I’m thrilled to announce my debut true crime memoir, Chained Birds, has found a home with WildBlue Press and will be published this fall! I’ve known about this since the end of last year — talk about a secret that’s hard to keep!
I inked my deal just before Christmas following two weeks of dialogue with press co-founder (and author) Steve Jackson. Steve and I dove deep into my book’s details to ensure it would meet the expectations of the true crime genre and its readers and gel with WildBlue Press as a whole.
I’m grateful to Steve and the entire WildBlue team for giving me a seat at their table. I’ll join an incredible roster of true crime authors and other award-winning and notable writers of thriller, fantasy, sci-fi, history, and memoir. I can’t wait to contribute to the press’s loyal readership and extensive true crime catalog. I have no doubt that Chained Birds has found the perfect home.
If you don’t know what Chained Birds is about, here’s a sneak peek at some back cover text I’ve proposed:
After three years in Europe, journalist-turned-corporate wife Carla Conti just wants to settle her family back into the Philadelphia suburbs. But her high school friend Scott Powell, a lawyer handling a brutal prison stabbing case, needs a favor. Before she knows it, Carla is part of the defense team and mired in the terrifying world of federal prison gangs, penal abuse, and corruption. And when she agrees to write a tell-all book on the violent machinations behind the court case — with Scott’s client as an inside source — the stakes turn deadly. Two different prison gangs issue “hit orders” against the prisoner they now consider a friend, and unfathomably, both she and Scott are imperiled by association.
CHAINED BIRDS is a true crime memoir of Carla’s 10-year journey to advocate for federal inmate Kevin Sanders and help him re-enter society after prison. But the mission comes at a cost as Carla struggles to balance her own, Scott’s, and Kevin’s safety while writing an exposé on the horrific conditions that led to the shutdown of an experimental prison program in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania. CHAINED BIRDS is a riveting portrait of unlikely friendships, invisible victims of prison abuse, failings in our criminal justice system, and redemption through storytelling.
It’s been a whirlwind since I decided to write Chained Birds last February of 2023. Before landing with WildBlue Press, I experienced many of the same pitfalls and angst that vex authors-to-be. And because I spent nearly a year devouring podcasts devoted to getting agented and published, I’ll share bits of my journey, hoping it will help others. I’ve even roped a local Philadelphia author and podcaster, David Gwyn, into helping me! I met David last fall on Twitter/X when he plucked me out of obscurity from a Twitter pitch contest and invited me to submit my work for his podcast Thriller 101. He and I are on different paths of traditional publication, yet navigating the same world. His podcast is all about helping writers find agents and draft saleable manuscripts, and we thought it would be fun to talk about our journeys and discuss various ways to go about getting “trad pubbed,” as the industry jargon calls it.
Regarding my safari, I’ll cover my time in the querying trenches, how I benefitted from a writer’s conference, my meltdown after hiring a freelance editor, navigating my book contract with a pub lawyer, and more. I hope my experience will help and inspire others because, good grief, we writers need to lift each other up however we can!
Carla Conti is a true crime journalist, storyteller, and prison reform advocate. Look for Chained Birds: A Crimemoir, her true crime memoir and exposé on federal prison abuse, corruption, and prison gang culture in 2024.
