Tag: book sale

The Inspiration Behind the Award-Winning YA fantasy ELIXIR BOUND

August 23, 2024 / Katie L. Carroll

ELIXIR BOUND is the book that made me an author, but it’s so much more than that. This book and its sequel, ELIXIR SAVED, are memorials to my sister Kylene. In ELIXIR BOUND, Katora, who has a sister named Kylene, goes on a quest to become the guardian of a secret healing Elixir. The Elixir Chronicles are like a wish in book form. A wish for more for my sister.

I’ve written about Kylene a bunch of times here on the blog (see “Still Mourning Kylene 20 Years Later”), and her too-short life continues to be a large influence on my writing. One of my works-in-progress is a picture book about a girl who loses her sister.

Mourning is a life-long process. Writing is one of the ways I try and make sense of this wonderfully complex thing we call life. Naturally, my feelings about Kylene come up a lot in my writing.

Yet, the Elixir Chronicles are fantasy quests with magic, whimsy, and adventure. There are deaths — particularly one in ELIXIR SAVED that is a bit devastating — but death and mourning aren’t main themes. The books are more about living. The characters are figuring out what kind of life they want to live and trying to put that into action.

In that way, it’s like giving Kylene — albeit a fictional one — a second chance at life. Second chances are a main theme of ELIXIR SAVED. Yup, these books are big wishes that I know won’t come true. But it still felt good to write them, even when the writing was incredibly hard at times.

The ebook of ELIXIR BOUND is currently on sale for $1.99. It’s part of the Narratess Indie Sale, which officially kicks off tomorrow. There are over 370 fantasy, sci-fi, and horror book by indie authors and publishers on sale or even free.

The Magic of a Highlights Foundation Writing Retreat

November 29, 2021 / Katie L. Carroll

Quick reminder that there are just a couple of days left to get 10% my entire catalogue of books using code NOVEMBER10. Just go to the Purchase Books page and I’ll ship them directly to you. All books are signed with an option to personalize, and all purchases come with fun book swag!

For those of you who have been followers of my blog for awhile, you may remember the last time I went to the Highlights Foundation or a writing retreat and wrote “Highlights Foundation Unworkshop: A Little Creepy, A Lot Productive.” My writing friend Katlyn Duncan and I enjoyed it so much, we scheduled one for the following fall.

Then COVID happened and we had to put the trip on hold, but we finally made back early this month! And it was amazing!!! Yes, amazing with three exclamation points.

With this retreat scheduled for early November and me just starting a draft of my latest young adult novel, all the stars aligned for me to attempt National Novel Writing Month. NaNoWriMo (for short) occurs in November and a bunch of writers attempt to draft a book (i.e. write 50,000 words) in 30 days. It’s an intense experience, and one I was not in a position to attempt in recent years.

This year, I stayed in Cooper’s Cottage, which was a bright and airy cabin full of Floyd Cooper’s illustrations and with a view of the hiking path. It was not haunted, though one of the other writers I was on the retreat with stayed in my old cabin, and (spoiler alert) that one is still haunted. I actually didn’t write much in my cabin because I was retreating with three other writers this year and we mostly wrote in common spaces or in one of the other cabins (but not the haunted one!).

As I said, it was an amazing trip, and I highly recommend a Highlights retreat for all of you creative types. I wrote a ton of words and set myself up for successfully completing my NaNoWriMo challenge (as of November 28 when I’m writing this, I’m at 47, 250 words for the month and on track to finish on time). There’s much to be said of having everything taken care of for you so you have the brain space to only think of writing.

As a teaser for what I’m working on, I composed this poem in the Highlights word garden. As you can see, it’s kind of an intense story, but I’m really pleased with how it’s coming out. Though there will be a ton of revisions to come.

dark and light
scream within
the storm
Katie L. Carroll

My retreat mates are all vloggers, so you can check out their videos about the experience below. I kind of hate making videos myself, so I’ll be sticking to this old blog for now.

ELIXIR SAVED Available for Pre-order & Writing in the Time of Coronavirus

April 9, 2020 / Katie L. Carroll

I keep seeing all these memes about how famous people made masterpieces while in quarantine, including Shakespeare penning King Lear during a plague outbreak. Meanwhile, I’m trying to manage distance learning with the kiddos, feed these very hungry children, and keep them busy while stuck at home 24/7. Oh, and I have a book coming out in July.

Writing? What is that even?

After finishing ELIXIR SAVED, I was actually planning on taking a break from writing to fill the creative well. But this forced break, where the idea of writing seems foreign and unattainable during a global pandemic, wasn’t what I had in mind. I had been hoping for a minute to breathe, to dig into my to-be-read pile with joy and enthusiasm, and to the take time to enjoy the outdoors in spring.

The other day, I browsed through my notebook for my witchy middle grade WIP. Meaning I stared at my notes and beat sheet somewhat blankly and added a few questions (like what does it even look like to write a contemporary story in the time of coronavirus when you started the story before there was such a thing?), which I have absolutely no answers for. Then I put it away and ran around with the boys in the backyard instead. My brain was so not able to focus on anything creative like that.

C’est la vie! In between all the family stuff (and managing my own anxiety, which has been high lately…to say the least), I’ve squeezed in a few minutes to work on updating my website with a new look and I’ll slowly be updating the pages as well. This kind of work uses a different part of the brain that doesn’t seem so stuck by the current state of events.

In some good news, ELIXIR SAVED has been popping up for pre-order on retail sites, like IndieBound, Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Smashwords, Book Depository, and Kobo. I’d love if you’d add it to your Want to Read list on Goodreads. Oh, and ELIXIR BOUND in ebook is only $0.99 right now! If you haven’t read it, now is a great time to pick it up. If you’ve already read it, I’d love for you to leave a review of it on Goodreads and Amazon or other ebook retail sites.

How is everyone doing? What are you all doing?