Welcome Carey Blankenship-Kramer!
Carey Blankenship-Kramer started as a literary agent in 2023 at Belcastro Agency. She joined Azantian Literary Agency in 2025 where she represents both children’s and adult fiction authors across a wide range of genres, with her priority being marginalized voices. She graduated from Berry College with a dual degree in English and Creative Writing and later received her master’s in Writing and Digital Communications from Agnes Scott College. Her debut novel, GHOST SCOUT’S HONOR, was published by Scholastic. Outside of work, you can usually find Carey spending time with her partner and their small zoo, getting way too competitive on the tennis court, playing video games, or eating candy.
Carey is taking pitches (when you register you can pitch to up to three agents).
She will present the session Emotional Character Arcs: What Are They and How They Can Transform Your Novel – Characters and their emotional journeys are the bread and butter of our favorite stories and can make or break your success in the querying trenches. Whether you’re starting your story for the first time or are knee deep in revisions, you should be thinking through how every scene moves, or doesn’t move, your character forward in their emotional arc. If you’re not sure how to do that or how to outline your character arcs in the first place, that’s what this class is for.
Wishlist
Q&A with Carey
MWW: Your session focuses on the craft of story-writing itself, which I love to hear about from agents. In what ways can thinking ahead about the book pitch and query help a writer on their work-in-progress?
CBK: This is one of my favorite techniques to do as a writer too, though I am very much a plotter. I find that writing the pitch and the query first not only helps me to figure out the core themes of my story before diving in, but it’s also nice to get one of the worst parts of writing out of the way early. Asking a novel writer to sum up her story in just a couple of paragraphs? Impossible!
In all seriousness, when you have a solid query & pitch ready to go for your story, it sets up a strong foundation. I know what my main character is going to go through, I know the stakes, and I know the fundamental beats of the plot as well as the other core characters before even writing the first word of the book. I also tend to write the synopsis as I go, putting in a couple sentence summary for each chapter I complete, so once again that process is severely less daunting.
MWW: How does a well-crafted character help to move the story forward?
CBK: A well-crafted character is usually the reason a reader connects with your story or even picks it up in the first place. Think about your favorite books or movies or TV shows. Usually you love them because you love the character or feel connected to them because their journey reflects your own.
For example, one of my favorite movies growing up was THE LION KING. Simba is a master class on a well-crafted character who goes through an emotional journey that moves the story forward. That movie has done so well because so many people root for him, and they wouldn’t if Simba was just moving along in the world with no rhyme or reason, if he didn’t feel like a full-rounded person (though yes I know he is a lion).
MWW: Will you give our attendees two truths about yourself and one lie?
CBK:
1: I’ve seen a ghost before.
2: I once got bucked off a horse because I accidentally tickled him.
3: I can’t stand the texture of onions and tomatoes, some of the most common ingredients in meals. And yes, it makes cooking / eating a little challenging.
MWW: What’s the best book you’ve read so far in 2025?
CBK: This is so tough. I’ve read so many good ones this year, so I’m going to break the rules and pick three (which in itself was really tough). THE PAIRING by Casey McQuiston, THE THREE LIVES OF CATE KAY by Kate Fagan, and ON A SUNBEAM by Tillie Walden.
All attendees will receive available session materials and have access to the recordings for 90 days following the event
Take a look at our Agent Faculty for their bios and wishlists
Check out the schedule!
Register for Agent Fest Online 2025
Don’t worry if you have to miss a session—or if one of them was so good you wish you could see it again (because that will apply to all of them)—each session will be recorded on Zoom and available to you for 90 days following the conference.
Check out the full descriptions of the sessions and times here
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Are You in a Writing Slump? Write With Us!
The “Wednesday Write-In with MWW” is a 30-minute Zoom session, first Wednesday of the month, where we get together and WRITE.
It might seem weird to have the Brady-Bunch Zoom screen filled with people not talking to each other, but please trust me: It works. It creates an accountability; it creates a space where your sole purpose is to get words down on paper. I might allow for a *little* chit-chat 🙂
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SEE WHAT ELSE MWW HAS TO OFFER
- MWW Writing Service: Receive manuscript evaluations from our experts
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