✨Samuel Burr on "big stories in small worlds" and why nothing worth solving is ever easy✨
Plus: An inside look at another successful query in The Query Lab, Bianca's interview with Samuel, and our hosts discuss a literary fiction and a YA query in this week's Books with Hooks!
Dearest friends of The 💩,
It’s Friday once again and a lot of our loyal readers and listeners in the U.S. are heading into a long weekend, so we’re back with another round of inspo and insights just in time to help you make the most of that extra day off! Now, we’re not suggesting you spend the entire weekend indoors writing (you should absolutely step away from your writing cave periodically, if only so the people in your life still remember who you are when it comes time to buy your book!), but if that happened to be your plan, here’s what we’ve got this week to help keep those creative juices flowing…
Bianca, Carly and CeCe share their insights on query letters from two listeners (and Carly reminds us that red pens exist for a reason!), after which Bianca chats with freelance TV executive and writer, Samuel Burr about his uplifting and “puzzling” (😉) bestselling debut, The Fellowship of Puzzlemakers. We’ve also got not one but two fantastic giveaways, and another round of The Query Lab, sharing a successful query letter that led to an agent—and then a publishing deal!
Still want more? Don’t forget we offer our TSNOTYAW Membership Program so you can get even more The Shit No One Tells You About Writing goodness! Our podcast episodes and Friday newsletter issues will continue to go out free of charge (we *love* sharing all this amazing content with writers like you). But as TSNOTYAW has grown, so too have the many, many hours our team pours into it, and in order to be able to keep showing up for our lovely listeners, we ask that you consider joining our paid community.
Here’s what you get for just $8USD a month or $80USD a year:
an exclusive newsletter on Tuesdays featuring bonus author Q&As and other exclusive content from industry experts
weekly access to Carly Watters and CeCe Lyra’s written notes on queries from the podcast’s Books With Hooks feature
monthly bonus podcast episodes, AND
regular Ask Me Anythings / Q&As with Carly, CeCe, and Bianca Marais.
If that doesn’t kickstart your writing journey, we don’t know what will!
Thanks for reading ❤️
The Shit No One Tells You About Writing Team
This Week’s Podcast✨🎙️✨
In this week’s 📕Books with Hooks🪝, Bianca, Carly, and CeCe critique a YA submission and a literary coming-of-age horror. They discuss:
Avoiding the use of repetitive language in a query
Considering SEO when choosing a book title
The concept of 'scene work'
The need for disruption to occur in your opening pages
Matching word choice to genre when writing your query
Pitching a literary fiction manuscript
Finding a balance between showing and telling, even in literary fiction, and
Avoiding overwriting
“What I’m looking for when I am reading literary fiction is when things are overwritten and when I can see that the author is trying to say the same thing in a few ways and just hasn't taken the red pen to certain sections yet.”
— Carly
After which, Bianca chats with freelance TV executive and writer, Samuel Burr. The two discuss:
Samuel's novel, The Fellowship of Puzzlemakers
Its incredible journey to publication
Why nothing worth solving is ever easy
How to find comps when you have a more unique novel premise
How Samuel developed his protagonist
Creating the puzzles that appear in his work
Why he chose to use a dual timeline and the process he used when writing it, and
His advice for successfully writing an ensemble cast
“One of the things that I've really enjoyed doing is ‘big stories in small worlds.’ So, telling big universal stories that could relate to anyone in the world but in a place that is very, very specific, almost even niche.”
— Samuel
More information about Samuel can be found here. He's also on Instagram and X (formerly known as Twitter).
You can purchase The Fellowship of the Puzzlemakers on our Bookshop.org affiliate page here. Buying books through this link supports a local indie bookstore, as well as The Shit No One Tells You About Writing 📚❤️
Giveaway #1 😍🌟
Win one of two personalized copies of Nearlywed, the latest novel from Nicolas DiDomizio.
An engaged couple’s compatibility is put to the test during their ill-fated early honeymoon in this smart, dazzling, and provocative summer comedy perfect for fans of People We Meet on Vacation.
Ray Bruno and Kip Hayes are horrible on paper. Ray is a chaotic millennial ex-clickbait-writer who’s been oversharing his every thought online since he was a teenager, and Kip is a pragmatic Gen X doctor who values privacy above all else.
But somehow it all manages to work…until Ray convinces Kip to join him for an early honeymoon at a famous lux resort in Ray’s coastal New England hometown, eschewing the tradition of bachelor parties and hoping to recharge before their end-of-August wedding. When a surprising encounter with another couple at the resort leads to a series of escalating mishaps and miscommunications, Ray and Kip are forced to look at their many differences in a stark new light, turning the trip into less of a vacation and more of a test: will they be able to work through their issues in time for the big day? Or is this marriage over before it begins?
To enter:
Follow @nicdidomiziobooks on Instagram
Tag someone in our giveaway post who you think would like to read Nearlywed (one entry per tag)
Bonus entries if you share the post in your stories and tag us.
Contest closes May 31st. Winners will be announced June 1st on the TSNOTYAW Instagram!
Tuesday Teaser 😉
In next week’s newsletter exclusively for our paid members, author Mikki Brammer talks about the rewards of pursuing the idea of “your heart” instead of what you think (or are told) the marketplace wants. Mikki took a “big creative swing” when she decided to write “a fun, joyful book about death” (no, really!) and ended up with a debut (The Collected Regrets of Clover) that was named one of the best books of summer 2023 by the New York Times Book Review and a best book of 2023 by NPR—needless to say (but we’ll say it anyway), we think her insights are ones you won’t want to miss!
As an added bonus, we take you behind the scenes with a look at another successful query letter that was so good much of it ended up as jacket copy…on an instant USA TODAY bestseller!
Not a paid member? Don’t miss out—upgrade today!
Giveaway #2 😍🌟
Win a signed copy of I Shouldn’t Be Telling You This by Chelsea Devantez.
A dynamic memoir-in-essays by comedian, screenwriter, and podcaster Chelsea Devantez, detailing her tumultuous upbringing and uproarious career path into Hollywood.
There are things Chelsea Devantez probably shouldn’t be telling you. Many of them are in this book: some are embarrassing (like her three-year spell of celibacy that she tried to break with a guide of seduction tips). Some are confessional (getting sentenced to the “hell hill” at Mormon church camp). Some are TMI (a series of outrageous doctor visits that ended with one doctor misdiagnosing her as “pregnant.” Woopsies!)
Then there are things Chelsea really shouldn’t be telling you: like the time her biggest family secret got publicly outed, or about the drive-by shootings and the precipitating domestic violence she survived. Yet through the ups and downs, it’s the women in Chelsea’s life who kept her going – from the lowest points of her childhood when she and her mom had only $100 left to their name, all the way to her career highs as the Emmy-nominated Head Writer for The Problem with Jon Stewart and sensational podcaster deemed “the memoir whisperer” by her fans.
In I Shouldn't Be Telling You This, Chelsea centers each story around a different woman who shaped her life, taking us on a tour of friends and strangers, fictional characters and celebrities, heroes and villains who will destroy any Netflix algorithm for a “strong female lead.” Reading this book will feel kinda like that moment at a party when your friend beckons you close, sloshes her martini around, and covertly whispers, “I really shouldn’t say this, but…”
To enter, click below!
Contest closes on May 31st. Winners will be notified directly.
The query lab 📝🖊
Welcome to The Query Lab where each Friday for the next few months we’ll be
sharing a successful query letter that got an author their agent AND their book deal.
Today we’ve got a query from Alena Dillon, author of Mercy House 😍:
Hi XX,
Evelyn Fanning, a gritty but compassionate 69-year-old religious sister, resorts to procedures condemned by the Catholic Church in order to serve those under her care in Mercy House, a shelter for victims of domestic violence in Bed-Stuy. When the Vatican sends a bishop to investigate her operation in 2010 as part of the Apostolic Visitation, rightfully convinced she is disobeying church doctrine, she must hide those forbidden practices. To Evelyn’s dread, the bishop the church sends is the very man who sexually assaulted her when she first joined the convent, and she is forced to appeal to him for the sake of the women.
Mercy House, an 78K word novel based on the actual Apostolic Visitation, is about vulnerability, female friendship, sexual assault and resilience. The characters—nuns and residents of Mercy House—are as diverse as they are vibrant, with two essential truths in common: Brooklyn, and their experiences in the shadows of all-powerful men. #MeToo #TimesUp
An excerpt from Mercy House was published in Rkvry Quarterly and another excerpt was published this week in Seventh Wave Magazine.
My work has appeared in publications including Slice Magazine, The Rumpus, The Doctor TJ Eckleburg Review, and Bustle. I earned my MFA from Fairfield University and teach creative writing at Endicott College and St. Joseph’s College. This would be my debut novel.
The first chapter is below. Thank you for your consideration,
Alena Dillon
You can purchase Mercy House on our Bookshop.org affiliate page here 🥰
Click below for the downloadable version of Alena’s successful query!
Be part of Carly’s masterclass 😍📝
Carly’s class includes 10+ hours of writing and publishing video lessons you have lifetime access to, monthly Q&A sessions, and fresh content every quarter.
Did we mention there’s an app, too? You can keep learning on the go. Don’t miss a minute of Carly’s top career advice for aspiring, emerging and published writers. Get the writing career you’ve always dreamed of.
Bianca’s Great Beta Reader Match Up 😍🌟
Are you looking for beta readers, some of whom might potentially become writing group members down the line?
Are you wanting to be matched up with those writing in a similar genre and/or time zone, so they can critique your work as you critique theirs at the same time?
Your manuscript doesn't have to be complete to sign up for this 3,000-word review!
Registrations are open from now until the 2nd of June with the match emails going out on the 3rd of June!
For more information and to register, click below!
Join CeCe to learn everything about interiority 🤓
The 3+ hour class covers various aspects of writing interiority into your story, including:
Foundation of interiority (and how is it different from, say, emotions?)
Functions of interiority in a story
Leveraging interiority into plot developments (tension, conflict, and reveals)
The relationship between interiority and various point-of-view
Striking the balance between interiority and mystery
Most common mistakes in writing interiority (and how to get it right)
Common challenges in writing interiority (and how to turn them into successes), and
Tips and tricks to effectively convey interiority
Plus, there’ll be a live, cozy Q&A session on June 10th at 8pm ET in which attendees will be able to turn on their camera (optional) and ask questions to CeCe. Don’t miss out on learning from our resident Queen of Interiority 😍🌟
That’s all for this week’s news! If you enjoyed it, why not share the love? 🥰
Tune in again next week for more invaluable wisdom from our wonderful hosts! Until then, happy writing! 😍
❤️ The Shit No One Tells You About Writing Team
Our work takes place on land now known as Toronto and Ottawa and we acknowledge that these are the traditional territories of the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishnabeg, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee, and the Wendat Peoples as well as the unceded, unsurrendered territory of the Anishinaabe Algonquin Nation. Toronto is covered under Treaty 13 and the Williams Treaties. We respect and affirm the inherent and Treaty Rights of all Indigenous Peoples across this land and acknowledge the historical oppression of lands, cultures, languages, and the original Peoples in what we now know as Canada. We invite you to learn more about the land you inhabit, the history of that land, and how to actively be part of a better future going forward together at Native Land or Whose Land.
Carly Watters and CeCe Lyra are literary agents at P.S. Literary Agency, but their work in this newsletter is not affiliated with the agency, and the views expressed by Carly and CeCe in this newsletter are solely that of themselves and do not necessarily reflect the views, opinions, policies, or position of P.S. Literary Agency.
Great newsletter this week! xx
I've never seen an aspiring book writer get the thumbs up from seven or eight anonymous beta-readers. You would think agents would want that first. If they want anything. I look at agents as though I am one.