If you love writing and publishing advice as much as I do, this episode is going to make you horny, baby! To celebrate our 13 amazing guests from this summer, I'm dropping the first Bleeders anthology — chock-full of sage wisdom on building community, establishing a daily practice, editing yourself, and all kinds of helpful writing and publishing mindset tips. Big thanks to the following authors for sharing their experience: Samantha Allen Halley Sutton Chloe Caldwell Amanda McNeil Hannah Howard...
Sep 27, 2022•31 min•Season 1Ep. 14
Today's guest is Shelby Hinte. I know Shelby because we took a Chloe Caldwell workshop together this spring (all roads lead back to Chloe on this podcast, lol). In this episode, Shelby explains her writing process and query experience for her work-in-progress, Howling Women. There are so many priceless little takeaways from this interview — like the importance of interpreting notes through your own voice and, oh yeah, writing is supposed to be fun! Plus, we end the episode with a new edition of ...
Sep 08, 2022•35 min•Season 1Ep. 13
Omar Mouallem wrote the historical travel memoir "Praying to the West: How Muslims Shaped the Americas." However, he struggled to tackle that subject matter without finding a new relationship with the religion he'd grown up with and apart from. Omar dives into the whole book writing process, from getting his start as a ghostwriter to how he landed his book deal, how he found extra funding to cover the many trips he had to take around the world, and the editing process with Simon & Schuster. ...
Aug 25, 2022•58 min•Season 1Ep. 12
Today’s guest comes all the way from Africa! Ghanaian author Nana Darkoa Sekyiamah has such a cool story about how she used her blog as a launch pad for publishing her first book. Nana shares the whole process, including conducting the interviews, writing a book proposal, how she landed her agent, and more. Plus, her best tip for writers trying to get published and how listening back to her interviews and transcribing them actually helped her craft each narrative. Follow Nana on Twitter @nas009....
Aug 11, 2022•37 min•Season 1Ep. 11
Today's guest is Caroline Shannon-Karasik. I know Caroline because we took Catapult’s 12-Month Essay Generator together, led by Chloe Caldwell. In this episode, she fills me in on what she’s done with the manuscript since then. Caroline drops some serious wisdom on her writing process, how to approach a rewrite, and giving yourself guilt-free time to research. She also reads an excerpt from her Work in Progress, a hybrid memoir entitled "Mother-Eaten." Plus, we end the episode with the first-eve...
Jul 28, 2022•39 min•Season 1Ep. 10
Today's guest is Elle Nash, author of Animals Eat Each Other, Nudes, Gag Reflex, and the upcoming novel Deliver Me. This episode is an interesting peek into Elle's creative process as we talk through her body of work, the North star of writing to your taste, developing her voice alongside her editing chops, how she landed the coolest agent ever, and more. Follow Elle on Instagram and Twitter @saderotic. Welcome, writers and book lovers. The Bleeders is a new podcast about book writing and publis...
Jul 21, 2022•44 min•Season 1Ep. 9
Today's guest is Emmy Olea. I first discovered Emmy's writing through her podcast Crumbs about Emmy's dating experiences as a trans woman recovering from alcoholism whose mom was a coyote and whose grandma ran drugs for the Tijuana cartel. It's a wild story so well-written and poignantly told. When I learned that Crumbs was actually just a sliver of her larger memoir, I knew I had to have her on Work in Progress. So today, we're digging into "Emmy, Like the Award," which even has an endorsement ...
Jul 14, 2022•23 min•Season 1Ep. 8
Today's guest is Chelsea Martin. I adore indie queens like Chelsea. She has been incredibly prolific thus far in her literary career, and I love her "just do it" approach to publishing. We talk about how to balance perfectionist tendencies with being productive and putting out a lot of work, how to deal with a shitty publisher, the joys of having a good agent, and more. Follow Chelsea on Instagram @chelsea_martin_. Welcome, writers and book lovers. The Bleeders is a new podcast about book writin...
Jul 07, 2022•38 min•Season 1Ep. 7
Today's episode is a great interview about book writing and publishing from another show. The Book I Had to Write is hosted by book coach Paul Zakrzewski. He interviews memoir writers, journalists, and other coaches about writing their most compelling books. In this episode, he interviews Lilly Dancyger, author of the memoir Negative Space and the editor of the anthology Burn It Down: Women Writing About Anger. Follow Lilly on Twitter @lillydancyger and follow @bookihadtowrite to stay up-to-date...
Jul 01, 2022•39 min
Today’s guest Bridgette Bianca is a fantastic spoken word poet with a Grammy nomination on her bucket list, and it was so interesting to hear her describe the interplay between performance and her writing process. She also shared a valuable lesson she learned in grad school. Plus, she took us to Howard for an education on the legacy of Black poetry, explained how essential community was to her publishing experience, and more. Follow Bridgette on Instagram @bridgettebianca. Welcome, writers and b...
Jun 28, 2022•49 min•Season 1Ep. 6
Today's guest is Hannah Howard, author of two food memoirs, Feast: True Love in and Out of the Kitchen and Plenty: A Memoir of Food and Family, that transcend the genre and are also about relationships, motherhood, and finding your tribe. We discuss how an MFA application process helped her crystallize her vision for what became her first book, the difference between first and second books, her experience in a low-residency MFA program, reactions she’s gotten to writing about ED, how her niche i...
Jun 23, 2022•54 min•Season 1Ep. 5
Amanda McNeil wrote a draft of an essay collection during the first year of the pandemic.... and then sat on it. Now she’s gearing up to write another draft and wondering if maybe it’s a memoir, or at least she’s wondering if that will help sell the book. We talk about all this and the necessary evil of querying in the first edition of Work in Progress featuring Amanda McNeil and her essay collection-turned-maybe-memoir “Thank You, I Still Hate Myself.” Plus, at the end, you’ll hear Amanda read ...
Jun 20, 2022•23 min•Season 1Ep. 4
Chloe Caldwell has forged her own unique path in the literary scene, and it’s one that I really admire. She gives us the play by play for how she became the author of four books — Legs Get Led Astray, Women, I’ll Tell You in Person, and The Red Zone — in today’s episode. We cover everything from cold queries to agents to small presses to trusting your vision. Follow Chloe on Instagram @chloeeeecaldwell. Welcome, writers and book lovers. The Bleeders is a new podcast about book writing and publis...
Jun 16, 2022•58 min•Season 1Ep. 3
Today’s guest is feminist noir crime writer Halley Sutton. She wrote the first draft of her debut novel, The Lady Upstairs, while getting her MFA at Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles. So we got into the pros and cons of MFAs for writers. And we also talk book #2 since Halley’s currently in the home stretch with her second novel. Halley shared how Pitch Wars helped her first book find its footing, how she turned a rejection letter into an agent, the importance of a midpoint, and other...
Jun 13, 2022•37 min•Season 1Ep. 2
Samantha Allen is the author of Real Queer America: LGBT Stories From Red States and the upcoming novel Patricia Wants to Cuddle (pub date June 28th). Samantha shared so many nuggets of wisdom for writers. We talked shop about writing and publishing start to finish, book advances, audiobooks and her Audible Original, her foray from nonfiction to fiction, and more. Follow Samantha on Twitter @SLAwrites. And preorder her damn book! Welcome, writers and book lovers. The Bleeders is a new podcast ab...
Jun 09, 2022•59 min•Season 1Ep. 1
Introducing... The Bleeders! Welcome, writers and book lovers. Thanks for tuning in to the trailer for my new podcast about book writing and publishing. Make sure you subscribe to the companion Substack: https://thebleeders.substack.com/welcome About the host: Courtney Kocak is a Los Angeles-based writer, podcaster, and comedian. She graduated from UCLA's Professional Program in Screenwriting and wrote for Amazon's Emmy-winning animated series Danger & Eggs. Courtney's been an Executive Prod...
May 25, 2022•1 min
