How I Became a Writer: A Guest Post by Katie L. Carroll

I'm sitting here, writing and formatting this post in my half-cleaned office. I spent most of yesterday cleaning my office enough so my hubby could move his old desktop computer into this room. And, yes, I'm using said computer to work on this post. *happy dance* Don't get me wrong, I love my laptop and my tablet and the portability they offer me, but there are times it's just easier to do things on a desktop (like when designing images like the one above).

Today I have a special guest. Not only is she a fellow MuseItUp sister, but she's an amazing author, wonderful mom, and I'm thrilled to call her friend (even if we haven't met in person yet!). Please help me welcome Katie Carroll as she shares her writing journey with us.

How I Became a Writer
By Katie L. Carroll

I thought my life as a writer began when I was 19 on particularly hot day in early spring 2002, a black-letter day, the blackest of black-letter days in fact. I was in college on track to becoming a physical therapist with an early acceptance into the graduate program. But I didn’t become a physical therapist; I became a writer.

I’ve since come to realize, with the help of my mom, that it was much earlier than that that I began my writing life. On my blog post on the release day of the ebook version of Elixir Bound, she wrote, “Although you would have done fine as a physical therapist, I always knew it was not your calling. You were a writer ever since you could pick up a pencil and I think I always knew that, after all the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree (of course I’m talking about your dad).”

Well, my mom was mostly right. Even before I could pick up a pencil, my mom would read stories to us: the Little Golden Books, the Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder, all kinds of fiction. I think that’s when I became a writer.

When I stop to think about it, I don’t know why it took me so long to figure out I was a writer. The signs were all there. My family and I used to write and illustrate our own picture books about the adventures of Sam the Billy Goat. At the climax of the story it would always read, “Voop Whoosh! Up went the Billy Goat.” And he would fly up to save the day.

I wrote (and sometimes illustrated) stories my whole childhood. In middle school, high school, and college I worked on the school newspapers. Yeah, I think I had been in a state of denial for 19 years…which brings us back to that black-letter day…April 16, 2002. The day my sister Kylene died.

I don’t like to talk about that day. How the forget-me-nots were in bloom. How there was recording-breaking high temps. How it was the worst day of my life.

So what do you do when your 19 and your sister’s just died? Well, once you’re in a place where you can think again, you reevaluate. Everything.

For me that meant rethinking what I wanted to do with my professional life. Kylene gave me the permission to pursue my passion. So I began writing. Eventually I decided not to continue studying to be a physical therapist. I kept writing, often not even sure who I was writing for. Kylene, an audience, myself?

I pursued publication. And got rejections, along with some encouragement. I revised, learned a lot more about the business of publishing. Wrote some more. Revised some more. Got a lot more rejections…You get the picture.

Ten years and four months after Kylene died, my book was finally born into the world. And what was that book about? A young woman, entrusted with the future of her family’s secret healing Elixir, goes on a quest to find the Elixir’s secret ingredient.

I don’t need a psychoanalyst to tell me I was fulfilling a wish with that book. It was supposed to be about Kylene, and it is in some ways, but it’s really about me. Because for those 10 years, it had been too hard to write Ky’s book. I tried. Elixir Bound started out from her point of view, but I just couldn’t write that book yet.

But I am writing it now. Elixir Saved, a follow-up to Elixir Bound, will be Kylene’s book.

You see, I believe each of us as an individual doesn’t truly realize the impact we have on people. Each person we touch—whether it be with a story, a hug, a smile as we pass a stranger on the street—leaves a ripple.

Kylene, in her short life, left lots of ripples. With the people she loved. With the people she cared about. The people she felt compassion for, which was pretty much everyone. The people she shared the Harry Potter books with. Even the nurses in the hospital from the short time she was sick felt her ripples.

I like to think that each ripple I make with Elixir Bound is really Ky’s ripple…because I’m not sure I would have discovered my life’s passion if it weren’t for Kylene. It makes my heart smile to think that Kylene is still making ripples on the world, and that I have my own little role to play in that.

Katora Kase is next in line to take over as guardian to a secret and powerful healing Elixir. Now she must journey into the wilds of Faway Forest to find the ingredient that gives the Elixir its potency. Even though she has her sister and brother, an old family friend, and the handsome son of a mapmaker as companions, she feels alone. 

It is her decision alone whether or not to bind herself to the Elixir to serve and protect it until it chooses a new guardian. The forest hosts many dangers, including wicked beings that will stop at nothing to gain power, but the biggest danger Katora may face is whether or not to open up her heart to love.

Available at:

About the Author:

Katie L. Carroll is a mother, author, and editor. Her YA fantasy ELIXIR BOUND has been described as “The Lord of The Rings with a YA fiction twist.” She is also the author of a picture book app called THE BEDTIME KNIGHT. Her latest project is a collaborative, serialized middle grade mystery called THE GREAT CONNECTICUT CAPER, which is being released chapter-by-chapter starting in January 2015 and can be read at http://ctcaper.cthumanities.org/get-ready/. Katie worked as a puzzle magazine editor for Penny Publications for eight years before becoming a book editor for MuseItUp Publishing. For more about Katie, visit her website and blog at http://www.katielcarroll.com or follow her on Twitter @katielcarroll.

#TBR Thursday-SVA Series

Today I'm sharing a completed YA series with you. It all started when the author had a thought: Who trains the super villains? And from that single question, the Super Villain Academy series was born. This series released with a bang when King of Bad shot to #7 of Amazon's bestselling superhero titles and went on to spend eight months on the publisher's Top 5 bestsellers list.

While I'm not a big fan of stories where the bad guy is the hero, Kai Strand did a wonferful job of making me want to root for the villains at this school. If you love superhero stories and are waiting for the Batman Superman v Superman movie like I am (oh why couldn't Christian Bale sign on for this one?? Please do better than you did in Daredevil Ben Affleck!) then I highly suggest this series to tide you over. Need more? Here are the blurbs (and amazing covers!) in reading order:

Jeff Mean would rather set fires than follow rules or observe curfew. He wears his bad boy image like a favorite old hoodie; that is until he’s recruited by Super Villain Academy – where you learn to be good at being bad. 

In a school where one kid can evaporate all the water from your body and the girl you hang around with can perform psychic sex in your head, bad takes on a whole new meaning. Jeff wonders if he’s bad enough for SVA. He may never find out. Classmates vilify him when he develops good manners.

Then he’s kidnapped by those closest to him and left to wonder who is good and who is bad. His rescue is the climactic episode that balances good and evil in the super world. The catalyst – the girl he’s crushing on. A girlfriend and balancing the supers is good, right? Or is it…bad?

The supers are balanced. Academies have altered their curriculum to teach both sides of the super power spectrum. All’s well in the super world. Right?

When Mystic kidnaps Oceanus, Jeff learns it isn’t all right. Turning to the newly balanced supers for assistance, he panics to find they’ve done nothing to rescue Oceanus. When no ransom request follows, he worries Mystic’s plan never included returning his girlfriend. Frustrated, he’s forced to work with the only super willing to help. Oceanus’ ex-villain, ex-boyfriend, Set.

Mystic isn’t the only one hiding something. Nothing about Jeff is balanced. Temper flares result in scorched clothing or flying furniture, and his charm has become an indiscriminating people-magnet.

Jeff is convinced, or maybe just hopeful, that his lack of control is directly related to Oceanus being gone. But will he and Set find her before Jeff 

                        loses control completely and will they find her alive?

The world is in chaos. Violence and thievery reign. And with the supers still balanced, it’s only getting worse. Without good versus evil, the supers care less and less. In order to restore purpose, the world needs its super heroes and its super villains, but the one who balanced them in the first place is missing.

Sandra’s concern over finding her brother Jeff, isn’t her only problem. Her pathetic excuse for super powers has left her needing a new ankle. And though she’s still very much committed to her boyfriend, Source, she’s growing unreasonably attracted to Set, the boy who double-crossed Jeff by stealing his girlfriend.

When Sandra is taken and held as bait by some kids who want to unbalance the super world, it becomes the inciting event that changes things for supers everywhere and forces them to answer the question, “Hero or villain?”

Have a series you want to recommend? Share in the comments!

#InkRipples

Earlier this year I received an e-mail update from Book Marketing Tools where Leeland Artra talked about using Twitter Teams to spread interesting facts about each other on Twitter. I shared this article with Kai Strand and Katie Carroll, and we decided that in addition to that, we'd take a monthly theme and post about it on the second Monday of each month.

So, here it is, the second Monday of May. This month's theme? Change.

I've done a lot of changes on the blog this year. Defining themes for the days I post, and sticking with it (for the most part.) This has actually allowed me to write better posts and be more creative on the blog than in the past. And, it has given me focus, which I really needed.

Writing wise, I've been trying to find focus, too. I feel like I'm dabbling in different genres, trying to find the one that fits me best. Yes, I know authors can (and do) write more than one genre, but I feel like I've lost sight of who my target audience is and how to connect with them. With this in mind, I think where I go with my writing will be the biggest change I make this year.

What about you? What changes have you made or are you going to make? Share in the comments below. Or, if you're a blogger, join our meme and help us create more ripples in the inkwell. Be sure to tag us (Katie L. Carroll, Kai Strand, Mary Waibel) in the post and use #inkripples when promoting your post so we can help share!


Be sure to leave a comment below for a chance to win a special "surprise" gift from me!

More information on #Inkripples can be found here.

Character Diversity: A Guest Post by Kyla Phillips

Today I'm excited to be hosting fellow MuseItUp author Kyla Phillips. When Kyla and I first set up this post, I hadn't started my new format yet, so if you were looking for  this week's #TBR Thursday post, you can find it here.

Kyla's novel, Agent of Light, released Tuesday. Happy Book Birthday!!! This sounds like an intriguing read, with a variety of supernatural creatures (elementals, angels, and shape shifters to name a few) and bounty hunters. I know this will be making my #TBR pile! 

Vayne is a light elemental and bounty hunter for the supernatural world. Her partners—Giovanni, a capricious fallen angel; and Donovan, a shape shifter with anger control issues—work with her during their rehabilitation. During the coldest winter Cincinnati has ever seen, the threesome run into a case where temporary and violent insanity strikes powerful elementals seemingly at random. 

Vayne soon finds herself the victim instead of the hunter, and working on the wrong side of the conflict. How can Don and Gio pull her back from the brink? How will she reveal the perpetrator and bring him before the chopping block?






Available at:

With a cast of characters like that, I'm sure Kyla can teach us a thing or two about diversity. So, without further adieu, here's Kyla!

Character Diversity

A Guest Post by Kyla Phillips

Mary has been kind enough to feature me on her blog with an article on character diversity. I thought it was a rather fitting subject since one of the most frequent comments I received on my new novel Agent of Light, from editors and beta readers a like, was how interesting and diverse my cast of characters is. For me having the right characters is the foundation to great writing. Put a crazy group of people together and you can make doing laundry and epic adventure.

In Agent of Light, there are four main characters who differ not only ethnically but also in supernatural abilities. There is an Arab jinni, a Brazilian shapeshifter, a biracial American light elemental, and an angel with red hair and freckles (sounds interesting right). With such a wide range of characters every scene becomes an opportunity to 1) surprise the reader by giving them a view into a culture they’ve never seen before and 2) connect to the reader who has never read about someone like them.

Maybe you’re a middleclass American and you have no idea what life is like for a poor Pakistani kid and don’t feel comfortable writing from that perspective. No problem. A change in skin color is not the only way to diversify your characters. Take the show NCIS for example. The cast is predominantly white American yet they have been celebrated for having a unique and exciting cast. Why is that? Their life stories are as diverse as they come.

The lead, Gibbs, is an older male from a small town, blue-collar family. He has a military background and his outlook on life was shaped by a tragedy that happened rather early in his adult life. In contrast, Tony comes from a very wealthy background and he chose the middleclass life. While he may have left some of the more extravagant things behind his taste in clothing and accessories shows you can’t completely remove the silver spoon from the boy’s mouth.

So adding diversity can be as simple as putting together two people from different socio-economic backgrounds together. Maybe add a character that struggles with addiction, grew up in a single parent household, grew up in a large family with limited resources. The possibilities are endless but the reward is great. By diversifying your characters you reach a wider audience, you make the story truer to the vibrancy of real life, and you stretch your perspective. What can be wrong with that.

Author Bio:

Kyla became a SciFi/Fantasy addict at age three watching Doctor Who on late nights up with her mom. She discovered her love of reading and writing in the third grade reading Robert A. Heinlein and Piers Anthony and trying to create stories like her heroes.

Currently she lives in Ohio with her grandmother and her dog, Mya – named after a SciFi character. She is inspired by the musing of her fellow writers in the Entropy writing group and hanging out at Barberton Public Library.

#TBR Thursday??-SUPER BAD

Have we fallen into an alternate dimension? Have you slept through the first three days of the week? Do you hear the theme from The Twilight Zone playing in the background? 

Don't panic. It's really Monday, but I needed to swap posts around on the blog this week for a special guest visitor on Thursday. 

So, on this mixed up week I'm suggesting a book that won't be out until Wednesday! See, let me break one rule and that isn't enough. I have to break more. Or am I? Remember I said that I'd only recommend books I've read. Well, I not only beta read this one (and had a blast with it!) I also was given an ARC from the author, who happens to be one of my closest writing friends. So, what is this book that has me breaking the rules?

Talk about a hot cover! How about the blurb?

The world is in chaos. Violence and thievery reign. And with the supers still balanced, it’s only getting worse. Without good versus evil, the supers care less and less. In order to restore purpose, the world needs its super heroes and its super villains, but the one who balanced them in the first place is missing.

Sandra’s concern over finding her brother, Jeff, isn’t her only problem. Her pathetic excuse for super powers has left her needing a new ankle. And though she’s still very much committed to her boyfriend, Source, she’s growing unreasonably attracted to Set, the boy who double crossed Jeff by stealing his girlfriend. 

When Sandra is taken and held as bait by some kids who want to unbalance the super world, it becomes the inciting event that changes things for supers everywhere and forces them to answer the question, “Hero or villain?” 

As you can see, this is part of a series. In fact, it's the final installment of the SUPER VILLAIN ACADEMY series (or is it?).  Be sure to stop back on May 14th for a special #TBR Thursday where you can learn about the rest of the books in the series and some behind the scenes things from the author.