Let's talk about bullies.

I know this may come as a shock to most of you (a-hem), but I was a weird kid. I was awkward. I had funny hair and bad skin. I liked creepy things. All those "mean" teachers who seemed like they hated everyone? They loved me. Meanwhile, some of the really popular teachers were calling my parents to express concern over the stories I wrote (for which I can't actually blame them. Subtlety, like pimples, takes time to master). So, yes, I got my share of bullying. Every day. Everywhere. And the sad part is? There were kids who had a rougher time of it than me, but I didn't feel like I could stand up for them without making my own situation worse. It shouldn't be like that, but it still is. You can tell kids "It won't be like this forever" but it's impossible to see that far ahead when just getting through each day without being noticed is an impossible feat. Just when you think you've had a good day, some well-meaning Home Ec teacher gives you an award in front of the whole school for Best Improvement in Lemon Meringue, and it starts all over again.

That's why I've signed the Choose Kind pledge. We can all help to end bullying. If you're an adult, listen to kids when they talk to you. If you're a kid, be kind to your peers. Kindness will make you feel far better about yourself in the long run than teasing someone less fortunate than you now.

Anyway. Sermon over. Go sign the pledge. And don't stop at adding your name to a list. Be there for someone.

Choose Kind Pledge

P.S. Tip to other Weird Kids: your classmates probably don't have every Hitchcock movie memorized. I know, I know. I'm just saying, be patient with your peers.

Hold your mail!

I'm changing my PO Box! The old one is officially closed. I'll post my new address once that's all set up. So, if you were wanting to send me letters or books to sign, please hold onto them! My PO box mail will not forward! Stay tuned for the new address. More news:

  • As usual, whenever I release anything, I get a lot of questions about Boy. Boy is still in the works, though I've had to put it on hold for other projects. Death & Elsie is something to keep you all entertained for a while as I work on those other projects, which, at the moment, include another novel. But I'm reallyreallyreally going to try to put Boy out before 2012 is a distant memory! Cross my heart!
  • About that other novel: the one I'm currently working on is not a sequel to Skary Childrin and the Carousel of Sorrow, but I think it's something you'll all like if you liked Carousel. I can't say much about it right now, but I'll continue to make posts now and then about the process.
  • By the way, I get a lot of questions about an audiobook of Carousel. I'm not aware of any plans for an audiobook right now. The excerpts I posted were just a little something for the people who weren't able to attend the readings I did when the book first came out. If it ever does come up, however, I'll be sure to announce it. If my daydreams came true, Tim Jones would get to do the honors.
  • Death & Elsie Part 2 is called An Elephant's Memory and should, cross my fingers, be ready by this weekend. Part 3 will be out soon after.

E-Junkie Interview

I recently read somewhere that most of the people want to spend their old days enjoying the quietness of life, away from the city but Katy Towell the creator of the Childrin R Skary wants to be a scary old lady living in a house which would be famous among the neighbourhood kids for its spookiness. Strange! isn't it?

Read more from Katy Towell: Illustrator, Writer, And Designer Who Likes To Tell Skary Stories over at E-Junkie!

RIP, Ray Bradbury.

I still want to be just like you when I grow up. "In my later years I have looked in the mirror each day and found a happy person staring back. Occasionally I wonder why I can be so happy. The answer is that every day of my life I've worked only for myself and for the joy that comes from writing and creating. The image in my mirror is not optimistic, but the result of optimal behavior." --Ray Bradbury, 1920-2012

 

El carrusel de las sombras: y los niños espantosos!

Oh, hey! I can't read anything on this site because my knowledge of Spanish is limited to a few polite greetings and half the lyrics to "La Bruja," but it looks like this is one place where you can purchase EL CARRUSEL DE LAS SOMBRAS: Y LOS NIÑOS ESPANTOSOS. If you know of any other sites selling the Spanish translation of Skary Childrin and the Carousel of Sorrow, let me know! Skary Childrin in Espanol

The Latest

Since I've been away, here are some updates on, well, everything: Death & Elsie's been a little delayed due to computer problems on my part and illness/busy schedule for the narrator. I'll be in New York in a couple of weeks, but I'll be able to catch up on things soon. Boy is still on the slate for later this year. I've also just gotten my film invitation from DeviantArt, so I'll be able to upload videos to DA with a quickness! So, how are you all? Stop by Facebook or G+ and chat for a bit.

Scrivener vs. Napkins

I've moved forward on the third chapter. I now have enough notes that I can almost just paste them all together and call it done. You know, except it would be terrible. But the content's there! I've also realized that the entire fourth chapter according to my original outline is totally redundant now. That's what happens with these things. I've started using Scrivener to keep all my notes all organized and whatnot. Last time, I used several paper journals, index cards, sometimes napkins, Google Docs, and Word. Those work, of course, and it feels more authentic, but Scrivener does actually speed the process up a bit, I find. And I can never be one of those authentic writer types anyway. I'm more like some girl at the mall. "OMG! So, like, this character said this, right? And then this other character was all like, 'I'm gonna rip out your guts and feed them to the hounds!' and then I was like, wait, would that character actually say that?" You know.

Store Revamp

Upon my return to DeviantArt, I've moved  my prints out of ImageKind and over to DA! This means that most prints are a little cheaper now, and I've always been more satisfied with DA's print quality. If you already have orders pending at my ImageKind store, don't worry! They'll still be processed. If you wish to cancel or anything, you'll need to contact them. My new store page also has easy links to buy books and t-shirts. Speaking of t-shirts: a lot of the smaller sizes are sold out or almost sold out at the moment. They'll come back at a later date. If you want to snag the few that are left before the wait, better hop on it!

Return of the Prodigal DA Account

All right, all right, all right. I've heard you. I'm back on DeviantArt. I'm still in the process of re-adding all of my work and am also awaiting a Film & Animation invitation. Eventually, my store will be moved away from ImageKind and back to DA, which I always liked better anyhow. This could take a while, but it's underway! You can now find me on DA at http://katytowell.deviantart.com. (Why did I leave? Because I couldn't keep up with all the messages and comments anymore, and I felt like it was one social network too many! I can't guarantee I'll be any better about responding, so I've disabled [most] comments for now. I may enable them again once I can manage my time a little better.)

It's that time of year(s) again.

So, I'm writing my second book! After I wrote my last one, a lot of you were curious about the writing and illustrating process. It's really pretty simple. You write and illustrate the thing. You edit the thing. The thing gets printed. You scramble at the last minute to promote the thing because you didn't plan ahead when you were writing the thing. Then, if you're lucky, you get to do it again with another book, and you change the way you did some things before because maybe now you've learned some lessons but probably haven't. That's it in a nutshell.

The long version is what I'll be posting to this blog every now and then in the weeks and months to come! No sneak peeks at the book for now, though. I can't even really tell you a whole lot about it just yet except that it's spooky and sad. But you knew that.

So far, I've finished two chapters. It took me way longer than it did to write the first two chapters of Skary Childrin and the Carousel of Sorrow, but that's because I rewrote these from start to finish about four times. I've also got this nagging voice in my head that keeps telling me "It has to be better than the last one! It has to!" There are other nagging voices, but their goals are so lofty it's a little easier to laugh them off. I can't be president of the world because of one novel; that's ridiculous! (Wait. Can I?)

Now on to chapter three.

Skary on the stage!

Last year, Cory Wray from the ASU Beebe chapter of Delta Psi Omega directed a stage play with several vignettes based on stories of mine (with my permission, of course). Cory's very talented cast performed it around Halloween for a fundraiser, but they also recorded the vignettes separately. I think they did a lovely job, don't you? (Seriously, though, how great is that performance of Dr. Hex's Mind Menagerie? Also: kazoos!) http://youtu.be/1uCmc5c2Nk8

http://youtu.be/NNpto78k72s

Applause for Cory, Lindsey VanBelle, Josh Agnew, Jessica Allis, Brad Roberds, Stacey Johnson, Marty Brown, and everyone else involved in the production!

It's Dot Com!

In what will undoubtedly be more exciting news for me than for you: I have FINALLY acquired the domain skary.com! So, any day now, you'll be able to tell people to go to skary.com, and you won't have to text them later to say, "My bad. It's skary dot NET," and all those blogs that have been getting it wrong for eight years now will not have to do a darned thing. Update: Childrin R Skary has officially relocated. Any old links you have pointing to skary.net will redirect automatically. If you tell anyone about the site, make sure you waggle your eyebrows and do witchy fingers as you emphasize "dot COM!" Then watch as your friends ooh and ah before they've even seen it.

In celebration, here's a totally unrelated illustration of what Doctor Who would be like if Tom Waits were the Doctor.

Doc Waits