Tag: writing inspiration (Page 2 of 3)

New England SCBWI Conference Gems 2022

May 19, 2022 / Katie L. Carroll

This year’s New England SCBWI conference was yet again in a digital format, but just like in 2021 (see those conference highlights here), it was a weekend full of inspiration and community. As is my tradition, I’m sharing some conference gems here on the blog.

Since I was presenting both an intensive workshop on self-publishing (reminder to check out my Self-Publishing Reources) and leading an Ask-a-Mentor session, I wasn’t able to attend as many live sessions as I normally do. One of the advantages of the digital format is that the sessions were recorded, so I’ve been catching as many as I can before the viewing period is up.

Jane Yolen, author of over 400 books and founding member of the New England SCBWI, is a staple at the annual conference. She kicked off the conference with her words of wisdom. Her first dinosaur book, illustrated by Mark Teague, How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight took 20 minutes to write and her book Owl Moon, illustrated by John Schoenherr, took 20 years. She encouraged everyone to go and find the time to write, make the time to write, steal the time to write.

Heidi E.Y. Stemple and Rajani LaRocca engaged in a conversation that offered insight and advice into staying creative. Heidi said to know your process and trust your creative brain. She admitted that a creative block can be scary, but if you believe in yourself and trust your process, you can get through it. Rajani said to “follow the dopamine” when writing and to “find that thing that makes you light up and hold on to that.”

In a workshop on work-for-hire, Rebecca Allen and Meg Thacher shared many insights on best practices in this particular field of children’s writing. One suggestion was to be comprehensive in selecting your genres and age ranges so you don’t limit the projects you’re eligible for. They reminded writers that you can always say no to an opportunity if it doesn’t fit your schedule or writing interests.

Looking not so professional in the social rooms

I always enjoy the evening social rooms. I stayed up later than I intended on Saturday night catching up with my fellow NESCBWI kidlit friends and meeting a few new ones. It seems I always end up dressing up like a pirate (it is on brand for my middle grade book Pirate Island). Last year, I donned my actual pirate hat, but this year I opted for a filter. I think I pulled off the 5 o’clock shadow!

Tara Lazar, founder of the idea-generating Storystorm, presented a very funny keynote filled with memes. She made the mistake of sending out stuff too early (haven’t we all!) and had to learn how publishing worked before finding success.

Illustrator John Parra offered up an insight that particularly resonated with me as I work on developing my illustration skills. He said to make sure your supplies are out and not in a closet. He reminded us that procrastination is not an artist’s friend. His words have inspired me to start setting up a space where I have easier access to my art supplies.

Padma Venkatraman in her session “STARRY-EYED: Looking at a story through different lenses” asked these questions when thinking about point-of-view in your story: What’s best for this story? Whose story is this? How do I want my reader to feel?

What has inspired your writing lately?

Still Mourning Kylene 20 Years Later

April 18, 2022 / Katie L. Carroll

This weekend marked the 20th anniversary of my sister’s death. I’ve written a lot about Kylene, her life and mourning her. On the 8th anniversary of her death, I shared a poem she wrote. A year later, in my post “A Lonely Anniversary,” I expressed having a feeling of loneliness that I could place…until finally realizing I was missing my sister. And I shared another one of her poems.

On the 11th anniversary of her death, I was once again “Thinking of Kylene” while reading through one of her journals. One of my favorite posts about her is “No Matter How You Do The Math, Death Death Just Doesn’t Add Up,” where I memorialized her life and tried to make sense of her death. And, of course, there is “The Story of How I Became A Writer.”

Mourning is a life-long process, and something that often weaves its way into the stories I write. In my upcoming middle grade novel WITCH TEST, I once again explore this concept. The main character, Liza, was only three when her mother died in a car crash. Now 13 and friendless because her ex-best friend, Abby, has turned on her, Liza finds herself thinking of her mother. New and confusing feelings surface.

An ache settles in my chest, strong enough to make me groan out loud.
I think I miss my mom. Maybe that’s what’s been causing this feeling of loneliness that has been overwhelming me all afternoon. I think somewhere deep inside of me I’ve been missing her a long time, but this whole Abby thing has finally made me realize how much I lost when I lost my mom.
I never thought of it like that because it’s weird to miss someone you can’t remember.
Witch TEst

I think about the complicated feelings of losing someone young. As time passes, you change and the person you are mourning would have changed. I’m no longer the person my sister knew, and she would no longer be the person I knew. I miss who she was, and I miss who she would have been, even without knowing who exactly that person would have been. I also miss who I would have become if Kylene had lived.

Like Liza, I wonder if “miss” is the right word. In her case, she wonders if she can miss someone she doesn’t remember. In my case, I wonder if I can miss the versions of my sister and myself that never existed. All the while knowing I miss who she was.

I’ve come to call this complicated set of feelings “long mourning.” When the sharpness of new grief has faded away, you’re left with a longer pain — an ache that never really goes away, occasionally punctuated by a sharper pain.

So I guess that’s my convoluted way of saying I still miss my sister — in all the many ways you can miss someone who died young — 20 years after her death. I’ll suppose I’ll continue exploring those feelings in the stories I write, and in my own way, celebrating and mourning my little sister, Kylene.

Interview with Katlyn Duncan Author of TAKE BACK YOUR BOOK

August 30, 2021 / Katie L. Carroll

I’m very excited to host my amazing critique partner Katlyn Duncan today to talk about her latest release TAKE BACK Y OUR BOOK: AN AUTHOR’S GUIDE TO RIGHTS REVERSION AND PUBLISHING ON YOUR TERMS. Katlyn is the author of many YA and adult works of fiction and this is her first work of non-fiction. It’s so full of relevant information about the business of publishing and rights reversion, and I think any author or aspiring author will feel empowered after reading it. Welcome, Katlyn!

The inspiration behind a book is frequently talked about when writing fiction, but there’s often an interesting inspiration story behind non-fiction. What gave you the idea for TAKE BACK YOUR BOOK: AN AUTHOR’S GUIDE TO RIGHTS REVERSION AND PUBLISHING ON YOUR TERMS?

When the book rights for my debut Young Adult paranormal series (The Life After series) reverted to me in 2019, I immediately looked online to see what I should do with the book. But there weren’t many recent articles about what to do after book rights reversion. I had to do a lot of research myself, which was mostly scouring writer groups and working my network to find other writers who had their book rights reverted. For those authors, all of their stories were different, which helped me understand that I had to make a lot of decisions on my own.

One day, you and I were discussing self-publishing, and the idea came so quickly to me. There weren’t any resources out there about the process of rights reversion all the way through re-publishing the book, so I wrote it myself hoping to help any authors who are or will be in the same position.

Let’s turn the inspiration to you! What made you want to become a writer?

Storytelling has always been a huge part of my life. As a kid, I loved drama class and acting in plays while devouring movies as much as I could. Eventually, that stemmed into penning my own plays and movie scripts (which will never see the light of day, by the way!). Then when I was in my early twenties, I started to write fiction novels and I haven’t stopped since.

What’s one book you wish you had written? And (of course) why?

Can I say ‘Twilight’? I wouldn’t mind living in Stephenie Meyer’s shoes right now with the ability to auto sell anything I write and take all those lofty advances to the bank.

I think we’d all say yes to Stephenie Meyer’s advances! You write both fiction and non-fiction. How was writing TAKE BACK YOUR BOOK different from writing your fiction projects?

There are a few ways it was different. First, I had to do a lot of research for this book, more than I have for any of my fiction novels. Previously, I had saved some articles from when I was going through the book rights reversion process, but there was so much more to outline for the reader. I had to make sure that I listed as many options for a reverted book as possible, which meant exploring as many publishing paths as I could, along with outlining the self-publishing process from start to finish, and beyond to marketing and future plans for the book.

Second, writing a non-fiction “arc” is much different than a fiction one. You have to structure the book in a way that is compelling and makes sense as its own type of story while allowing author voice to shine through instead of a character’s voice.

Obviously TAKE BACK YOUR BOOK is full of advice for authors, but what’s one important takeaway you’d like to leave readers with today?

Regarding book rights, make sure you understand what you are signing away and how long your rights will be in someone else’s hands. This is where community is very important. Ask fellow authors in both the “traditional” and self-publishing spheres and find where your book belongs before you put pen to paper and sign any contract.

It’s so important to understand what is in a publishing contract before you sign. One last thing, what is next for you in your writing career?

I’ve completely veered away from traditional publishing and diving head-first into self-publishing. I’m re-publishing my debut YA series under a new pen name (Katy Duncan), starting with ‘Soul Taken’ in September 2021, followed soon after by book 2 (‘Soul Possessed’) and book 3 (‘Soul Betrayed’) in 2022, in addition to publishing adult thrillers after that.

TAKE BACK YOUR BOOK blurb:

Revive your book from the bottom of the charts with rights reversion.

Have you sold your book to a publisher, but years later it’s not selling the way you want? Are you frustrated with their lack of marketing and little to no royalty payments?

It’s time to take back your book rights.

This guide will give you the knowledge and confidence to get your book rights reverted and how to place it in front of new readers, on your terms.

In this book you’ll find:

The basics of rights reversion
What to do with your book after reversion
How to re-publish your book
Long-term considerations for your author business and backlist
Stories from authors successfully reverting and republishing their books

You will always be your book’s biggest champion. Don’t condemn it to years of neglect at someone else’s hands. Take back your rights and make them work for you for years to come.

Buy the book on Amazon, Apple Books, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, and these other book retailers.

About the Author:

Katlyn Duncan is a multi-published hybrid author of adult and young adult fiction and has ghostwritten over forty novels for children and adults.

When she’s not writing, she’s obsessing over many (many) television series’, and hanging out on YouTube where she shares her writing process and all the bookish things.

Find her at katlynduncan.com, YouTube, and Instagram.

Defining My Author Theme Courtesy of #LA18SCBWI and Libba Bray

August 14, 2018 / Katie L. Carroll

I purposefully didn’t title this piece with the words “author brand” because there are important distinctions between a brand and what I’m talking about here (and calling my “author theme”), and also because I don’t want to anger Libba Bray! But let me back up for a second and give you the all-important context.

I recently attended the SCBWI conference in L.A. where there were some amazing keynotes (and there were a whole lot of keynotes at this conference). The brilliant YA novelist Libba Bray gave her keynote on Saturday afternoon. As a conference attendee, I was buzzing with inspiration from the previous day and a half but not overloaded and exhausted like I was pretty much all of Sunday.

Libba discussed something that is on the mind of any writer who is tuned into the business and marketing side of publishing: author branding! I’ve been trying to come up with a snappy definition of an author brand, but it’s kind of making me woozy thinking about it, so I Googled it instead. Here are the links to the first couple of articles that pop up “How To Build Your Author Brand From Scratch (And Why You Need To)” and “7 Best Ways To Build An Authentic Author Brand.”

The bottom line is that most authors feel the pressure to have a brand, but it feels icky to figure out what that is and how to create one that is effective in selling ourselves. And selling yourself is all so counterintuitive to the creative process and to being authentic to an artistic goal rather than a monetary one. Blech!

Libba articulated this phenomenon so well when she framed it as a question vs. an answer. She said that writing is about wanting to know something. This question is what makes your story come alive. The question leads us from somewhere we know to something new. The question leads to change. On the other hand, branding is advertising, and it’s all about answers. Brands are static by nature, and it puts us in a position to view kids as consumers instead of as growing, learning young humans. (No direct quotes because I tend to not worry about getting direct quotes while taking notes during conferences. Check out the SCBWI Conference Blog for a great overview of not only Libba’s keynote but the whole conference.)

Libba ended with the thought that if anyone asks about your brand, say that it’s a commitment to craft and a deep respect for my audience. This thought–and the whole keynote really–sparked an idea of what I’m all about as an author of books for young people. I’m not calling it a brand because yuck, hence the term I use in the title of this post “author theme.” Where a brand would be about selling myself or my books, my author theme is about what I think I bring to the table as a creator, writer, teacher, and human being.

I know authors who essentially say all their writings–no matter what form, genre, or intended audience–come back to some central theme or idea. I’ve always struggled to come up with any one thing that ties all my work together, never mind one thing that ties together who I am with my work. The spark that came to me during this keynote pulled together my writing, my talks about writing and the creative process, and my philosophy on life in a way that I had never been able to do.

Now that I’ve thought of it, it seems painfully obvious that this is what I’ve been writing about and thinking about. It ties in the ubiquitousness of my sister’s death with my career. It’s the thing I’ve been inscribing in ELIXIR BOUND when I sign copies for readers. (Are you screaming at the screen yet for me to just tell you already?!) Alright, alright…here it is in all it’s simple glory:

Find Your Magic.

That’s it. It’s as simple as that. My sister’s death helped me see the thing I was supposed to be doing in this world, the magic of writing for kids and teens. It’s the thing I try to bring to kids when I talk to them at book events and school visits. I know they won’t all grow up aspiring to be writers (though I always emphasize the importance of having the skills of being an effective reader and writer), but I want them all to pursue, in some way, the thing that feels like magic to them. It’s the thing my characters are always trying to find as well, their magic. And it’s kind of been there all along, staring me in the face. I was finally able to see it and grasp on to it.

Find Your Magic.

As simple as it seems, it’s not always simple to do it, to live it. You have to first figure out what your magic is, which is no easy feat. It took me 20+ years of life and a major life event to figure it out myself. Then once you do know what your magic is, you have to figure out how to pursue it while also, ya know, feeding, clothing, housing yourself and any independents.

But when you can figure out a way to actually do it (even if it’s not the way you make your living), when you actually find your magic and live your magic. Wow, that’s some pretty amazing stuff.

Heading Out To #LA18SCBWI: Conference Gems Round-Up

July 31, 2018 / Katie L. Carroll

I head out for the 2018 SCBWI conference in L.A. in two days! I’ve been super nervous about leaving The Gentleman for four nights (it’s the youngest I’m ever leaving any of the babies for a conference), so I haven’t really had any nervousness left in me for anything else. But as it’s crept closer, I find I’m getting those little butterflies of excitement/nerves about the actual conference.

I was taking a look back all the gems of wisdom and inspiration I have accumulated on the Observation Desk from previous conferences and thought it would be fun to link to those here. (Wow! Look at that, they go all the way back ten years ago! And look at how many conferences I’ve been to.) Here they are: