✨Query Critiques Inside! Plus, Jessica Guerrieri on Getting Past Your Ego; and Jason Powell's Advice is 🔥🔥🔥✨

Also in this issue: Kicking imposter syndrome’s ass with Mary Devine, the importance of authenticity with Paulette Kennedy, and the Great Beta Reader Match-Up continues!

Happy Tuesday, writing friends!

Have you ever noticed how the continuum of writerly self-regard seems to consist of “I am shite and everything I have ever written, or ever will, write is equally, if not more, shite” at one end and “I am an undiscovered genius incapable of producing anything less than solid gold” at the other? And that, in fact, it’s not so much a continuum as it is a teeter-totter, constantly tipping you from one extreme to the other? Or maybe you’re one of those unfortunate souls who find themselves stranded at one end, legs kicking helplessly in mid-air as they’re bullied by the shite-thoughts, or else floating on the false belief that you are the next big bestselling-Booker-winning-Oscar-adapted-film-rights-selling thing, the stars so close you can almost touch them…

Jessica Guerrieri was at that floaty end when she first started querying, smacking painfully back down into hard-packed reality when, as she explains in today’s essay “In the first year of querying, I received 42 rejections…I told myself there had to be some cosmic error. When I received my first rejection letter, I sobbed at the sheer injustice of it all. Couldn’t the agent read between the lines and see my potential?” So what changed between then and now (Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea, already an award-winner is out May 13th)? You’ll have to read today’s essay to find out (and if you’ve recently found yourself thinking thoughts along the lines of, “YOU JUST DON’T UNDERSTAND WHAT I’M TRYING TO DO” or “BUT I WAS THE BEST WRITER IN MY HIGH SCHOOL AND EVERYONE KNEW IT, DAMMIT” we particularly recommend it for you).

Perhaps Jason Powell (No Man’s Ghost) decided to focus on how to write despite life’s many interruptions in today’s author video because he thought that, as a FDNY firefighter whose upcoming novel is about a FDNY firefighter, it would be a little too on the nose to talk about writing what you know. But the joke’s on Jason, who had to hit pause in the middle of filming his video so he could go respond to a fire (it doesn’t get much more on the nose than that). We love that he left that interruption in his video and didn’t decide to start over; it’s proof that he knows exactly what he’s talking about when he shares his approach to finding time to be creative. And we love his advice on how to change your mindset so you don’t constantly feel like you’re failing. With his sanity-saving take on what it REALLY means to be productive, Jason is a true hero—whether in uniform or behind the keyboard—in our eyes.

Today’s author Q&A is with Paulette Kennedy (The Artist of Blackberry Grange) and contains yet another line we consider worthy of tattooing somewhere on your person so that you can it see whenever you start to feel like you’re falling behind. We really wish we didn’t have to keep sharing this particular bit of wisdom, but we know people still need to hear it (Editor’s note: It’s me. I am “people”), so once again (and louder for the people in the back) “A WRITING CAREER IS A MARATHON” This is not, we repeat NOT, a one hundred metre dash you’ve signed up for. You may write quickly, but that’s the only pace that’s within your ability to control. If you can get comfortable with that, you’ll be a lot happier, trust us.

We have a bonus essay for you today from Mary Devine, who writes in her debut about a domestic violence survivor who becomes a police detective in the domestic violence unit and is forced to face her demons when her first major case mirrors her own assault. This is pretty compelling stuff, right? But what it is not, however, is fiction. Standing Up: Making the Best Out of Surviving the Worst is a memoir of surviving abuse, the story of a woman who’s seemingly conquered her fears. But it turns out there’s one fear that kind of guts can’t vanquish, and if you’ve guessed “fear of being labelled an imposter” you would be right. In her essay, Mary describes the imposter syndrome “buffet” from which she samples, the contagion effect, and other fun things that happen when you give your inner imposter free reign, before diving into her five practical tips for kicking imposter syndrome’s butt.

Last, but definitely not least, you can find Carly and CeCe’s written query critiques from last week’s episode of📕Books with Hooks🪝below!

That’s all for now. Thanks for reading! ❤️

❤️ The Shit No One Tells You About Writing Team