Category: Writing (Page 60 of 73)

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!

Elixir Bound Excerpt on Muse Blog

July 28, 2012 / Katie L. Carroll

I’m super busy gearing up for the release of Elixir Bound on August 31. Soooo….get ready for a promotional frenzy in late August and continuing into September.

I’ll be sharing excerpts of Elixir Bound; inside info about creating the cover; why I wrote the story in the first place; interviews; writing tips on scenes and characters; writing lesson from The Boy; and who knows what else.

But guess what? You actually don’t have to wait until late August because the frenzy starts today! It just so happens, you can get a sneak peak of Elixir Bound on the MuseItUp blog. And it’s a lip-smacking juicy one!

I’d love to know what you all think. (Unless you don’t like it…then you can kindly keep your terrible opinions to yourself!)

The Guests Get Creative Again!

July 18, 2012 / Katie L. Carroll

I’ve been remiss not to share the wonderful magnetic poetry that has been languishing on my refrigerator for awhile now. Such creativity needs to be shared with the world. As always, I kept the spaces in between the different magnets and I’ve decided to show line breaks with a slash (or is it a backslash..I always forget the difference).

gray man give s life like dark dream s do burn (as long as it doesn’t burn when you urinate, you’re fine)
good light / some easy / look (I couldn’t tell if the look was actually part of this poem, but it felt like the right closer for this particular piece…forgive me if I’ve overstepped my bounds a mere purveyor of poetry)
genius obsess es / inspiration play s / hard work succe ed s (the ed was cleverly placed over the ss in success)
bake me a beautiful (I love how this one is almost like a fill-in-the-blank…bake me a beautiful cake, a beautiful world, a beautiful life)
chance create s a spark of light / visible between rain and snow fall / never to be experience d after (yes, I know that moment)
blue sky / fruit trick / naked will (that will just had to ruin the party by getting naked)
always another step bird fight (can’t thosestep birds just get along)

Now it’s your turn. Here’s a selection of words from the fridge. What can you make with it?

A Promised Announcement

June 2, 2012 / Katie L. Carroll

Astute readers, you may remember at the beginning of last month I mentioned I had a big announcement. The time has come to tell you I have another book besides Elixir Bound coming out soon (not sure of the release date yet, but maybe even before Elixir). And guess what? It’s a picture book!

“A picture book?” you say. “But, Katie, you’ve never mentioned anything about a picture book. I thought you only wrote novels.”

Well, you thought wrong. My picture book The Bedtime Knight is coming out through MeeGenius! as a picture book app. The illustrations are being worked on right now (okay, maybe not this second, but the text is finalized and with the illustrator right now).

It’s going to be an exciting summer. I’ve got a certain milestone birthday next month. The Boy will be turning one. And, of course, Elixir Bound (and now maybe The Bedtime Knight) will be out in the big, wide world.

Oh, I almost forgot…I’ve been hard at work on a new website, which I hope to be lauching very soon. That means the Observation Desk will be making a cyber-move from Blogger to WordPress. No worries, I’m taking you all with me!

WIP Wednesday

May 9, 2012 / Katie L. Carroll

Guess whose upcoming e-book has a page on her publisher’s website? (Duh, it’s me.) Check out the back copy for Elixir Bound and my author bio on the MuseItUp site. I was a little surprised to see it labeled as Young Adult Paranormal Fantasy (the paranormal part is what surprised me). Although Elixir Bound is definitely more fantasy than paranormal, I think it’s smart marketing to include the paranormal label.

I’m playing the waiting game with Elixir Bound right now. Waiting to hear from my line editor, waiting to find out about my cover art, waiting until I have some time to figure out how the heck to market this thing! I’m also waiting for a certain someone to fulfill his quest to find an important prop for the book trailer.

In the meantime, I’ve been squeezing out a few minutes of writing time to work on Black Butterfly (did you correctly guess the color and animal?). I also got a fantastic critique of Pirate Island (my middle grade adventure story) at the Poconos conference and have a whole new direction for revisions.

Next week I’m featuring Meradeth Houston author of YA paranormal Colors Like Memories on the blog. Here’s a book trailer to whet your appetite.