comes more writing time. Yay!

Though I certainly have enjoyed all the fun times we’ve been having this summer and all out outside time, I’m definitely looking forward to sinking my teeth back into my writing projects.

In particular I’ve been chomping at the bit to get back to revising my YA thriller. Even with beta reader feedback coming in (and those ever-present doubts are rearing up, making me questions my abilities to pull off what I’m trying to accomplish with this story), I’ve never been so excited about the thought of sending a piece of writing out. So I’m hoping to ride this wave of confidence to the finish line and get to submitting it soon.

After that I don’t have any set plans on what I’ll be working on next. It’s a freeing and exciting feeling. I love the prospect of starting something new (or possibly digging back into something I put away for awhile but may come back to soon). The world is wide open at this point for me.

So how was everyone’s summer? What are your plans for the fall?

Tales From the Field: Olivia’s Redemption

July 30, 2015 / Katie L. Carroll

First off, I wanted to mention I have a very rare but special Sunday post coming up on August 2nd, so keep a look out for that. In the meantime, it seems you all enjoyed last month’s spotlight on Lightning Quick Reads, the short story blog I post for once a month, so I thought I’d spotlight this month’s story as well.

In June my story was “Tales From the Field: Olivia’s Camp Fail”. When I first conceived the idea for the Tales From the Field series, I had planned to have each story be told from a different girl’s point of view, but Olivia’s tale demanded more. Here’s an excerpt from July’s story “Tales From the Field: Olivia’s Redemption”.

Tales From the Field: Olivia’s Redemption by Katie L. Carroll

To free yourself from guilt you must forgive yourself.

The game is about to start. The strategizing, the pep talks, the warm-ups are done. My stomach is a pit of tingling nerves, the good kind, the ones that keep my reflexes sharp. I let out a long exhale, my breath smoking in the cool evening air. Our undefeated season is on the line tonight.

My ten teammates line up in front of me, their white home uniforms bright under the lights. I clap my goalie gloves together and stare down our gold-clad rivals, the Valley High women’s soccer team.

Time to get in the zone.

For some inexplicable reason, I glance into the stands, the side where the Valley fans sit. It takes me right out of the game. Marco. He’s here. I knew he would be, but seeing him is worse than I imagined. The tingling, game-ready nerves turn to anxious, stomach-twisting ones.

Marco, of course surrounded by his entourage of teammates from the Valley High boys’ team, stands down by the fence separating the field from the stands. He faces the crowd, his back to me, thank God. I don’t think I could handle seeing his chipped-tooth smile right now. He’s wearing the blues of the Italian National Team, not the Valley High black and gold. Maybe it’s a sign. Maybe our kiss at camp this summer actually meant something to him.

Then I remember him cheering on his schoolmate as she sprinted to the ball, my hesitation, the ball bouncing off her foot and over the goal line. The shame of losing the camp championship for my team, all because of some stupid boy, creeps up my face in a blush…

You can check out the rest of the story at the Lightning Quick Reads blog! Enjoy!

Avon Library YA/Teen Author Night Wrap-Up

July 9, 2015 / Katie L. Carroll

Had a inspiring evening at the Avon Free Public Library’s Local Author Festival Teen/YA Night where Steven Parlato, Cindy L. Rodriguez, Anissa Zucker, and I dished on the “Reader Experience.”

20150630_204006 - Copy Due to an unfortunate wrong turn, my mother-in-law (who graciously kept me company during the hour-long rive to Avon) and I barely made it in time for the event. Which was important because I was the first one to speak!

I discussed what I like to call the creative gap (something I’ve blogged about before here), in which I confessed that I’m a failure as a writer (I’m not really a failure…read the blog post to see what I mean). Basically, there is a gap that exists between a writer’s creative vision and what ends up on the page, a failure of the medium of the written word, but the reader is there is fill in that gap with their own imaginations. I ended my talk by reading a short excerpt from my YA fantasy ELIXIR BOUND.

Then Steven took over with a short excerpt from his YA novel THE NAMESAKE. He shared his thoughts on writing dark material for young readers and the importance of infusing humor into it. He shared “the good, the bad, and the ugly” of what readers have said about his book.

Cindy, who teaches reading to middle schoolers, very eloquently spoke about reluctant readers. She included a passage from her YA novel WHEN REASON BREAKS, in which students are reading and discussing one of Emily Dickinson’s poems. She introduced us to the “Reader’s Bill of Rights” created by Daniel Pennac, which I had never heard of but will definitely be thinking about as I read and write in the future.

Finally, Anissa rounded out the evening by asking 20150630_200344 attendees what their favorite books were growing up. She talked about how THE LITTLE PRINCE by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry what stories had a huge influence on her as a child and also when she started writing as an adult. She read from both her blog and her YA novel THE TRUE STORY OF SANTA CLAUS.

Then we had time to hang out, sign books, and talk with attendees. I caught up with a few new writer friends I connected with at the New England SCBWI Conference in April, and found out that one of them who attended my revision workshop has brought the techniques I taught back to her writing group (yay!). I also sold a few books (another yay!) and talked with a few new readers.

TeenYAAUthors2015

The librarians at the Avon Library were so super organized that all us authors had to concentrate on was our presentations, and I think we nailed it. The librarians said they were going to tell the authors in the other groups that we held the audience captive and were the group to beat. Thanks so much to librarians Tina Panik and Cyndi Larsen and to my fellow authors for an amazing evening!