Karen Krossing

Author for Kids and Teens

fiction

Upcoming Workshop: Feeling It

By

I’m happy to announce my next workshop with Whale Rock Literary Workshops. I’ll be co-teaching Feeling It: Creating Emotional Depth in Your Novel with US author and poet Laura Shovan.

Feeling It: Creating Emotional Depth in Your Novel

Dates/Times: Thursday, Feb 15, 22, 29 and March 7 at 7:00 to 8:30 pm ET (four sessions)
Cost: $499 US
Delivery: Online with sessions recorded for later viewing

“I just didn’t connect with the character.” “The character didn’t resonate with me.”

How many times do writers hear these phrases when submitting to editors and agents? These dreaded, vague responses can often leave writers scratching their heads. Was it the writing? The plotting? How can they write stories that readers can’t resist?

Emotionally deep stories grab readers’ attention and encourage them to care about the characters and their world. It’s one way to improve your writing and craft stories that readers (and agents and editors) connect to. Join Whale Rock faculty Laura Shovan and Karen Krossing for a deep-dive into getting your characters’ emotions on the page.

Participants are expected to bring a chapter from a novel at any stage of development. Each session will tackle different ways to achieve emotional depth, whether you are connecting emotionally to your writer self, your characters, or your story ideas. Sessions will include exercises and side-writing assignments and will explore drafting and revising to achieve emotional depth. Participants will have homework to complete between sessions.

Each participant will walk away with a chapter of greater emotional depth as well as the tools needed to tackle all their manuscripts. Participants will submit ten, double-spaced pages and receive feedback from one of the instructors.

This Workshop Is For You If

  • You are writing a middle grade or young adult novel.
  • You love plot and/or dialogue, but struggle with getting to your character’s heart.
  • You’ve received the dreaded “I just didn’t connect…” feedback on your manuscript.
  • You would like to explore new ways of emotional connection in your writing practice.
  • You are gearing up for submission and want to be sure your book hits the emotional highs and lows.
  • You are a novelist looking to enhance your skills.

To register, go to the Whale Rock website. While you’re there, please also check out their many wonderful offerings for new, emerging, and established writers for children and youth. And don’t forget to subscribe to the Whale Rock newsletter!

Writing Mentorships Available (Giveaway!)

By

GIVEAWAY ALERT! Enter to win one manuscript critique with me (either a picture book or the first ten pages of a middle-grade or young-adult novel). To enter, leave a comment below or on one of my giveaway posts on social media before January 31, 2023. I’ll announce the winner on February 2.

One of the reasons I completed an MFA in Writing for Children and Youth was to improve my mentorship skills. In the three years since I graduated, I’ve connected with a wonderful new agent and signed six new book contracts with fabulous publishers. Now I feel ready to offer creative mentorships to writers of fiction and nonfiction for children and youth, and I’m celebrating with a giveaway!

My mentoring is informed by my background as an editor and writing workshop leader as well as my MFA from the Vermont College of Fine Arts. My own published works include fiction and nonfiction picture books, middle-grade and young-adult novels, and short stories for teens.

I see my role as a writing coach who listens to and supports writers in expressing their stories in their way. For me, mentorship is a way to give back, pay it forward, and promote community with the goal of helping all voices in our world feel worthy, heard, and valued. I want to share my writing craft knowledge and experience to help you to write the best book you can.

If you’re looking for a manuscript critique or a long-term mentorship, please check out my Mentoring page or email me to chat about options.


UPDATE: And the lucky winner of my giveaway manuscript critique is Andrea Mack! I’ll message you, Andrea, so we can get started! Thanks to everyone who entered and for those who contacted me about my mentorship services!

Praise for Sour Cakes

By

I’m thrilled with the positive response to my debut picture book Sour Cakes, illustrated by Anna Kwan and published by Owlkids Books. Since its first review in Publishers Weekly, it has received many lovely reviews that point to the same thing: this book provides a wonderful way into conversations about emotional health and acknowledging difficult feelings with compassion.

“This sensitive narrative shows the significance of empathy in meeting people where they’re at.” Publishers Weekly

“An ode to sibling relationships and how, in particular, a sibling can lift you up when you are in the stormiest, heaviest of moods.” Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast

“Empathetically acknowledges children’s big feelings and engagingly models emotional health.” Kirkus Reviews

“A wonderful antidote to … toxic positivity…. An uplifting and meaningful story about difficult feelings, the strategies we use to express them, and a reminder that there are supportive people you can turn to.” Canadian Children’s Book News

“By accepting big, negative emotions without condemning them or dismissing them, this book is great for launching discussions about when and how to express moods and feelings.” School Library Journal

[5/5 Stars] “Sour Cakes, a sensitive story, presents a great opportunity for discussing feelings, how we can express them, and the importance of empathy. Highly Recommended.” Canadian Review of Materials

For suggestions on how to use this book as a discussion starter, please see the Discussion Guide and Colouring Pages.

Sour Cakes and Social-Emotional Learning

By

My upcoming picture book Sour Cakes, wonderfully illustrated by Anna Kwan, explores what happens when a sibling experiences emotions that feel too big to handle. The dual perspectives of a big and a little sister invite readers to delve into how it feels to support a sibling during a hard time as well as how to acknowledge one’s own difficult emotions. Anna Kwan’s appealing conceptual illustrations help readers map out these messy feelings.

My inspiration for writing Sour Cakes was my family history of mental health challenges. Depression, anxiety, and the effects of past traumas have impacted our daily lives and shaped each generation in different ways. I wrote this book to acknowledge and accept this difficulty, but also to honour the ways we support and sustain one another.

My hope is that Sour Cakes will spark conversations about mental health awareness and social-emotional learning in readers young, old, and in between. To help with that, Anna Kwan and I created a Resource Guide that includes discussion questions and colouring pages.

For more about social-emotional learning, please check out the panel discussion below with me, Anna, as well as author Bree Galbraith and illustrator Lynn Scurfield, who are the talented creators of Hold That Thought! – available on August 15!

Cover Reveal: Sour Cakes

By

It’s cover reveal day! I’m thrilled to share the cover of my debut picture book Sour Cakes, illustrated by the talented Anna Kwan and published by Owlkids Books! Arriving at an indie bookstore near you in October 2021. It’s been an honour to witness these characters coming to life through Anna’s art.

Do you have a sibling? Are you the youngest, oldest, or somewhere in the middle? Does your sibling ever get sour? Do you?

Full confession: I’m the youngest in my family, and I’ve been known to be both sour and sweet, as my sister will confirm.

Sour Cakes is modelled after sibling relationships in my own family and Anna’s. For me, it’s about how we may annoy one another at times yet we also show compassion. Love you, family!

Heavy emotions meet a deep well of understanding in this uplifting sibling story