It’s been a quiet year for author events so far (which is okay with me, given the lousy weather in New England in the winter and the busy fall I had). I’ve also been a bit quiet here on the blog this year because I’ve been busy writing, writing, writing. But I’m excited to announce two events for this year with hopefully more to come.
The first one is only a couple of weeks away! I’ll be attending the Local Authors Fest at the Public Library of New London on Saturday, March 23 from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. There will be a whopping 50 authors in attendance! Grabbed a signed book, enter the raffle, take a photo with an author, and listen to a select group of authors speak about their books and writing journeys. There will be children’s books and adult books in all types of genres, so something for everyone. I’ll have copies of my YA fantasy ELIXIR BOUNDand my middle grade adventure PIRATE ISLAND, and some book swag too.
If any educators and librarians are interested in booking me for a writing workshop or talk, I have spots open for this year as well. Check out my author visitspage for more details or email me at KatieLCarroll @ yahoo.com (minus the spaces).
Okay, so it’s been a crazy busy fall here. Bookish events abounded; I added over 10,000 words to ELIXIR SAVED in November (so close to finishing this draft finally and really pushing to make my end of year deadline on it); and lots of soccer, school things, and fun stuff with the boys. Now that December is here, the craziness of the holiday season had already started.
So it’s a picture post! (From top to bottom: A book signing event at Barnes & Noble, the boys playing in the driveway, Halloween cookies, Halloween night, writing workshop for kids at the Norwalk Public Library, voting on Election Day, One City One Story event at the Milford Public Library, the two older boys reading PIRATE ISLAND in the green screen pirate ship at the One City One Story event, and a snowy Mark Twain House for the New England SCBWI Day of Craft.) Pop down to the comments and share what you all have been up to.
It’s been a whirlwind this past week with two book events (plus all the usual shenanigans that go on around here with the kiddos and such)! The PIRATE ISLAND One City, One Story event at the library was so much fun. I always enjoy talking about Charles Island, the real island that inspired Pirate Island, and the legends of Captain William Kidd’s lost pirate treasure that may be buried there.
Since I’ve talked about this topic at the library once before I hit some of the old favorite facts and legends but also mixed in some new ones. Then we had cookies, a writing prompt, and pictures…lots of pictures. A photographer from the Connecticut Post stopped by and took a bunch of pictures and put a nice little write up about the event in the newspaper with a slideshow. The librarian also set up the green screen and the kids hammed it up. Here are a couple of shots from her.
Then on Saturday I was at the Milford Barnes & Noble signing books and helping raise funds for the Friends of the Milford Public Library. You can shop online at BN.com/bookfairs through Friday, September 28 with bookfair code 12394516 to help out the Friends! If you’re local, the are probably still some signed copies of PIRATE ISLAND at the bookstore as well.
I’ve got one more event coming up on Saturday, October 13 at the Norwalk Public Library for their Indie Author Day. They don’t have a lot of details listed on their website yet, but I can tell you that it’s an all day event with a ton of authors of all age groups and genres. I’ll be reading in the Children’s Room in the morning and selling copies of PIRATE ISLAND and ELIXIR BOUND (with the new cover!) all day. And hopefully catching up with a few of my author friends that I think are going.
I’ve been slowly but steadily pecking away at the second Elixir book, ELIXIR SAVED. I’ve finally passed that muddy middle and have tipped over into the second half with THE END in sight! I’m hoping to have a good draft done by the end of the year to send out to beta readers for feedback. This in anticipation of releasing it some time next year!!!
My reading goals have been going well this year. I actually bumped up my number goal recently, and I feel like I’ve been doing well mixing in lots of books from underrepresented communities and indie authors as well. So what have you all been up to? Reading, writing, and otherwise?
I’ve been sitting on this news for awhile and am so excited to finally announce that my middle grade adventure PIRATE ISLAND has been selected by the Milford Public Library for the One City, One Story program this fall. The library states that the “One City One Story is a program encouraging all residents, preschool to seniors, to read books sharing a common theme, encouraging dialogue and fostering a greater sense of community…one page at a time.”
The books are all pirate themed this year. TREASURE ISLAND by Robert Louis Stevenson is the adult title and SHIVER ME TIMBERS! PIRATE POEMS AND DRAWINGS by Doug Florian is the elementary title. The library has been so supportive of PIRATE ISLAND, putting my book on their shelves, hosting my launch party, and now this!
I’ll be doing a special event on Wednesday, September 19 at 2:30 (this is a day off from school for the kids…apologies to my Jewish friends who will be celebrating Yom Kippur and won’t be able to make it) at the library. Learn a bit about the real pirate lore that inspired the book, play some fun games, grab a cookie and a signed book, and get inspired with a writing prompt.
I have a few more events in the pipeline for this fall, so stay tuned for those announcements. Non-local friends, I’ll be posting a video of me reading the first two chapters of PIRATE ISLAND in the next couple of weeks, so you can join in on the fun too! I’ve also updated my Pirate Island Curriculum Guide for the occasion.
The kids have been out of school for a week and summer break is in full swing here! We’ve made out lists of activities we’d like to do and places we’d like to go this summer. Some we’ve already done or have planned (like going to the zoo and strawberry picking), while others are probably not going to happen this year (like visit NASCAR’s Hall of Fame).
As for my writing, I’ve got a couple of things going on. I’m working on getting my YA fantasy Elixir Bound with the new cover back up for sale. Right now you can get the ebook of Elixir Bound from Amazon and that’s it. I’ll post when I get it up in paperback and on ebook for the other vendors. Plus, I finally created a book trailer for it, which was a lot of fun. It was nice to work a different set of creative muscles for it. (The map it features is part of the map of the Great Peninsula, which can be seen in full in the new version of Elixir Bound.)
I’ve been on something of a roll with drafting the companion novel Elixir Saved. I’ve been drafting this novel for years…yes, I said years! So long, in fact, that I’ve been calling it my perpetual WIP (work-in-progress). But I think I’m finally crested the murky middle section and can see the far side of the hill. I’m hoping to keep that momentum going over the summer and get it ready for beta readers before the end of the year. I’d like to publish this one some time next year (fingers crossed!).
Research for my next middle grade book has been going well. I’ve been doing a bunch of reading about the witch trials that took place in Connecticut (mostly before the more famous Salem Witch Trials) and what colonial Connecticut was like. I checked out a local history book from the library and mentioned it to my dad because he’s a history nerd. He was like, “Is that the book where I helped write and edit the updated history in the 1980s?” Turns out it was! And my grandfather, who was there when I mentioned it to my dad, was like, “My father, your great-grandfather, helped with the version that was written in the 1930s.” So that was an interesting serendipitous moment.
The witchy middle grade book–which in my mind is pitched as Mean Girls meets The Crucible–doesn’t take place in history, but it will be a contemporary middle grade that delves into history and ties it to the present, much like Pirate Island does with Captain Kidd’s history being woven into Billy’s story in the present day. I hope to start drafting this story soon, but I need to focus on Elixir for now.
Speaking of Pirate Island, the ebook is on sale for $1.99 for a limited time, so scoop that up if you haven’t already (links for Pirate Island on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Kobo). I’ve also got an exciting announcement coming up for Pirate Island once my local library makes it public…just to give you a little teaser there. 😉
And I always have stuff I’m waiting to hear back about, so there’s always the potential for good news (or devastating rejections!). Thus is the nature of the publishing biz.
Anyway, I’m excited for the summer weather and hanging out with the boys and family day trips. And a certain writer/mama’s birthday is coming a few days before a certain gentleman’s first birthday. Oh, and I’ll be going to the big SCBWI conference in L.A. this summer. I’m so excited (I won the trip, so the airfare, hotel, and conference fee were paid for!), but super nervous about leaving the baby. I keep telling myself it’ll be fine. Busy times, busy times.
