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Promised Comes Out Today!

I’m happy about Promised coming out today and hopeful that readers will enjoy finding out where Gaia’s adventures take her next.  This trilogy was not a solo effort, that’s for sure.  Special thanks to my editor Nancy Mercado and the team at Roaring Brook for all their brilliant ideas and help over the past four years.  Thank you to Kirby Kim, my agent.  I’m grateful to my family and friends, too, for ongoing support.  My novels would not have happened without you!

Today I’m writing,… Continue reading

The Walls and the People

Several years back, I lived with my family in the walled city of Ferrara, Italy.  The Castello Estense with its dungeons and moat dominates the center, and the medieval wall still surrounds the perimeter.  For me, however, the real barrier was my stumbling Italian and my lack of friends.  I joined a chorus, and as long as we were singing, I was unified with the others.  The moment we stopped and the conductor began speaking in Italian, I was cast out once again by my inability… Continue reading

Mind the Gap

The short gap between Books 1 and 2 of the Birthmarked trilogy lasts about two weeks, but the break between Books 2 and 3 lasts nearly a year.  The main reason I let so much time pass is because the action at the end of Book 2/Prized was leading into a lot of grueling, painstaking work, not dramatic problems.  Tension and negotiations were likely, and plenty of quiet, happy scenes, but a book needs real conflict and these productive episodes wouldn’t have had enough.  So I… Continue reading

Music to Write By

What happens to all those music lessons?  When I was in high school, I took piano, violin, and voice lessons.  I sang in my school chorus, the madrigal singers, the school musicals, and recitals.  I played my violin in the school orchestra and in the Macalester College Symphony down the street. My family sang around the piano whenever we had the cousins over, from Verdi and Handel, through Berlin and Rogers and Hammerstein, and onto the Beatles and Webber and Rice’s Jesus Christ Superstar.  I… Continue reading

The Mirror Trap

One of the most common ways beginning writers show a character’s physical appearance involves posing the character in front of a mirror.  This setup lends itself to a quick list of eye color, hair color, skin color, and face and body shape, which can be efficient, but it also risks being boring or cliché.  More fun is invading a character’s body, like when Gaia moves through a tight tunnel, bracing her fingertips against the walls, I can give a sense of how that feels for her.  She… Continue reading

Bookish Friendships

My best friend moved in across the street from me when she and I were both five years old. For the rest of my childhood, she was there for me, silly, thoughtful, generous, and ready to play.

We giggled through countless sleepovers and she’s the one who first told me to read Fitzhugh’s Harriet the Spy. I once asked for a piece of her Hershey’s bar, and she broke it in half to share it with me evenly. We’re still friends, miles apart and decades later.

Today on… Continue reading

 

Ari & Milo, my serial novel, is now up on Wattpad! I drew illustrations to go with each chapter, and best of all, it’s free! Because of problematic themes, this novel is for mature readers age 17+.

Caragh's Latest Favorite Reads

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
Every Day
The Dog Stars
The Reinvention of Edison Thomas
The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie
The Fault in Our Stars
Two of a Kind
Until It Hurts to Stop


Caragh's books »

Audio Books

The audio books of BIRTHMARKED, PRIZED, PROMISED, and THE VAULT OF DREAMERS have been released by Tantor Audio. They're available through Tantor, Barnes & Noble, Amazon, and Audible.com.
Book Trailer for Promised