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Amanda Lien is querying! 🌈🩸🗡️ @alienwrites.bsky.social · 16h

They’d get whiplash from how fast I’d give them my money

Amanda Lien is querying! 🌈🩸🗡️ @alienwrites.bsky.social · 16h

I’m a total stranger but for what it’s worth: I’m so impressed that you chose to take time off to heal AND time off to rest and recharge — and that you STILL did all this hard work! That balance is really hard, but if you don’t invest in rest, your body will regret it later ❤️

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Amanda Lien is querying! 🌈🩸🗡️ @alienwrites.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Ya know what, y’all were having fun and that is /wonderful/ (also this makes me nostalgic for Skype and the days of messaging friends before hopping on hours-long calls to read fanfiction together…ahhh those were the days…)

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Amanda Lien is querying! 🌈🩸🗡️ @alienwrites.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

I met Daniele at a conference last month and she is such a GRACIOUS critiquer and a wealth of publishing and agenting knowledge! I learned so much from her insights, and you will too! (Plus, her cat is so freaking ADORABLE.)

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Amanda Lien is querying! 🌈🩸🗡️ @alienwrites.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

I feel you, she’s too cute for me to try to steal my pajama pants away from her 🤣

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Amanda Lien is querying! 🌈🩸🗡️ @alienwrites.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Lora wakes after ten years in a cocoon to discover her kingdom dead, its last swordswoman going mad, and herself the only thing that can save her from herself. Then her mothers' confession arrives: they made the madness and left it to kill their only daughter. #DVPit #A #F #H

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Reposted by Amanda Lien is querying! 🌈🩸🗡️

#DVpit - Diverse Voices Pitch @dvpit.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Since bsky is an open forum, we can't control who posts under some hashtags, to ensure you're only seeing the #DVpit feed try a multisearch of #DVpit + category/genre 1) All in quotes (no #): "DVPit YA" 2) Individual quotes: "#DVPit" "#YA" (capitalization does not matter when searching hashtags)

bluesky search bar with a search for "#DVPit" "#YA"

bluesky search bar with the search for "DVpit YA"

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Amanda Lien is querying! 🌈🩸🗡️ @alienwrites.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

A shieldmaiden wakes after 10 years to save the woman whose madness quiets at her touch. But the curse destroyed the kingdom, and Lora's mothers created it. Now she must decide what she owes the people her family destroyed – and whether she can save Yaira without becoming like them. #DVPit #A #F #H

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Amanda Lien is querying! 🌈🩸🗡️ @alienwrites.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Can I just say, your screen name gives me LIFE! (Both my cats are named after The Locked Tomb characters, so it was extra-delightful to see!)

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Amanda Lien is querying! 🌈🩸🗡️ @alienwrites.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

THIS GILDED ABYSS + THE STARVING SAINTS Lora can quiet the madness consuming Yaira, the last swordswoman of a ruined kingdom. But the closer they get, the more Lora discovers her mothers caused the curse – and left her behind to die with it. #DVPit #A #F #H

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Amanda Lien is querying! 🌈🩸🗡️ @alienwrites.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

She was raised to protect. Yaira was raised to survive. When Lora wakes after 10 years and becomes the only thing that can quiet Yaira's madness, they fall in love – just as Lora learns her mothers caused the curse destroying Yaira's homeland. #DVPit #A #F #H

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Amanda Lien is querying! 🌈🩸🗡️ @alienwrites.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

3. Fuck you again *Source: I was a journalist - an ACTUAL investigative journalist - for years. I know ball. You, clearly, do not.

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Amanda Lien is querying! 🌈🩸🗡️ @alienwrites.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

To the dumb fuck claiming to be an "investigative journalist" as a reason for trying to "expose" Jane Doe's identity. 1. Fuck you 2. You are NOT a journalist because if you were, you would know that journalistic ethics codes prioritize PROTECTING the anonymity of survivors*

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Amanda Lien is querying! 🌈🩸🗡️ @alienwrites.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

THE RED SCHOLAR'S WAKE + THE STARVING SAINTS The kingdom is dead. Its last swordswoman is going mad – and Lora is the only thing that quiets her, but also the only person she wants to kill. Then Lora finds her mothers' confession: this was all their fault. #DVPit #A #F #H #LGBT

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Amanda Lien is querying! 🌈🩸🗡️ @alienwrites.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

After 10 years asleep in a silk cocoon, Lora wakes to a ruined kingdom and a swordswoman whose madness falls silent at Lora's touch. To save her, Lora must uncover why her mothers left her behind – and why the madness wants the rest of the kingdom dead. #DVPit #A #F #H #LGBT

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Reposted by Amanda Lien is querying! 🌈🩸🗡️

Eric Smith @ericsmithrocks.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Time for a new pinned post! Writer pals, I host query letters and nonfiction book proposals, free, on my site. www.ericsmithrocks.com/perfect-pitch Near Philly? I host free in-person AMAs with industry pros often. www.neighborhoodliterary.com/neighborhoods Hope these resources will be helpful.

ericsmithrocks.com

Perfect Pitch — ERIC SMITH

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Amanda Lien is querying! 🌈🩸🗡️ @alienwrites.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Terrible news: what they say is true. If you write more, then you'll also write faster. This, brought to you by my newly-unlocked, honed-over-10-years ability to outline a full MS in a weekend.

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Amanda Lien is querying! 🌈🩸🗡️ @alienwrites.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Every time I outline a new MS I’m reminded that the outline is the most important tool in your arsenal when your goal is to draft quickly and well. …but I still get driven nuts by the process lol

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Reposted by Amanda Lien is querying! 🌈🩸🗡️

Mike Chen @mikechenwriter.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

It never gets old hearing this about your art, please tell creators nice things

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Amanda Lien is querying! 🌈🩸🗡️ @alienwrites.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

[rubs hands together] a new manuscript idea has landed Modern gothic horror with sapphic romance, anyone?

static.klipy.com

Herve's Elmo in Flames Meme

Alt: Herve's Elmo in Flames Meme

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Amanda Lien is querying! 🌈🩸🗡️ @alienwrites.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

That is the face of a creature that Will Not Be Moved

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Amanda Lien is querying! 🌈🩸🗡️ @alienwrites.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

#askDV – When looking at short-form pitches during events like DVPit, what catches your eye? And what, if anything, would keep you from requesting a full based on a query prompted by a pitch event like this? (I know it's super subjective, I've just always wanted to know!)

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Amanda Lien is querying! 🌈🩸🗡️ @alienwrites.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

My cats make up their mind where the ROACH IS, challenge level impossible

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Amanda Lien is querying! 🌈🩸🗡️ @alienwrites.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

I needed this little pep-up today — thank you for sharing :)

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Reposted by Amanda Lien is querying! 🌈🩸🗡️

E.M. Anderson | author & schism enthusiast too hot for Bluesky @elizmanderson.com · 24/09/2026

tl;dr: get a booster IF: you're unvaccinated you're not sure and can't find out whether you got the double-dose MMR vaccine you're vaccinated but were vaccinated between 1963 and 1967

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Amanda Lien is querying! 🌈🩸🗡️ @alienwrites.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

oh my goddddd she is perfect (my babies have those same fish toys and they use them to beat each other up lol)

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Amanda Lien is querying! 🌈🩸🗡️ @alienwrites.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

The marketer in me is totally jumping out: When I'm writing at the intersection of the story I want to tell and what agents can sell, how do I balance that with the fact that publishing moves slowly while trends move quickly? Where should I focus my research/energy for best results? #AskDV

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Amanda Lien is querying! 🌈🩸🗡️ @alienwrites.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Love sending a query that can include a very specific anime comp because it's on her list of anime she really enjoyed heehee in totally unrelated news, read the Bungo Stray Dogs light novels and then watch the anime

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Amanda Lien is querying! 🌈🩸🗡️ @alienwrites.bsky.social · 30/04/2026

Oh yeah it’s SO hard — I’d never played a Metroidvania before Hollow Knight and I definitely suck at it but I’m having a blast and the story is beautiful. I started writing this MS well before Silksong came out and was SO delighted when I started the game and realized it could be a comp!!

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Amanda Lien is querying! 🌈🩸🗡️ @alienwrites.bsky.social · 30/04/2026

Thank you so much! I love writing these two gals and their weird relationship with each other heehee

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Amanda Lien is querying! 🌈🩸🗡️ @alienwrites.bsky.social · 30/04/2026

Thank you Danielle!! I’m taking a break from Silksong at this very moment — Act 3 is KICKING my ass and I love it! I miss Lace tho :(

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Amanda Lien is querying! 🌈🩸🗡️ @alienwrites.bsky.social · 30/04/2026

THE RED SCHOLAR'S WAKE x THIS GILDED ABYSS x SILKSONG A woman wakes from a decade-long cursed sleep to find a dying kingdom, one surviving swordswoman, and the unbearable possibility that her own people left her there on purpose. #QuestPit #A #F #W #AgentsGuide

An agent's guide cover slide for Child of Silk and Shield, a 90,000-word adult fantasy with horror elements querying June 2026. Black background with bold orange distressed typography on the left and three diagonal image strips on the right showing close-ups of two women's faces and a ghostly silk-wrapped figure.

Pitch slide for Child of Silk and Shield. Orange italic tagline reads: Survive the madness. Preserve the kingdom. Salvage your savior's sanity. Three paragraphs of white pitch copy describe protagonist Lora awakening from a decade-long cursed sleep in a dying kingdom, making a vow with a maddened swordswoman named Yaira, and confronting the possibility her own people are responsible for the destruction. Three diagonal atmospheric strips on the right show a ruined castle, a crumbling stone mask, and a spiral stone staircase descending into darkness.

Comps slide with a dark textured silk background. Large orange distressed header reads FOR FANS OF. Three comp images are displayed side by side: The Red Scholar's Wake by Aliette de Bodard, captioned WLW main pairing, forced partnership that evolves into romance; Hollow Knight: Silksong, captioned haunted world, sword-and-shield battles, learning about the world as the protagonist does; and This Gilded Abyss by Rebecca Thorne, captioned haunting and possession as suspense and danger mechanisms.

Excerpt slide for Child of Silk and Shield. Large orange distressed header reads EXCERPT. White and orange body text presents a passage from Chapter One in which Lora, newly awakened, assesses the armed and grinning swordswoman crouching over her and concludes that madness can sustain someone in a way no training can match. Three diagonal image strips on the right show a close-up of a woman's silver eyes, a swirl of white silk threads, and a second woman's face partially obscured by windswept hair.

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Amanda Lien is querying! 🌈🩸🗡️ @alienwrites.bsky.social · 29/04/2026

THE RED SCHOLAR'S WAKE x THIS GILDED ABYSS A cursed sleeper. A swordswoman losing herself to madness. A vow that may cost them both everything. (Adult fantasy with horror elements, 90k words, querying June 2026.) #QuestPit #A #F #W

A five-image gothic fantasy moodboard for Child of Silk and Shield. A large black and white photograph of a spiral stone staircase descending into darkness anchors the left side. On the upper right, a close-up of hands pulling apart translucent silk or web-like threads. In the middle right, a pale figure in white lies unconscious in dark grass, hands reaching toward her from the shadows. On the lower left, two hands clasping gently, one in a white lace-cuffed sleeve and one in dark fabric against a green background. On the lower right, a pair of ballet feet in pointe shoes standing in dark reflective water, with black liquid trailing down the skin.

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Amanda Lien is querying! 🌈🩸🗡️ @alienwrites.bsky.social · 29/04/2026

What if the girl who woke you from a cursed slumber not only tasks you with saving the kingdom's sanity...but also wields madness as a love language? CHILD OF SILK AND SHIELD, adult fantasy with horror elements. 90k words, querying summer 2026. Get ready! #QuestPit #A #F #W

A square excerpt card for Child of Silk and Shield against a dark textured background showing faint silk threads. In orange text, the opening line reads: "I calm the madness when I touch you." Below in white body text: It's not what Lora means to say, but she never says what she means to when it comes to this woman. Instead, she does things like kneel in half-dead grass with her blood under her nails. She's still holding Yaira's hand. Her skin shivers at the closeness. At the bottom left in orange distressed display font: CHILD OF SILK AND SHIELD. At the bottom right in the same font: QUERYING SUMMER 2026.

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Amanda Lien is querying! 🌈🩸🗡️ @alienwrites.bsky.social · 29/04/2026

Presenting my #agentsguide to CHILD OF SILK AND SHIELD, featuring: 🩸 a madness tied to blood 🕸️ adventures through the remnants of a ruined kingdom 🗡️ tenuous partnerships born of survival and sarcasm + my personal fave: 🏳️‍🌈 reluctant-allies-to-lovers yuri! #QuestPit #W #A #F

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Amanda Lien is querying! 🌈🩸🗡️ @alienwrites.bsky.social · 19/04/2026

In addition to PosterPit, I'm also watching my phone like a hawk because I made an offer on a house and I REALLY want it...so that's been fun!

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Amanda Lien is querying! 🌈🩸🗡️ @alienwrites.bsky.social · 19/04/2026

omg obsessed with this poster, the red film is sooooo good!!

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Amanda Lien is querying! 🌈🩸🗡️ @alienwrites.bsky.social · 18/04/2026

“All the devils are in polo shirts” IS KILLING ME 🤣🤣

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Amanda Lien is querying! 🌈🩸🗡️ @alienwrites.bsky.social · 18/04/2026

🕸️ remnants of a ruined kingdom 🗡️ partnership born of survival 🏳️‍🌈 reluctant-allies-to-lovers yuri 🩸 a madness tied to blood 💀 the enemy is home #PosterPit #F #A #W

Movie-poster-style pitch image for the fantasy horror manuscript CHILD OF SILK AND SHIELD. The poster has a black background with bold orange typography. The tagline reads: "Survive the madness. Preserve the kingdom. Salvage your savior's sanity." Three horizontal bands of photography are layered across the center: the first shows a close-up of a woman's eye with dramatic liner, the second shows pale spectral hands wrapped in cobweb-like threads, and the third shows a woman's jaw and mouth partially obscured by wispy hair. Comp titles at the bottom read: THE RED SCHOLAR'S WAKE by Aliette de Bodard, THIS GILDED ABYSS by Rebecca Thorne, and Hollow Knight: Silksong.

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Amanda Lien is querying! 🌈🩸🗡️ @alienwrites.bsky.social · 18/04/2026

Woken from a decade-long enchanted sleep, Lora finds a kingdom drowning in madness and a warrior losing her mind to it, who says Lora is the only one who can save her. Lora doesn't know this (absolutely infuriating) stranger. She makes a fatal promise anyway. #PosterPit #F #A #W

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Amanda Lien is querying! 🌈🩸🗡️ @alienwrites.bsky.social · 18/04/2026

Lora has been trapped in a dying kingdom, bound by promise to a warrior losing her mind to a madness Lora's own people unleashed. She woke to find her way home. She'll stay because the kingdom needs her...and because Yaira is still fighting to remain herself. #PosterPit #F #A #W

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Amanda Lien is querying! 🌈🩸🗡️ @alienwrites.bsky.social · 18/04/2026

Last-minute decided to participate in #PosterPit as a late birthday gift to myself...but my graphic design skills are shaky at best so be prepared to be SICK of my single poster! Best of luck to everyone participating; y'all have some MAD skills!!

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Amanda Lien is querying! 🌈🩸🗡️ @alienwrites.bsky.social · 28/03/2026

The sexual tension between me and my library holds queue could be cut with a knife... #WhereAreMyHolds #IJustWannaRead!!!

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