Seeds of Inspiration YA Author Katie Carroll and Giveaway

Welcome YA author Katie L. Carroll to the Seeds of Inspiration Spring Event. Be sure to leave a comment to enter to win the drawing for her Young Adult Paranormal Fantasy, Elixir Bound. The winner will be chosen after 12:01 a.m EDT Sunday.

Katie L. Carroll began writing at a very sad time in her life after her 16-year-old sister, Kylene, unexpectedly passed away. Since then writing has taken her to many wonderful places, real and imagined. She wrote Elixir Bound and the forthcoming Elixir Saved so Kylene could live on in the pages of a book. Katie is also the author of a picture app called THE BEDTIME KNIGHT and a book editor. She lives not too far from the beach in a small Connecticut city with her family. 

Visit her at the Katie L. Carroll website 

Follow her on Twitter @KatieLCarroll.

The Specific Moment of Inspiration by Katie L. Carroll

No two story ideas have ever come to me from the same lightning strike of inspiration. The first book I ever wrote was inspired by my sister who passed away at the age of 16. My dad encouraged me to write a fantasy adventure for her to live on in the pages of a book. The second book I wrote had a setting based on a very real place in my hometown and a character voice in my head that wouldn’t go away. Then I wrote a picture book after noticing how the ceiling fan above my bed closely resembled a giant.

My current work in progress grew from a very specific moment of inspiration. While I was relaxing out on my back deck—probably reading—a butterfly flitted by. Seeing a butterfly wasn’t a rare occurrence as I have a beautiful butterfly bush in my backyard that attracts all manner of insects (and the rare hummingbird), but it was the color of this butterfly that caught my attention. It was a velvety black, so incongruous with the yellow and orange I was accustomed to seeing.

The contrast of the sinister symbolism of the color black and the association of the butterfly with transformation struck a chord in me. And then came the what-if that so often inspires story ideas: What if a young woman with a very dark past lost her memories and was given the chance to start over? From this stemmed a whole barrage of new questions, ideas, and images. What would happen when she began to remember her past? Can people really change when give the chance? Why was her past so dark? Etc…

That was the birth of a story aptly named BLACK BUTTERFLY, which I am currently drafting. It’s been really fun to play with the symbolism I mentioned earlier and to tease the main character (and the reader) with a slow reveal of her past.

And just the other day…oh, never mind you don’t really want to know about yet another story idea. Seems I have more seeds of inspiration than I could ever sow in a lifetime. I’m a firm believer that story ideas are everywhere. I like to let them simmer in my mind for awhile before I act on them. It’s the ones that stick around, the ones that won’t let me forget them, that get made into stories.

Remember that story inspired by my sister? That became my YA fantasy ELIXIR BOUND. One lucky reader can win an ebook of it.

ELIXIR BOUND blurb:

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.

Buy links: Available as ebook or print

MuseItUp Publishing

IndieBound:

Amazon:

Barnes & Noble

iBooks

Hobby Hoedown: Stuart West's Passion for Bad Movies

Welcome YA author Stuart West to Hobby Hoedown. His hobby is finding and actually watching over-the-top bad movies. Have you ever met anyone else with this hobby? Me either. 

Howdy-do, JQ, and thanks for having me on your hobby hoedown!

Yee-haw, Stuart. Happy to have you as my guest. Congratulations on your new release in your series, Tex and the Gangs of Suburbia, available July 26. I have to admit this is one of the most unusual hobbies, so far, that has graced the pages of the J.Q. Rose blog! Tell us all about it!

I’m author Stuart R. West and I have a confession to make. Several weeks ago, Erin Albert shared her passion for running. I aim to take you back inside, plant you firmly on the couch, and draw the shades tight. Things are about to get lazy. And ugly. For you see, my passion (my wife calls it a sickness) is a true love for bad genre movies.

Wait! Before you go back outdoors running, let me explain! I’ve always loved films, dating back to when I was a child. While my friends were playing outside every Sunday, I’d hunker inside, searching the three channels available (I know, right?) for that rare piece of cinematic oddity. It was a tough life, but someone had to do it.

When the advent of videotape happened, celestial chords opened above. Now I could see the elusive treasures I’d read about for years. Finally! But it wasn’t enough. Like the worst sort of addict, I needed more. I needed films that would truly expand my mind, full of hidden treasures and strange context.

Then something terrible happened. Two words: Adam Sandler. Most of my peers found his comedies riotous. I couldn’t stand his films, never saw anything funny about them or any of the comedies made in the past thirty years or so. Film comedies were dead to me.

I mourned until one Sunday afternoon in 1993. Looking through the dusty racks of the local Mom and Pop video store (anyone remember those?), I came across a ginormous, oversized video box with the alluring title, “The Rats Are Coming! The Werewolves Are Here!” With shaking hands, I brought this strange, enticing video grail to the counter. The woman eyeballed me, grimaced, and rang me up.

Placing the videotape into the player, I settled back, not knowing what to expect. I hadn’t laughed so hard since the days of watching the Marx Brothers as a child. Pitched at a level of hysteria higher than the worst sixties soap opera, the sordid horror tale unfolded before my unbelieving eyes. A werewolf family curse! Cruel mother figures! Hunchbacks with pet rats! Family betrayals! Cheap cardboard sets! Dialogue to make you cringe! Comedic Nirvana!

I soon sought out the other works of “auteur” Andy Milligan. And trust me. For the novice bad movie buff, Milligan makes Ed Wood look like Orson Welles. Themes developed. There were always hateful mother figures and hunchbacks. And even though Milligan’s budgets never soared past a couple hundred bucks, he insisted on making costume melodrama/horror films. But it was his universe. A true vision from a warped mind. Are his movies good? No, not in the least. Are they funnier than modern day comedies? Believe it.

Next, I discovered other crazy low-budget directors. I couldn’t believe the outlandish plots or foot fetishes of Doris Wishman (who’d plant a camera on a lamp while actors spewed dire dialogue). How about the cheap, ridiculous tales of the “Godfather of Gore,” H.G. Lewis?  The surprisingly psychologically-sound films of low budget erotica king, Joe Sarno. Then there’s the small, but much valued output of filmmaker/star Renee Harmon, whose accent was nearly as strange and indecipherable as her outlandish horror plots. So many treasures to discover.

The golden age for these films is roughly the sixties through the early ‘80’s. There’s no pleasure to be had in the Sy-Fy Channel’s newest piece of dreck of the week, “Shocktopus Versus Croconado.”  Nope, stick to the “classics.” Otherwise, how would I have ever discovered the world’s most hilarious film, “Winterbeast (wherein the hero’s facial hair actually changes within the same scene!).” Trust me, seek it out. I give it “five amazeballs.”

There you have it. My obsession, hobby, sickness, what have you. Have I gained anything valuable by watching so many bad films? Yes. I’ve learned how not to write bad dialogue (although some may disagree). But more importantly, laughter’s good medicine for the soul.

ABOUT STUART WEST:  

After working as a graphic and production artist for the last 23 years, the company for which I labored shuttered its doors in July of 2010, finally allowing me the time and mental energy to tackle something I'm passionate about.   Um, that would be writing.

I'm married to a professor of pharmacy (who greatly appreciates that I now prepare dinner for her). And my daughter just turned twenty-one! (Uh-oh.)

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I’ve written a YA paranormal, suspense, murder mystery, comedic romance series all dealing with topical teen issues. Tex,The Witch Boy was released in January, 2013. 

The second, Tex And The Gangs Of Suburbia is out on July 26^th. 

Tex And The God Squad , the final book is due in December, 2013. Many more books to come.

BLOG: 

FACEBOOK: 

TWITTER: @StuartRWest

TEX, THE WITCH BOY Trailer