✨Chloe Liese Rejects the Constraints of "Should" (And So Should You 😉); and Stefany Valentine on Surviving the 5 Stages of Traditional Publishing✨

Plus, Asia Mackay on parenting and writing, the latest Books with Hooks written feedback, the Great Beta Reader Match Up returns, and our Deep Dive contest continues!

Happy Tuesday, writing friends!

We’ve got a really good one for you today, paid subscriber pals. Today’s author contributors cover everything from how not to internalize pressure, to finding and protecting writing time, to handling the wild rollercoaster of emotions that goes along with the journey to publication…and more!

With an essay by Asia Mackay (A Serial Killer’s Guide to Marriage) and Q&A from bestselling Chloe Liese (Once Smitten, Twice Shy), two writers who’ve given birth to multiple books and babies, there’s a lot of encouragement and advice for anyone out there trying to juggle writing and parenting, or, frankly, writing and other time-gobbling responsibility. But parents in particular will find validation in Asia’s essay, along with suggestions for how to leverage your life as a parent to inspire (as opposed to hinder) your creativity, how to manage your time, and a myriad other tips and tricks.

In bestselling romance author Chloe Liese’s Q&A, we were particularly struck by her answer to the question, “What's one writing "rule" or commonly followed piece of advice that you decidedly break?” and are struggling to resist the urge to quote it in full here (but will leave you with the wonderful: “‘Should’ is where possibility becomes a popped bubble”!)

We’ve also got that rare beast of a video for you today: the kind that is as entertaining as it is informative. Debut author Stefany Valentine (whose novel First Love Language is out today), shares her experience with what she calls “The Five Stages of Traditional Publishing,” from querying to pre-debut, and the five emotions that accompany each stage. Stefany passes along her own hard-won knowledge from her experience to date, making even tough-to-swallow realities (like the fact that the editor who loved your book enough to buy it is still going to send it back marked up with so much red you’ll think your writing nemesis had a go at it) go down a little more smoothly with healthy doses of humour.🛣️📙

We know you’re eager to check out the 📕Books with Hooks🪝written query critiques from last week’s podcast episode to get a closer look at what made CeCe use words like “brilliant” and “perfectly baked” (!) and we’re happy to share them in this issue, along with a reminder that our alternating Tuesday editions (publishing every second week) are where you can find all the recent written critiques (ever since July of 2024).

Also in this issue, Bianca’s Great Beta Reader Match Up is back, and she’s added a new genre to the list so now all you emerging romantasy authors can find critique partners, too! 🐉🧚🏼‍♂️💘

Finally, there’s still time to enter our contest to win registration in this year’s Deep Dive Virtual Retreat (and for those of you who were wondering, yes, posting to your Instagram stories does indeed count as an entry! For more details, keep reading). 🤩

That’s all for now. Happy reading!

❤️ The Shit No One Tells You About Writing Team