Cover Reveal: Steel and Bone Anthology

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Sometimes there are events that make something feel real. Like having the cover of the book I’m going to be published in! Presenting… the cover of Steel and Bone. It’s a steampunk anthology featuring 9 stories. Coming in at 375 pages, there is everything from clairvoyance to floating islands to dinosaurs.

Here’s the cover of Steel and Bone:

Steel and Bone Cover

As you’ll notice, my name is listed first, and my story, “The Clockwork Seer,” is the first in the collection. The official description of my story, per the back cover and the Goodreads page:

On an island of oddities, a young clairvoyant struggles for normalcy, but deadly automatons have other plans.

I am sort of in love with my story. It’s features a woman named Medina who has a typewriter in her hip. The typewriter, and her other clockwork parts, make it possible for her to survive her visions, which are so violent that otherwise they would be debilitating. Enter a musician from the mainland, mechanical monsters, and an adventure ensues.

I hope that, come June 27th, 2015, you’ll get to know Medina, the clockwork seer. Steel and Bone will be available as both a print book and an ebook. So go add it to Goodreads!

Edited to Add: you can now buy the book on Amazon or learn more about it on the book’s page on my website.

Two Years of Book Group

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Two Years of Book Group

Two years ago I started a book group, with the help and encouragement of some friends. The advantage of starting a book group is that it runs the way I like book groups to run. Not to say that my book group is perfect, but I like it and attend every month.

We have read a fun variety of books, fiction, nonfiction, poetry, young adult, classics, and recently released. And two years later, to my surprise, people are still coming.

List of books we have read and discussed so far:

How the book group runs

Someone volunteers to host (or if no one volunteers, I recruit). That person chooses the book, either one with a book group copy at the library or one with at least a few library copies available. Everyone who wants to reads the book does so. (It’s an open invitation book group, so anyone can attend, and you’re not required to read–we’ve had been 3 and 15 people at every book group.) The hostess holds book group at her home (or at mine, if her own is not an option), leads the discussion, and normally provides some sort of treat. There’s also some socializing at the beginning and the end, but we always spend a decent chunk of time on the book.

 

Image Credit: Evan Bench via flickr, Creative Commons license

Breastfeeding Mama, at the Tempe Community Writing Contest

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Breastfeeding Mama

Question:

What do breastfeeding, Aztec fire rituals, family history stories, and porcupine quills have in common?

Answer:

They are all in my new essay titled “Breastfeeding Mama,” which won first place for adult nonfiction in the 2015 Tempe Community Writing Contest.

The History of the Essay:

I originally wrote this essay in January 2012 and submitted it to a writing contest. It sort of worked, but sort of didn’t. It then went through a number of further revisions. I even over-revised it to the point of ruining it. I took over a year off from the essay and then rewrote it, and started submitting it again.

Tempe Community Writing ContestThe Essay’s New Home:

This year was the first time for the Tempe Community Writing Contest. The contest was a collaboration between the Tempe Public Library and Arizona State University. There were three categories of writing (fiction, poetry, and nonfiction) and three categories of people (adult, college student, and teenager). Almost 200 people submitted, and my essay was a co-winner for the Adult Nonfiction category.

Last night they had a reception at the Tempe Public Library, and winners got to read selections from their pieces. My husband counted, and there were about 80 people in the audience. And everyone laughed at my writing. Which actually made me very happy, as it is a humorous essay. It’s when you write a humorous essay and people don’t laugh that you need to worry. You should also worry when people throw tomatoes at you. But there were no tomatoes in the library. Only cookies. And (perhaps unfortunately) no one threw any cookies at me.

Read the Essay Online:

The book of winners published by the Tempe Library is available for free online: Tempe Writer’s Forum Volume 1. My essay starts on page 57 of the pdf.

(If you’re interested in reading the honorable mentions, they are available online as well.)

Content warning:

There are both breasts and babies in this essay, both of which are known to make some people feel supremely uncomfortable.

 

Original heart image by skyler817, Creative Commons license

The Great Author Photo Debate of 2015

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It was a Sunday night. I’d spent 2 hours editing and cropping possible author photos, and I had 6 that I liked. And honestly, I hadn’t the least idea of which photo I should use–I was too close to the project, sick of staring at my own teeth.

So I decided to crowd source.

On Monday morning, I posted the following to Facebook. My husband reposted it to his page and to Twitter.

The Great Author Photo Debate of 2015

Responses poured in, and since I’d posted it as Public, plenty of people I’ve never met voted. And everyone had opinions. I compiled the results in an Excel file.

217 people voted. 64 people (29%) voted for more than one photo.

The final votes:

The Great Author Photo Debate of 2015: Final Votes

But despite the votes, I still wasn’t sure which photo to choose.

After all, I never said I would choose the photo that had the most votes. And photos 4 and 5 had a close number of votes, with some things making me lean towards photo 5 (several editors from a publishing house and someone who arranges author visits both put photo 5 down as their top choice). Also, it wasn’t the best poll from a scientific standpoint, as people could see what others had voted and it may have subconsciously impacted some people’s decision. (I intentionally didn’t do an official Facebook Poll, because then people could constantly see the final count, instead of just what the last few people had voted.)

In a helpful move, one of my friends gave me some pop culture advice.

He told me “Blue Steel.”

Oh, yes, from the film Zoolander. Is it really possible to choose the best Ben Stiller, especially since the photos are so drastically different?

Blue Steel

Also, he sent me this amazing clip from the film Ten Things I Hate About You. You can skip to about 36 seconds in.

The real question, then, is if I wanted to be pensive or thoughtful.

As many people pointed out, different photos create different meanings, and impact the way people will interpret me as an author. But there was a diversity of interpretations for any given photo.

I decided to do a test and see what the photos looked like on the web.

I turned to Twitter, since I have a small audience and followers don’t get a notification when you switch your photo.

Photo 4 on Twitter:

Image_4_on_Twitter

And when it’s shown smaller:

Image_4_on_Twitter_Small

Photo 5 on Twitter:

Image_5_on_Twitter

And when it’s shown smaller:

Image_5_on_Twitter_Small

Both photos looked good on Twitter. But in the context of a social media site, I preferred Photo 4.

Katherine Cowley Author Photo

So despite the fact that I am going to make 47% of respondents unhappy, I’m going with Photo 4. However, I plan to use Photo 5 if I ever need an alternate photo.

My other photos are awesome too. For instance, the turquoise background photos look really good when they aren’t cropped into a headshot, so I will surely use them for something.

Thanks to everyone who participated in the Great Author Photo Debate of 2015!

 

A New Fairy Tale Party Game for Teenagers and Adults

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Fairy Tale Party Game: Create new fairy tales by mixing up characters and story elements in this free, funny, fairy tale party game that can work for large or small groups.

I threw a happily ever after activity last night for a group of teenagers and adults. I spent a while searching online for the perfect fairy tale party game, but none were to be found, so I created my own, based on Disney versions of fairy tales. You can print out all the components you need to play it for free.

The Fairy Tale Party Game

Description: Create new fairy tales by mixing up characters and story elements in this free, funny, fairy tale party game that can work for large or small groups. Now Rapunzel can marry Prince Eric and defeat a mythical bear. Ursula can find her own happily ever after by fighting evil princess Aurora and marrying Simba, the lion king. The possibilities are endless!

The Background: Fairy tales have a handful of essential parts–a protagonist, a love interest, a villain, and then in regards to plot, there are a few core elements. I’ve simplified 12 Disney versions of fairy tales into these elements.

Fairy Tales used (Disney versions): Rapunzel, Brave, The Little Mermaid, Pocahontas, Frozen, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Mulan, Lion King, Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, the Princess and the Frog

Who can play: This game is specifically designed for teenagers and adults, but could be simplified if you wanted to use it for younger children.

Number of players: 4-30. There are 6 presorted packets of fairy tales–you can use some or all of them. Group sizes could range from 2 to 5 players. We played with 4 groups of 2-3 people each. If your party or activity has more than 30 people, you could print off multiple copies of the packets–each group is bound to create an original fairy tale.

Game Play: Each group receives a packet containing six characters and twelve plot elements. The group chooses three of the six characters, assigning one to be the protagonist, another to be the love interest, and another to be the enemy (note that traditional roles can be ignored–Jafar or Mother Gothel could be the protagonist). Next, the group selects six of the twelve plot elements in order to tell a new story with these characters. The group chooses an order for the story elements. Minor adjustments to the plot elements can be made in order to improve the story.

After about fifteen minutes, each group shares the new story with everyone at the party. Stories will range from funny to surprising.

Preparing the Game:

Print the first file, Fairy Tale Game File 1 Labels on card stock. I used two colors–one for the types of characters, and another for the plot elements. Tape the characters and plot elements on the wall in order.

Print the second file, Fairy Tale Game File 2 Game Pieces. This is all the game pieces, already organized into mixed-up groupings. Put each group’s papers into a manila envelope of folder.

Have tape handy, and have each group tape their new fairy tale to  the wall once it is completed.

New Fairy Tales on the Wall

The Plot Elements

Before starting the game, I read an example of a normal Disney fairy tale, showing how it fits in the standard plot structure. Here’s the example of Rapunzel’s story from Tangled:

Protagonist: Rapunzel

Love Interest: Flynn Ryder

Enemy: Mother Gothel

Inciting Incident: [Protagonist] leaves her tower with [love interest] as a guide.

Fun and Games: [Protagonist] and [Love Interest] make friends with all sorts of hoodlums at a not-so-friendly tavern called the Snuggly Duckling.

Turning Point: People chase [Protagonist] and [Love Interest]. They fight enemies at a dam, and they barely escape!

Rising Action: [The villain] tries to convince [the protagonist] to give up.

The Night of Despair: [The love interest] betrays our [protagonist] for money and, heartbroken, [protagonist] returns to her tower with [the villain].

Final Battle and Victory: [The love interest] returns and is injured by the [villain]. [Protagonist] is willing to give up her freedom to save [the love interest]. [Love interest] cuts off [protagonists] hair and [the villain] falls out of the tower.

Note: this six part plot structure is inspired by Blake Snyder’s book on screenwriting, Save the Cat.

Variations:

  • Mix up the fairy tales in new configurations.
  • Add “Write your own plot elements” or “Choose your own protagonist” papers for each group.
  • Print them as cards rather than large papers for the wall.

In the works: I’m looking at turning this fairy tale party game into a card game, which would be nice and compact. I will update when and if I can make that happen!

 

Original castle image: lapidim via flickr, Creative Commons license