Building a Writing Resume on Your Journey to Publication - Deesha Philyaw

In today's Books with Hooks, Carly and CeCe each take on two query letters. They discuss being cognizant of including descriptive features of the characters that don’t actually add any information/teach us anything about the character themselves; the trick of re-writing a scene in a different POV to really fine-tune emotional feelings within a scene; ensuring that dramatic questions in your plot actually center around your main character; being careful of using descriptions that are too derivative; how sensory details can beef up a description; and being mindful of how many names you throw out in the query letter since you don’t want it to read too much like a synopsis. After which, Bianca chats with Deesha Philyaw , award-winning author of the short story collection The Secret Lives of Church Ladies , about publishing a short story collection; having an agent that believes in what you want to write and the direction you want to go; not taking rejection personally; getting some short stories published first in reputable magazines/journals before presenting them as a collection to publishers; finding that place of play and experimentation in your writing; and how the most interesting stories can come from a place of discovery. Find us on our socials: Twitter: @TSNOTYAW @BiancaM_author @carlywatters @ceciliaclyra Instagram: @biancamarais_author @carlywatters @cece_lyra_agent @ the_shit_about_writing Facebook: @tsnotyaw Website: www.biancamarais.com Deesha on Twitter and Instagram: @DeeshaPhilyaw Our Sponsors: * Check out Quince: https://quince.com/tsnotyaw * Check out Rosetta Stone and use my code TODAY for a great deal: https://www.rosettastone.com * Check out Wayfair: https://www.wayfair.com Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands