Tag: Katora (Page 1 of 2)

January #InkRipples: The Cover Process for ELIXIR BOUND by Katie L. Carroll

January 9, 2017 / Katie L. Carroll

I originally wrote this post back when I did the blog tour for my YA fantasy ELIXIR BOUND. I don’t think I’ve ever posted it on my blog, and I thought it would be fun to highlight the cover process of my book during the January #InkRipples theme of book covers.

I was lucky enough as a MuseItUp author to have a little input (mostly in the form of an author questionnaire) when it came to the cover of ELIXIR BOUND. That’s not to say that I can take any credit for how gorgeous it is. All that credit goes to my cover artist C.K. Volnek.

The beauty of what she did was to take some of my thoughts on what types of covers I like (I happened to cite the American cover for Melina Marchetta’s Froi of the Exiles as one that caught my eye of late) and a few key elements of the story and integrate them into an engrossing and detailed cover that in no way looks crowded or busy. If I knew how she was specifically able to do this, I would probably quit writing and become a cover artist myself (not really, I would never quit writing).

What I can tell you are some of the details I gave her and how they showed up in the cover. (I’ll be honest, this post is really just an excuse to let me point out all the cool things on the cover!) ELIXIR BOUND is essentially about Katora’s quest to retrieve the main ingredient to her family’s secret healing Elixir so she can take over as guardian.

Let’s start with character. Katora is definitely the central element on the cover. I expected to be asked about how she looks, but what I didn’t expect was to be asked about her personality. The three words I chose to describe her: stubborn, confident, independent. I think the model depicting Katora was a great fit. Her expression and body language were just right. So character: check!

Let’s move onto plot. The subject of the quest is the Elixir, which is prominently represented in the left-hand corner near the title. The objective of the quest is to find the Elixir’s main ingredient, which just happens to come from the tiny white flowers vining their way along the edges. So plot: check!

Next let’s discuss setting. Most of the journey takes places in a forest. The background gives you a sense of the rustic setting with the tree to the right and the mysterious doorway-type thing behind Katora (is it a cave, the entrance to a tomb?). I like how it sets a mood, but doesn’t get too specific because when I read, I like to let my own imagination fill in those details. Have you noticed the mountain range at the bottom of the cover? Did you notice its shape? The mountain range is aptly called The Sleeping Giant and I was so thrilled to see it included on the cover. So setting: double check!

And finally, my favorite aspect of the cover…my name, of course! It’s been my dream for so many years to see my name on the cover of a book and I couldn’t be more pleased with the result.

#InkRipples is a monthly meme created by Katie L. Carroll, Mary Waibel, and Kai Strand. We pick a topic (January is all about book covers), drop a ripple in the inkwell (i.e. write about it on our blogs), and see where the conversation goes. We’d love to have you join in the conversation on your own blogs or on your social media page. Full details and each month’s topic can be found on my #InkRipples page.

A Year of Short Stories with Lightning Quick Reads

December 11, 2015 / Katie L. Carroll

My final short story for Lightning Quick Reads go up today! It’s hard to believe it’s been a year since the blog started…and that I’ve produced 12 short stories for it. There were definitely months where I was sweating to get a story done by the 11th (my posting date), but I feel like I ended up with a body of work to be proud of.

Many of them were in the Tales From the Field series about a women’s high school soccer team. These were really fun to write and I pulled so much from my own high school soccer experiences. It was a world that I felt like I really knew inside and out, and it was really easy to immerse myself in it as I wrote. I was worried that that stories wouldn’t interest a wide audience, but they seemed to receive a positive reception from readers. This series isn’t complete, so I suppose, I’ll have to get the rest of the players’ stories written and figure out what I want to do with them going forward.

I was most surprised to find that several stories from my writing archives (meaning they had been hanging out in a folder on my computer for several years untouched) got such a great response. These stories required far fewer edits than I expected when I pulled them out and dusted them off (figuratively!).

April’s tale, “Odeletta, Princess of Spring,” was a myth story from the ELIXIR BOUND (which I believe is still only 99 cents right now! Hint, hint!) world. And I’m ending the run on Lightning Quick Reads with an ELIXIR related story as well. Here’s a sneak peek:

Winter Solstice Offerings by Katie L. Carroll

This short story takes place before the events of ELIXIR BOUND. Siblings Katora, Kylene, and Bhar Kase are performing their annual celebration of the Winter Solstice.

“Do you have the acorns and your offering for the sacrifice?” Bhar asked with an impish grin and a glint in his blue eyes.

“Sacrifice?” Katora raised her right eyebrow and thumped her younger brother on the shoulder. “You know the Great Mother doesn’t approve of sacrifices. I do have all but one of the offereings, and Kylene should be getting it right now.”

Bhar laughed as he ran deeper into the trees of Faway Forest. Katora shook her head in annoyance and wondered if Bhar would ever be serious about anything. She shifted her backpack and followed his indelicate footsteps.

She stopped in a small clearing. Bhar stood in the center, a series of stacked rocks interspersed at regular intervals around him. She dropped her pack outside the rocks and sat inside the circle, legs crossed.

Katora had been coming to this place on the Winter Solstice for as long as she could remember. Her two older sisters used to participate in the ceremony, but they had recently moved out of the family home. They now held their own traditions. This was the first year they wouldn’t be there, and Katora wasn’t sure she wanted to be there either. Maybe she was getting too old for such traditions…

I’d love for you to check out the rest of the story on the Lightning Quick Reads Blog, and thanks for reading all year long with me!

Females in YA: Part 7 Unlikable Girls

May 7, 2014 / Katie L. Carroll

In my Internet trolling, I’ve come across so many articles recently related to females in YA or women in writing. They’ve inspired a lot of thoughts and I was going to do a quick round-up (with a few of those thoughts) today. But then I started writing about one article and came across some more related articles (as tends to happen in the wormhole of the Interweb) and it turned into enough material for an entire blog post. So I guess those other articles will have to wait until another day to have their moment on my blog.

This post in particular was inspired in part by the article “Why Talking About Girl Really Matters” on Stacked Books. The article begins with the thought that we need to talk about girls reading and ways to encourage them to read (not just focus on getting the so-called reluctant demographic of boys reading).

The part of the article that really struck me was this statement, “Girls are as complex as boys, but so often, we let girls be placed into one of two categories, based entirely on our preferences: likable or unlikable.These aren’t critiques of story nor are they critiques of character. They are preferences. There’s nothing wrong with preferring a likable or unlikable character, but there is something wrong when that becomes the means through which we critique a story and thus the way that we then present those stories to readers — especially to girl readers who may identify as unlikable or as likable vis a vis those books.”

I can look to my own character Katora in my YA fantasy Elixir Bound. In reader reviews, she has been called self-centered, couldn’t quite be liked by the reader, whiny, selfish, a bit of a pill, stubborn, and a control freak. Yikes! Based on those comments alone, I’d probably make some pretty harsh judgments on Katora.

Yet one reviewer said Katora was her favorite character because she was strong-willed and the novel benefited from Katora’s personality, another adored her, and a third was enchanted by her. She is also described as driven, hard working, likable, a great heroine, having a side of her that really cares for her siblings, self-dependent, strong, and brave. A bit of a different picture of the character of Katora.

(Please note that I appreciate all reviews written of my book, even the unfavorable ones. I’m not saying any of these reviewers are wrong—and many of them mentioned liking her even though they also used unfavorable descriptions, some of the positive and negative descriptions came from a single reviewer—just pointing out that my beloved character can be seen as unlikable by some standards.)

Given in many ways that Katora is a reflection of myself (in a weird fictional way), I could take that to mean that people see me as unlikable. Yikes again! Now what if a teenage girl saw something of herself in Katora and then read a review that described Katora as unlikable or selfish or something much worse. She might make the mistake of thinking herself unlikable or worse. Triple yikes!

I can think of many YA books in which I didn’t always “like” the female character at some point in the book (one in particular that comes to mind is Samantha in Lauren Oliver’s Before I Fall), but that didn’t mean I didn’t “like” her in general. Usually a “dislike” moment stemmed from some action she took. In the case of Samantha, she is a popular girl who doesn’t always treat people nicely, but there are many sides to her and part of her journey is learning to treat others better.

So just because Samantha had “unlikable” moments didn’t mean she wasn’t a good character lacking any redeemable qualities, and it certainly didn’t make for a bad book. In fact, Before I Fall was one of my favorite books that year and came highly recommended. Again, it comes back to the fact that so much of what is considered likable or unlikable is subjective and not necessarily a good means of evaluating a character or a book.

And if writing good characters is in part writing characters that are dynamic and realistic, then all characters should possess “unlikable” qualities. In fact, a character who is totally likable would probably be pretty boring to read and would ring untrue to life. The best characters have flaws. Maybe we need to rethink the terminology and stop pegging female characters in YA as “likable” or “unlikable” because those terms hardly encompass what a character’s (or person’s) true personality is.

What females in YA have you found to be either likable or unlikable (or both)?

For more reading on this topic, check out:

“The Girl Myth in YA (And Beyond)” on Book Riot

“UNLIKABLE FEMALE CHARACTERS IN YA FICTION: A READING LIST” on Stacked Books

“Boys Will Be Boys, and Girls Will Be Accommodating” by Laurel Snyder

“The 10 Most Annoying Teenagers From Books” on Huff Post Books, though these are not all girl characters and not all from YA books, still a worthy—and fun—read

Katora Duels in the Realms Faire

November 11, 2013 / Katie L. Carroll

Image[2] Katora, from my YA fantasy Elixir Bound, is taking part in the biggest literary duel of the year as part of the Realms Faire, an online literary event hosted by M. Pax. Writer and artist Cassandra Webb is hosting Katora and her foe. And there’s a giveaway going on, too!

In honor of this battle, Katora wanted to share a little about herself with a Q&A session. Please post any questions you may have for Katora in the comments. She’ll be stopping by throughout the day to answer them. Here are a few Katora has answered already:

What is your strongest personality trait?

My ma always tells me I’m stubborn when it comes to everything, but I think I’m only stubborn about the stuff that really matters.

What is your greatest fear?

I don’t like to admit I’m afraid of anything, but if I had to pick one thing, I would say a fear of being controlled. I like my independence and don’t want anyone messing with it.

What are some of the biggest stumbling blocks you’ve encountered while on your journey in Faway Forest?

Well, let’s see…there’s Roodesh, the crazy leader of the miniature tilli demick species; Yeselda, the power hungry witch of Faway Forest, who has three terrifying horse-riding spirits as henchme

n; Bhar and Kylene, my brother and sister who can’t seem to stay out of trouble. And well, the long-lashed, smooth-lipped Hirsten…but I promised I wouldn’t be feeling his lips on mine again. I had a quest to complete; it was not the time to be falling in love.

Which words or phrases do you most overuse?

“Great Mother!” I’m not sure Mother Nature would approve of me using her name so much to express my less-than-virtuous feelings.

If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?

I would love to be more open about my feelings, though if you told anyone I told you this, I would deny

it. Seriously, though, I think life might be easier if I could me more like my sister Kylene, who tends to wear her emotions on her sleeve. I keep mine all bottled up and then get annoyed when people don’t understand me. But how are they supposed to understand me if I never let them know how I’m feeling?

What words of wisdom would you like to share with our readers?

It’s taken me a long time to follow Pop’s advice. He told me to follow my heart, and when I finally did that, the answers to life’s hardest questions suddenly seemed simple.

Now it’s your turn to ask away. And don’t forget to check out Katora’s duel. Oh, one last thing. Elixir Bound is still on sale for $.99. Not sure how long this great price will last, so check it out on Amazon or the MuseItUp bookstore.

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First Kisses (or Kissees)

February 14, 2013 / Katie L. Carroll

I’m generally not an outwardly sentimental person, but I recently came across a blog post about first loves and it reminded me of my first kiss. And well, it seemed an appropriate topic for today.

I was in second grade and had a crush on a boy. I was pretty sure he liked me. Ever the bold girl, I wrote him a note (back when you still passed notes in class, not text messages). The note read, “Will you kissee me?” And there was a yes option and no option, each with a box for him to check. (I think I still have that note stashed away in a shoebox somewhere.)

He checked yes! The kiss happened during recess, I think in the middle of a game of tag. A brief touching of lips, only a peck really, that lasted maybe a few seconds. But everyone saw it. The first of *ahem* many memorable kisses I’ve experienced. I wonder who else remembers that kiss…

Another first kiss, quite a bit more steamy than my second-grade peck, is one I wrote between Katora and Hirsten in Elixir Bound. I just happen to have an excerpt of it on an old post over at the Muse blog. What are some of your memorable kissees?