Write the Void
Posted on May 5, 2020 Leave a Comment
I remember being told more than once, “write what you want to write.”
It took me years to figure out that such advice really isn’t entirely accurate. Because writing isn’t a selfish pursuit if done correctly. In fact writing is basically the most irritating, maddening act of stupidity one can partake in IF they are doing it well. Because great stories, especially in Young Adult, aren’t written because some author wanted to write THAT story. Unforgettable books are written by authors who write what they themselves would WANT to READ.
I know – you’re saying I’m just mucking about with semantics, but there is a huge difference between writing what you want to write, versus writing what you want to read.
I’ve always set out to write the void – to fill at gap, a need, a missing piece of the former stories I’ve read and loved. And I do think of myself first and foremost as a storyteller, rather than a writer. Anyone can be a writer. Anyone can be an author.
Storytelling, however, is an art and the goal is simple: to draw a stranger into a world that lives only in your mind and keep them there, rapt to your characters and plot. A writer-storyteller, committed to their craft, is a purveyor of addiction and a master puppeteer. A writer-storyteller commands the attention and mind of the reader or listener.
My job is to not control the character, but to control the reader, bringing them to laugh out loud in a public place, or sob in the quiet of their own rocking chair. If I do my job, then I, as the writer, am entirely forgotten. The words on the page disappear into a private stage show that runs solely in the mind of the reader. I know I’ve hit my mark when people say they are rereading my books for the 3rd or 4th time, or the characters have invaded their dreams, or they must write about the world I created and draw the characters that exist only in the confines of my books. I want to haunt someone’s mind.
I want to compose scenes so rich that you can feel the cold winter on your skin or taste the sea foam choking you as you fight the current. Stories that steal my sanity, burn my dinner, and make me skip a decent night’s sleep are the books I WANT to read.
And so when I write, I don’t do so because I have a burning desire to put pen to paper, but rather I’m filling a missing piece in my reading library. I’m writing what I want to read, and as a YA writer, I’m also writing what I wanted to read when I was in high school.
Write the void.
Write with your soul.
Write the addiction.
The Salty Roos are HERE!
Posted on January 2, 2020 Leave a Comment
I’ve stepped into the Comic Book Realm and it’s NUTS here!
Soooo . . . clearly I’ve been a jerk to my blog. My last post was in August – AUGUST. What the heck?!? There is no excuse for that! Well . . . actually, being a writer I could make up a novel-full of excuses, some involving mutating chocolate sundaes and sharks with primordial feet, but at the end of the day, I’ve just been slacking on my blog.
Bad me.
And I know – I KNOW – people are asking where the heck my newest book is hiding. I get it. I set myself up for this monument failure by dropping a novel a year for the past six years because of Undertow (the gang, still alive and well, are haunting my brain – read more about what Eila may be up to in this post below). But ya know what? Freaking supernatural, sarcasm-laced WWII is not easy, y’all, so hang tight – I’m a workin’ on The Coffin Crew!
But, if you are in desperate need of something to hold ya over, then have no fear – the Salty Roos are here! (you – with the questionable what the heck face in the bean bag chair – PAY ATTENTION!)
A while ago I was approached by a man named Erick Anderson, who asked me to help write the origin story of the genetically enhanced half-human, half-kangaroo surfers from Cape Cod called the Salty Roos.
No, seriously. I’m not lying. I’m NOT!
When we first chatted, I confess: I was wondering if I was actually witnessing the long-term effects of childhood glue sniffing, because what warped mind comes up with surfing, muscle-bound kangaroos that solve crimes??? Then I finally met Erick face-to-face at a questionable coffee shop and realized that A: Erick is a cool dude and B: he’s not as nuts as I first thought, and C: Elmers is probably non-toxic anyway and does smell awesome.
Erick was passionate about his story idea and totally focused on bringing it to life. He had an eye towards the story and the slant needed to make it fly (or surf). He also knew my work, knew I was equally crazy when it came to characters (and a boat-load of other things, which we won’t mention here), and basically swung for the fences to try to bring me in. After seeing the art and speaking him, I was totally sold . . . hairy, hot kangaroos and all.
So I wrote the prologue story for Salty, tweaked the bios, and then really went to town with writing Piper’s origin story (because every knife-wielding, gun-strapped college-age female should have parents that pissed off a crime-Lord . . . or five).
Here is where you come in to help this comic book launch – Salty Roos is part of a Kickstarter campaign. Comic books, unlike the Undertow novels, really need to be printed in large “runs” and to do this, it costs some up-front cash. The Kickstarter is to pay for this printing process.
The first edition of Salty Roos takes place in Maine and the art and story is crazy awesome. Edition #2 I’m told is Martha Vineyard and involves a pirate, and #3 . . . MIGHT, JUST MIGHT, be a crossover with the UNDERTOW CREW!! More details on that as we hash them out ;)
But hey – if Salty Roos #1 can’t get printed, how the heck will you get to Salty Roos #3??
HELP US!
Support Cape Cod’s own Salty Roos! Click the picture below to be taken to the Kickstarter! Please LIKE the Salty Roos on Facebook and help us spread the word!
THE SALTY ROOS CREATIVE TEAM
Erick Anderson (creator, publisher) believes that when you start your own brand, you have control. “You decide what the product looks like, in this case the comic book Salty Roos and their amazing characters. It’s your vision, you determine what your branding looks like and where the brand goes in the future,” says Anderson. To complete his vision he found Jon Parrish, who he discovered while perusing Kickstarter and stumbled across Clusterf@#k. Erick knew he was perfect to write Salty Roos because of its intense action, humor, and characterization. After being happy with the script, he hired the Chilean Trio of Diego Toro, the amazing penciler/inker, who he knew was the perfect person for the job after seeing his stunning, action-packed panels in the series Clusterf@#k; the amazing colorist, Kóte Carvajal, who came to my attention thanks to his extraordinary color palette in Clusterf@#k; and the amazing letterer, Cristian Docolomansky, who is known for his very distinctive dialogue balloons and lettering for various characters to complete the book. Erick provides the financial backing for each team member and works closely with everyone until the book is completed. Having built and owned a successful string of brick-and-mortar stores along with an eCommerce business, Erick has the knowledge and follow-through to make Salty Roos an enormously successful venture.
Jon Parrish (writer) has written and self-published multiple comics including Secrets & Shadows, Clusterf@#k, Career Criminals, and the one-shot Someday. He is a Franklin College Alumnus and former Assistant Language Teacher. He currently resides in Hammond, Indiana.
Nicole D’Andria (editor) is my go-to editor. She currently is the Editor/Marketing Director at Action Lab Entertainment, a journalist at Comic Frontline, and writer of Road Trip to Hell.
K.R. Conway (contributing writer – prologue / Piper origin) is the author of the Amazon bestselling urban fantasy series Undertow, which includes six novels to date. Her career as a professional writer has spanned more than two decades. She can be found teaching at national writers’ conferences, visiting schools, and holding online school visits with high schools and book clubs worldwide. In addition to being a writer, Conway is an active blogger and graphic artist at Wicked Whale Publishing and Cape Cod Scribe.
Diego Toro (illustrator) is a comic book genius with a gift for expressive artwork and an eye for detail. He has spent 11 years working in illustration, comic books, graphic pieces, and music for video games from multiple countries including England, Italy, Spain, Canada, and the USA. He also has worked extensively for educational publisher Didactic in Canada. His recent comic book titles include: One Must Break for Beyond Reality Media (New Zealand), Mechanical Knight for Winter City (Australia), The CW Chronicles by Silvano Williams, and Clusterf@#k for Alterna.
Kóte Carvajal (colorist) has been a professional comic book colorist since 2008. His projects include work for IDW Publishing, Alterna Comics, Beyond Reality Media, The 4th Monkey Anthology, and Fantasmagoría. Besides his gifted eye for colorization, Kóte has written/published three graphic novels in Chile (El Colorista Nana, Corazón Nerd, and El Cardenal). In addition to Salty Roos, Kóte is currently writing and coloring an all-ages sci-fi/adventure graphic novel of more than 100 pages. He lives with his lovely wife and their three bunnies in Santiago-Chile.
Cristian Docolomansky (letterer) was born in Barcelona, 1977, though he now lives in Chile. He currently works as an inker or letterer for several American, New Zealand, and UK publishers, including Beyond Reality Media, Scout Comics, Advent Comics, Crow Hill Comics, Ariete Producciones, and Dogitia, among others.
Summer Author Panel!
Posted on August 7, 2019 Leave a Comment
I am so excited to be on a panel with the amazing Jim Hill, Rajani Narasimhan LaRocca, and MarcyKate P. Connolly at the Marstons Mills library TOMORROW, Thursday, August 8th!
I’m also teaching a teen writing class before from 3-5! If you have any questions, feel free to ask!
Titcombs will have books for sale!
Flying in the Fog Today
Posted on August 3, 2019 Leave a Comment
We are at the CCWC 2019 in Hyannis and though the clouds were overhead as of this morning, the hope is for a dash of sunshine by lunch.
Someone let me loose in the Library. Again.
Posted on July 17, 2019 Leave a Comment
The Art of Being Short
“I would also suggest that any aspiring writer begin with short stories. These days, I meet far too many young writers who try to start off with a novel right off, or a trilogy, or even a nine-book series. That’s like starting in at rock climbing by tackling Mt. Everest. Short stories help you learn your craft.” – George R.R. Martin
The Sandwich Library is this epic place, stuffed full of history, architecture, cool people, and endless stories. They also staff this brave woman (Re: Kathy Johnson) who said to me a few months back, “Kate – can you teach a short story workshop?”
Of course I said yes, because well . . . why not? I mean, I was crazy enough to jump in with all those fish that time in Mexico when the party boat guy said they were American-eating piranhas because, well, GIRL POWER and what not, and the captain was kinda a jerk and . . . ummm.
You know what? Nevermind. In fact, forget all that Mexico party boat stuff because it’s kinda rich with blackmail potential and there is a photo floating around somewhere and . . . OMG, just nevermind!!
Back to the whole point: So, Ms. Johnson asked that I teach the Short Story Workshop and I thought to myself, “Kate – this can’t be anywhere near the equivalent of jumping off that stupid boat in Cozumel.” CRUD. I just mentioned THAT story again.
I will admit that I kinda ignored the little voice in my head that was saying, “Hey – STUPID! You write HUGE books!” Let’s face it – that little voice is pretty irritating (mine occasionally sounds like Caillou), so ignoring it is a totally normal thing for me.
Of course, Little Annoying Caillou Voice can be right sometimes. I DO pound out words like a baseball player spits sunflower husks during the World Series, but how hard could it be to pull back the reins? To pump the storytelling brakes, as it were. I could do it. I could.
Well . . . you know that story that we won’t talk about anymore? THAT was WAAAAY easier than writing short stories. At least, that was the basis of the mild panic that seeped into my bones about a week before I was to start teaching.
You see, I do love a good short story and I like the CREEPY STUFF. All hail Stephen King’s deliciously twisted Nightmares and Dreamscapes anthology. But me? I write the BIG stuff. I write stories that go on and on, leaving a trail of flesh-eating Easter Eggs in their twisted wake.
I started reading everything I could about the craft of short story writing until a friend slapped some sense into me and said, “Kate – the way you write, you make EVERY chapter a short story.” I did the whole light bulb illuminating, blinky-eye thing and realized, “OMG, I DO!” This friend also pointed out that I’ve been a journalist for YEARS and each article was a short-story in and of itself.
DUDE!
That’s when I stopped panicking. That’s when I realized that a short-story is this small, juicy piece of a larger whole. A short story settles in more towards the climax or the end of a larger picture. A short story follows one, maybe two characters, and one main problem. Despite its limited length, the writer still must tangle in motivation and personality. Potholes must appear to challenge the character and drive the reader to keep going, just like in novel writing.
I got this. I can teach this.
Heck, I love to tackle the mountain and I don’t pull back on the reins. R.R. Martin would think I’ve had my brains cooked by a dragon.
Short stories are a challenge for me, but I’m obsessed with digging into the essence of them. Plus, at the end of the day, I know who I am and what I can tackle. After all, I’m a storyteller first, writer second, and that girl who did the thing in the place when I was younger. I figure if that combination of attributes isn’t a well balanced diet of stupidity and bravery, then I don’t know what is.
So – what will you challenge yourself with as a writer?
I am willing to go Dark.
Posted on May 2, 2019 1 Comment
As I head to teach at #NESCBWI19, I thought it would be a good idea to add a post to my blog about writing . . . and what it sometimes costs us as people to tell the story.
The other day, I had a fascinating conversation with another writer. We were going through her manuscript and there was a scene she’d written that just wasn’t working for some reason. I asked the most basic question that I ask of myself all the time: “Are you being true to your character?”
As she started peeling back the layers of the character she’d built, she realized that what she’d written – what she wanted the character to do – was not in line with the character’s core personality. It wasn’t in line with the character’s history, her way of thinking, and her self-esteem. The scene was corrected to follow what the character would do, rather than what the author WANTED the character to do, and the issue was fixed.
When a storyteller truly writes, they should yield control of the story to the characters they’ve created. The reason is simple: no one can ever control the emotions, reactions, and train-of-thought of another person. You can try to cheer someone up, convince them of a certain path to take, or beg them to feel better about themselves, but there is no way to actually impact what sits in their mind. If you can’t control a real person, what makes you think you can control a fictional one written to be real?
I’ve always yielded control of a story to my characters – I’m merely the one to transcribe their lives. I’m also the 
meddlesome twist of fate that throws obstacles in their path, but I don’t control their reaction. Ever. This is maddening in some ways – plotting finer points is basically impossible when you follow a character down a rabbit hole. What I will say, however, is that the end result is a detailed, twisted, page-turner of a novel with rich, unforgettable characters.
I’ve never had a problem slipping into the skin of a character – even the bad ones, even the ones on their death beds. I never had a problem . . . until I started writing The Coffin Crew. It was the first time my Forensic Psychology background failed me. It was the first time I could NOT understand a character’s thought process. It was the first time I started calling people and asking “HOW? How could someone do this?”
No one could go down the rabbit hole and help me slide into the skin of a Nazi scientist who worked under Josef Mengele. I could not, NOT understand how so many MANY people in WWII simply turned off any shred of humanity. It was beyond me.
I am still struggling to bring this Nazi character to life on the page. Trying to become him, makes my own heart seize and my blood run cold. I’m mentally exhausted by this book. I’m so done, DONE wanting to read a single page more of the true evil that swept through humanity in the 1930s and 1940s.
People lost their SOULS in WWII.
People became the embodiment of evil in WWII.
I can never forget what I’ve learned in researching WWII. I try to keep my sanity in check while reading, but I want to rage and cry at the same time. You can’t be unaffected by the horrors of the Holocaust and it’s so far beyond what you thought it was. It’s so much more horrific than you could ever imagine.
I won’t let these stories of survival and loss, bravery and selflessness, be forgotten. I won’t let evil slip by with the passage of time, and I won’t let the Greatest Generation simply be viewed as elderly people slumped over in their wheelchairs. I am willing to carry what I’ve learned and burrow down into the mind of a Nazi to portray him in haunting accuracy on the page. I am willing to read the documents and be forever changed by what I’ve learned.
I’m willing to write it, so that it can NEVER be forgotten, especially by the current generation.
I am willing to go terribly, terribly dark and I’m willing to show the beauty in hope and courage.
I’m willing to tell this story.
What story are you willing to tell?
Agatha is Cozy?
Posted on April 18, 2019 Leave a Comment
The debate of “cozy crime” and what makes Agatha Christie’s novels (and adaptations) so good is covered in this read. While personally I agree with James Prichard, the chairman and CEO of Agatha Christie Ltd., that “cozy (cosy) crime” is not a correct label and that crime is meant to be something to disturb you and make you think, the opposite view is also explored. I also find it interesting to think about the “cozy crime” in the sense of television crime dramas －they are there when you turn on the TV and you can settle in and watch comfortablely. But, I think challenging this subtype of genre we can delve deeper into crime and what it says about human nature. This is also exactly why Agatha Christie’s mysteries are excellent reads. Her understanding of human nature is used in her books to make the motivations of killers realistic and a demonstration of what can, and has, happened in the world of crime. Read the full article HERE.
Writing in the age of Internet
Posted on April 15, 2019 Leave a Comment
In this article, an overview of how technology has impacted the world of writing is provided. It is interesting to see how many ways the Internet and mobile devices have benefited, as well as impaired, the writing industry. The two most important impacts, in my opinion, are the ability to have a global connection, and therefore audience, and how short an average person’s attention span has become. This leaves writers with two things in mind; one is that their audience has become a lot larger and diverse and two is that they need to engage their reader faster than ever before. Read Laura Thompson’s full article HERE.
WattPad to PubPad?
Posted on April 13, 2019 Leave a Comment
The world of publishing is changing, and not only in terms of the type of media it produces. The popular online storytelling application Wattpad is creating a publishing division, called Wattpad Books, that uses technology to scan the stories published on the site to find ones that would generate the most commercial success. Of course, the publishing division will also have human editors to help in the process. This is a fascinating concept on two levels: not only is the publishing industry starting to utilize technology to find promising unpublished works, but one of the largest online writers’ communities will be able to provide its users the opportunity to be formally published under their own brand.
Read more about Wattpad stepping into publishing HERE.
Cape Cod Scribe 