Tag: Elixir Saved (Page 1 of 9)

Signed Books, SELFIES FROM MARS Pre-order, & Self-Publishing Workshop

December 5, 2022 / Katie L. Carroll

Since it’s that gift-giving time of year, a reminder that signed copies of my books are available to be shipped right to you on my Purchase Books page. If you want those goodies to arrive by Christmas, you should get your orders in now. And a reminder that you can also purchase them on all the usual online book retailers or order them from your local indie bookstore.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with my books, my award-winning YA fantasies, Elixir Bound and Elixir Saved, are great for teens or adults who love epic fantasy with cozy vibes. Pirate Island and Witch Test are contemporary middle grade with a hint of the supernatural, great for the 8 and up crowd but particularly perfect for 10-14 year-olds.

The Bedtime Knight is an imaginative, interactive picture book that’s a fun read aloud. And finally, Mommy’s Night Before Christmas is a modern take on the classic Christmas poem that is just as much for the adults as it is for the kids. This one is a great stocking stuffer for all the moms in your life.

Speaking of books (as if I talk about so many other things here!), I have a new one coming your way February 13, 2023, and it’s up for pre-order now. Meet Selfies From Mars: The True Story of Mars Rover Opportunity! It’s STEM with heart. This has been a passion project of mine that I’m so excited to bring to readers. It’s my first nonfiction children’s book, and I have loved working on it, particularly using all the amazing NASA images from Opportunity’s mission. I also navigated the tricky world of music licensing for this book.

At Indie Author Day at the Norwalk Public Library, there was a lot of interest from other authors to learn more about self-publishing children’s books. So I’ve been convinced to offer up my self-publishing workshop “What to Expect When Self-Publishing” in January. This is digital workshop, so you can attend from anywhere (details and sign up here)!

Yes, I’ve been very busy! I wouldn’t want it any other way. What have you all been up to this fall?

A Geriatric Millennial Joins TikTok

February 8, 2022 / Katie L. Carroll

It’s been a weird start to the year where I can’t seem to get into any kind of rhythm. My husband had to travel for work in early January and there have been lots of interruptions to the kids’ school schedules, so it’s not surprising that I feel this way…it’s just annoying. These last two years have been so all over the place!

I did manage to join TikTok (find me here @katielcarrollauthor) , which I’ve been hearing can be an important marketing tool for authors. It’s too soon to say if it’s helping me actually sell any books, but I am having fun…even though I’m a “geriatric millennial” and therefore old in social media terms!

This super short one is my most viewed video:

@katielcarrollauthor
Love long YA fantasy! #EpicFantasy #booktok #YAbooks #authortok #ElixirSeries #ElixirSaved #books #yafantasybooks
♬ Our Conversations Aint Long – Your Friend

These two longer ones don’t have a ton of views, but they are more personal regarding my journey as a writer, so I’m partial to them.

@katielcarrollauthor
Elixir Saved read through in memory of my sister Kylene.#authortok #bookdedications #elixirseries #ElixirSaved #booktok #WhyIWrite #yafantasy
♬ original sound – Katie L. Carroll

@katielcarrollauthor
Shimmer passage of Elixir Saved in memory of my sister Kylene#Booktok #bookquotes #authorsoftiktok #ElixirSeries #ElixirSaved #Inverted
♬ original sound – Katie L. Carroll

Anyone else on TikTok? Share your info in the comments and I’ll make sure to follow you.

Deal Alert: November Discount on Katie L. Carroll’s Books

November 1, 2021 / Katie L. Carroll

Remember how back in the beginning of the pandemic there was a shortage of toilet paper and since then there have been various shortages of certain items? That’s happening now with physical books.

The supply chain issues regarding books can’t totally be blamed on the pandemic (this problem has been years in the making, see “Looking for Answers to Supply Chain Challenges” by Michael Seidlinger), but the bottom line is there is a shortage of physical books.

While publishers are pushing back release dates and paper is in short supply, you don’t have to worry because I have all of my books in stock. For the entire month of November, you can get signed copies of my books at a 10% discount when you use code NOVEMBER10 at checkout on the Purchase Books page.

Signed and personalized books make for great gifts, and I have choices for all the young readers in your life! My picture book THE BEDTIME KNIGHT is a fun read aloud where young kiddos can participate by seeing what is revealed in the illustrations. For the 8-12 crowd, PIRATE ISLAND has pirate treasure and a cursed island (and a little real history thrown in there for good measure). My YA fantasies, the award-winning ELIXIR BOUND and ELIXIR SAVED, are perfect for teens or fantasy loving adults.

This discount is running through the end of November so I can make sure to get them all mailed off in time for the December holidays. All orders come with a bonus bookmark or sticker, customized to the book(s) you’re ordering. Buying direct from me also means that you’re supporting a small business!

Taking the Time to Play with Writing

February 11, 2021 / Katie L. Carroll

Last year, after I got my YA fantasy ELIXIR SAVED finalized and up for preorder, the goal was to take a break. Not that I wasn’t going to write, more that anything I wrote would be without a plan.

I had started my witchy middle grade back in October 2019 when I did an Unworkshop at the Highlights Foundation, but I didn’t want to dive back into that one yet. I wanted to play around and not focus on a big project like a novel, and I wanted time to refill my creative well with reading, watching, and listening to music.

That was the plan at the beginning of the year, and I got ELIXIR SAVED ready in early March just before schools shut down. And, well, you all know what we’ve all been dealing with ever since. By the time I figured out how to fit in writing time again with early morning sessions (which didn’t happen until June!), I needed to have a plan instead of play, so I opted to work on the witchy middle grade.

Then I also got the rights to the illustrations for my picture book THE BEDTIME KNIGHT, so that became my play project as I taught myself to design a picture book. And now THE BEDTIME KINGHT is a real book out in the world and my middle grade is off to critique partners!

So I am truly ready for that writing “break” I meant to take (*checks notes*) almost a year ago. I have some STEM topics I’ll be exploring and I’ll be playing around with book formats I haven’t written before. Eventually I’ll be getting back to my witchy middle grade, and then I’ll have to decide what novel I’m writing next, but it’s all play for now for me. I’m really looking forward to it.

What kind of play or work (writing or non-writing related) have you all been up to?

Why I Included Abortion in My Young Adult Fantasy Novel

September 21, 2020 / Katie L. Carroll

I wasn’t planning on bringing attention to the fact that abortion plays an important role in my latest young adult fantasy novel ELIXIR SAVED. It’s a little bit of a spoiler for one of the storylines, but it also felt like bringing attention to it would come off as me taking a controversial topic and using it to market my own book, which is not my intent at all. So I was content to be confident in my choice to include the abortion because it was right for the character and the story, but I would let readers come across it organically.

Then the real-life stories started to get to me. Things like the vice president visiting places that call themselves women’s healthcare centers but are actually anti-abortion facilities that lie to women about healthcare (see “Mike Pence to visit women’s health clinic that falsely ties abortion to breast cancer” by Betsy Klein). There are the allegations that ICE has been forcing hysterectomies on people being held in their detention centers (see “Whistleblower Alleges ‘Medical Neglect,’ Questionable Hysterectomies of ICE Detainee” by Rachel Treisman). Then the news broke on Friday of the death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg (see “Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Champion of Gender Equality, Dies At 87” by Nina Totenberg).

All of this on top of years of states passing laws—some of which were later
overturned by the courts—that eroded access to birth control and reproductive
rights for women and people with uteruses.

I am firm in my belief that abortion is healthcare. Denying people who seek safe and affordable ways to manage their sexual health, including abortion, is denying them agency over their own bodies. It’s a tool of oppression that has been used against women throughout history and is more about control than it is about saving lives (see “Abolishing Abortion: The History of the Pro-Life Movement in America” by Jennifer L. Holland and “The Pill and the Women’s Liberation Movement”).

So when I was continuing to develop the matriarchal world in the second book of the Elixir Chronicles and an unwanted pregnancy became a storyline, there was no question about whether that character would have access to an abortion. I put a lot of thought into what her decision would be, but the access part was never an issue.

I also don’t think it’s inappropriate for birth control or abortion to be in a young adult novel. Some teens are having sex and certainly most of them are thinking about it. Some teens are on birth control. Some teens have had abortions. I hope any teens—or any person for that matter—who read ELIXIR SAVED feel safe using it as a starting off point to discuss and understand reproductive rights. They deserve to be educated about it.

So this is me using my blog as a platform to say that I support the right to choose for anyone with a uterus, and one of the ways I’m showing my support is by having abortion as a right in my young adult fantasy novel.