Darling Axe Editing

How odd. Thanks for letting me know!

Less backstory = more curiosity

The (100+) agents interviewed in this series are specifically asked about what they are hoping to find in their slushpiles. I promise, the content is very appropriate to the hashtag.

Have you had a look at some of our interviews? Perhaps you would like to participate in this series in some way?

Book Broker—an interview with Samantha Fabien An interview with lit agent Samantha Fabien from Root Literary. A resource for querying authors. Find out what stands out in a good submission, what warning signs suggest a manuscript isn't ready for...

Book Broker—an interview with Samantha Fabien

"I'm hungry for mysteries, thrillers, suspense, and horror for adults and young adults."

darlingaxe.com/blogs/news/b...

#amquerying #mswl

"Faux pas" is French for "false step."

#etymology

"Mentor" comes from Greek mythology, where Mentor was a wise advisor to Odysseus' son.

#etymology

Story Skeleton—The Bell Jar The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath—A detailed plot summary, structural analysis, and exploration of themes. Unpack this proto-autofiction masterpiece that blurs lines between personal experience and…

Story Skeleton: The Bell Jar

"Whenever I'm analyzing the plot of a more structurally experimental novel, I start by considering what happens at the climax."

darlingaxe.com/blogs/news/t...

#writingcommunity

“Souvenir” comes from French, meaning “memory.” It traces back to Latin subvenire, “to come to mind.”

#etymology

Beware coincidence that helps your protagonist along the path to their goal.

#writingtip

“Hedge” comes from Old English hecg (also hege), meaning a fence or enclosed boundary. It traces back to Proto-Germanic hagjaz, “enclosure.

#etymology"

“Quack” (a fake doctor) comes from Dutch kwakzalver—a salve-seller who boasted about cures.

#etymology

Avoiding Burnout: How to Write Happily Ever After Sometimes people overstuff their schedules to make sure they have time to write each day—which can lead to burnout. But sometimes burnout occurs when you’re so busy that you no longer make time to…

Avoiding Burnout: How to Write Happily Ever After

"We talk a lot about pacing in a novel, but it's rare to discuss pacing in a writer's life."

darlingaxe.com/blogs/news/a...

#writingcommunity

Book Broker – an interview with Jeff Ourvan I look for page-turning narratives in which the dynamic between the protagonist and the plot pumps like a piston: events cause the protagonist to change; the changed protagonist alters the trajectory…

Book Broker — an interview with Jeff Ourvan

"I look for page-turning narratives in which the dynamic between the protagonist and the plot pumps like a piston."

darlingaxe.com/blogs/news/b...

#amquerying #mswl

Story Skeleton—Cloud Cuckoo Land There's a certain allure to a novel that intertwines disparate storylines, tying together seemingly unrelated narratives to form a compelling whole.

Story Skeleton: Cloud Cuckoo Land

There's a certain allure to a novel that intertwines disparate storylines, tying together seemingly unrelated narratives to form a compelling whole.

darlingaxe.com/blogs/news/s...

#writingcommunity

Rainforest Writing Retreat 2026 Nine writers joined us at Linwood House for a week of writing, workshops, and (of course) Code Names.

We hosted another writing retreat!

And it was fun!!

darlingaxe.com/blogs/news/r...

Story Skeleton—A Wizard of Earthsea Le Guin shaped the YA fantasy genre while never quite belonging to it. She proved that young readers can handle complexity and ambiguity, and that a children’s story can be rich in language and ideas.

Story Skeleton—A Wizard of Earthsea

Le Guin shaped the YA fantasy genre while never quite belonging to it. She proved that young readers can handle complexity and ambiguity, and that a children’s story can be rich in language and ideas.

darlingaxe.com/blogs/news/s...

The (100+) agents interviewed in this series are specifically asked about what they are hoping to find in their slushpiles. I promise, the content is very appropriate to the hashtag.

Have you had a look at some of our interviews? Perhaps you would like to participate in this series in some way?

Book Broker – an interview with Danielle Svetcov What usually scares me off: a character waking up in the very first line of a book.

Book Broker — an interview with Danielle Svetcov

"What usually scares me off: a character waking up in the very first line of a book."

darlingaxe.com/blogs/news/b...

#amquerying #mswl

Book Broker – an interview with Laura Gross With a fiction submission, it is imperative that I am taken in by the tone, a simple and intelligent self-presentation.

Book Broker — an interview with Laura Gross

"With a fiction submission, it is imperative that I am taken in by the tone, a simple and intelligent self-presentation."

darlingaxe.com/blogs/news/b...

#amquerying #mswl

This is not legal advice 😄

Have you ever had a good idea that wasn't feasible because of a trademark or copyright issue?

#writingcommunity

“Zero” comes from the Arabic ṣifr, meaning “empty” or “nothing.”

#etymology

“Cliché” comes from French printing, where a cliché was a cast stereotype plate used to reproduce the same text or image again and again.

#etymology

Literary Agents and the Book-to-Screen Pipeline: Q&A with Jillian Davis | Jane Friedman I spoke with the head of the book department at LA-based Kaplan Stahler Literary Agency, which is most associated with adaptation deals.

Recently, the LA-based TV literary agency Kaplan Stahler brought on Jillian Davis to start their book department. She focuses on authors of YA, romance, and women’s fiction.

I’m grateful to Jillian for answering a few questions about the unique space she’s in.

Book Broker—an interview with Alyssa Maltese An interview with lit agent Alyssa Maltese from Root Literary Agency. A resource for querying authors. Find out what stands out in a good submission, what warning signs suggest a manuscript isn't…

Book Broker—an interview with Alyssa Maltese

"If you're comping books, shows, or movies I love, your query will definitely stand out to me."

darlingaxe.com/blogs/news/b...

#amquerying #mswl

Fake Query Letters by Dead Authors

Join us in the Fake Deads universe for some hilariously awful submissions and find joy in the process of querying.

Terrible query letters by:
• Jane Austen
• Emily Brontë
• Nathaniel Hawthorne
• Lucy Maud Montgomery
• Charlotte Brontë

mybook.to/fakedeads

Rainforest Writing Retreat 2026 Nine writers joined us at Linwood House for a week of writing, workshops, and (of course) Code Names.

We hosted another writing retreat!

And it was fun!!

darlingaxe.com/blogs/news/r...

Little Darlings: Will your idea work as a picture book? Nothing is off limits, so long as you check in with “little you” and ask, would I have liked this story? Would it have made sense to me? What would I have enjoyed about it, and would I have wanted to…

Little Darlings: Will your idea work as a picture book?

"Nothing is off limits, so long as you check in with 'little you' and ask, would I have liked this story?"

darlingaxe.com/blogs/news/p...

#writingcommunity

Indie Insight with Felix I.D. Dimaro Indie Insights is an interview series about book marketing and social media saavy for authors. Learn from the successes of others! These interviews offer tried and tested tactics for book promotion…

Indie Insight with Felix I.D. Dimaro

"I’m still waiting for a future version of myself to come back to the present and tell me how to effectively market a novel."

darlingaxe.com/blogs/news/i...

#writingcommunity

How and why we came up with the idea for Fake Query Letters by Dead Authors 💀📚

“Typhoon” reached English via Portuguese tufão, which drew on parallel storm terms: Cantonese daai fung (“great wind”) and Arabic ṭūfān (“violent storm”).

#etymology