Category: Fantasy (Page 2 of 9)

ELIXIR SAVED Personality Quiz: What Element Fuels Your Magic

July 20, 2020 / Katie L. Carroll

I’ve always loved those BuzzFeed personality quizzes: Which Disney Princess Are You, What YA Dystopian Novel Would You Live In, What Fantasy Character Fits Your Personality. They remind me of my adolescents days when I would take the quizzes in Seventeen Magazine (when a physical magazine would actually come to your mailbox…I’m old!).

So I decided to make one for my latest YA fantasy ELIXIR SAVED. It was a lot of fun to make, and even more fun to take. (Can you tell all my marketing efforts for this book have been about doing things that I enjoy? If you haven’t seen my launch video with ELIXIR SAVED’s birth story, definitely check that out.)

One aspect of the worldbuilding I expanded upon from ELIXIR BOUND to ELIXIR SAVED was the magic. In book 1, we know some characters can use magic and others don’t. But as far as where magic comes from or what governs how it can be used, there’s not much there. What we do know is that Katora has inherited the magic of guardianship of the Elixir from her father and Hirsten has inherited his mapmaking magic from his father. We also know the higher beings use magic a lot more than humans and demicks, the mortal beings.

In book 2, I expanded upon how the magic in the world of the Great Peninsula works. One of the old theories is that magic comes from the elements, but that belief has fallen out of fashion in the time where the Elixir stories take place. Turns out, this is true. Each human or demick has one element that fuels their magic, though many mortal beings don’t tap into their magic at all. And higher beings can tap into all four elements as a source of magic.

The magic is fueled by the elements, but the magic itself isn’t necessarily tied to being able to manipulate a certain element Avatar-style (I only watched the series Avatar: The Last Airbender in the last couple of months and loved it!). So someone who gets their magic form the element water doesn’t use their magic to manipulate water…it’s simply the source of it. Each person’s magic is usually tied to being able to do one thing (like making maps move and hold memories), though, again, the higher beings aren’t restricted by this.

Which brings me to the quiz (finally!). You can find out what element fuels your magic, but what you do with that magic is only limited by your imagination. It also shows you what Elixir characters share that same element. It’s only 7 questions, and there are no wrong answers…the best kind of quiz!

B.T.W. I’m pretty consistently earth magic (no surprise that matches Katora’s element). I’d love to hear what your results are. Oh and if anyone is reading any of my book, I’d love pictures of them in the wild, so please tag me when you share.

Happy Book Birthday to ELIXIR SAVED by Katie L. Carroll

July 14, 2020 / Katie L. Carroll

Today’s the day…ELIXIR SAVED is out in the world! It’s been quite the journey with this book. It took me a very long time to write (here’s a post I wrote back in 2017 “Why Is It Taking Me So Long To Write The Second Elixir Book?”) and was more work than I anticipated, even though I knew it was going to be a hard book to write.

I’m really proud of it, though. I think it reflects how much I’ve grown as a person and a writer since those long ago days when I wrote ELIXIR BOUND. Most importantly, I think it gives the character based on my sister Kylene the journey I wanted for her, the story I couldn’t give her in the first Elixir book because I wasn’t ready yet. And it has a gorgeous cover thanks to the very talented Susan Tait Porcaro, who has turned from a colleague to a friend.

I decided to roll with the idea of book birthdays and give ELIXIR SAVED its very own birth story. This video was fun (and embarrassing) to make, but I hope it shows how much I love writing and my books, even when they’re difficult…much like having kids. Plus I got to wear the dress I got (pre-pandemic) for book events.

I’m trying to be positive in this release post because I want to send my book baby out into the world with good energy. But I can’t say it’s been easy to release a book during a pandemic. I rely on hand-selling at events to help get the word out and reach new readers. I’m also missing out on an unknown number of opportunities for both Elixir books that may have arisen as a result of ELIXIR BOUND winning an award last year. I’m also aware of the privilege I have of getting to this at all.

There are the usual release day nerves and jitters there, too. This book is long–maybe too long–despite my efforts to trim it as much as possible. Things have been so hectic this year, I ended up doing most of the final edits on my own, so I’m nervous about what I may have missed. After working so long on a book, it’s hard to have any perspective. Way to sell you all on buying the book, right? *insert awkward laughter*

So if I haven’t totally scared you away by now, here are the details on what the book is about and where you can buy it. Thanks so much to each and every one of you for being a part of my author journey!

ELIXIR SAVED by Katie L. Carroll

Three lives saved by the Elixir; three lives bound by it.

The Elixir entwines the lives of those it touches. Once upon a time, Kylene, Zelenka, and Devon tasted it and escaped death. None were left without scars. Now, a shocking message from the Ice Queen—one of Mother Nature’s higher beings—sends each survivor on a quest. Kylene travels to the frozen depths of Blanchardwood, Zelenka heads back to the wilds of Faway Forest, and Devon journeys to a reclusive mountain temple. The three paths converge in a war against an ancient and tricky foe. And even the Elixir cannot save everyone. The fate of the world balances on the edge of a sword, and the outcome depends on whether the survivors will sacrifice their second chances.

Escape back into the world of the Great Peninsula in this much-anticipated sequel to the award-winning ELIXIR BOUND. Perfect for fans of the Thrones of Glass series by Sarah J. Maas.

Buy the book on Bookshop, Amazon, Kobo, IndieBound, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, Apple Books, and Book Depository (for international folks).

The Story of How I Became A Writer

July 3, 2020 / Katie L. Carroll

Versions of this post about how I became a writer have been on several other people’s blogs, but I don’t think I’ve ever posted it here on my own blog. I was thinking about it as the release day for ELIXIR SAVED rapidly approaches and figured it was a good time to put it up here.

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 were recording-breaking high temps. How it was the worst day of my life.

So what do you do when you’re 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 physical therapy. 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, going 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 did eventually. ELIXIR SAVED is Kylene’s book…and a few other characters’, too, because writing just her story was too much (or not enough). It’s complicated.

As for Kylene’s real life story, I believe each of us as individuals 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 the Elixir Series 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.

About ELIXIR SAVED: Three lives saved by the Elixir; three lives bound by it.

The Elixir entwines the lives of those it touches. Once upon a time, Kylene, Zelenka, and Devon tasted it and escaped death. None were left without scars. Now, a shocking message from the Ice Queen–one of Mother Nature’s higher beings–sends each survivor on a quest. Kylene travels to the frozen depths of Blanchardwood, Zelenka heads back to the wilds of Faway Forest, and Devon journeys to a reclusive mountain temple. The three paths converge in a war against an ancient and tricky foe. And even the Elixir cannot save everyone. The fate of the world balances on the edge of a sword, and the outcome depends on whether the survivors will sacrifice their second chances.

Escape back into the world of the Great Peninsula in this much-anticipated sequel to the award-winning ELIXIR BOUND. Perfect for fans of the Thrones of Glass series by Sarah J. Maas.

Find the book on Bookshop, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, IndieBound, Smashwords, Apple Books, and Book Depository (for international folks).

ELIXIR SAVED Teaser Tuesday: Ice Queen’s Prologue

May 19, 2020 / Katie L. Carroll

Leading up to the July 14, 2020 release of my latest YA fantasy ELIXIR SAVED, sequel to the award-winning ELIXIR BOUND, I’ll be posting teasers and tidbits on Tuesdays. As always, feel free to share the images.

I know I’ve been saying that ELIXIR SAVED has three point-of-view characters, but that doesn’t count the prologue and epilogue (yup, I went there despite the controversies that seem to arise over prologues and epilogues), which is from the POV of Odeletta, also known as the Ice Queen.

Today you get not only a teaser image, but the whole text of the prologue. Enjoy!

ELIXIR SAVED Prologue:

Odeletta, the Princess of Spring, had been holed up in the frozen wasteland of Blanchardwood for hundreds of years. Her only respite from the cold was the courtyard garden in Kristalis, her ice palace. But there was no respite from a broken heart. Or the bitterness that had turned her more frigid than the coldest of winter days.

Hopes of returning to her former self dwindled with each passing year. Her love, Fyren, had betrayed her, tricked her into loving him so he could steal the power of true love’s kiss. He’d taken what he wanted and abandoned her, never having loved her at all. His true love was power, and there was never enough of that to go around for creatures like him.

Odeletta was the Ice Queen now, and would remain so forevermore.
The problem with stealing another’s power, though, lay in the bonds that tied the two together. A magic that—unlike hearts—was unbreakable. So when Fyren began using that power to amass magic in the old fort of Drim, Odeletta sensed this. For she didn’t know it, but all during her sojourn in Blanchardwood, she had slowly been strengthening. The hurt of a broken heart concealed her growing strength, but it was there. Oh, it was there.

The sensation, a tingling under her skin, a blaze of heat she had felt only one other time in the moment just before Fyren’s lips had touched hers, awakened one frozen morning and set it apart from all the thousands of frozen mornings before. And with it, she became aware of her strength, something she had long thought dead and buried beneath the mountains of snow.

All morning it rippled and wrapped around her, growing like poison ivy strangling a tree. She relished the feeling as it replaced the years of heartache, until finally it burst forth in a spark of fire. An arc of lightning surged into the sky and landed far, far away. With it three messages were sent, irrevocably.

Odeletta, spent of her power, retreated to her garden sanctuary where she would listen, and wait, and feel. For now that she had released her heartache into the world, her insides were no longer frozen. It was exhilarating and terrifying. There was hope once more that spring would return to Blanchardwood, but it would come at a cost. And it was no longer Odeletta who would pay the price.

If the messages were heeded, sacrifices would be made. Lives would be changed. And lost.

About ELIXIR SAVED:

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is Elixir-Cover-High-Res-3-198x300.jpg

Three lives saved by the Elixir; three lives bound by it.

The Elixir entwines the lives of those it touches. Once upon a time, Kylene, Zelenka, and Devon tasted it and escaped death. None were left without scars. Now, a shocking message from the Ice Queen–one of Mother Nature’s higher beings–sends each survivor on a quest. Kylene travels to the frozen depths of Blanchardwood, Zelenka heads back to the wilds of Faway Forest, and Devon journeys to a reclusive mountain temple. The three paths converge in a war against an ancient and tricky foe. And even the Elixir cannot save everyone. The fate of the world balances on the edge of a sword, and the outcome depends on whether the survivors will sacrifice their second chances.

Escape back into the world of the Great Peninsula in this much-anticipated sequel to the award-winning ELIXIR BOUND. Perfect for fans of the Thrones of Glass series by Sarah J. Maas.

Pre-order it from Bookshop, IndieBound, Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Book Depository, Kobo, Smashwords, or your favorite book retailer.

“To Revise or Not To Revise – Is Not Even a Question” by Kai Strand, Author of DAY OF RECKONING

May 13, 2020 / Katie L. Carroll

I’m so happy to welcome author Kai Strand back to the blog, this time to celebrate her middle grade fantasy DAY OF RECKONING (Concord Chronicles Book 1). Be sure to enter the giveaway at the end of the post and check out my 5-star Goodreads review.

To Revise or Not To Revise – Is Not Even a Question by Kai Strand

Hi Katie! Thanks for inviting me here today. I thought I’d talk about revision. It’s, quite possibly, my least favorite part of writing a book. So, why would I want to talk about it? It’s also, quite possibly, the most important step to writing a book.

Day of Reckoning was the very first book I wrote. Therefore, the first draft was absolutely abysmal. There were more info dumps in it than in my local landfill. My prose was so purple, I could have handed it a scepter and put a crown on it.

Needless to say, I had a lot of work to do. And it took me years to edit this puppy. And even after I worked on it for years, I still had more collaboration with content editors, like yourself, and a line editor to go through.

In my humble opinion, a book is never really finished, but nor is the first draft ever publishable. All these years later, I write a much cleaner first draft, but I could never publish one! It just doesn’t take me a decade to revise anymore. I love how a story, or a character expands with the help of critique partners. Or how a setting becomes more stable or even more important as I get to know my story better with each revision pass.

I have a lot of advice I could share with new authors, but this point is one I hope to make abundantly clear. Revise the heck out of your story. And then when you’re done, revise some more, but stop when all you are doing is tweaking one word here and one word there.

Do you have a favorite revision technique? I’d love for you to share!

DAY OF RECKONING
by Kai Strand

* Series: Concord Chronicles (Book 1)
* Paperback: 289 pages
* Publisher: Independently published
* Language: English
* ISBN-10: 1690603372
* ISBN-13: 978-1690603375

Not only does twelve-year-old Terra learn she’s a Nature’s Spirit destined to serve the peaceful underground city of Concord, but she also finds she is named in a prophecy as the only one who can thwart the leader of the death tribe.

The Trepidus are the death janitors of the Underworld. They’re responsible for the termination and cleanup of Concord’s beings. When their leader, Blanco, learns Terra is the one who can derail his day of reckoning, he does everything he can to get rid of her. Including, dispatch a “Bringer” to complete the ultimate of death janitor duties.

Not only does Terra want to stay alive, but she hopes to complete her training and discover her Spirit talents too. So, Frank, a Spirit of Security, is assigned to protect her. Together, they undertake a secret investigation of how to defeat Blanco. But with the future of Concord and Terra’s very own life at stake, will they find the answer in time?

DAY OF RECKONING can be purchased at the following sites:
Amazon | Barnes and Noble | iBooks | Kobo

For those who aren’t familiar with the author, here’s a bit of background on her.

Award-winning Kai Strand, author of the action-packed Super Villain Academy series, is often found exploring hiking trails and snapping pictures of waterfalls in her Oregon hometown.

Mother of four, Kai uses her life experiences to connect with young readers. With middle grade works such as Save the Lemmings, The Weaver Tale series, and Day of Reckoning, and emotional YA adventures like Finding Thor, I Am Me, and Worth the Effort, Kai has written compelling stories that tweens, teens, and their parents love.

Kai has given numerous presentations throughout Oregon about her work and the writing process. She loves interacting with teens and gaining their insight on their
latest reads as well as what they would like to see in future stories.

GIVEAWAY DETAILS:

Author Kai Strand is giving away four $5 Amazon Gift Cards and one lucky winner will receive a digital copy of DAY OF RECKONING along with a $15
Amazon Gift Card.

To enter the giveaway, just click on the Rafflecopter widget below and follow the
instructions. The widget may take a few seconds to load so please be patient. If the widget doesn’t show up, just click HERE and you’ll be directed to the widget.

Thanks for stopping by and be sure to follow Kai on her week-long tour HERE. You never know what you might find out. What do you think about a 12-year-old protagonist? Do you see how she could grow and develop over a series?

a Rafflecopter giveaway