#49: Why Heartless Hunter Was Kristen Ciccarelli's Last Chance
6/4/202647 min
This week on Off The Shelf, Morgann sits down with bestselling fantasy author Kristen Ciccarelli to talk about the journey from writing stories on her dad's old laptop with no internet to creating the global romantasy phenomenon Heartless Hunter. Kristen shares the inspiration behind Rebel Witch, the surprising moment she realized Heartless Hunter was taking off around the world, why the book has two different titles, and more!
CHAPTERS:
0:00 - Introduction
1:19 - The Real Story Behind Rebel Witch
2:43 - Writing Fantasy as a Kid
9:13 - Life Before Publishing
12:12 - The Writing Shed
15:00 - Kristen's Writing Process
18:18 - The Inspiration for Heartless Hunter
23:33 - Creating Rune & Gideon
29:06 - Writing the Book She Wanted to Write
31:19 - The BookTok Success of Heartless Hunter
34:10 - Heartless Hunter vs The Crimson Moth
36:02 - Writing on an AlphaSmart Neo
42:02 - The Meaning Behind the Dedication
43:18 - What's Next for the Crimson Moth World
44:13 - Vampires, Werewolves & Future Books
45:59 - Final Thoughts & What's Next
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Kristen Ciccarelli
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Created by: Bookish Media, Morgann Book, and Thomas Johnston
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Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsKristen Ciccarelli· Guest0:00
Everyone was kind of blown away, including myself. Like, I, I didn't really know what was happening. Like, when that first day it came out, and it was that morning it was sold all out on Amazon, it was like, "What?" Like, it was just, it didn't compute. And, like, and the fact that, like, it sold out, it sold out in the first week means that my publisher did not o- like, they did not order enough copies, which means they did not think it would sell that many copies. And so it's just like, it just felt like it was out of our hands. Like, everyone, nobody had expected, um, it to hit the way it hit.
Morgann Book· Host0:29
[upbeat music] Hi, everybody. Welcome back to Off the Shelf. Today's guest grew up on a grape farm. She then dropped out of college, and then she worked as a baker, a potter, and a bookseller. Kristen Ciccarelli is now the number one New York Times bestselling author of a book that wasn't supposed to be big until it was. That book is Heartless Hunter, a god-tier romantasy book for me, that I have not stopped thinking about since the day that I read it, and today we are diving into everything about the book. Kristen, welcome to Off the Shelf.
Kristen Ciccarelli· Guest1:04
Thank you.
Morgann Book· Host1:05
Thank- It is a pleasure to be here. Thank you for coming in. Now, before we get into things, I recently found this out, and I would love for you to share a little bit more insight into how you meeting your husband correlates with a scene in Rebel Witch- [laughs] ... because I'm so intrigued.
Kristen Ciccarelli· Guest1:19
How did you... Okay, how did you find out about this?
Morgann Book· Host1:22
[laughs] I just did a little bit of a deep dive, and I would just love a little bit more.
Kristen Ciccarelli· Guest1:25
[laughs] Um, yes, okay. So there is a certain, um, train-hopping