Category: Writing (Page 61 of 73)

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?

WIP Wednesday

March 14, 2012 / Katie L. Carroll

Ummm..it’s the second Wednesday of the month…and this is my first blog post of the month…sigh…where does the time go?

FINALLY finished my latest round of edits on Elixir Bound. Over the years I have gotten much better at revising, but I still wouldn’t say I like doing it. I love the thrill of a new idea, letting it marinate in my brain, the tendrils growing into a plot and characters. Furtive moments of writing snippets in my notebook because I just can’t help but get these thoughts on paper. The possibilities are wide open, no disappointment that the words fall short of the image in my mind.

Revision is a slow slog though the vomit of words that made it to the manuscript, have been pored over a million times, and still don’t quite meet expectations. If I have to transform another HAD, WAS, THAT into more interesting language, I might just (oh, JUST is another one of those words I’m trying to cut out!) throw my computer through the kitchen slider.

Wait, what am I talking about? I’ve been waiting years to work with an editor on my manuscript to whip it into publishable shape. In that case, I LOVE revising. Too bad I can’t stop thinking about that new story…the one I haven’t even officially started writing yet. I look forward to the day I am sick of that story!

WIP Wednesday

February 8, 2012 / Katie L. Carroll

I’ve got quite a few works-in-progress, so I’m instituting a new column about a WIP on the second Wednesday of each month.

Why Wednesday? Because it begins with the same letter as WIP, and you all know how us writers love our alliteration. Why the second one of the month? Because that’s when my critique group meets, so it’s easy to keep track of. Why once a month? Because it’s a good way to make sure I have at least one post a month (which lately is about all I’m managing to do!).

My soon-to-be published novel (oh, it’s so satisfying to write that) Elixir Bound is up first. A buddy of mine from my aforementioned critique group share a Wordle of his WIP, which inspired me to create one of my own. I used the entire manuscript of Elixir and Worlde spit back this image.

That big, orange word “Katora” that dominates a huge chunk of the Wordle is the main character’s name. I think that’s fitting, especially for a YA book, because so much of the preteen/teen experience is focused on the me and discovering who you are as a person.

Many of the other large words are also character names, which I guess means my story really is about the characters. Or I just need to stop using their names so darn much! Another interesting thing I noticed is that there are quite a few body parts listed (“Lips” and “mouth” anyone! You know there’s going to be kissing in the book!). Some of my other favorite words: “Elixir,” “family,” “power,” “breath,” “fire.”

I’d love to see what kind of Wordles you all come up with!

A Big Deal

January 19, 2012 / Katie L. Carroll

Some months ago I posted that an opportunity had come up, a big one, one that I was very excited about. Back in October I was on maternity leave from my job at the puzzle factory and had just gotten back into subbing agents with my YA fantasy Elixir Bound.

This was the first full novel I had ever written. Back when I first thought I had “finished” this manuscript, I started sending it out to a few publishing houses, mostly to editors I had met at conferences or ones I had been following online. I got a few bites (and waited a very, very, very long time to get a heartbreaking rejection from an editor I would have loved, loved, loved to work with), but nothing came of them. I put the manuscript away and worked on a new project.

Time passed and I started thinking about that YA fantasy again. It just so happens that this manuscript was very close to my heart, originally written as a way to mourn the death of my sister. Then it became more than that and I was hooked on writing. I attended a seminar with an agent who offered a ten-page critique. She like the pages, offered some very good advice on revisions, and wanted to see the whole thing after I worked on it. She was very kind and praised my writing, but ultimately passed on offering me representation.

Another close call. The manuscript was better than ever. I was ready to start submitting hardcore. But not to editors. The world of kidlit publishing had changed since my first round of subbing and most editors wouldn’t even look at unagented material and even when they did, it took forever to hear from back, if you ever did hear back.

I said to myself, “No more submitting to editors. I am only going to query agents. That’s the route I want to take to publication.” So I did a ton of research to find the right agents. I wrote, rewrote, and rewrote my query letter. I had other writers critique my letter and rewrote some more. Finally I started subbing. Again, there was some interest, but no offers.

Then I gave birth to The Boy. And that brings us back to maternity leave and subbing to agents…only agents. Somehow, though, I ended up on the Muse It Up Publishing website. I did some research, heard some good things about this Canadian e-book publisher. They had a buzz about them. I broke my rule and sent in Elixir Bound.

A few weeks passed and I got an e-mail from Lea Schizas, the founder of Muse It Up. She wanted to publish Elixir Bound! A myriad of emotions overwhelmed me. I was excited, shocked, nervous. I still had no agent, but one offered to take a look at the contract for me. She said, “Go for it!” And I did.

You’ll be able to buy your very own copy of Elixir Bound for your Nook, Kindle, PC, or any other e-reader device in August…of this year! I first conceived of a there-and-back-again tale of two sisters nearly ten years ago. It took a very long time to get to this point of publication, and now it’s moving very fast.

My son will grow up most of his life knowing his mommy is a published novelist. My sister will live on in the pages of a story, my story, our story.