Books for kids, teens, & those who are young at heart

Tag: writing inspiration (Page 1 of 3)

Spring Fling Writing Contest “Voice of the Wildflowers”

I’m participating in the Spring Fling Writing Contest. The rules are simple: write a children’s story of no more than 150 words using a spring-themed gif as inspiration. Post it between April 1st and 3rd and add your post to the entry form. Here is my entry!

Voice of the Wildflowers
by Katie L. Carroll

As the mist of night lifted, a voice rose in the distance.

It danced through the meadow, over the hills, up into the puffy white clouds.

All the little blooms in the meadow lifted their sleepy heads.

Their petals opened wide, drinking in the sun and that voice…that beautiful voice!

The flowers had no ears to hear the song, but somehow it flowed into their stems and vibrated right down to their roots.

The voice drew closer and with it came a little girl in a pink polka-dot dress.

She skipped through the meadow, spreading wildflower seeds while she sang.

The flowers had no eyes to see the girl with her dress and her seeds, but somehow they knew her.

For she had been there before, spreading the seeds that would become those flowers.

The flowers had no hearts, but somehow they loved the girl and her voice.

Meet Clare C-Saunders, Author of CHARLOTTE & ARTHUR’S ADVENTURES – THE PUMPKIN PORTAL

Charlotte & Arthur’s Adventures – The Pumpkin Portal
A Middle Grade Adventure for spooky season!

Thank you, Katie, for asking me to be a guest blogger on your lovely website. I’m happy to introduce my new book Charlotte & Arthur’s Adventures – The Pumpkin Portal to you and your readers. This book cover has been beautifully illustrated by my daughter Rose, who is only 17 years old. Rose has worked together with me as a mother & daughter team on all our books since she was only nine years old, her first illustrations can be seen in, Seven Nights of Snuggles. She’s also done an amazing job of putting our book trailer together along with her dad’s music and my voiceover. Working with my daughter makes author events so much fun, as she often comes along with a craft activity for children. We’ve appeared at the Derby Book Festival, our local libraries and independent bookstores, and we even did a school book talk along with our Newfoundland dog in tow for World Book Day.

The Pumpkin Portal book and cover were inspired by our family trips out to our local pumpkin patch in Derbyshire, UK. Obviously, the book features a fictional version of it with a good dose of artistic licence for entertainment value. This is a beautiful farm near where we live, it has many different varieties of pumpkins and gourds in every size, shape and colour. I hadn’t realised you can get a blue pumpkin until I found one in their patch! Every year we visit together as a family to wander around their fields with the colourful wheelbarrows they provide, and we each pick a couple of pumpkins to decorate our woodland cottage with.

As well as their fields full of delightful colours we also visit the food marquee which is named the Witches Kitchen. Inside is always full of yummy food and drink choices and is surrounded by hay bales that you can sit on. There are also hay bales stacked up outside for children to climb on and fairground rides as well as other food vans and fun activities.

The story came to me when I thought about what might happen if a modern-day teenage girl had her Cinderella fantasy come true. Would she really like it? Or would her dream become a nightmare? Readers will find out as they follow Amara after she is whisked away from child minding Charlotte & Arthur at the Pumpkin Patch. Charlotte & Arthur must once again journey back to The Wheel World to save Amara from the Gnome King and his friend, Tricky Jack (the Pumpkin King). In doing so they learn about the magic of witches, go on death defying broomstick rides, have a close encounter with a mermaid and have fun with a baby dragon. During this adventure they will also unveil a hidden family secret to discover who they really are.  

About the CHARLOTTE & ARTHUR’S ADVENTURES – THE PUMPKIN PORTAL:

Charlotte & Arthur are enjoying a day out at The Pumpkin Patch when their friend Amara is whisked away by a pumpkin portal. It’s up to Charlotte & Arthur to rescue her.

Grab your broomsticks for a trick or treat ride into a magical world. Zoom past dangerous mermaid filled waters, dodge flying pumpkins, learn about the magic of witches and fly a dragon.

Can Charlotte & Arthur rescue Amara with the help of their magical friends? Join them for a Halloween adventure on a path to self-discovery, as they unveil a hidden family secret and find out who they really are.

You can order this book through your local bookstore or it’s available in paperback and eBook online at Amazon.

About the Author:

Clare C-Saunders is from Derbyshire, England, UK. Clare has released three books to date, along with her young daughter, Rose, as illustrator. All made it into a top 100 Amazon best sellers chart. Currently she is writing her fourth book under the working title The Crystal Dragon’s Egg, which will be the last in the Charlotte & Arthur’s Adventures trilogy. Yule and the Helter Skelter had originally been a short story intended for her first book, but she decided it could make a better middle grade story. With 25 chapters it makes the perfect gift, not only as a book, but as an advent calendar for the whole family to enjoy in the festive run up. Next book in the series is, The Pumpkin Portal, featuring new character, Amara, who is whisked away by a pumpkin while child minding Charlotte & Arthur. The children must find a way to rescue her from the clutches of the Gnome King and his partner in crime Tricky Jack (the Pumpkin King) in this fairy-tale fantasy gone awry.

Seven Nights of Snuggles is a picture book for younger children. This book has seven delightfully illustrated stories designed to be read to children at bedtime. As well as books Clare has also worked in writing, producing and directing for radio. Her work includes an informative children’s internet safety campaign series entitled, The Internet Wizard and an interactive pantomime style radio play of Snow White. Today, when not writing, Clare can be found recording voice overs in her home recording studio, she voiced her own audiobooks for Seven Nights of Snuggles and Charlotte & Arthur’s Adventures – Yule and the Helter Skelter. You can hear samples of her audiobooks at www.clarecunliffe.com

Look out for more information on upcoming events, book festivals, magazine and blog articles, media interviews and special offers over on the following social media pages:
Facebook: Clare & Rose C-Saunders
IG: @theclarecs
X: @MediaClare
TT: @clare.csaunders

The Charlotte and Arthur’s Adventures series of books are published by Fisher King Publishing Ltd, find out more on their website.

The “Skin and Bones” inspiration behind GRAMMY’S HALLOWEEN SCARE

The next book in the Family Holiday Tales series GRAMMY’S HALLOWEEN SCARE is out in the world! Once again, illustrator Phoebe Cho has created an atmospheric setting for characters that pop off the page. We get new characters in Grammy and her black cat Jellybean, but we also get the return of a bunch of spooky kids who you might recognize from the other books in the series. Grammy’s tale is the culmination of many things I love with Halloween, witches, and crows all making an appearance.

GRAMMY’S HALLOWEEN SCARE can be found at AmazonBarnes & NobleBookshop.org, and Kobo. It took a surprising amount of research to make this book come together, so here’s the story of what inspired me to write it.

A witchy page from the book THE BEDTIME KNIGHT, written by Katie L. Carroll and illustrated by Erika Baird.

Halloween is my favorite holiday. Anyone who’s ready my middle grade novel WITCH TEST knows I have a soft spot for witches. A “witch” even makes an appearance in my picture book THE BEDTIME KNIGHT.

When it came time to figure out what holiday I wanted to highlight for the third Family Holiday Tales book, I wanted to do something other than Christmas, so Halloween was the obvious next choice for me. I’d already featured a mom and a dad in the other books in the series. A grandparent was a logical next choice, and a witchy grandma felt like a no-brainer!

I also had to figure out what I would use as the rhythmic inspiration for the book. MOMMY’S NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS is based off the famous poem by Clement C. Moore “‘Twas the Night Before Christmas,” and DADDY’S 12 DAYS OF CHRISTMAS can be sung to the tune of the classic Christmas carol “The Twelve Days of Christmas.” For my witchy grandma, there wasn’t anything obvious that came to mind. It also had to be something that was in the public domain.

Then I remembered this song I used to sing in music class around Halloween time. It started with kids singing, “There was an old woman all skin and bones, ooo-ooo-oo-ooo.” It end with a deep-voiced “boo!” for a jump scare. A quick search, and I found the musical version from when I was a kid. There was no YouTube back then, so we didn’t have a video to go with the music.

I loved that silly, slightly scary song. A little more research led me to the book SCARY STORIES TO TELL IN THE DARK by Alvin Schwartz and illustrated by Stephen Gammell. Those books terrified me as a kid…in a way that I loved! The book version (below as performed in the audiobook by George S. Irving ) was even more disturbing than the one I used to sing. It also gave me the important clue that it was from an old folk song.

Even more research led to me to more versions of the song, each one seemingly more disturbing than the last! The different recordings of the song were simply haunting (see “Skin and Bones” sung by Jean Ritchie and scroll down for this unknown singer performing “Skin and Bones”). I wasn’t able to trace the exact origin of the song, but my research showed it was certainly old enough to be safe to use as inspiration for my book.

GRAMMY’S HALLOWEEN SCARE is more fun than scary. It can be sung to the tune of the song I grew up singing, and I included sheet music with my lyrics in the front of the book. I’ve done a couple of read-alouds of the book, and the young audiences have loved singing along on the “ooo-ooo-ooo” part. Here’s a video of me singing the book!

Happy Book Birthday to WITCH TEST by Katie L. Carroll and Bonus Playlist

Jump for joy! Throw confetti! It’s release day for WITCH TEST!!! I’ll be live on TikTok (@katielcarrollauthor) today at 11:00 a.m. (ET) to celebrate.

It feels really good to be releasing a book after what feels like forever since the last one…and to have another coming next month with MOMMY’S NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS.

I recently said that writing WITCH TEST was like giving a hug to my 11-year-old self, and I can’t think of a better way to describe how I feel about this book. It’s about finding yourself in the saddest place you’ve ever been in your life and feeling like the only way to get through the day is to put yourself in a bubble of protection. And how do you find your way out of that mindset?

As I mentioned in my post “The Historical and Personal Inspiration Behind WITCH TEST,” it’s also about long grief and about mourning someone you never really knew. Chapter 40, titled “Ritual,” makes me cry every time I read it, and I’m not a crier!

Some of my favorite things about the book are the crows, the Halloween night corn maze, the trio of witches, and tea time at Mother Goose Apothecary.

Anyway, thank you for all the support of this book and my author career in general. If you do end up reading the book (or a young person in your life reads it), please leave a review on Amazon. You don’t have to have bought the book there to leave a review. It helps boost the visibility of the book to help it find more readers.

Here’s a little playlist I put together of songs that I think Liza, the main character, can relate to. It includes a couple from my two favorite bands: “Are You Sad” by Our Lady Peace and “Good Grief” by Bastille. My new favorite song “W.I.T.C.H” by Devon Cole is the first on the list because this should totally be Liza’s theme song!


About WITCH TEST:

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.

Get it now from my Purchase Books page for signed copies, or find it on Bookshop, Amazon, Barnes & NobleKoboGoogle PlayIndieBoundApple BooksBook Depository (for international folks), and many of your favorite book retailers!

The Historical and Personal Inspiration Behind WITCH TEST

My upper middle grade WITCH TEST comes out on September 13! Notice the “upper” as there are some heavy topics of bullying, depression, and dealing with the loss of a parent (though the actual passing of the parent occurs many years before the book takes place).

Image by MiblArt

Liza, the main character, is 13 and in eighth grade. I’ve been recommending WITCH TEST as best for the 10-14 age range, rather than the more typical MG one of 8-12. This has made the marketing of the book less straightforward than my other middle grade PIRATE ISLAND. Billy, the main character of PIRATE ISLAND, is also 13, but the topics of the book stay more firmly in the core middle grade range.

Despite the marketing challenges, I think being in that upper age range was the best thing for the story. The upper MG/lower YA category tends to be underrepresented in books, and those readers deserve stories. Plus, the bullying and what I refer to as “long grief” draw on my own teen/preteen experiences and beyond.

My bullying experience took place at the start of middle school in sixth grade and the rumors my ex-friends spread weren’t calling me a witch, rather a lesbian (keep in mind I was in middle school in the early 90s). It was intense to go through that as an 11-year-old, and I decided to age Liza up to 13 to show readers a character who was slightly more mature and introspective than I was when I went through it.

As for the topic of the bullying in Liza’s world, I didn’t want to completely mirror my own. I really loved how PIRATE ISLAND blended local history (in this case Captain Kidd’s pirate history) into a contemporary story, so I wanted an historical tie-in for WITCH TEST as well. When I was brainstorming topics of local history, one of those I came across was the witch trials that occurred in Connecticut, which predate the Salem witch trials. It felt like the perfect metaphor for bullying in modern times.

As my long-time readers might have guessed, the long grief inspiration stems from the death of my sister, Kylene, when she was 16 and I was 19. I’ve often written about how her death has made me the writer I am today and how it has continued to influence my work (see “Why Is It Taking Me So Long To Write the Second Elixir Book?”).

The process of mourning someone is not linear. It never stops. While it does get “better” as time goes on and you find what I call a “new normal,” your feelings can also loop back and it’s awful all over again. I wanted to explore this long mourning in WITCH TEST, so that meant giving Liza even more tough topics to deal with. Her feelings of grief over her mom’s death are largely brought up in response to the bullying, and she wonders how she might be better coping with life if her mother were still alive. As she was only three when her mother died, Liza also ponders how you can miss someone you can’t even remember.

Add in Halloween and a haunted corn maze, and it all makes for a heavy, spooky story. It’s one that I love, and though I’m not typically a crier, I tear up every single time I read the climax scene in the corn maze. And I’ve read it many, many times!

I don’t think there’s anything in the story that younger middle grade readers CAN’T read, but they’re not going to get as much out of it as a slightly older reader. My 10 (almost 11) year old has read it and enjoyed it. He said, “WITCH TEST is intriguing, interesting, and heart-touching.”

Cover art by MiblArt

About WITCH TEST:

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.

Pre-order now from BookshopAmazonBarnes & NobleKoboGoogle PlayIndieBoundApple BooksBook Depository (for international folks), and many of your favorite book retailers.

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