Trusting Your Subconscious and Yourself

In today’s Books with Hooks, Carly and CeCe evaluate the same three query letters, and in the process, they offer solutions for when your novel doesn’t seem to have any similar comps; remind us of the importance of story-forward curiosity; and explain what’s necessary in historical fiction to ensure the feel of a certain time period.

After which, Bianca chats with Isabel Cañas, author of The Hacienda, about the inspiration for the book; carefully choosing your comps; the archetypes of the gothic novel; overturning canons deeply rooted in English literature; writing modern takes on 19th century settings; when writing feels like a fever dream; overcoming rejection and writing what you’re passionate about; pivoting when it comes to genre; writing in sprints; allowing some degree of pantsing so that characters can have agency, because your subconscious knows what it’s doing; and how having no agent is better than having a bad agent.

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Twitter: @TSNOTYAW @BiancaM_author @carlywatters @ceciliaclyra
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Website: www.biancamarais.com and www.theshitaboutwriting.com
Isabel can be found at @Isabelcanas_ on Twitter and Instagram, and at www.isabelcanas.com

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