iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Kelly Beck

Brenna Rose | Author @brosewrites.bsky.social · 03/11/2025

After an unforeseen turn of events, I am back in the query trenches! ARTWALKER is a speculative romance with folk horror elements. Agents! If you’d like to see this in your query box, please reach out! I would love to find this project with editor interest & award a new home! #amquerying

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Kelly Beck @kellylbeck.bsky.social · 06/10/2025

@charmstrong.bsky.social and I are tackling a fun topic this week on our Substacks.... THE STATE OF TRAD PUB. There's receipts & cited sources about the deals & trends I'm noticing as an author. Maybe a new avenue I'm considering.... Mine publishes tomorrow morning! <3 #writingcommunity

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Kelly Beck @kellylbeck.bsky.social · 29/08/2025

That one time I wrote a really unserious book that started as a complete joke to pitch to my agent, and then everyone loved it and said it was my best yet and I had a whole identity crisis..... You can read it #writingcommunity : open.substack.com/pub/kellylbe...

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Kelly Beck @kellylbeck.bsky.social · 19/08/2025

Hey look, people think I'm funny! I love pitch events for the community and support they build. Thanks for encouraing my weird humor for at least one more book 💖 #editors if you're looking for a truly LAUGH OUT LOUD, unhinged romcom, talk to @charmstrong.bsky.social

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Kelly Beck @kellylbeck.bsky.social · 07/08/2025

Thank you SO SO SO SO much for all the support of my silly little bonnie and clyde romcom yesterday for #questpit! I love this book and these characters so much, and it's so encouraging to see others love it, too. Next step, it heads to @charmstrong.bsky.social , and then to the desks of #editors!

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Natalie is ✨ writing a new thing✨ @natalielouise83.bsky.social · 06/08/2025

#litagents, I’m currently querying two novels: 🫀 95k gothic horror (left pitch) 🌊 112k upmarket historical (right pitch) If you love dark, twisty, genre-blending novels in the vein of Emilia Hart and Bridget Collins, let’s talk. 👀 #questpit #A #HF #Q

$Pitch: When a lonely stained-glass artist is invited to a crumbling country estate to restore a set of windows depicting the haunting story of Tristram and Isolde, he must reassemble the fractured pieces of his memory before a malevolent creeper destroys his last chance at love.$ Pitch: When a storm wrecks his island's passenger steamer, sparing only a girl believed to be one of the monstrous Finfolk, a grieving musician must uncover who she really is before more of his people die.

Pitch: When a storm wrecks his island's passenger steamer, sparing only a girl believed to be one of the monstrous Finfolk, a grieving musician must uncover who she really is before more of his people die.

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Christina Adrian @christiemadrian.bsky.social · 06/08/2025

Dead Like Me x Breakup From Hell When Chess (16) becomes Wisconsin's newest reaper, she must learn to control her power before the veil between the living & the dead tears, taking her town down with it. #QuestPit #YA #P #F 🙃Dyslexic MC 🐶Pet ghost dog with boundary issues 💗Enemies to love interests

Mood board with pictures including a girl holding a scythe, a clear glass globe in a hand, a reaper looking into a mirror, hands holding a skull, and a teenage girl in black with a skeleton in a black robe.

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Kelly Beck @kellylbeck.bsky.social · 06/08/2025

👧She's just a girl ((who robbed a bank)) 👦He's just a boy ((afraid of germs & getting in trouble)) ♥️How can I make it anymore obvious? ((they tag-team a hare-brained escape and get away with a loot & love story that should be [maybe is] criminal)) #questpit #editors @charmstrong.bsky.social

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Beth “B.R” Smith @brsmithbooks.bsky.social · 06/08/2025

“But the image that will stick like a burr in his mind, which will appear to him in quiet moments for the rest of his life, is of long tendrils of red hair swaying like the tentacles of a Pacific octopus in the chill water of the hold.” #OS #AG #A #MY #T #H #QuestPit

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Lindsay Bowen - A SWINDLER'S SONG April 6 '27 @beckgotbooks.bsky.social · 06/08/2025

THAT TIME I GOT DRUNK AND SAVED A DEMON x FIVE BROKEN BLADES A sticky-fingered tavern girl scoops up abandoned plans to steal jewels. With a couple of pals and a lil gumption, she could be free to travel the world. How hard could a heist really be? Boys do it. #QuestPit #A #F

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Kelly Beck @kellylbeck.bsky.social · 06/08/2025

A manic pixie dream girl (also Dolly Parton wannabe) walks into a bank & robs it...except her straight-laced ex-boyfriend is the bank teller. Oopsie! She kidnaps him & forces him along her hare-brained escape. What could go wrong? (a pet possum) #questpit #editors talk 2 @charmstrong.bsky.social

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Kelly Beck @kellylbeck.bsky.social · 02/08/2025

#authorsandwriters What comes after signing with an agent? That murky in-between signing and going on sub? I spill the deets: open.substack.com/pub/kellylbe...

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Kelly Beck @kellylbeck.bsky.social · 30/07/2025

Step 1: rob a bank Step 2: oh sh*t, the teller is my ex. Step 3: kidnap him & pretend it’s foreplay Step 4: run STEAL IT WITH A KISS is THE PARADISE PROBLEM x FINLEY DONOVAN IS KILLING IT in a delicious, second chance romcom. #editors talk to @charmstrong.bsky.social #booksky

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Kelly Beck @kellylbeck.bsky.social · 10/07/2025

Spot the difference---I'll give you a hint. One has: 🥵slutty forearms & slutty glasses 🚓Only 1 getaway car 🐭pet 'possum 🔥"Ruin me, then. Ruin my life, Stella, I'm begging you." 🌶️ ✨reunions✨ in the rain on the hood of a car after a cop chase #UnhingedPit #R #OS #editors

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Kelly Beck @kellylbeck.bsky.social · 09/07/2025

A Dolly Parton wannabe walks into a bank and robs & kidnaps her ex-boyfriend...wait, what's the punchline again? 🤑only one getaway car 💋 themed "escape" playlists 🤑She brought her pet 'POSSUM? 💋We're gonna die... FLORIDA!!! x PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE 💋 #UnhingedPit #R #OS #editors

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EB @ebwrites.bsky.social · 09/07/2025

The therapist is in. Rules of engagement: Don't let her know you're a supernatural creature. Don't get murdered by the sneaky shadow creature. And don't piss off the guard dog detective #unhingedpit #a #f #wip

media.tenor.com

a man in a suit says " do n't worry this is a safe place " while sitting at a desk

ALT: a man in a suit says " do n't worry this is a safe place " while sitting at a desk

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Kelly Beck @kellylbeck.bsky.social · 09/07/2025

Apparently, I have a reputation 😂💀 (The grandma and possum are safe. In this book) #booksky

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Kelly Beck @kellylbeck.bsky.social · 02/07/2025

My agent @charmstrong.bsky.social: I pitched your book to an editor today. Your work in progress. Me: oh? Her: yeah. I couldn’t remember the title you told me, so I just told her it was unhinged and had a pet possum. She was into it. #booksky #romancewriters

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Kelly Beck @kellylbeck.bsky.social · 23/06/2025

A little bit of ✨news✨ I'm a finalist in the Maggie Awards! NOT READY TO MAKE NICE is the book of my heart, & I'm so stoked to see her get some love from industry professionals & stand next to other incredible books ❤️ #writingcommunity #booksky @charmstrong.bsky.social

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Kelly Beck @kellylbeck.bsky.social · 17/06/2025

Stuck in the dog days of summer where you maybe get an hour to smash some words out? Yeah, me too. READ: open.substack.com/pub/kellylbe...

open.substack.com

No Time to Type? Still Write Your Book. Here's How.

The hacks I use to stay inspired & on-top of deadlines without 8 hours a day to work

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Kelly Beck @kellylbeck.bsky.social · 05/06/2025

I polled my writer friends and collected their advice they wish they knew when they started writing. The answers may surprise you (hint: it's not learn how to spell better). #writingcommunity #fictionwriters&authors open.substack.com/pub/kellylbe...

open.substack.com

ADVICE I WOULD GIVE TO MY BABY AUTHOR SELF

(and it's not a list of craft books or workshops)

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Kelly Beck @kellylbeck.bsky.social · 28/05/2025

When Mel gets called home, she’s prepared to deal with her grandmother’s attitude & meddling—including her jabs about Mel’s disappearance 10 years ago. What she doesn’t expect is a reunion with the people responsible for the betrayal that chased her away Some things not even Gran’s meddling can fix.

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Kelly Beck @kellylbeck.bsky.social · 24/05/2025

Not to brag, but I just hit 25k on this baby filled with: 🏍️Biker gang bar mischief 💃Swing dancing with a grandpa at a Strawberry Festival in Arkansas 🐭Pet possum shenanigans 🤑impulsively robbing a bank and kidnapping her straight-laced, nerdy ex-boyfriend #booksky #romancewriters

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Ryn Perkins @kateperkinswrites.bsky.social · 23/05/2025

A cursed kingdom, a lost princess, and a prince with a secret – trusting each other may be the key to survival – but whose? ❤️‍🔥Planned Duology ❤️‍🔥Dual POV and Hidden Identities of HEARTLESS HUNTER ❤️‍🔥Cursed Kingdom of SLEEPING BEAUTY ❤️‍🔥Feuding Kingdoms A RIVER ENCHANTED #RF #PN #NA #WIPPIT #R

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Tali Shammas @talishammas.bsky.social · 23/05/2025

In 1900s Latvia, Stasi mixes blood with paint to create reality-shaping art, but when she enters a prestigious art competition and discovers wealthy elites are killing female artists, she risks her forbidden sapphic love and life to stop them. #WIPPIT #HF #H #R #LGBT

The Colour of Blood, a feminist coming-of-rage 70k sapphic horromance, featuring Latvian mythology, examination of colonialism and misogyny, art school rivals-to-lovers, generational trauma, a unique paint-based blood magic system, and all the barbed banter ("Mind your step, lest you trip over my affairs.")

Excerpt from the Colour of Blood: I draw the imbuing knife across my palm and wince. My skin is accustomed to this ritual, dulled to the sting. But today, the blade finds something soft, something still capable of pain, and sinks its teeth in. Blood wells fast, eager, filling a shallow groove in my palette. I carefully pour water into the next. Flickering candlelight reflects on the pools. The water skitters under the light, but the blood is thicker, darker, slower to settle. Yellow may be my most loathed colour, but red has always been my favourite. The colour of love, of rage, of life. The colour of blood.

Tropes, themes, and comps, including Blood Over Bright Haven, Mexican Gothic, and Juniper & Thorn.

Blurb: In 1900s Latvia, female artists combine blood with paint to yield reality-altering art. Stasi, an ambitious artist, is selected to compete for a coveted year-long residency at the Von Nachtraben estate, home to Europe’s most powerful paint magnate. For Stasi, the competition is a chance to elevate her social standing, earn her emotionally distant parents' approval, and escape the brothel where she's secretly working.

But when a talented competitor suffers a gruesome death during the first trial, Stasi suspects the competition’s purpose is not recruitment but the elimination of the world’s strongest magical women. Stasi's unease turns to horror when she uncovers a hidden laboratory in the estate where the Von Nachtrabens craft a toxic green pigment engineered to weaken women who paint. And when she tries and fails to escape the estate, she realizes participation in the competition is no longer an option but a compulsion.

As a forbidden sapphic romance kindles between Stasi and her childhood rival—and more women vanish—Stasi must navigate deadly trials, competitors willing to sell each other out to advance, and the Von Nachtrabens’ insidious web of control. To stop the elite intent on silencing women who dare stand against them, Stasi will have to risk her love and her life.

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Kelly Beck @kellylbeck.bsky.social · 21/05/2025

Spot the difference in these photos. Spoiler, you can't ✌️ #booksky #writingcommunity #romancewriters

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Kelly Beck @kellylbeck.bsky.social · 14/05/2025

work hard and earn money the right way? ❌ Impulsively rob a bank, kidnap your stick-in-the-mud ex-boyfriend & force him on your hare-brained escape to Mexico? ✅ Trope map for my new romcom, STEAL IT WITH A KISS #writingcommunity #editors

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Hannah Brooks @hbrookswrites.bsky.social · 07/05/2025

👩🏻‍⚖️ a law student w/ OCD, about to lose her scholarship 💪🏻 the hot CrossFit coach who rejected her 🏋🏻‍♀️unwittingly on the same team for a competition 🪴 a failing plant shop ✨ 1st in a potential series of interconnected standalones #questpit #A #R #litagents #agentsguide

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Kelly Beck @kellylbeck.bsky.social · 07/05/2025

Thing's Grandma's meddling can't fix: 🍳 over-cooked biscuits 💔 a broken heart ⚡ a power outage in their isolated town 👀 the mysterious betrayal that chased Mel from her hell-hole hometown 10 years ago #questpit #os #ag #WF #R

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Gwend💫lyn Vines @gwenvines.academics.blue · 07/05/2025

ARCANE x BLOOD OVER BRIGHT HAVEN x RIPE All Jim owns when he arrives at the Institute is a battered briefcase & pair of decaying boots. Little does he know that before classes end, he'll pack that blood-drenched briefcase to flee a nightmare of his own making. #questpit #Q #A #F

Image description
Digital painting of a blond man wearing a tank top and a toolbelt from behind, his hand on his hip. In the bottom right is the text SEE IN ME THE WOLF by Gwendolyn Vines. In the upper left is the text "Adult STEM Postgrad Academic Fantasy, 107k words". In a green box in the upper right titled FIRST LINE is the text "To be Techniker was to be masochistic. Technikers worshiped at the altar of exhaustion, taking sick pride in toiling over a workbench or anvil until their bodies failed them. Glory lay in suffering for their craft, in creating small miracles powered as much by their own blood and sweat as the aether that underwove existence."

Image description
Pitch card for SEE IN ME THE WOLF by Gwendolyn Vines. Background top image is an anatomical diagram of a torso with left arm outstretched, bottom image is of dark nested ferns. Atop the image is a digital painting of a man with curly dark hair and medium skin tone, wearing dark green clothing and a gold hoop earring in his right ear, looking away from the camera. His hand rests atop a text box reading "When Institute graduate student Jim invents a device that could revolutionize medicine, his intoxicating suitemate Bash warns him it could be weaponized—and stops at nothing to prove his point. Are Jim's degree & the lives he could save worth staining his conscience?"

In the text box is the author's name and "Adult dark academic fantasy, 107k words." Below the textbox are cover images of the Netflix show Arcane (with Viktor's face), BLOOD OVER BRIGHT HAVEN by M.L. Wang, THE TWO DOCTORS GORSKI by Isaac Fellman, DON'T LET THE FOREST IN, by C. G. Drews, and RIPE by Sarah Rose Etter.

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Kelly Beck @kellylbeck.bsky.social · 07/05/2025

I got to read the opening pages of this and it's SO GOOD and SO FUN

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Beth “B.R” Smith @brsmithbooks.bsky.social · 07/05/2025

🌊A small boy finds a body floating in the fish hold of his father’s boat. 🌊A writer packs up her missing lighthouse keeper father’s things. 🌊A private investigator searches for the missing and the drowned. 🌊A horror rises from the deep. #questpit #onsub #editors #m #h #a #os

A killer whale tail rises from a Black Sea, a red-headed woman throws back her hair, a lighthouse stands against a wind-whipped sky.

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Emily is QUERYING a romantic fantasy and writing romantasy 🐉 @emhenn921.bsky.social · 07/05/2025

If you love: 🐉accessible magic 🐉friends to enemies to lovers 🐉palace intrigue 🐉feminine rage 🐉Viking vibes 🐉one dragon this is for you! #questpit #W #romantasy

Raegan, an aspiring mage, is forced to give up her dream of protecting the realm after the king betroths her to Prince Arlon, the boy who broke her heart the night her mother perished. As Arlon’s icy exterior thaws, Raegan learns the true nature of his cold shoulder, and with time the walls around her heart begin to crumble. But with war looming across the sea and secrets around every palace corner, Raegan must choose between trusting the boy she loved, and protecting her heart and fleeing for good.

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Judith Webster @judithlwebster.bsky.social · 07/05/2025

In Cardonia destiny is dealt w/the pull of a card from the Deck of Fates. When Elara draws the Joker—a card that shouldn't exist—she must unlock her powers or lose her head but her only hope lies w/the Prince whose charm hides a rebellion to shatter the kingdom #Questpit #Q #A #F

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Tali Shammas @talishammas.bsky.social · 07/05/2025

#ND & emotionally volatile Nora only wants to survive college, but when her foster sister is kidnapped by a ruthless Fae queen, Nora faces a realm where her emotions can be used against her & the brooding Fae prince who would keep her there. #questpit #Q #A #RF

Agent's guide for A FAE FORGED IN IRON, a 99k adult romantasy.

Tropes, themes, and comps listed for A FAE FORGED IN IRON, including a neurodivergent FMC, a lost foster sibling, a dual world, and only one horse. LGBTQIA+ & disability rep. Comps are The Serpent and the Wings of Night for the power struggle, slow-burn enemies-to-lovers, and search for identity; Spark of the Everflame for the fight against injustice and oppression, found family, and royal palace intrigue; and From Blood and Ash for the FMC's hidden and developing powers and the kidnapper-turned-love-interest storyline.

Nora, a neurodivergent student, wants two things: enough money for her next meal and to know why her intense emotions flicker lights, slam doors, and wilt flowers. When Nora’s dysregulation causes her foster sister to vanish, Nora joins group therapy to temper her feelings. There, she meets dangerously handsome Ash—an undercover Fae prince. Ash abducts Nora, transporting her from Earth to Itheca—a Fae realm where emotions are weapons.

Ash claims he’s working with Ithecan rebels to overthrow his mother, an evil Queen who kidnaps human children. Nora uses her powers to attack the Queen’s associate and discovers the Queen has kidnapped her foster sister and is using children’s unbridled emotions to create a spectral army that will consume human and Fae energy.

Ash demands Nora wield her emotions to help fight the Queen. But Nora distrusts her ability to rein in her turbulent feelings. Ash’s arrogance turns persuasively charming, and Nora starts to believe in not only him but also herself. But what if falling for him is a trap devised by his mother?

The fate of Nora's sister and both worlds hinges on Nora's ability to regulate herself but also to know when to let her feelings fly at their full force.

Excerpt from A FAE FORGED IN IRON: Using my powers in the caves felt euphoric. Like my body knew what to do, on instinct. Like it’s what I was made to do. Sure, I had no self-control and probably gave myself a mild concussion, but I can’t deny that letting my emotions flow through me felt right.

I’ve been floundering here on Earth for almost twenty years. Even before my parents died, I never truly felt like I fit in. After so long trying to be normal—like everyone else—I’m tired of it. Maybe it’s not what I was meant to do.

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Kelly Beck @kellylbeck.bsky.social · 07/05/2025

The whimsy in this is addicting. I gobble it up, and I've already professed my love for the Big Foot that guards the gate.

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Emma Al-munshi @emmaalmunshi.bsky.social · 07/05/2025

Presenting to the #questpit & #writingcommunity crew… Reasons to love To Ruin the Sky ⚡️ Kingdom of the Wicked x Crescent City ♥︎Led by a sassy, 'shadow mommy' FMC 🫶🏼Fresh take on Romantasy 🪞#MiddleEasternRep 🚨Fills that Xaden-shaped hole in your life #agentsguide #RF #Q #NA #writersky

ELECTRIC SEXUAL TENSION.
Excerpt reads: There's a possessiveness in how he touches me and I wish I hated it.
"How would you punish me?" I breathe out, unable to control my impulses.
Fingers touch my zip as he slowly slips it down, millimetre by millimetre. My body is completely in his thrall, unable to decipher the beat of my heart from the thump of the speaker's bass.
Cloudy background with one half of a lightning bolt

MORALLY-GREY IS THE COLOUR OF CHOICE...
Two moodboards with information about the two main characters

INCLUDES TOP TIER TROPES...
Four book comparisons: Crescent City, Kingdom of the Wicked, Book of Azrael, Quicksilver with tropes attached
The other half of a lightning bolt with a cloudy background

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Kelly Beck @kellylbeck.bsky.social · 07/05/2025

A Dolly Parton Wannabe walks into a bank and robs & kidnaps her ex-boyfriend...wait, what's the punchline again? 🤑only one getaway car 💋 themed "road trip" playlists 🤑she brought her pet POSSUM? 💋We're gonna die... #questpit #OS soon #AG #R

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Kelly Beck @kellylbeck.bsky.social · 06/05/2025

If @charmstrong.bsky.social and I were to do a combo agent/author side substack again, what would you want answers about? Previously, we talked about author/agent communication from each side. Do you want to know what happens when you go on sub? How we brainstorm new manuscripts? #writingcommunity

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Kelly Beck @kellylbeck.bsky.social · 06/05/2025

Oh look! A new little checkmark. 13k for this chaotic mess. Account-a-billa-buddy. #booksky #writingcommunity #authorsandwriters

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Kelly Beck @kellylbeck.bsky.social · 02/05/2025

Accountability. when a trailer park beauty queen impulsively robs a bank to pay for her grandmother’s debts, she doesn’t expect the teller to be her straight-laced ex. Determined to stay incognito, she kidnaps him & forces him along her hair-brained escape. #writingcommunity

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Kelly Beck @kellylbeck.bsky.social · 02/05/2025

Made brownies this morning for an EVENT tonight. measured out my vanilla to add to my egg/sugar mix. Half a teaspoon. Dumped it in. Dear reader, it was not vanilla. It was GREEN FOOD COLORING. 😀

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Kelly Beck @kellylbeck.bsky.social · 01/05/2025

Hey, K, how's the writing and researching for your WIP about a disaster of a woman who robs a bank and her straight-laced ex-boyfriend she drags along the way? Me: 🤠 great! Today's research:

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Kelly Beck @kellylbeck.bsky.social · 30/04/2025

Bringing this trend over here: If my characters Mel and Logan from NOT READY TO MAKE NICE were in another life #writingcommunity #booksky #editors

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