Charlene Carr's Blog, page 2
April 17, 2022
Book Review: Where the Forest Meets the Stars
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Where the Forest Meets the Stars
I opened this book knowing nothing about it but the fact that I love the author’s nature photos on Instagram and what you see on the cover, including the first few words of the blurb at the top – that it was “heartwarming” and “magical.”
I didn’t read past that, but those words were enough to make me decide this would be my next read, and after some stressful reads of late, I’m so glad it was!
This gem of a book by Glendy Vanderah was an absolute delight. The author who wrote that blurb on the cover was spot-on. This endearing story gave me a similar feeling to reading C.S. Lewis’ The Chronicles of Narnia – except for adults and set in our world.
I loved the tenderness and the connection to the natural world, the exploration of family being something you build just as much as something you’re born to, and the uncertainty of how magical the ‘magic’ thread of this story really is, or if it’s all up to imagination.
I’ll definitely go on to read more of this author’s work and highly recommend this book!
Author’s Website: glendyvanderah.com
Click the book cover below or PREVIEW to start reading a free sample of Where the Forest Meets the Stars right now.
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March 15, 2022
Book Review: Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson
Expansive and tender, Black Cake is perfect for book clubs. A page-turner written mostly in vignettes that flit from past to present, person to person, it also allows moments for quiet contemplation.
It’s an exploration of the intermixing of cultures, the cause and effect of human weakness, secrets, and the choices we make in an effort to survive and, maybe no less important, the effort to belong.
So much is in this book – from the intricacies of family relationships, to generational trauma, racial politics, sexuality, and the importance of protecting the environment – and like a recipe, all these little additions combine to make a delicious whole.
I loved it!
Author’s Website: charmspen.com
Click the book cover below or PREVIEW to start reading a free sample of Black Cake right now.
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March 12, 2022
Book Review: Wahala by Nikki May
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Wahala
May writes with sharp perception of the roles of women, the struggle, the striving, the dissatisfaction, and the longing for something more—that greener grass. When really, the grass you have is probably what you wanted all along—it’s just sometimes hard to see that.
A fascinating exploration of friendship—female friendship in particular—with all its complexities, and at times, curiosities into why you became friends, why you still are after all these years, along with the desperation to not lose those friendships no matter what. Because they matter. History matters. Love matters. And it’s not easily replaced.
The interloper on these friendships, these women, is for sure the villain, the catalyst that leads them to destruction, but in reality, these women bring much of their tragedy upon themselves. They’re cold and judgmental, and at times downright cruel to the people they claim they love the most. And that’s, perhaps, what I found the most interesting about this novel, these women. Because we’re all cruel sometimes, we’re all judgmental, and sometimes we say or think things we shouldn’t about the ones we love most. And it’s important to be aware of that, catch ourselves, and hopefully change. If you’re looking for a story to remind you of the importance of being a better person, being thankful for what and who you have. Look no further.
In some ways, this novel is an exploration of personal choice, of letting oneself be swayed to do the things you know you shouldn’t, and a warning to trust your gut—rather than that shiny new idea or dream you think you want—at least not without thinking long and hard about whether that is what you actually want.
An interesting, entertaining, often gripping read. I was definitely flipping through the pages and staying up later than I should have toward the end!
Author’s Website: https://www.nikki-may.com/wahala-2
Click the book cover below or PREVIEW to start reading a free sample of Wahla now.
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February 27, 2022
Book Review: Apples Never Fall by Liane Moriarty
An engaging and intriguing exploration of the dynamics of family, along with generational pain and expectation.
Moriarty’s characterization is amazing! Each character, each voice, so well-developed and explored, absolutely leaping from the page. I feel this book could be studied for its characterization. I only hope that one day I can craft characters as life-like as these!
More than that, this is a book about not jumping to conclusions. We almost never know people’s true motivations; often we don’t even know our own – and if we did, what a different world it would be!
With mystery and uncertainty, and laughter and pain, this is not a book to be missed!
Author’s Website: lianemoriarty.com.au
Click the book cover below or PREVIEW to start reading a free sample of Apples Never Fall right now.
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February 16, 2022
Querying Agents: Part Two – Refining Your Pitch, and Getting Some Movement
For the first part of this post, visit: How to Research a Literary Agent
My guess is every author has a somewhat different process on what point of the writing and revising process they start researching agents, but before you start Querying them, be SUPER sure your work is the absolute best you can make it. This may mean beta readers, critique groups, hiring a developmental or copy editor.
But EQUALLY important, is making sure your query letter is ready. You have approximately 300 words to grip the person who may change your writing career (and life) forever, and that person may get anywhere from 20-350 (or more) queries in their inbox a day. So yours has to be good, really good, and tailored to them.
Expect to write a somewhat individualized query for EVERY agent you query. Have a base letter (or two or three based on different ‘standard’ query formats), but expect to tweak each one. So to get that base?
Read on…
WORKSHOP YOUR QUERYMost writers organizations or associations have workshops or seminars to help authors in the process of writing a query letter, polishing their manuscripts, writing synopses, etc.
I signed up for a paid writer’s group that focuses on authors honing their pitch, query letter, first five pages, and synopsis. It was a wonderful experience, though quite expensive (I only joined for one month if I remember correctly and it was around $70US a month), I won’t list it here, because there are other, cheaper ways to get help, be it through writers groups or organizations (I’m actually participating in the Writers Federation of Nova Scotia’s Taking Care of Business workshop series on this topic, which prompted me to rework this letter for a post!), or even your local art council or university may have an author-in-residence who is able to give you some guidance (though their focus may be more on the manuscript and/or first five pages).
I also took a query letter webinar from a free but invite only writer’s group I’m in on Facebook and had my query assessed live. (There are a ton of writers’ groups on Facebook). I’d already MASSIVELY worked my query by that point in the afforementioned paid group, so the host only suggested a few additional and minor changes but hearing his and the other participant’s feedback and reaction to my query definitely helped assure me that my query was likely to grab agents’ interest and the suggested changes did make it better.
The other participants also encouraged me to get my book fully edited and out there since they said my concept was timely, which was really motivating as at that point I thought I was probably 4-6 months away from having it ready to submit. Their encouragement helped enable me to buckle down and get it done in less than two months instead, in time for some pitch events I’ll mention below.
After you feel confident your manuscript, synopsis, and query is READY, and I mean READY, you’ll want to start testing the waters.
PITMAD (and other agent pitch events)These can be great for garnering extra agent interest. I participated in #PitMad in March 2020, which happens several times a year. I didn’t submit to everyone who requested, because some of them I felt wouldn’t be a good fit, but it was a great confidence boost to see that agents were interested in my premise and has really gotten the ball rolling (or secured an agent) for some authors. In my experience, all the requesting agents seemed to be just developing their list, so that is something that may be more common in these events.
I also participated in a writers’ association pitch event that ended up getting me seven requests for partials and led to my first offer (from an agent whose assistant had rejected my manuscript a few weeks earlier, so if I hadn’t participated, I may not be in the position of being represented today!). I’m not sure how many writers organizations have this type of event, but I assume a number do.
#RevPit is another event to look into, which gives authors a chance to have their manuscript developmentally edited for free so they can submit or resubmit to agents. Another one is Pitch Wars. I don’t know a ton about either of these events, but from talking to other authors they’re a fabulous way to get professional eyes on your work, receive feedback, and sometimes find an agent (I THINK these may be more focused on genre or more commercial fiction, however, if you’re an upmarket or literary author, still definitely worth checking them out.)
Some final tips…
Be ready – confident in your query, confident in your manuscript, confident in your synopsis. If you’re not sure if you are, test it out on authors, on readers, on anyone you can to make sure it’s solid, clear, and gripping. Outside of the resources I mentioned above, the internet has a wealth of knowledge on how to craft a query letter, the best probably coming from agent’s own blogs. And when you are ready, don’t sell yourself short. Go for your dream agents.
Okay, MAYBE don’t make your dream agents the VERY first agents you query, but once you get some requests for fulls, be sure you start querying the agents you’d be MOST excited to work with. Courtesy in the industry states that once you get an offer of representation you have about two weeks to let any agents you’ve already submitted to know there’s an offer, so they have a chance to offer too. This means if you HAVEN’T already queried them, you just lost your chance.
Don’t limit yourself to the country you live in. The world is a big place, and readers (and agents!) are everywhere, go for the agents who most line up with what you’re writing and what you want to write. I’m a Canadian, and my only offers of representation came from UK and American agents. If I’d limited myself to Canada, I may still be looking. I even know a US author whose agent lives in Israel. Why? Because she’s writing in a very specific niche which just happens to be that agent’s speciality!
Know what you want – are you looking for an agent who’ll raise your chances writing pay the bills? Is that not so important, but being in the running for literary awards is your dream? A mix of both?
And do you want an agent who is editorial? (I think the answer should be yes, but that’s just my opinion!) Because not all of them are. Do you want an agent who has no more than 20-40 active clients, or are you fine with one who has 100 or more? Figure these things out, and make sure they influence your choices.
Don’t give up!
……
Something I didn’t cover that you’re curious about?
Feel free to ask any follow up questions in the comments and I’ll do my best to get you an answer!
Write on,
The post Querying Agents: Part Two – Refining Your Pitch, and Getting Some Movement appeared first on Charlene Carr.
Querying Agents: Part One – How to Research a Literary Agent
An author friend asked me a while back, how I went about querying an agent – not for himself, he’s been agented for over two decades, but for the emerging writers who ask him the same. I’m SURE he didn’t expect a response this long, but since I took the time to write it, I thought I’d share here too in the hope it may help someone. And I’ll section this out for you all, so it’s not lengthy paragraph after paragraph the way he received it!
ACKNOWLEDGMENTSThis is gold. Admittedly a slower, more limited process than some of the others. Still, don’t dismiss it.
When you find a book you truly love, especially if it has similar tones or themes or subject matter to your book, don’t forget to read the acknowledgments to see if the author thanked their agent. Keep a running list of those names to add to your agents to research.
MS WISH LIST: mswishlist.comThis site is great. Search agents based on categories and particular interests, such as #BIPOC, #ownvoices #upmarket or even based on subject matter, such as motherhood or fertility.
QUERY TRACKER: querytracker.netAnother great resource was is querytracker. (This is also how I kept track of everything). Once you find an agent you’re interested in, add them to your query tracker list, where you can make notes on the agent and access articles and websites to learn more about them and their interests (then add that information to your query tracker notes).
This also makes it easy to keep track of whether you’re interested in multiple agents from the same agency. You can rank agents by using a numbered priority setting, and/or mark them in a “Hold” folder (if you decide you’re not ready to query them, but want to keep them for a second (or third or fourth) round of queries. This is also useful if you’re already querying an agent in their agency, but want to make sure you keep track of them and all your notes on them.
A lot of these options were for the paid version but at only $25US a year, I found it HIGHLY worthwhile. You can also read Offer of Representation interviews from some of the authors who signed with the agents, which gives insight into what type of query letter caught the agent’s interest, and set reminders for yourself, such as the amount of the time a ‘no response,’ turns to a ‘no’ at that agency.
Finally, you can look up comments on the agent to see if people had positive or negative things to say about them. For an even deeper dive on Query Tracker, check out novelist Sarah Penner,’s website, she gives some notes on it here, complete with images: https://www.sarahpenner.com/getting-the-most-out-of-querytracke
PUBLISHER’S MARKETPLACEAnother resource I used A TON was Publisher’s Marketplace. $25US a month, but I found it so worth it (I just signed up for one month), and this would be especially true for any querying author who also wants a good chance of going with a bigger imprint or certain type of independent publisher.
Sometimes I would get extremely excited about an agent based on their interests, interviews, etc. and then find out that they hadn’t had any deals listed on query tracker or only deals in genres not related to mine or typically sold to imprints I wouldn’t be that happy to see my book with.
At that point I could go back to query tracker and decide whether I wanted to adjust the priority of when I would query them. Obviously there could be very good things about going with a new agent or an agent eager to shift their genre interests, so if I thought it was a great match otherwise, I certainly wouldn’t use this to rule an agent out, but it was good to be able to consider these points.
On the flip side, Publisher’s Marketplace allowed me to see an example of an agent’s deals, if those deals were on single or multi-deal books, if the agent was focused on selling the books in as many regions as possible, or only in the major ones.
When it came to making my decision between offering agents I used Publisher’s Marketplace to to track the agents’ deals out in excel (author, book title, imprint, country it first sold in, subsequent countries, genre, ‘tone’ (which I had to glean from reading the PM description or digging deeper in goodreads), type of deal, whether it went at auction or as a pre-empt, how many books in the deal, and date). And I only went back to the year the more recently active agent had started to make it a fairer analysis.
This was actually VERY revealing, as the agent I initially thought was far above the better bet financially turned out to have very few deals related to what I was writing (hers were almost all thriller or romance, which my books are decidedly not), the majority of her six-figure deals were before 2018, and not as many were at auction as the other agent, and a book selling at auction can be a good sign that a lot of publishers were interested and so hopefully a good sign that the book will be more appealing to readers too.
It could be a good idea to do this before querying, to help to decide who to query, but it hadn’t occurred to me at that point, and would be A LOT of work if you have a number of agents you’re planning to query.
BIG NOTE ON PUBLISHERS’ MARKETPLACE: NOT ALL AGENTS USE IT, especially non-US agents, and some agents used to use it but have stopped in recent years for a number of possible reasons, and some use it sporadically, and sometimes six-figure deals aren’t indicated.
So although the site’s info can be very useful and very revealing DO take it with a grain of salt. Do NOT dismiss your dream agent because it seems like, based on Publisher’s Marketplace, they’re not the agent for you. It may take more digging, but there are other ways to get an idea of an agent’s market success, like finding out who their authors are, researching those books, seeing what lists they’ve hit, where they’re published, the number and quality of reviews, etc.
And also, when you have an offer (or offers) in hand (and even when you’re querying), sometimes gut feeling will take you farther than anything else – go with the agent who feels like the best fit for YOU, the book you’ve written, the books you want to write and the type of author career you want to have.
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February 14, 2022
Book Review: Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
This is one of the most beautiful and memorable books I’ve read in a long time. Mandel is a true artist and storyteller, who weaves this tale with such apparent ease, it’s breath-taking.
As I turned the final page I was left with a painful yet tender sense of nostalgia for everything that is good in the world, in my life and others, for everything that will be good, and then one day cease to be.
A book to be remembered, and that I imagine will be read for generations to come.
Author’s Website: emilymandel.com
Click the book cover below or PREVIEW to start reading a free sample of Station Eleven right now.
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February 4, 2022
Hold My Girl Deal Announcements
ADAPTATIONBlink Studios, the new content venture from Endeavor Content, has acquired the rights to Canadian author Charlene Carr’s next novel “Hold My Girl” and will adapt the book as a series. Blink Studios will serve as the studio for the production, the company’s first since launching in November of last year.
In the book, two women discover that more than a year ago their eggs were switched during IVF, meaning that one has been raising another woman’s child while the other suffered through a devastating stillborn pregnancy of a child that wasn’t hers. Semi-autobiographical, Carr, a Black woman, gave birth to a visibly white child after IVF and the residual fears that one day a mix-up would be discovered and she would learn her daughter wasn’t her biological child.
Executive producing the series adaptation are Oscar and Primetime Emmy nominated producer Michael London (“Sideways,” “Confirmation”) and Shannon Gaulding for Groundswell Productions (“Snowfall,” “The Magicians”) and Carolyn Newman and Virginia Rankin for Blink Studios. Read More…
From a media release:
In a competitive situation with multiple bidders, BLINK STUDIOS, the recently launched content venture backed by global film and TV studio Endeavor Content, has acquired the rights to “Hold My Girl”, the upcoming novel from emerging Canadian author Charlene Carr. BLINK STUDIOS will serve as the studio for the television adaption, which marks the company’s first project since launching in November 2021. Academy Award® and Emmy® nominated producer Michael London and Shannon Gaulding of Groundswell Productions (Snowfall, The Magicians) will executive produce the series together with Carolyn Newman and Virginia Rankin for BLINK STUDIOS.
“Hold My Girl” is a heart-wrenching, dual narrative women’s fiction novel about two women whose eggs are switched during IVF, only to be revealed over a year later when one of them has been raising the wrong daughter, and the other has been grieving a stillborn child that wasn’t hers. Centred around a moral question, the emotional story features themes of motherhood, racial identity, betrayal and ultimately hope and healing. The premise of the novel was very much inspired by Charlene’s own life – a Black woman who gave birth to a visibly white child via IVF – and stemmed from her own fears of a mix-up, that one day she too would receive a call to say her daughter wasn’t hers. “Hold My Girl” will be published by Welbeck Publishing in the UK and Harper Collins in Canada, set to release in 2023.
“We are committed to working with and discovering great Canadian voices which is why we are delighted to partner with an emerging and brilliant talent like Charlene to help bring her novel to television. Her exceptional storytelling is authentic and universal, while also embracing her Canadian roots,” commented Carolyn Newman, Executive Vice President, Global Scripted and Virginia Rankin, Executive Producer, BLINK STUDIOS. “We’re thrilled to team with Michael and Shannon, who are truly passionate about this material.”
“I am beyond thrilled to have Blink Studios and Groundswell Productions working on the screen adaptation of ‘Hold My Girl’,” commented Carr. “I was blown away by their enthusiasm, emotional connection to the story, and clear desire to keep as true to the book as possible. It is an honour to have such vastly experienced, skilled and passionate producers championing this story!”
“Charlene Carr has written the rare novel that is both a page-turning ride and a moving piece of literature that explores issues of motherhood and race in a hugely relevant way. We’re thrilled that Blink shared our passion for the material and moved so quickly and aggressively on our behalf,” Michael London, Founder/CEO Groundswell Productions.
Welbeck has snapped up a “heart-wrenching” novel from Charlene Carr in a two-book deal.
Rachel Hart, assistant editor, acquired UK and Commonwealth rights excluding Canada for Hold My Girl at auction from Hayley Steed at The Madeleine Milburn Literary Agency. It will be a lead 2023 hardback for Welbeck and is Hart’s first acquisition for the publisher.
The novel will also be published by HarperCollins Canada, which acquired the rights in a six-figure pre-empt, while TV rights were bought by Blink Studios in a competitive auction, to be executive produced by Carolyn Newman and Virginia Rankin for Blink together with producer Michael London and Shannon Gaulding of Groundswell Productions. The deal was brokered by Hannah Ladds at Madeleine Milburn Agency.
Hold My Girl is described as “a tense and emotional dual narrative novel about motherhood, racial identity, loss and betrayal”. Following an egg switch at a fertility clinic, one woman has been raising the wrong daughter, while the other has spent a year grieving a child that wasn’t hers. Centred around the custody trial for the remaining child, the premise was inspired by the author’s own fear that — as a Black woman who gave birth to a visibly white child via IVF — she would one day receive a call saying her daughter wasn’t hers.
Hart said: “Fans of Celeste Ng and Liane Moriarty will love Hold My Girl’s compelling and insightful observations of family dynamics and what it means to be a mother. I’m thrilled to be working with Charlene and Hayley on this brilliant book.”
Carr said: “Rachel’s enthusiasm for Hold My Girl and its huge moral question is thrilling. Her vision for the book aligns perfectly with my own, and as I learned more about Welbeck, its approach and strategy to publishing, my excitement grew. I couldn’t be happier to have Welbeck as the UK home for this story. To have an editor with Iris’ taste and reputation so interested in my work is a huge honour. I know she’s going to help make this and my next book the absolute best they can be. As if that weren’t enough, signing with HarperCollins Canada is an absolute dream come true.”
Steed added: “I read Hold My Girl in one breathless sitting and it completely swept me away. It’s a gripping escapist read which constantly pulls you back and forth, and Charlene explores difficult topics with deft compassion, nuance and warmth. It’s a novel that will drive book club discussion into the early hours and I’ve been delighted to see such an excited response across the globe with Iris and Rachel at the publishing helm. I can’t wait to see it brought to life on screen with Blink Studios too.”
Blink Studios, the Endeavor Content-backed venture led by John Morayniss, has optioned the rights to the upcoming novel Hold My Girl from emerging Canadian author Charlene Carr. Read More on C21 Media…
Blink Studios To Adapt Charlene Carr’s ‘Hold My Girl’John Morayniss’ new content outfit Blink Studios has optioned its first novel, acquiring the rights to Charlene Carr’s upcoming Hold My Girl for a TV series adaptation. In a competitive situation with multiple bidders, Blink won out for the heart-wrenching dual narrative… Read More on Deadline…
Blink Studios Sets First ProjectBlink Studios has acquired the rights to adapt Hold My Girl, the upcoming novel from Canadian author Charlene Carr, marking its first project since launching in November 2021. Read More on Worldscreen…
Blink sets first project with ‘Hold My Girl’Canada’s Blink Studios has acquired the rights to adapt author Charlene Carr’s upcoming novel Hold My Girl for television. Read more on Television Business International…
A big week for Charlene Carr as rights for Hold My Girl are snapped up in the UK, Canada and for TelevisionIt’s a pleasure to announce that Hold My Girl, Charlene Carr’s heart-wrenching story of an IVF egg-switch that causes the lives of two women to clash, has been acquired by HarperCollins Canada, Welbeck Publishing and Blink Studios. Read more at Madeleine Milburn Liteary, TV & Film Agency…
Charlene Carr’s heart-wrenching novel Hold My Girl optioned to Blink Studios/Groundswell FilmsAfter a thrilling five-way auction, we are delighted to announce that Charlene Carr’s novel Hold My Girl has been optioned to Blink Studios in Read More…
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January 26, 2022
Book Review: Mrs. Everything by Jennifer Weiner
Check out Mrs. Everything
This book is epic. I feel it should be required reading for women … and men too, actually. I wasn’t quite as engrossed in the first 1/2 to 2/3s – don’t get me wrong, it was still good, but if you pick it up and feel the same, persevere! The last 1/2 to 1/3? WOW. I could harldy put it down and it had me contemplating my life, my mother’s and grandmother’s, my daughter’s …
I got it from the library and I’m actually going to buy it because I feel I owe it to the author and to myself to have this book in my collection.
Author’s Website: jenniferweiner.com
Click the book cover below or PREVIEW to start reading a free sample of Mrs. Everything right now.
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December 31, 2021
Book Review: Looking for Jane by Heather Marshall
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Looking for Jane
Heather Marshall’s LOOKING FOR JANE is powerful and important.
A story of motherhood, a story of women, a story of our lack of choices and the fight to choose. The complexities of the women, their experiences, and the emotions portrayed in these pages always rang true.
Marshall doesn’t write in black and whites, but the world of greys we all live in, where moment to moment our feelings, our decisions, and our thoughts can shift and transform and merge; where seemingly ‘wrong’ choices are never so simple, but understandable and often justified. Being a woman in a world that for so long saw us as second-class citizens (and in some cases still does) is not an easy feat. But women are powerful, women are fighters, and it is our emotions, our tenderness, that although sometimes viewed as a weakness, is what makes us strong – LOOKING FOR JANE explores all of this.
It’s a story I’m sure I’ll be thinking about for weeks, from the details about homes for unmarried women I knew nothing about, to the details about back alley abortions I wished I’d known nothing about, to the fight for a woman’s right to choose, which I’d never really taken enough time to consider.
Clearly, Marshall is an excellent researcher. I often found myself wondering whether aspects of this novel were inspired by lived experience. The detail was so on point, the emotions, the scents, the texture: it all felt too real to simply be fiction. And based on the Author’s Note, it wasn’t, but rather what I imagine must have been months, if not years, of mining other women’s stories.
This novel of brave and determined women is a must-read that honours countless untold stories of a past that’s been too long-silenced, that in other countries still exists. Beautiful, heartbreaking, necessary, and memorable.
Also, be sure to read the Author’s Note at the end!
Thank you NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for this advanced reading copy.
Author’s Website: heathermarshallauthor.com
LOOKING FOR JANE is currently available for preorder and releases March 1, 2022!
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