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The Shit No One Tells You About Writing
Bianca Marais, Carly Watters and CeCe Lyra
4.8 • 842 Ratings
🗓️ 1 January 2026
⏱️ 63 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In this week’s double author interview episode, Carly sits down with Katie Bernet, author of the wildly buzzed-about YA thriller ‘Beth Is Dead’ — a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection that has already earned three starred reviews (Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, and Shelf Awareness). Katie shares the story behind her explosive debut: a modern, twisty, murder-mystery reimagining of ‘Little Women’ where Beth doesn’t die of illness… She's found murdered on page one. If you love smart thrillers, literary retellings, or stories about how breakthrough books get made, this episode is for you.
In part two of this week’s episode, Deepa Anappara shares her journey from aspiring writer to published author, discussing the challenges of overcoming self-doubt and the importance of persistence in the writing process. She emphasizes the significance of storytelling from marginalized perspectives and the intentionality behind choosing narrative points of view. Deepa also highlights the role of research and observation in crafting authentic characters and settings, as well as the delicate balance of language and style in her writing.
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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Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hi there. We've got a lot. We're really excited to tell you about, but I'm going to make this real |
| 0:04.9 | quick so you can get to the episode. The deep dive is coming up at the end of January. The lineup of |
| 0:10.9 | speakers is incredible and the range of topics is mind-blowing. You do not want to miss out on the last |
| 0:17.3 | deep dive ever. Then the beta reader matchup is open once again |
| 0:21.3 | with the matchups going out early in February. |
| 0:23.9 | Sign up to kick your creative year off with a bang. |
| 0:27.2 | Lastly, there's an amazing writer's workbook available |
| 0:30.0 | which will make the perfect gift for you |
| 0:32.3 | or the writer in your life. |
| 0:34.4 | Head to our website, The Shit About Writing, to find out more. |
| 0:44.6 | Hi there and welcome to our show. The Shit No One Tells You About Writing. I'm best-selling |
| 0:51.1 | author Bianca Murray and I'm joined by Cece Leera of Wendy Sherman Associates |
| 0:56.4 | and Carly Waters of PS Literary. |
| 1:00.7 | Hi everybody, it's Carly doing the interview today. |
| 1:03.6 | I know that you are used to our normally lovely Bianca doing the author interviews, but I met |
| 1:08.3 | somebody that I wanted to interview for the podcast. |
| 1:11.0 | And so I'm having Katie Burnett here. And yeah, I just have so many things to talk to Katie about. There's a couple of reasons I wanted to have Katie on the show. Number one, Katie and I met when we were at DFW Con, the Dallas-Fort Worth Conference, which I went to in October. I had a chance to chat with Katie, who was great. And |
| 1:28.0 | everybody was just talking about your book. They're like, you have to talk to Katie, a new book. And |
| 1:31.1 | it's so good. And, you know, so much buzz around it. I was like, okay, I got to talk to Katie about her book. So there's a few things we have to talk about. First of all, I'm going to introduce you. So I do have Katie's lovely official bio. So Katie Burnett is the author of Beth is Dead, a junior |
| 1:45.6 | library guild gold selection standard. She's an award. do have Katie's lovely official bio. So Katie Burnett is the author of Beth is Dead, a junior |
| 1:45.6 | library guild gold selection standard. She's an award-winning creative director, a longstanding |
| 1:50.1 | member of DFW Writers Workshop, and was the director of the 25 DFW Writers' Conference, where we met. |
... |
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