Tag: The Craft

Middle Grade Pirate and Fairy Tale Book Giveaway

October 31, 2023 / Katie L. Carroll

Happy Halloween! These days you’ll mostly find me over on TikTok where I’ve been posting a lot about Witch Test. Though October is a great time of year to read my upper middle grade/lower YA Mean Girls meets The Craft book about overcoming bullying by finding your inner strength (or witch in Liza’s case!), don’t let that stop you from reading it as we move into November.

@katielcarrollauthor
Make Witch Test your next witchy read! #witchyreads #witchtest #thecraft #nancydowns #wearetheweirdosmister #spookybooks #yabooks #halloweenreads #booktokrecs #yabookrecs
♬ We are the wirdos – KILLER QUEEN

In other middle grade news, Pirate Island is part of a 6-book middle grade giveaway. Today is the last day, so make sure to get those entries in by 6:00 p.m. (ET).

How do you feel swashbuckling adventures and fairytale retellings? Do you love them both?

Well, then I’ve got a giveaway for you! I’ve partnered with five other authors to give you a massive middle-grade paperback giveaway. There will be ONE book bundle winner of 6 signed paperbacks (US only)⁠ from these amazing authors:
@amieborst
@masonbellauthor
@hopefullhappenings ⁠
⁠@katielcarrollauthor
@katfarrow.loreweaver
@r.v.bowmanfantasyauthor

Giveaway is now open until October 31, 6 pm EST. Winners will be selected October 31 after 6 pm and the winner will be announced on November 1st. Must be 18 years or older to enter. The paperback bundle is available to US only. (Full rules are on the giveaway link.)

If you want all the latest news from me and bonus perks like two free short stories and a 10% discount on signed books through the end of the year, make sure to subscribe to my newsletter! Preview the latest one here.

WITCH TEST Cover Reveal & ARCs

June 23, 2022 / Katie L. Carroll

It’s here! The cover for my upcoming middle grade WITCH TEST is such a mood. I love Liza’s stance and the glowing moon reflecting off of everything. It’s got the corn maze and the crows, which are so important to Liza’s story. Big shout-out to MiblArt for creating the cover!

WITCH TEST will be out on September 13, 2022. I’m working on getting it up for pre-order on all the usual book retail sites and scheduling events for the fall. In the meantime, ARCs (advanced reader copies) will be going out in the next few weeks. If you’re interested in receiving an early copy to read and review, you can fill out the ARC form here.

WITCH TEST blurb:

Liza is sinking in a bubbling cauldron of middle school rumors.

When the entire eighth grade begins studying the Salem witch trials, it seems everyone is on a witch hunt…with Liza as target number one. Worst of all, her ex-best friend is the one who started a rumor that Liza bewitched a boy with a love potion.

As the bullying intensifies, Liza’s loneliness grows. More than ever, she wishes her mother were still alive. A glimmer of hope arrives when Liza finds her mother’s diary…until she actually reads it. Turns out Liza’s family connection to witches goes back for centuries. So much for the witch stuff being rumors!

If Liza can channel her inner witch at the Halloween night corn maze, she might find the strength to stand up for herself. If not, she risks losing a piece of herself to a growing depression and any hope of happiness.

WITCH TEST is an upper middle grade Mean Girls meets The Craft novel for pre-teens and young teens.

Doesn’t it look so pretty next to PIRATE ISLAND? I love how my two middle grade book babies complement each other.

WITCH TEST Book Announcement & ARC Reader Search

March 29, 2022 / Katie L. Carroll

I’m very excited to announce that my middle grade novel WITCH TEST will be coming out later this year! I don’t have an exact release date, but look for it in September. Of course, I’ll have all the details here on the blog as things move forward. You can make sure you’re subscribed to the blog by entering your email address on my website homepage https://katielcarroll.com.

I talked a little about this book in my post “WIP Update: Witchy Middle Grade & a Fear of Asking for Help.” Think of it as an upper middle grade Mean Girls meets The Craft.

Not the real cover…just something I was playing around with.

Liza thought her summer fight with her ex-best friend, Abby, would blow over, but a month into eighth grade and the rumor firestorm has reach a whole new level of awful. And everyone believes that Liza is a witch! Even as a rekindled passion for art leads to new friends, Liza retreats into a bubble of depression. All these feelings get tied up in the never-ending grief of having lost her mom at a young age.

A glimmer of hope arrives when she finds her mother’s diary…until she actually reads it. Before Liza was born, her mom and aunt performed a ritual to conjure an ancestor persecuted in the town’s witch trials. So much for the witch stuff being rumors! As Liza digs into her witchy ancestry, everyone else is making plans for the Halloween night corn maze. If Liza can channel her inner witch on Halloween, maybe she can find the strength to stand up to Abby. If not, she risks losing not only her new friends but also a piece of herself to the growing depression.

I’m currently working on edits and developing a cover with the cover artist (not the real cover above, just a fun visual I put together myself). Some of my favorite things about this novel are the crows, the Halloween night corn maze, Liza’s aunts, her aunt’s shop Mother Goose Apothecary, and all the tea drinking! And the ending of this story never fails to get me all choked up, no matter how many times I read it.

I’ll be looking for ARC (advanced reader copy) readers soon, so let me know in the comments if that’s something that interests you. What is an ARC reader? That’s someone who gets an early copy of the book (these will be in ebook form) in exchange for a honest review.