The Anatomy of an Opening

In this week’s episode, Bianca connects with rising women’s-fiction author Mara Williams. Mara shares her winding road to publication, the Books with Hooks → beta reader → agent pipeline, and why community matters. They dig into writing emotionally charged openings, handling buried secrets, balancing romance with women’s fiction, and learning which feedback to take—and which to trust yourself to ignore.

Note: CeCe Lyra is a literary agent at Wendy Sherman Associates. If you’d like to query CeCe, please refer to the submission guidelines at www.wsherman.com. Carly Watters is a literary agent at P.S. Literary Agency, but her work on this podcast is not affiliated with the agency, and the views expressed by Carly on this podcast are solely that of her as a podcast co-host ​and do not necessarily reflect the views, opinions, policies, or position of P.S. Literary Agency.

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