Fantasy Author Kerstin Hall Answers a "Dangerous" Question & Carly Chats with "Memoir Plus" Pioneer Rachel Krantz

Plus, two new written Books with Hooks query critiques, an essay from Carly on writing breakout books, and registration for All About Fantasy continues!

Dearest friends of The Sh*t,

We’ve got another great newsletter this week exclusively for our paid members! Kicking things off, we’ve got Cape Town-based Kerstin Hall, author of Asunder, in our Q&A spotlight this week. If you’ve ever wondered if published authors ever have any regrets about their publishing journeys, you’ll be interested in Kerstin’s thoughtful, frank and very pragmatic answers. 🤩

Next up, we know you all love a Carly Watters essay, and we love to give the people what they want, so she’s back this week with one about the “Breakout Book.” We’ve all heard this term, with its connotations of sudden success, and maybe even thought it was the product of some sort of inexplicable alchemy (the right combination of timing/uniqueness/zeitgeist/whatever book reviewers the world over got up and had for breakfast the day it was released…)—this week Carly cracks the code. 📖🚀

As if writing a memoir—with its warts-and-all public soul-baring—wasn’t hard enough, memoirs have become HUGE in the non-fiction world, which brings the additional challenge for would-be memoirists who have to find ways to stand out in a crowded market. Enter Rachel Kranz. This week we’ve got Carly in conversation with Rachel about her memoir, Open: One Woman's Journey Through Love and Polyamory, which details the story of her first open relationship in a “reported” memoir format. Curious to know what that means? You’ll have to watch to find out! 👀✨

And, last but certainly not least, two more, never-before-been-shared written query critiques by CeCe and Carly (along with a reminder that these are the same critiques you used to see on Thursdays, in case you were wondering where they’d gotten to and hadn’t scrolled quite far enough to find them in the newsletter). This week we’ve got an upmarket fiction novel with hints of magical realism, and a contemporary YA novel featuring a body-positive teen romance. Take a look below to see what CeCe and Carly have to say about psychological acuity and distant narrative style! 📝😍

Until next time…Happy reading!

❤️ The Shit No One Tells You About Writing Team