Sign in

Josephine Payment

@josephine-erin.bsky.social
17 followers 217 following 4 posts

Writer of dark and distant worlds Current wip - a horizon perilous (arthuriana x star wars, adult sff)

PostsRepliesMedia
Reposted by Josephine Payment
B. R. Fontenot is querying 📚☀️🌷🦊 @brfontenotwrites.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
WOLF WORM x DON'T LET THE FOREST IN THE TREES HAVE TEETH - An Appalachian Folkhorror "Olive is eight the first time Death comes for her." 🌲 Nature and rot 💀 Death as an entity 🍄 Botanical Horror ⛰️ Set in the mountains 🐇 Eerie folklore 🍂 Isolated setting #QuestPit #A #H #W
THE TREES HAVE TEETH 
An Appalachian FolkhorrorPITCH

Olive is eight the first time Death comes for her. She’s nineteen the second time. And Olive knows Death always comes in threes.

In the heart of the Appalachian mountains, something wicked lingers in the woods. Olive grew up running barefoot through the trees without fear of what might be lurking. But when the woods begin to devour anything that encroaches with ruthless hunger, and a mysterious man who claims to know both the cause and the cure appears at Olive’s door, she may have to face Death for the third (and final) time. If she doesn’t, the town and the boy she loves will be eaten whole.

Knock. Knock. Knock.COMPS
Wolf Worm, Don't Let the Forest In, Hazelthorn, Morsel, Hollow

Botanical Horror, Appalachian Mountain Setting, Nature & Rot, Isolated Setting, Eerie Folkloremoodboard featuring mountains, eerie woods, and trees
1411855
Reposted by Josephine Payment
Chantal Danieli — is querying MSU! 🕯️ @chantaldanieli.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
JANE EYRE x THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA 🕯️forbidden gothic romance 🕯️slow burn 🕯️yearning à la anthony bridgerton 🕯️black swan-esque awakening 🕯️2000's setting 🕯️devouring obsession but make it consensual 🕯️secret lake meetings — coming to agent inboxes September 2026 🍂 #questpit #W #A #NA #R
My Sweet Unbecoming
A forbidden gothic romance
Coming to agent inboxes September 2026Comps & Pitch
The Phantom of the Opera
Jane Eyre
Bridgerton — The Viscount Who Loved Me

When a scandal exiles her to Lucerne, disgraced Olivia Rooney falls for the one man she’s forbidden to love—Théodore Chair-Beaumont, the brooding aristocrat sworn to matrimony with another. 
But beneath his restraint lies a wound that mirrors her own. And falling for him could not only repeat the tragedy that broke him before. It could ruin her reputation, once and for all.Tropes
Forbidden Romance
High Society Match Making
European Setting
Slow Burn
Love VS Duty
Black Swan-esque Awakening 
Masquerade Ball
2000’s Setting
Obsessive yearning
Secret Lake Meetings
30245113
Reposted by Josephine Payment
Megan Watt @meganwattwrites.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
#QuestPit #Q #F #A GOD OF BEGINNINGS BLOOD OVER BRIGHT HAVEN x METAL SLINGER It was never their power to share, it was always hers to take… 🔮 Unique magic system 🌈 Queer, mental health, and disability rep 🛏️ One bed (but he owns the inn) 😈 Corrupt Gods in power
An agents guide to (book mockup) God of Beginnings; Adult Fantasy, 95K wordsThe Pitch: Magic is waning and war is on the horizon, so when Arden, a seemingly powerless guard, exhibits magic she shouldn’t have in front of the Gods--her days of protecting the city end and the hunt for 
her life begins. 

Female soldier is in corner of imageThe Comps: Alchemised and Blood Over Bright Haven (Industrial World-Building), The Primal of Blood and Bone (Corrupt Gods in Power), and Metal Slinger (Hero to Villain Digression)The Tropes: 
Queer MC
Steampunk city
Unique magic system
Complicated family dynamics
One bed (but he owns the inn)
Unreliable narrator
Deadly trials
Why choose

Two fingers touch at the bottom of page
55019
Reposted by Josephine Payment
Rhiannon J. Taylor/R. J. Howell @mytherea.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
Starfall: a queer space opera heavy on the intimate-stakes character drama, elfy science-fantasy, and swashbuckling starship adventure about a telepathic space elf who joins off-brand Starfleet. He's a stabby cinnamon roll who doesn't want any friends! (This is a lie.) #Questpit #Q #A #SF #SFF
Title slide that reads "Starfall, Queer Space Opera Adventure, 139,000 words, R. J. Howell."Slide that reads: "Pitch: Erendesirel was raised for two things: political marriage and political skirmishes. Sadly, the galaxy doesn’t have much call for a well-trained ornamental husband or sword-wielding duelist. Banished from his technologically-hostile homeworld, unskilled, and entirely broke, he applies to the Galactic Survey and Security Fleet, 
a company of space-faring scientific contractors.  

He just has to somehow pass a basic competency exam he is woefully unprepared for. And agree to a 10-year debt contract to pay for his tuition. And avoid being driven insane by the thoughts and feelings of a crew of a hundred and twenty souls serving on a very small starship. And navigate all the well-meaning people trying to be his friend.

Oh, and not get kidnapped by pirates." There is another section below it that reads "Comps" and show the covers of Ocean's Echo by Everina Maxwell, Swordspoint by Ellen Kushner, Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir, The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers, Slow Gods by Claire North, and Shards of Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold. There is also an illustration of a space elf named Eren.This slide reads: "Excerpt:  Erendesirel—the nameless, the houseless, the planetless—had tracked his quarry down to a victuals shop on the outskirts of the space station’s medical district. From his hunter’s hide on a public bench opposite the establishment, he glowered at the incongruously-wooden door, breathed in the smell of roasted nuttiness and sticky sugar wafting out through the open bay window, and fought for equanimity.

 His hand tightened on the hilt of his family sword, the blade pressed against his leg to accommodate the rather unfriendly design of the bench. Galactic architecture was, as always, crafted for comfort and unobtrusiveness but singularly failed to take into account a full-length sword at one’s hip. It didn’t matter that of all the peoples of the galaxy, there was only one that insisted on carrying true steel swords instead of some technological marvel that, oh, made the sword shrink or disappear or be constructed entirely out of light. 

 He would never stoop to touch such a thing. No, the sword and dagger set of his clan would serve him for this purpose just fine. 

 No matter that they were considered contraband. By both his people and station security, if for rather different reasons."This slide reads "The Trope Nebula" and contains a series of trope-related terms: All the feels, found family, to boldly go (but contractually), swords but space, touch-adverse telepathic space elves, starships!, stabby cinnamon roll, disaster bisexuals, qu3eer, student debt?, lesbians with laser canons, and friendship! (whether you want it or not).
54917
Reposted by Josephine Payment
PJ (he/him) is querying... @pjwrites.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
THE EVERWINTER KING Desperate to find his missing sun god, a former holy king returns home to compete in trials meant to bring his god back and stop the onslaught of an endless winter. 🏳️‍🌈 Queer norm world ☀️ Light-based magic 🏳️‍⚧️ Trans love interest 👑 Hidden royalty #QuestPit #Q #A #F #LGBT
Title page for an agent's guide to THE EVERWINTER KING. The title is placed over a moodboard featuring a Mediterranean inspired setting and royalty imagery. In addition to the title the page reads "Adult Fantasy Standalone. Queer normative world. MM romance subplot. 99,000 words."
THE EVERWINTER KING's pitch.

PITCH
A former holy king does the one thing he swore he’d never do in search of his missing god. He goes home.

Malachi was born with God’s voice in his head. When God vanishes in the midst of a decade-long winter, Mal breaks the oath he made to himself and returns to the home he abandoned—the city where he was raised to be king. There, he’s marked to compete in trials meant to select God’s new emissary. His replacement.

After succeeding in the first trial, Mal demands entry to the royal temple, where he learns the skies are empty. God has stopped speaking to his priests and Mal alike. With no other avenue for answers, Mal must win the competition for God’s favor and assume the throne he never wanted, or risk losing his oldest friend for good and damning the world to a worsening everwinter.An excerpt from THE EVERWINTER KING. Next to the excerpt is character art of the main character. He has light bright skin, dark brown hair, facial hair, and a simple jerkin over white shirt. His eye is glowing like the sun.

EXCERPT STARTS BELOW

“My head hurts,” Malachi mumbled into his drink.

“They say King Ridaris’ eye glowed like this.”

Did they? Malachi shuffled through his memories for any mention of that from his mothers, or the history books, and found nothing.

“I think it means God knows who you are.” Sen lowered her voice, eyes shifting toward the surrounding priests. Kinder to pretend she did it out of concern for his headache. “You need to be careful.”

“Aye.”

“It hasn’t stopped glowing. Everyone else’s did.”

He raised a hand to cover his eye, pausing to marvel at the light pouring over his fingers and palm. It spilled into every crack, crevice, and scar his hand had to offer, like liquid pooled against his skin. Malachi closed his fist around the cold light and pressed it to his face. “Hurts.”

“Close your eyes,” Samara offered. “Rest. We’ll handle it from here.”

For once, he did just that.A page listing comp titles.

Comp titles for THE EVERWINTER KING include: "The Raven Scholar" by Antonia Hodgson, "The Raven Tower" by Ann Leckie, "WITCH KING" by Martha Wells, and "The Red Winter" by Cameron Sullivan.

Similarities include: godly shenanigans, political trials, queer-norm worlds, queer male leads, messy homecomings, and a second chance subplot.

Bonus comp! Dragon Age 2.
1313764
Reposted by Josephine Payment
Gert Ramm 🦋 @rammwriter.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
The UK government frames an intelligence agent for a temporal disaster, putting him in the crosshairs of ruthless state assassins. To save his skin he must seal a lethal time rift, before a Russian spy from the future uses its secrets to start a war that will destroy everything. #QuestPit #Q #A #SF
919397
Reposted by Josephine Payment
❄️ ⓐ. ⓡ. ⓛⓔⓔ ❄️ is querying @itsamabee.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
✨ SIX OF CROWS X ARCANA ACADEMY✨ After an ancient prophecy resurfaces mid magic trial, six artists must uncover who is trying to enact calamity. This Adult Epic Fantasy features: 📜Deadly Deals 😈Ravenous Monsters 🤫Secrets Best Left Unspoken 💔Rivals to Allies to 👀 #questpit #F #DF #R #A #Q
An Artistic Deception - An Adult Sapphic Epic Fantasy - A girl dancing in an abandoned church Enemies to lovers
Sapphic
Sentient Magic School 
Indigenous Diaspora 
Can Your Fate be Changed? 

Martyred by her people, a priestess awakens as a refugee displaced through time to find her sacrifice in vain. 

Agni attends a magical college to build a new life, but when the past resurfaces, she must either embrace martyrdom again or flee, leaving behind the life she’s built and the woman she loves. before fate claims another kingdom. Reads like Hozier’s Yell 

Putting the con in economy - The lies of locke lamora
a deadly education - my school is trying to kill me 
six of crows - ensemble cast x found family 
witch hat atelier - magic consequences for me like 💀
arcana academy - so you like pining? 
Character art of Agni and Fala 

“Can’t you ever do as you’re told?” Fala snaps. 
“No.” The word rolls off my lips, sweet as candy. 
“Impudent.” 
“Arrogant,” I bite back. 
We are toe-to-toe, nose-to-nose, her amber irises trembling. 
“You know nothing.” Fala seethes. I laugh, drunk on her wild temper on I can ignite. That may have been true at the beginning of term but not now. 
I know all about the woman I’ve spent the year ruefully falling in love with.
1414376
Josephine Payment @josephine-erin.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
Star Wars x Arthuriana Prince Tristan has always believed in three things – honor, loyalty, and his king, but when a quest across a haunted asteroid belt, and the charms of an enemy knight shake his convictions, he must defy the narratives that bind him, before its too late #questpit #A #Q #SFF
Title slide describing the metadata of a novel titled 'a horizon perilous', now querying, an adult space fantasy complete at 109,000 wordsA pitch of the novel: Prince Tristan has always believed in three things – honor, loyalty, and his king, but when a quest across a haunted asteroid belt, and the charms of an enemy knight shake his convictions, he must find the courage to defy the narratives that bind him, before he's reduced to a pawn in a tyrant’s game.Comp titles -  The Knight and the Moth by Rachel Gilig, The Everlasting by Alix E Harrow, Dark Rise by C S Pacat, The Bright Sword by Lev Grossman, The Second Death of Locke by V L Bovalino, and Winter's Orbit by Everina Maxwell
Art of the 3 main characters of A Horizon Perilous. Prince Tristan, heir to Karnos, a man with curly dark hair. Sir Lancelot, Tristan’s estwhile enemy, a man with long black hair, and Princess Isolde, a dubious ally with plans of her own, a young dark skinned woman with braids. All characters have their eyes covered because against a shape-shifting foe, keeping eyes hidden is the only way to preserve one's identity
02110
Josephine Payment @josephine-erin.bsky.social · 25/06/2026
Café writing sessions >>>
000
Josephine Payment @josephine-erin.bsky.social · 24/02/2026
A little into for the project thats consumed my life for the last 3 years (and that im currently querying!!)
010
Josephine Payment @josephine-erin.bsky.social · 20/02/2026
Okay yes i can write 100k in 2 months, but are those words good? I fear they are not.... next time we gotta try something different for these early drafts, i fear speed writing isnt it
020