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"CCW Workshop"

By Kelly On 07/27/2009 In Events With Comments Off Permanent Link to "CCW Workshop"Permalink

The event in Monterey, CA with the Central Coast Writers was awesome!

CCW: YA Workshop,the room

The meetings are held at a lovely hotel, where Shelley Adina (All About US Series) and I were provided dinner and dessert. We chatted with many of the members, who were all very gracious and wonderful.

After the CCW business concluded, I opened up the workshop by thanking everyone for inviting us. This was my second workshop on the topic of multicultural YA. I was a little calmer this time around! (haha!) But I still need some experience here!

CCW: YA Workshop

Shelley is an absolute pro! She knows her stuff and went through her Inspirational topic like a breeze!

CCW: YA Workshop

Here are the points we basically covered:

~ The Dos and Don’ts of Multicultural YA
~ The Inspirational Market
~ How to reach your target audience
~ How to reach readers through the Internet

With various questions from the audience, such as how do we pick our character’s names, are personally diaries marketable, would specific ideas or age groups sell for YAs, etc. We had a steady Q&A going, which was very nice!

I also had a pleasant surprise visit by one a blogger friend, Kelsey! She was visiting family in California, and this summer she’d met Sarah Dessen too! It was so awesome of her to attend our workshop!

CCW: YA Workshop with blogger

I think a few hundred more of these events and I might just actually feel like I know what I’m doing. *wink*

"Visit to CSUMB"

By Kelly On 04/15/2009 In Events, Graffiti Girl With Comments Off Permanent Link to "Visit to CSUMB"Permalink

About two months ago, I was contacted by a Professor of Liberal Studies in the Liberal Studies Department at CSU Monterey Bay about 25 miles from my neck of the woods. He taught a Latina Reading group! Yes, a group he put together himself to encourage and support some CSUMB Latino students as undergrads who want to become teachers. As part of this process they were reading a series of picture books and YA novels. One of their proposed novels was Graffiti Girl. He had recently had a visit by another local author, Ann Jaramillo, author of La Linea.

Of course, I was flattered! And truthfully, I was a little nervous and not sure what to expect. These wouldn’t be middle grade students, but adults reading my book, and I’m just a newbie author, who never attended a university…what could I bring to these students?

Well, I could bring chocolate! *grin* But this time I knew I wouldn’t be throwing around candy to get the group to open up. But there was no need, once I arrived Professor Miguel was so welcoming. He joked that Miguel in Graffiti Girl was him! And the group was so friendly, it really was like they were a family of cousins with mostly woman and two men.

Latina Reading Crew

The only part that made me nervous was the video camera. *grin* But the professor assured me it was for studying purposes so they might revisit the meeting. We went around the table and introduced ourselves, and the students each told me of parts of the story that they related to, what scenes touched a personal cord with them, and the themes that they felt were important.

I had never been to a group where the readers had each taken time to read my book and them discussed it with me. I tried to share my feelings about each scene and character and what made me write them. It was a very honest, and enlightening, and humbling experience. I was incredibly honored.

Near the end, they each described what their “tag” name would be and how it would look painted. That was very fun and creative! I followed up by signing a few books and taking pics. One of the students baked cupcakes and I took some home. *grin*

LRC

LRC

LRC

Professor Miguel has since sent me photos, a writing prompt from one of his students about what it means to be Latino, and mentioned they have now changed their name to the Latina Reading Crew! I wish the best to this wonderful group of Latinos. And like I mentioned, it was an awesome experience I won’t forget. :)

LRC

"Invisible Touch Book Signing"

By Kelly On 10/21/2008 In Book Stores, Events, Invisible Touch With 4 Comments Permanent Link to "Invisible Touch Book Signing"Permalink

The book signing was very nice!

I had family, friends, and readers stop by for my first Invisible Touch book signing. The morning started off with a review, “Kelly Parra’s novel is visionary”, in the Salinas Californian with “Five Gold Pens” for Invisible Touch. Check out the full review here.

Here I am before the signing…

Touch Signing 01

A pic with my kiddos sitting with me.

Touch Signing 03

My modest line during the signing! :)

Touch Signing 04

And reader Rei’ Monique, who I first met at a Graffiti Girl signing and her mom was kind of enough to bring her to get my latest book.

Touch Signing 02

It was great day and I’m gearing up for the next one with Shelley Adina this weekend! :)

"Secret Fates Extravaganza Begins!"

By Kelly On 10/01/2008 In Authors and Books, Events, Invisible Touch With 2 Comments Permanent Link to "Secret Fates Extravaganza Begins!"Permalink

The Secret Fates Extravaganza begins now!

Invisible TouchWhere 26 authors of various genres will be sharing secrets and giveaways to help me celebrate the release of my latest novel INVISIBLE TOUCH (October 14, 2008) published by MTV Books!

I have to say these authors are super cool to donate their time and books to what I hope will be a fun month. I’m so excited! Thank you, Authors!!!

You may wonder, Why Secret Fates?

My character Kara in INVISIBLE TOUCH has a secret, she sees signs on individuals and pieces the signs together in order to help stop unfortunate fates, and she shares this supernatural secret on an anonymous blog called Secret Fates. So I thought it would be great to create this blog to share author and character secrets!

This is how it’ll work. Through the month of October, I will be posting an author secret and giveaway every day on Secret Fates except for Sundays. You will have the week to post a comment on the author’s secret, then on that following Sunday I will announce the winners for the week. Then the next week we start again with a new group of talented authors.

Sound good?

Here is the schedule for this week:

WEEK 1

Wednesday, October 1st: Laurie Faria Stolarz shares about PROJECT 17…

Thursday, October 2nd: Amanda Ashby dishes on the backstory of YOU HAD ME AT HALO…

Friday, October 3rd: Tina Ferraro dishes on THE ABCs OF KISSING BOYS and offers up two releases…

Saturday, October 4th: Erica Orloff aka Liza Conrad shares a personal experience and offers up THE POKER DIARIES…

SPECIAL NOTE:

If you help spread the word through the month of October about the Secret Fates Extravaganza (by sharing a link http://secretfates.blogspot.com + the promo video) on your blog, myspace or facebook, and leave a comment here with a link to the blog or post or telling me how you helped, you’ll be entered to win a copy of GRAFFITI GIRL and INVISIBLE TOUCH by me, and your pick of one of Secret Fates Extravaganza participating authors’ novels. (If you’ve already read one of my books I’ll replace it with one of the author’s novels, too. Either way, you win 3 books.) The more you spread the word, the better chances of winning!

Okay, we’re kicking it off with Laurie Faria Stolarz here…

Thanks and I hope you join in!!!

~Kelly :)

"A Few Pics From a Fun Signing"

By Kelly On 09/06/2008 In Book Stores, Events, Graffiti Girl With 2 Comments Permanent Link to "A Few Pics From a Fun Signing"Permalink

A few weeks ago, YA author Shelley Adina, author of the All About Us series, asked me to join her book signing at Borders in San Jose, CA. You don’t have to ask me twice! I agreed and we had a fun two hours attempting to gather customer attention. haha! We had some laughs as you might be able to tell from Shelley’s photo. I tend to draw out the giggles from my author friends. :)

And since Shelley was so cool to hang out with I’m giving away a signed copy of Shelley’s first book in the series, IT’S ALL ABOUT US over at YA Fresh this weekend. Check it out if you’re interested!

Here are a few pics…
Shell & Kel

Book Display

Shelley Adina

"RWA: Day 1"

By Kelly On 08/06/2008 In Conference Gossip, Events, RITA With 5 Comments Permanent Link to "RWA: Day 1"Permalink

For some reason I still feel like I’m recuperating from the conference. At this rate I won’t be back to normal for a week!

I’ve loaded some pics from Wednesday, the first day of conference. The day started off with sightseeing with the family. We always make it a small vacation when I go to a conference.

Then it was coffee/tea with my agent in Union Square at small, unique coffee shop. The weather was fabulous! I’d never had a shot of expresso in my mocha coffee before. I went from mellow to very chipper in 2.1 seconds!

Kristin & Kelly

From there it was a rush to get ready for my first “Readers for Life” Literacy signing. I was all paranoid I wouldn’t get my books sent, so the publicist for S&S sent some before I left. My books ended up arriving, but good thing I had the extra books for the press room and my workshop. Some authors were left with out their books this year too.

So I didn’t get to the signing early enough to walk around much, the room was packed elbow-to-elbow with authors, over 500. My agent took this pic with my RITA flags. And hey, I got to keep the flags. :) I sold out of my 15 books, that’s pretty good for me!

Readers For Life Lit Signing

I wanted to officially meet Nora Roberts. I didn’t have the guts in Reno and wanted to this time around. I had this funny idea I’d get the first romance I read by her autographed, but her line was long as always and I couldn’t just quickly run over and back.

I met so many writers and authors that I have been chatting with on-line for years like Rene, Jill, and Elizabeth! I also posted on YA Fresh all the YA authors I ran across.What was really cool were the teen girls buying many of the YA books. I guess some of them came with their parents.

I managed to run over to get a pic with one of my fave authors, Marjorie M. Liu. It was like, “Love your books. Big fan.” Fast hand shake. “Can we take a photo?” Marjorie was trying to keep up, shaking my head and smiling. She was sooo nice!

Marjorie & Kelly

Overall, it was exciting! That night my agent took her clients out to dinner to the posh restaurant, Micheal Mina’s. Wow, I have never eaten food that melts in your mouth like this. And there were like five courses. haha. I could barely walk back to the hotel! These pics are from Ally Carter, I’d forgotten my cam that night in my book box. The restaurant was so dark, that was probably why toward the end I was ready to sleep.

Kelly and Ally

Here we are at the end of dinner.

NLA Clients

Wednesday was one of my busiest days at conference. Stay tuned for more!

"Punk Rock & Graffiti Book Signing!"

By Kelly On 07/17/2008 In Authors and Books, Events, Graffiti Girl With 6 Comments Permanent Link to "Punk Rock & Graffiti Book Signing!"Permalink

Just in from my book signing with Stephanie Kuehnert (I WANNA BE YOUR JOEY RAMONE) at Borders in Monterey, CA. (Not Minnesota!)

There was a mix up and our book signing materials were sent to the wrong store in another state, but Borders Express pulled through and had signs made and did their best to promote the event. They gave us flowers, pens, and chilled water. They were all super nice and always checking on us. The manager admired how outgoing we were with the customers. I thought we did a pretty good job too!
Punk Rock & Graffiti Signing, Borders Express
I was thrilled to have a teen reader fan come especially to get her copy of GRAFFITI GIRL signed with her mom. (Hello, Rei Monique!) How cool is that??
Even though Steph had been on the road all day, she was upbeat and ready to sign books. She had her hair died a pretty pink, and wore a cute blouse with a skull pattern. Even though I hadn’t met Steph before I gave her a big hug. We’d been chatting on-line for a while now, and guess what? Her astrology sign is Cancer, and guess what my CP Tina’s is? Cancer too. So I knew we’d get along great–haha!
Stephanie Kuehnert
We had a great conversation with a group of military students, and they kept us entertained for a good half hour and purchased our books too! Here is Randal, he’s a cutie and so outgoing. See, boys like our books too! Our prize giveaway went to his friend Nathalie by random draw. yay!
Guys like our books too!

Our Book Signing Giveaway

Here we are at the end. The night was calm and the manager apologized but I expected that for midweek and we still sold books! Nonetheless, it was a fun and memorable experience with another great MTV Books author! Thank you, Steph!
Kelly and Stephanie
Hey, I think I’m finally getting a hang of this book signing deal. Just a little bit more, anyway. Not so much nervousness. Just gotta take baby steps. ;)

To win a signed copy of I WANNA BE YOUR JOEY RAMONE leave a comment at YA Fresh. Keep in mind RAMONE is for mature teen readers and adults (15 +). Winner will be announced Sunday evening. Thanks!
x-posted YA Fresh + myspace

"Book Signing Tonight"

By Kelly On 07/16/2008 In Events With 2 Comments Permanent Link to "Book Signing Tonight"Permalink

Hey Everyone! I just wanted to share about a book signing with MTV Books author, Stephanie Kuehnert and myself at Borders Express in Monterey, California tomorrow night, July 16th – 7:00 pm. Steph will be signing I WANNA BE YOUR JOEY RAMONE and I’ll be signing GRAFFITI GIRL. And of course, there will be a giveaway! I’m excited to meet Steph, and we’d love to meet you if you are in the area!

Monterey, Borders Book Signing

I’m thinking it’ll be a little slow. I’ve never done a signing during the week, but at least I won’t be alone. haha!

"Auction Time!"

By Kelly On 05/02/2008 In Events With 7 Comments Permanent Link to "Auction Time!"Permalink

Brenda Novak’s Annual Diabetes Auction has begun!

The money from the auction will be split between the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation and the The Diabetes Research Institute at the University of Miami. The auction runs May 1 – 31st.

This year, I teamed up with my CP and YA Fresh partner, Tina Ferraro. We donated our young adult novels and decided to offer a double critique. That means we’ll each read a young adult or middle grade proposal, chaps and synopsis, and bestow our newbie knowledge. hehe! :)

Check out our donation for our books here, and our double critique riiiight here. :)

And there are always such fantastic opportunities for writers and everyone. Be sure to browse and bid!

"Young Author Mentor Program"

By Kelly On 04/14/2008 In Events With 4 Comments Permanent Link to "Young Author Mentor Program"Permalink

I’m final feeling much better, just trying to shake off a cough. Whew, the flu is such a pain!

Young Author's ProgramLast week, I participated in the John Steinbeck Young Author Mentoring program. It was the first time for me, and it was an interesting experience and I think a great opportunity for middle grade students.

Students are selected by teachers for their strength in writing or for showing vast improvement. The participants were to read “The Gift” in the John Steinbeck’s RED PONY, and give a convincing argument why the boy should receive a new pony after his had died. The students are given time to write a rough draft, then meet their mentors and have lunch, then spend an hour going over the essay and suggesting a couple of opportunities to strengthen the essay. The winning essays will receive a prize at an award banquet.

My student was named Adeline. She is a straight A student, and her essay was already very good. :) She wants to be a scientist when she grows up. I gave her a couple of suggestions and then we sat and talked about her life. It was a pretty laid back time. She is 13 and her reading range was in adult reading. She did not read young adult fiction. :) :) She had an older outlook on life at 13 than I did at that age! haha.

But yeah, an overall fun time!

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