Sometimes, your third novel is your debut. I met Caro Claire Burke in 2017 when she was fresh out of college, taking her writing seriously for the first time. She was dabbling in fiction, playing around with pages that would become her first novel, a book which I edited in 2018. Caro attended our retreat in 2017 and 2018, and received her MFA from Bennington Writing Seminars after that.

Caro’s journey was not straightforward—it involved signing with one agent and then realizing they weren’t a good fit (after years), going out on submission with her second novel and having it rejected by every editor…and then it turned into a unicorn story: her third book had fifteen editors bidding in the US, twelve in the UK, and it’s an Indie Next Pick for April.

Patience and persistence, the two most important words in publishing. Caro kept at it.

Yesteryear publishes April 7th, and I hope you’ll pre-order from your favorite bookseller!

​Caro Claire Burke​ received her Master’s in Fine Arts from the Bennington Writing Seminars. She is the co-host of Diabolical Lies, a politics and culture podcast. Yesteryear is her first novel.

About Yesteryear: A traditional American woman, a beautiful wife and mother who sells her pioneer lifestyle of raw milk and farm-fresh eggs to her millions of social media followers, suddenly awakens cold, filthy, and terrified in the brutal reality of 1855—where she must unravel whether this living nightmare is an elaborate hoax, a twisted reality show, or something far more sinister in this sensational debut novel.

During our conversation, Caro and I talked about how she sent me the novel after it sold to publishers—I mentioned printing it out and having it bound so I could read it (my eyes get tired of reading on screen and I do all my pleasure reading on paper). See below for the copy that has been passed through my mom, sister, aunt, and book group! We’re all fans!

I hope you enjoy our conversation!

Thanks for listening,

Heather

founder + director, Northern California Writers’ Retreat

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit norcalwritersretreat.substack.com