CREATIVE NON-FICTION (and secretly fiction too!) LOOKING FOR HYPE GROUP OF WRITER FRIENDS!
I published my first book Joy Is My Justice: Reclaim Yours Now (Hachette, May 2023) and it's been amazing! For all those people who think Joy is out of their reach or that they aren't "Good enough" at feeling better, this book dispels the contrived platitudes and shows you how to get to real Joy, the kind that tis connected to your pain! I am an Integrative mental health and Psychedelic Medicine Physician, TEDx speaker and most imp, a mother of a dying child. This is my life work, to show others that Joy is their birthright!
I LOVE this idea @Evelyn Skye of "growing up" with other writer friends. I have found connecting with other authors and thought leaders one of the best parts of this journey. And I am all about rooting you on and finding others to root me on as well. Comment and tell me what you need a wing woman for! Maybe it's to restack or post something for you, maybe it's to give you a bit of encouragement in a time of self-doubt...and on and on!
In the immediate future, Mariska Hargitay (from Law and Order: SVU tv series) chose my book as her foundations' book club choice and the virtual discussion is this Thursday Mar 14th! Would love anyone interested to sign up and/or share. There's a replay for 30 days if people can't join live. I'll leave link below! Now off to find other people to hype up!
Can't wait to check out your book, Tanmeet. Firstly, I'm so sorry about your son's diagnosis. I empathize with your pain and can sympathize in a way, because my husband was also diagnosed with an incurable disease that would have been terminal, but he was lucky enough to receive a double lung transplant. I wrote that personal experience into my book THE HUNDRED LOVES OF JULIET, which is about loving in the present moment, when you know your time is short. Sending you and your family so much love.
But also, I just finished a Stanford Continuing Education class on the Science of Joy, and my next novel touches a bit on this topic, so it seems like fate that you are here and our paths crossed!
Congrats on the Mariska Hargitay book club pick--that is HUGE!
And I love the idea of a Hype Group. Let's do this thing, for ALL OF US! So happy to have you and your positive energy here!
So grateful to be connected Evelyn! Fate indeed. Excited to see how Joy shows up for you in your work. Not only do I teach about how Joy emerges from the same deep well as our pain, I also write and teach about how it’s a critical path to liberation. In this way Joy is not the destination but rather the path. So much to connect on. I need to read your first book too! Grateful to be in community with you my friend.
i feel like i'm a better hype woman than author, myself... bahahaha.
i just started publishing here on substack (essentially moved my list from mailchimp) and am trying to find the balance between newsletter & my blog (which lives, unread, on my website: www.halthegal.art )
ANywAY! i write arts-centric middle grade novels and am still in the querying phase on my third project... but i am all about the HYPE with you and want to know about these "secret fiction" projects of yours! :)
LOL, I'm all about the hype! Not so secret I guess. But I was working on an amazing fictional novel when my son was diagnosed with a fatal disease and then I put it on "the shelf" and since then published a non-fiction book. But the characters are speaking to me and it is time to bring them back!!
You sound like an extraordinary person. I am celebrating you and your book. Hooray for Mariska Hargitay! I suppose I count as 1.5 steps behind you as I am working on my memoir about life after my husband died from cancer. I don't have much have hyped (a couple of chapters on my Substack, it's free to all), but I love hyping other writers, especially those who understand grief. I will be cheering you on moving forward 🥰
Amy I am so grateful you reached out. I am sorry to hear about your husband and also simultaneously thrilled you are writing about it for your sake but also for the sake of others. I know it will be such an important story. Love having you in my corner and I am so looking forward to rooting you on this journey as well!!
Hi, Tanmeet. I'm so sorry about your son. I have never hit Subscribe so fast, but your writing immediately spoke to me. Every word you write about the experience rings true- absolutely every word. I just ordered your book- it can't get here fast enough.
My daughter was diagnosed with leukemia in 2020, two months into the pandemic, and though she went through treatment and survived, that outcome was up in the air for most of her 2 1/2 years of treatment. It still kind-of is- her type of leukemia has a high rate of relapse, so we're playing this weird waiting game while we try to just continue to live our lives.
I'd love to connect and stay in touch. I'm working on a mini-series interrogating the idea of resilience. Because so often we're told that we're resilient, and some days I even feel it, but my frustration at the challenges we faced still seep through the cracks, and some days I want to stuff my resilience into a sock drawer and live the rest of my life as a lump on my couch! If you're ever up for chatting about your take on this, or anything else, please feel free to reach out! and thank you so much for your writing and your work. It's changing my life already.
Oh Elizabeth I feel so much resonance with your story. I’m so so glad your daughter is well now and yet I can imagine how scary the chance of relapse is. This present moment is so prescient and yet the potency of it is that it’s full of fear and dread. That’s the simple truth. I cannot wait for you to read the book. And a mini series on resilience sounds fabulous. You’ll see how I have a different take on resilience than the one that is offered to us in the world of wellness. That’s its own chapter towards the end of the book. Oh I cannot wait to connect more!! I can see a good chat in the future for us!!!
Hi Tanmeet! We're officially writer friends now 🤗 congratulations on the book club pick, that's awesome! I agree about the "growing up" with writer friends, it can be so overwhelming when there are SO many people in one industry and can definitely be lonely at times. It really resonated with me when she mentioned having someone .5 or 1 step ahead of you in finding that mentor!
Thanks Kathlene! Check it out, the book has helped so many already! It's an empowering journey into Joy as not a solution, but something that emerges from the same deep well as our pain. A chance to be WITH our life instead of looking away. Sending love. ❤️
Congratulations on the book! I used to get ketamine infusions for depression, but after about 6 weeks it stopped working. Looking forward to seeing more from you. I'll follow.
Oh I am so glad. The more people who share their experiences the better. I have had some powerful work with patients and ketamine and I too have tried it. It's good medicine.
Im currently writing romcoms with about a 3.5 level of spice and a whole lot of fun. They do have queer rep as well. I’m also cowriting a romantacy with my partner. My mythology retelling is a Filipina mythology retelling that also reads like contemporary historical fantasy. That one is definitely my passion project :).
I’m an enneagram 4w3, so I feel all the things but do all the work!
I am published with short fic. I’m a hybrid author. Im always looking to level up craft, connect to other writers, and nerd out about story!
Oh I think you're very brave Kathlene! I always worry that I'll get into trouble if I try to retell someone else's story. Although I'm still wondering if I would be good at writing Buffy the Vampire Slayer fanfic. lol
I'm not gonna lie -- I thought starting with Romeo & Juliet would be so easy, but it's been more of a struggle than I thought. Juliet has been VERY re-imagined since I like my heroines to have a little fire inside of them. If you start a Buffy fanfic, sign me up! Spike still lives rent-free in my head.
There's a few ways you can go nowadays though, isn't there? Maybe Juliets a guy and Romeo's a woman, that would switch things up. Or would it? Okay, now I'm thinking about it. Lol. I'd love to read a snippet when you're ready to share.
Can't wait to be writer friends! Love this (my work is in the post below) Can't wait to learn more. Especially since my in-laws are Filipino so you touched a soft spot:) Following you now!
Tanmeet, if you want to read Filipina authors, Tif Marcelo writes wonderful rom coms and wrote as part of a Filipino author holiday anthology: https://www.amazon.com/Pasko-Na-My-Love-Anthology/dp/0999543288 I know it's not the holiday season, but your comment made me think of this!
I love a good romcom or romantasy read! I will definitely have to check out your work:) Scrolled up to see your post after responding to your comment, so I guess that makes us writer friends!?
Hi Sammie! I'm brand new to this site but I love that you are writing romantasy with your partner! That's so amazing. I love when my boyfriend helps me write, it feels like a new kind of love language.
YA FANTASY and RETELLINGS looking for WRITER FRIENDS AND CRITIQUE PARTNERS -- Hi all! I mostly wrote YA, but dabble in contemporary women's fiction. I am unsuccessfully querying an adult book and just finishing up revisions on my passion project: a YA fantasy retelling of Romeo & Juliet which is hopefully the first in an interconnected series featuring all Shakespeare's emo teens. I love connecting with fellow writers as we toil away, and I'm still on the lookout for a solid CP relationship. Looking forward to getting to know everyone -- and to the book club, Evelyn!
Welcome, Kathlene! So happy to have you here; you were one of the OG members of the first writer matchup. I'm very excited for you and your Romeo & Juliet retelling. As for the querying... well, you know, mark them as notches of experience! It's a numbers game, and the more you put yourself out there, the better a shot you have. I, too, have many notches on my rejection post? belt? um... I lost control of my metaphor there hahaha...
You had me at emo teen Shakespeare! Retellings are SO much fun!! And interconnecting stories - chef's kiss. I saw you're hoping to query this summer! I'm right there with you (or at least early fall) and am cheering you on!
A Romeo and Juliet retelling sounds interesting. I enjoy reading retellings. It is so interesting to see how authors pick details from retellings and make the story their own.
This one is ending up being quite a departure. I had originally thought it would be really fun to stay really close to the original structure, but that went out the window pretty quickly. :) I saw below that you're a YA writer, too. I'll give you a follow on Instagram...
I've been working on it a long, long time! LOL. I struggled to find the right angle, but I'm in the final revisions. And I definitely intend to query it. Hopefully by this summer!
LOL I completely understand the "long, long time" - I worked on my first project for ~5 years. Sometimes the time really does help with finding the right story, and it seems like you did! I'm also hoping to query by summer which is coming up quickly hahaha. I'd love to talk to you more about your journey if you want to connect on insta or another platform :)
I'd love to connect! I saw below that you write YA fantasy, too, and it seems like we're right in the weeds together. LOL. I'm happy to connect on Instagram, although I'm super lame and have not started ANY sort of author platform yet. My personal is @keobrown3 -- I don't post much, but I am on regularly and great with DMs. :) My email is keobrown@gmail.com which is also a great way to reach me. I feel like I'm ON social media a lot, but not really ON-on it. More of a lurker, I suppose...
LOL don't worry, I've had a writing insta for some time but I use it mostly to keep up with authors and other writers and less to post, so completely in the "lurker" camp as well hahaha. I'll follow you on Insta and we can talk more!! So exciting to meet somebody who's in the same boat :)
huzzah for shakespeare!!!! such a treasure trove of retelling fodder! i love that there's ALWAYS room for more shakespeare-inspired tales!! between you, me, and evelyn, i bet we can get ye olde bard back on the bestseller list.... ;D
and every "unsuccessful" query is one person you didn't want to work with anyway! i see every "no" as getting closer to the right "YES!" we're just narrowing it down. :)
It's sitting patiently on my bookshelf! I put a hold on reading any Romeo & Juliet books until I finished my own. Now that I'm in the homestretch, I just started Evelyn's Hundred Lives of Juliet, and Violent Delights will probably be next. Keep me in the Shakespeare mindset while I query.
ADULT FANTASY, CRITIQUE PARTNER AND WRITER FRIENDS
I'm currently fresh off a creative writing MFA and currently querying a series that's a queer reimagining of the epic poem/myth, the Ramayana, tumbled through the transmigration trope in a sort of mashup of literary fantasy and anime influence. Because book one and much of book two are my MFA thesis, there've been a lot of eyes on it and it's recently undergone it's fourth revision. I'm longing for a mentor/critique partner who's just that little bit ahead of me (agented at least) who falls in writerly love with me/my book, but am also just looking for fresh eyes on both the critique and beta reader levels. I love to make writer friends and give as good as or better than I get. Championing others is how I survive the nail biting angst. The good news about me as a critique partner is that I've been trained very well in how to critique beneficially to the writer and the work. I'm at @zephyrmarksmywords on instagram. Thank you, Evelyn, for creating an opportunity for us to find each other!
Hello, Zephyr. I'm actually behind you (don't look back!), as I am currently working on my MFA for Creative Writing. I'm unpublished, unagented, and rather lacking in friends. I also just started my substack this month.
Anyways, I hope you find the "step up" friend you're looking for.
First of all, Zephyr is the coolest name! One of my best friends used that as his email when we were in college, and this is the first time I've seen someone else who is a Zephyr. Your book sounds fascinating, and I'm crossing all my fingers for you while you're querying! It's wonderful to meet you and become one of your writer friends!
and i have a substack that's still finding its path between blog and newsletter and i'd love to have you there as well if you'd like!
huzzah for EVELYN and cheering each other on! :D
evelyn, i love how you pointed out finding mentors 1/2 to 1 step ahead of you... SO wise!! it's been so much "easier" to connect with established authors (like your wonderful self!) because i guess they're more visible online... and maybe less panicked about their careers, so a little more open? ;D and becasue i found them because i read & loved their published books!
so helping us connect HERE, where many of us are pre-published but working on it? it's a GIFT.
awww you're the sweetest, Hallie. I am SO happy that you're here with all your joyful energy! Your art is so whimsical and cheerful and smile-inducing. I bet your words are exactly the same!
Everyone sounds so wonderful! Evelyn you are amazing at helping people connect. I'm not looking for critique partners right now, since I have a group that meets monthly and another two partners who check in daily (I know! How lucky am I?) But I absolutely love hearing about other people's projects and passions! ❤️❤️
I'm incredibly lucky to have found two people who mesh with me so well and are so dedicated. I met one at the SCBWI Nevada Mentor program several years ago. She knew the third person and brought her in. It just works. It helps they are herding dog people too. Sometimes are writing check ins are as much about our dogs as writing.🤣 As you said, conferences and workshops are great places to meet people. As are book clubs!
CHARACTER-DRIVEN FICTION (upmarket? literary?) looking for WRITER FRIENDS! I'm currently working on my first novel and am working on what my writing coach calls a discovery draft. I'd already written from start to finish, but it wasn't quite in the revision stage yet. I also publish Comedy, Tragedy weekly on Substack. It's about a midlife writer living with bipolar disorder. Where are you at with your writing?
I love upmarket, character-driven fiction! Let's be friends! :) It's so great to hear that you have a writing coach; I know other writers who have done that and it's been really helpful for them. I also write discovery drafts (I call them zero drafts, not a first draft). It's lovely to meet you, Barb!
I really needed direction in terms of what to do next after the draft I had, and my writing coach has helped with that. I'd love to be friends! I'm looking forward to book club.
Good idea getting a coach. I had an idea for a novel in 2013 and after trying to write it on my own for 5 years I decided to pursue an MA in screenwriting to learn how to write a plot. 😅 That was some expensive coaching but it helped. I ended up writing a screenplay instead of a book but that's ok.
Good luck with your draft! I'm a discovery drafter, too. It makes for a messy revision process, but it's the reason I love to write. I'd love to be writer friends!
I'm a part-time freelance writer who writes nonfiction pieces touching on a variety of topics including food, art, travel and pop culture. I would love to make more friends in this industry as well as work with others who are able to provide accountability and feedback with each other!
You as well, Evelyn! I'm a new subscriber, but I've loved getting to hear more about Damsel and all that you've accomplished so far this year! Excited to see what else is on the horizon:)
Hi Emily! I just subscribed- I'm so excited to read what you write! I love food and travel, I'm getting back to travel after the pandemic and all that came with it, and my focus has been on food in the countries I'm able to visit. I write freelance pieces adjacent to my memoir-in-progress right now, mostly about parenting and my kid's cancer experience, but I'm working on an essay about the parallels between pushing through discomfort while traveling and pushing through discomfort while life is challenging you the absolute most. Happy to connect and read more of your work!
CREATIVE NON-FICTION (and secretly fiction too!) LOOKING FOR HYPE GROUP OF WRITER FRIENDS!
I published my first book Joy Is My Justice: Reclaim Yours Now (Hachette, May 2023) and it's been amazing! For all those people who think Joy is out of their reach or that they aren't "Good enough" at feeling better, this book dispels the contrived platitudes and shows you how to get to real Joy, the kind that tis connected to your pain! I am an Integrative mental health and Psychedelic Medicine Physician, TEDx speaker and most imp, a mother of a dying child. This is my life work, to show others that Joy is their birthright!
I LOVE this idea @Evelyn Skye of "growing up" with other writer friends. I have found connecting with other authors and thought leaders one of the best parts of this journey. And I am all about rooting you on and finding others to root me on as well. Comment and tell me what you need a wing woman for! Maybe it's to restack or post something for you, maybe it's to give you a bit of encouragement in a time of self-doubt...and on and on!
In the immediate future, Mariska Hargitay (from Law and Order: SVU tv series) chose my book as her foundations' book club choice and the virtual discussion is this Thursday Mar 14th! Would love anyone interested to sign up and/or share. There's a replay for 30 days if people can't join live. I'll leave link below! Now off to find other people to hype up!
https://give.joyfulheartfoundation.org/event/jhf-book-club-joy-is-my-justice/e562218
Can't wait to check out your book, Tanmeet. Firstly, I'm so sorry about your son's diagnosis. I empathize with your pain and can sympathize in a way, because my husband was also diagnosed with an incurable disease that would have been terminal, but he was lucky enough to receive a double lung transplant. I wrote that personal experience into my book THE HUNDRED LOVES OF JULIET, which is about loving in the present moment, when you know your time is short. Sending you and your family so much love.
But also, I just finished a Stanford Continuing Education class on the Science of Joy, and my next novel touches a bit on this topic, so it seems like fate that you are here and our paths crossed!
Congrats on the Mariska Hargitay book club pick--that is HUGE!
And I love the idea of a Hype Group. Let's do this thing, for ALL OF US! So happy to have you and your positive energy here!
So grateful to be connected Evelyn! Fate indeed. Excited to see how Joy shows up for you in your work. Not only do I teach about how Joy emerges from the same deep well as our pain, I also write and teach about how it’s a critical path to liberation. In this way Joy is not the destination but rather the path. So much to connect on. I need to read your first book too! Grateful to be in community with you my friend.
congrats on the book!!
i feel like i'm a better hype woman than author, myself... bahahaha.
i just started publishing here on substack (essentially moved my list from mailchimp) and am trying to find the balance between newsletter & my blog (which lives, unread, on my website: www.halthegal.art )
ANywAY! i write arts-centric middle grade novels and am still in the querying phase on my third project... but i am all about the HYPE with you and want to know about these "secret fiction" projects of yours! :)
LOL, I'm all about the hype! Not so secret I guess. But I was working on an amazing fictional novel when my son was diagnosed with a fatal disease and then I put it on "the shelf" and since then published a non-fiction book. But the characters are speaking to me and it is time to bring them back!!
oh, i'm glad they're back to chatting!! what genre/age group? :)
Adult, historical fiction (but in this new iteration it might be a modern lookback instead of set in the time era it was. Things change!
You sound like an extraordinary person. I am celebrating you and your book. Hooray for Mariska Hargitay! I suppose I count as 1.5 steps behind you as I am working on my memoir about life after my husband died from cancer. I don't have much have hyped (a couple of chapters on my Substack, it's free to all), but I love hyping other writers, especially those who understand grief. I will be cheering you on moving forward 🥰
Amy I am so grateful you reached out. I am sorry to hear about your husband and also simultaneously thrilled you are writing about it for your sake but also for the sake of others. I know it will be such an important story. Love having you in my corner and I am so looking forward to rooting you on this journey as well!!
Hi, Tanmeet. I'm so sorry about your son. I have never hit Subscribe so fast, but your writing immediately spoke to me. Every word you write about the experience rings true- absolutely every word. I just ordered your book- it can't get here fast enough.
My daughter was diagnosed with leukemia in 2020, two months into the pandemic, and though she went through treatment and survived, that outcome was up in the air for most of her 2 1/2 years of treatment. It still kind-of is- her type of leukemia has a high rate of relapse, so we're playing this weird waiting game while we try to just continue to live our lives.
I'd love to connect and stay in touch. I'm working on a mini-series interrogating the idea of resilience. Because so often we're told that we're resilient, and some days I even feel it, but my frustration at the challenges we faced still seep through the cracks, and some days I want to stuff my resilience into a sock drawer and live the rest of my life as a lump on my couch! If you're ever up for chatting about your take on this, or anything else, please feel free to reach out! and thank you so much for your writing and your work. It's changing my life already.
Oh Elizabeth I feel so much resonance with your story. I’m so so glad your daughter is well now and yet I can imagine how scary the chance of relapse is. This present moment is so prescient and yet the potency of it is that it’s full of fear and dread. That’s the simple truth. I cannot wait for you to read the book. And a mini series on resilience sounds fabulous. You’ll see how I have a different take on resilience than the one that is offered to us in the world of wellness. That’s its own chapter towards the end of the book. Oh I cannot wait to connect more!! I can see a good chat in the future for us!!!
Hi Tanmeet! We're officially writer friends now 🤗 congratulations on the book club pick, that's awesome! I agree about the "growing up" with writer friends, it can be so overwhelming when there are SO many people in one industry and can definitely be lonely at times. It really resonated with me when she mentioned having someone .5 or 1 step ahead of you in finding that mentor!
Following you now! So grateful to be making more writer connections. Big gratitude for this chance to connect here!
Just followed back! My DMs are open and I would love to stay in touch:)
Yes for sure! DM me anytime.
Your book sounds amazing and like something I need in my life. :) I love the idea of a hype group -- what a great way for us to support each other!
Thanks Kathlene! Check it out, the book has helped so many already! It's an empowering journey into Joy as not a solution, but something that emerges from the same deep well as our pain. A chance to be WITH our life instead of looking away. Sending love. ❤️
Congratulations on the book! I used to get ketamine infusions for depression, but after about 6 weeks it stopped working. Looking forward to seeing more from you. I'll follow.
Following you too! I am glad ketamine gave you some relief at least for a bit. It's a big topic!
I plan to write about it in the future!
Oh I am so glad. The more people who share their experiences the better. I have had some powerful work with patients and ketamine and I too have tried it. It's good medicine.
I totally agree.
ROMCOMS, ROMANTACY, MYTHOLOGY RETELLINGS, CRITIQUE PARTNER AND/OR WRITER FRIENDS!
Im currently writing romcoms with about a 3.5 level of spice and a whole lot of fun. They do have queer rep as well. I’m also cowriting a romantacy with my partner. My mythology retelling is a Filipina mythology retelling that also reads like contemporary historical fantasy. That one is definitely my passion project :).
I’m an enneagram 4w3, so I feel all the things but do all the work!
I am published with short fic. I’m a hybrid author. Im always looking to level up craft, connect to other writers, and nerd out about story!
Your work sounds wonderful! I'm glad to call you my new writer friend. :)
Likewise! Congrats again on Damsel. Can’t wait for the book club.
So excited you'll be at the book club hangout!
Love all your genres! Retellings are my fav, and nerding out about story sounds like the most fun thing ever.
Oh I think you're very brave Kathlene! I always worry that I'll get into trouble if I try to retell someone else's story. Although I'm still wondering if I would be good at writing Buffy the Vampire Slayer fanfic. lol
I'm not gonna lie -- I thought starting with Romeo & Juliet would be so easy, but it's been more of a struggle than I thought. Juliet has been VERY re-imagined since I like my heroines to have a little fire inside of them. If you start a Buffy fanfic, sign me up! Spike still lives rent-free in my head.
There's a few ways you can go nowadays though, isn't there? Maybe Juliets a guy and Romeo's a woman, that would switch things up. Or would it? Okay, now I'm thinking about it. Lol. I'd love to read a snippet when you're ready to share.
And oh yes, Spike!
Oh thanks! I love retellings myself :)
Can't wait to be writer friends! Love this (my work is in the post below) Can't wait to learn more. Especially since my in-laws are Filipino so you touched a soft spot:) Following you now!
Tanmeet, if you want to read Filipina authors, Tif Marcelo writes wonderful rom coms and wrote as part of a Filipino author holiday anthology: https://www.amazon.com/Pasko-Na-My-Love-Anthology/dp/0999543288 I know it's not the holiday season, but your comment made me think of this!
Thanks for the recommendation!!
I love a good romcom or romantasy read! I will definitely have to check out your work:) Scrolled up to see your post after responding to your comment, so I guess that makes us writer friends!?
Absolutely! Yay more writer friends
Just followed you! My DMs are open and I'd love to stay in touch :)
Hi Sammie! I'm brand new to this site but I love that you are writing romantasy with your partner! That's so amazing. I love when my boyfriend helps me write, it feels like a new kind of love language.
Wow 🤩 that sounds great! My husband is Filipino
Filipino rep! Love it :) is he Fil-Am or from there?
All those genres are my sweet spot and your projects sound great! I'd love connect.
Sounds wonderful. Best way to get ahold of me is on Instagram or TikTok at @sammietrinidadcreates or fb with just my first and last name.
👍🏼
YA FANTASY and RETELLINGS looking for WRITER FRIENDS AND CRITIQUE PARTNERS -- Hi all! I mostly wrote YA, but dabble in contemporary women's fiction. I am unsuccessfully querying an adult book and just finishing up revisions on my passion project: a YA fantasy retelling of Romeo & Juliet which is hopefully the first in an interconnected series featuring all Shakespeare's emo teens. I love connecting with fellow writers as we toil away, and I'm still on the lookout for a solid CP relationship. Looking forward to getting to know everyone -- and to the book club, Evelyn!
Welcome, Kathlene! So happy to have you here; you were one of the OG members of the first writer matchup. I'm very excited for you and your Romeo & Juliet retelling. As for the querying... well, you know, mark them as notches of experience! It's a numbers game, and the more you put yourself out there, the better a shot you have. I, too, have many notches on my rejection post? belt? um... I lost control of my metaphor there hahaha...
You had me at emo teen Shakespeare! Retellings are SO much fun!! And interconnecting stories - chef's kiss. I saw you're hoping to query this summer! I'm right there with you (or at least early fall) and am cheering you on!
I'll be cheering you on as well! What so you write?
A Romeo and Juliet retelling sounds interesting. I enjoy reading retellings. It is so interesting to see how authors pick details from retellings and make the story their own.
This one is ending up being quite a departure. I had originally thought it would be really fun to stay really close to the original structure, but that went out the window pretty quickly. :) I saw below that you're a YA writer, too. I'll give you a follow on Instagram...
The fun thing about writing is how our writing projects tend to get a mind of their own.
Your YA fantasy retelling of Romeo & Juliet sounds sooo cool!! How long have you been working on this project and do you hope to query this one?
I've been working on it a long, long time! LOL. I struggled to find the right angle, but I'm in the final revisions. And I definitely intend to query it. Hopefully by this summer!
LOL I completely understand the "long, long time" - I worked on my first project for ~5 years. Sometimes the time really does help with finding the right story, and it seems like you did! I'm also hoping to query by summer which is coming up quickly hahaha. I'd love to talk to you more about your journey if you want to connect on insta or another platform :)
I'd love to connect! I saw below that you write YA fantasy, too, and it seems like we're right in the weeds together. LOL. I'm happy to connect on Instagram, although I'm super lame and have not started ANY sort of author platform yet. My personal is @keobrown3 -- I don't post much, but I am on regularly and great with DMs. :) My email is keobrown@gmail.com which is also a great way to reach me. I feel like I'm ON social media a lot, but not really ON-on it. More of a lurker, I suppose...
LOL don't worry, I've had a writing insta for some time but I use it mostly to keep up with authors and other writers and less to post, so completely in the "lurker" camp as well hahaha. I'll follow you on Insta and we can talk more!! So exciting to meet somebody who's in the same boat :)
huzzah for shakespeare!!!! such a treasure trove of retelling fodder! i love that there's ALWAYS room for more shakespeare-inspired tales!! between you, me, and evelyn, i bet we can get ye olde bard back on the bestseller list.... ;D
and every "unsuccessful" query is one person you didn't want to work with anyway! i see every "no" as getting closer to the right "YES!" we're just narrowing it down. :)
I am here for ALL the Shakespeare emo teen vibes. Have you read Chloe Gong’s These Violent Delights?
It's sitting patiently on my bookshelf! I put a hold on reading any Romeo & Juliet books until I finished my own. Now that I'm in the homestretch, I just started Evelyn's Hundred Lives of Juliet, and Violent Delights will probably be next. Keep me in the Shakespeare mindset while I query.
ADULT FANTASY, CRITIQUE PARTNER AND WRITER FRIENDS
I'm currently fresh off a creative writing MFA and currently querying a series that's a queer reimagining of the epic poem/myth, the Ramayana, tumbled through the transmigration trope in a sort of mashup of literary fantasy and anime influence. Because book one and much of book two are my MFA thesis, there've been a lot of eyes on it and it's recently undergone it's fourth revision. I'm longing for a mentor/critique partner who's just that little bit ahead of me (agented at least) who falls in writerly love with me/my book, but am also just looking for fresh eyes on both the critique and beta reader levels. I love to make writer friends and give as good as or better than I get. Championing others is how I survive the nail biting angst. The good news about me as a critique partner is that I've been trained very well in how to critique beneficially to the writer and the work. I'm at @zephyrmarksmywords on instagram. Thank you, Evelyn, for creating an opportunity for us to find each other!
Hello, Zephyr. I'm actually behind you (don't look back!), as I am currently working on my MFA for Creative Writing. I'm unpublished, unagented, and rather lacking in friends. I also just started my substack this month.
Anyways, I hope you find the "step up" friend you're looking for.
Hi David, my new writer friend. I just subscribed to your substack!
Hi! I just subscribed to yours!
Oh, also, I started my MFA at SNHU, and have now moved to Lindenwood! I bet we had some of the same professors!
First of all, Zephyr is the coolest name! One of my best friends used that as his email when we were in college, and this is the first time I've seen someone else who is a Zephyr. Your book sounds fascinating, and I'm crossing all my fingers for you while you're querying! It's wonderful to meet you and become one of your writer friends!
MIDDLE GRADE, WRITER FRIENDS!
i might be open to critique partners, too, but i don't want to over-commit! (also i'm terrible at reading on screen, so i'd have to print things!) ;)
anyway, HI! i'm hallie, i'm an illustrator who after 20+ years is finally feeling self-confident enough to tell her own stories, too.
i'm querying a middle grade book and writing the next one.
they're arts-centric tales, specifically celebrating theatre and film, so far. :)
my website is halthegal.art
my instagram is @halthegal_storyart
and i have a substack that's still finding its path between blog and newsletter and i'd love to have you there as well if you'd like!
huzzah for EVELYN and cheering each other on! :D
evelyn, i love how you pointed out finding mentors 1/2 to 1 step ahead of you... SO wise!! it's been so much "easier" to connect with established authors (like your wonderful self!) because i guess they're more visible online... and maybe less panicked about their careers, so a little more open? ;D and becasue i found them because i read & loved their published books!
so helping us connect HERE, where many of us are pre-published but working on it? it's a GIFT.
thank you!!
looking forward to book club next sunday!! yay!!
xo,
*hallie
awww you're the sweetest, Hallie. I am SO happy that you're here with all your joyful energy! Your art is so whimsical and cheerful and smile-inducing. I bet your words are exactly the same!
thanks, evelyn!!!!! :D
Woohoo for Middle Grade! It's such a fun genre to write!!
lucky me, it's my "natural" voice, too! ;D and my fave reading genre. :)
Hi Hallie, nice to 'meet' you!
I mainly write picture books but am also working on chapter books and MG.
I'm an illustrator too, but a total newbie. Your work is adorable :)
<3
awwww thanks, melissa-jane!! 🥰🎨📖💖 excited to connect & learn from author you as well!! yay books!! 😄❤️✏️
Woohoo! Oh and best of luck with querying – I'll be sure to look for updates so I can cheer you on <3
thank you much!! 😄🎭✨🥰🥳✏️📖🙏🏽💙
Hi Hallie -- fancy meeting you here. :) I'm already cheering you on and will continue to do so!
I love that you two struck up a friendship from my last writer matchmaking!
hiiiii, kathlene!!!! :D thank you thank you as ever!!! :D
Everyone sounds so wonderful! Evelyn you are amazing at helping people connect. I'm not looking for critique partners right now, since I have a group that meets monthly and another two partners who check in daily (I know! How lucky am I?) But I absolutely love hearing about other people's projects and passions! ❤️❤️
Wow, daily check-ins! That's amazing dedication. Sounds like you have some gems in your writing group. So happy to have you mingling here, Suzanne!
I'm incredibly lucky to have found two people who mesh with me so well and are so dedicated. I met one at the SCBWI Nevada Mentor program several years ago. She knew the third person and brought her in. It just works. It helps they are herding dog people too. Sometimes are writing check ins are as much about our dogs as writing.🤣 As you said, conferences and workshops are great places to meet people. As are book clubs!
CHARACTER-DRIVEN FICTION (upmarket? literary?) looking for WRITER FRIENDS! I'm currently working on my first novel and am working on what my writing coach calls a discovery draft. I'd already written from start to finish, but it wasn't quite in the revision stage yet. I also publish Comedy, Tragedy weekly on Substack. It's about a midlife writer living with bipolar disorder. Where are you at with your writing?
I love upmarket, character-driven fiction! Let's be friends! :) It's so great to hear that you have a writing coach; I know other writers who have done that and it's been really helpful for them. I also write discovery drafts (I call them zero drafts, not a first draft). It's lovely to meet you, Barb!
I really needed direction in terms of what to do next after the draft I had, and my writing coach has helped with that. I'd love to be friends! I'm looking forward to book club.
I can't wait to see you at the book club!!
Good idea getting a coach. I had an idea for a novel in 2013 and after trying to write it on my own for 5 years I decided to pursue an MA in screenwriting to learn how to write a plot. 😅 That was some expensive coaching but it helped. I ended up writing a screenplay instead of a book but that's ok.
Good luck with your book!
Thanks so much, Claudia!
Good luck with your draft! I'm a discovery drafter, too. It makes for a messy revision process, but it's the reason I love to write. I'd love to be writer friends!
Thank you! It's definitely a mess right now lol. I gave you a follow. I'd love to be friends!
Barb, looking for friends too! My post above that explains my writing! Your work sounds fascinating, following you now!
Thanks, Tanmeet!
NONFICTION ARTICLES, CRITIQUE PARTNER AND/OR WRITER FRIENDS!
I'm a part-time freelance writer who writes nonfiction pieces touching on a variety of topics including food, art, travel and pop culture. I would love to make more friends in this industry as well as work with others who are able to provide accountability and feedback with each other!
Nice to meet you, Emily! We are now officially writer friends!
You as well, Evelyn! I'm a new subscriber, but I've loved getting to hear more about Damsel and all that you've accomplished so far this year! Excited to see what else is on the horizon:)
Thank you sooo much, Emily! Looking forward to getting to know you better, too!
My DMs are always open to chat and cheer each other on! :)
Hi Emily! I just subscribed- I'm so excited to read what you write! I love food and travel, I'm getting back to travel after the pandemic and all that came with it, and my focus has been on food in the countries I'm able to visit. I write freelance pieces adjacent to my memoir-in-progress right now, mostly about parenting and my kid's cancer experience, but I'm working on an essay about the parallels between pushing through discomfort while traveling and pushing through discomfort while life is challenging you the absolute most. Happy to connect and read more of your work!