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Nell

@nelsnote.bsky.social
164 followers 209 following 164 posts

Occasional wannabe writer and professional book hoarder. I also draw sometimes :) nelsnote.carrd.co Reading: Ulysses Editing: A literary(ish) adult contemporary w/psychological suspense

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H.L. Schiff @hlschiffwriting.bsky.social · 31/01/2026
An Agent's Guide to CALL OF THE ELDER. 🐉 Jewish Fantasy 🐉 Agent interest 🐉🐉 DRAGONS 🐉🐉 When a dragon elder summons Eila, the last priestess of her people, she must travel across hostile lands to find him before insanity sets in and she fails her family. #QuestPit #A #Q #F #agentsguide
Cover slide for an agent's guide to the high fantasy novel, "Call of the Elder." It has the tagline, "She must answer his call or face a fate worse than death. The background is a glacial lake at night with star borders in white.Pitch for Call of the Elder. The background is a glacial lake at night with star borders in white. The Pitch Reads: 

Fifteen years after violent raids stole her people’s magic, Eila lives a lie. Hiding her forbidden magic, she does everything she can to keep her disabled father warm and fed. The tattoo on her back marks her as dangerous–the ones on her wrists hide her as safe.

When, one night, a dragon elder summons her, Eila has no choice but to travel across hostile lands to find him. On the way, she is joined by a king’s soldier from her hometown and a bounty hunter from the east, both of whom want to help her, though their motives are their own. The three of them must work together to get Eila to the vast mountains, find the elder, and deliver an omen to all of the world before the call of the elder breaks her.For Fans Of: with five book covers: The Fifth Season by NK Jemisin, A Dark and Drowning Tide by Allison Saft, Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik, The Jasmine Thrown by Tasha Suri, and An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir. Underneath is a list of book features: Epic fantasy stories, dragons, female power, slow burn romance, compelling characters, jewish stories, intricate world building, inherent queerness, and religious critique. Between each feature is a little golden dragon.

The background is a glacial lake at night with star borders in white.First Line:

"Based in the light of a cracked oil lamp, Eila struggled to breathe."

The background is a glacial lake at night with star borders in white.

There is a mood board in the center with varying pictures depicting elements of the story, such a dragons, romance, a pistol, prayer, fire, and a woman in a dress. In the center is the phrase: But the gods heard them, the gods pitied them, the gods intervened.

On each side is a list of story attributes: Multi POV, Adult Second World Fantasy, First in a Series, Political in Nature on one side; 1800's Aesthetic, Non-Western Cultures, Has made every beta yell at me, Queer MC and LI on the other.
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🚀 Hadiyah 🍉 @hadiyahsama.bsky.social · 25/05/2025
Hello all, setting down the #agentsguide of my YA Historical Novel (with a Speculative twist!) for consideration by #litagents and #editors! AFFINITY is my #amquerying project. The 61,000 word novel explores the topics of found family, generational trauma, and racism in 1970s Britain.
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Nell @nelsnote.bsky.social · 21/05/2025
Every time I start working on a new book I breathe a little sigh of relief that I still have new ideas and the desire to write stories hasn’t disappeared
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Kayla ✨📚 @kaylawhittle.bsky.social · 07/05/2025
STARLING HOUSE x WAYWARD CHILDREN Historian Vivian meets Elodie, a memory keeper who can free the past from plants, to investigate a century-old disappearance. They find more than expected: a monstrous memory, and an inescapable connection. #QuestPit #Q #A #F #LGBT
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M is queer-ying MG @notonlyicarus.bsky.social · 07/05/2025
EVOCATIONxJANE LAWRENCE why do you need an angel? according to the codex his teacher wrote, that’s the most important question to ask when summoning them. simon knows his answer: there’s someone he worships—the teacher he built a cult around—and he won’t stop until he has him. #QuestPit #A #H #wip
red and black-themed moodboard. around the top border and right border: someone falling through red-tinged clouds; someone in white embracing a dark shadow with a halo behind them; someone standing at the top of some stairs, surrounded by giant red bulging eyes; a faded black and white photo style picture of a dark smudge shadow and the shape of someone hooking their head over the shadow’s shoulder, crying dark tears; red-toned painting of an angel with three eyes. The left space is occupied by a text image, gothic white on red, that reads ‘the problem with angels is sometimes they talk back’ over and over again. on top of that picture, picture of a painting of an eye with a large gold star growing in it.
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Lucy is querying @lliuwrite.bsky.social · 07/05/2025
THE SONG OF ACHILLES x THE IRON GIANT in my 94k YA fantasy where a 17-yr old inventor’s apprentice must destroy a weapon of mass destruction with the face and body of a handsome young man, preferably before he falls in love with him. ❤️slow burn 🏳️‍🌈asexual MC 🌱ghibli vibes #questpit #Q #YA #F
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leona has an agent✨🦋 @leonahwrites.bsky.social · 07/05/2025
ERAGON X THE LAST UNICORN 🌿bone magic & speaking with spirits 🕷️slavic myths in the woods 🪻band of misfits nearly dying a lot 🌞missing someone you never knew 🪻unique magic system 🕷️dragons, dead women, & forest men 🌿coming of age in a fantastical way #questpit #AG #F #YA
a white background with a light green banner with white writing that reads “THE BONE COLLECTOR An editor’s guide to a lush, folklore YA fantasy by Leona H. Lach Repped by Arianna Siddiqui at Fineprint Literary”light green background with white flowers and a spine in three of the corners, a group of 3 in a neutral tone color palette is in one of the corners.
from left to right:
Fawn is on the left. she is a black girl with long locs that are decorated in little gold pieces. Olena is in the middle. She’s a white girl with dark hair & a scarf around her hair. Arwyn is on the right. He has tanned skin, shaggy hair that falls to his shoulders, & hunting gear on.
Text is in the middle and reads: PITCH 
Three magic users a rare Bone Breaker and two spy Animal Weavers- journey into the dark woods to find a potential cure for the sickness ravaging the Bone Breaker's home. Risking their lives against ancient beasts, the three adventure to the highest mountain to find the medicine they're searching for. In a clash of Slavic myths and dark consequential magic, this YA fantasy explores the strength of the natural world while highlighting the struggle to fit in as a young girl.a light green background with white text that reads COMPS AND TROPES. book covers and their tropes are listed below. Eragon cover: 15 y/o MC swept into an unknown adventure. The Last Unicorn cover: a misfit, magic found family. Counterpart cover a royal pawn. Daughter of the Bone Forest cover: magic influenced by death. Where the Dark Stands Still cover: lush world inspired by slavic folklore. white flowers and a spine border the corners.white text over a light green background: SNIPPET
But the entire world stops turning, letting Olena live in the few seconds before her end.
"A wish?" a chirping voice calls from somewhere inside Olena's skull. It bats around, banging on every corner of her brain, the flap of wings echoing in her ears. "A wish for you." The voice is almost too fast for Olena to comprehend, but she makes her wish.
Flight. Wings. The strength to save us, she pleads.
in three of the four corners is white flowers and a spine, in the bottom right is olena: a very pale 15 year old girl who looks incredibly tired. she has dark hair under a silk scarf that’s covered in art of lions and dragonflies. she’s wearing a dark blue cloak and dark dress and is fiddling with a bone.
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Ivy Lin | Querying Author @ivy-lin.bsky.social · 07/05/2025
When 16yo Lena Mei turns to an autistic polyglot to learn Mandarin, she doesn’t expect to fall for him—or uncover a painful connection between their families that could uproot their growing love. #YA #R #QuestPit #W
A picture of Lena and Alistair walking underneath an umbrella together, wearing blue and grey school uniforms.
Romance tropes: Friends to Lovers, Forbidden Romance
Character tropes for Alistair: Rich, Mentor, Infodumper, Sunshine/Golden Retriever, Fake Confidence, Speaks more than ten languages
Character tropes for Lena: Poor, Mentee, Selectively mute, Grumpy/Black cat, No confidence, Barely speaks one language

Art by Joy Ling
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Azi is revising a cat POV revenge dark fantasy @aziossman.bsky.social · 12/02/2025
LAST AIRBENDER x MISTBORN Stars adored humans so much, they crashed to join them. Ursa hates being a descendant, hunted by the monarchs—the “rightful” heirs. Their princess, born magicless, goes turncoat to teach Ursa how to blaze as a star in mortal skin.#YA #W #F #QuestPit
A moodboard for #Questpit featuring from left to right, top to bottom: gold scales, a girl sitting on a bench in black and white, friendship bracelets, factories emitting plumes of smoke, a statue of a prince, "friend" scrabble letters, gold rings, mountains, a comet, a star in the center with "beware the stars" written on it, a broken heart, a princess in a dress and crown, knights with a horse, knuckles covered in blood, and a watchtower. The moodboard is assembled to represent the aesthetics of the YA Fantasy, Starsent.
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Ivy Lin | Querying Author @ivy-lin.bsky.social · 07/05/2025
Selectively mute 16yo Lena Mei wants to read a Chinese poem to honour her late mother, but she can’t read it. A charming autistic polyglot offers to help—not only with her speech but also in discovering her own autism. #YA #R #QuestPit #W
Quote from The Love In Your Words:
“If this year has taught me anything besides how deeply one can feel heartache and pain, it’s that time spent nurturing love can heal sorrow.”
Top row, left to right: the Liverpool Chinatown arch, floating red Chinese lanterns, the Royal Liver Building lit up in red in front of the night sky
Middle row, left to right: The Royal Albert Dock, the quote from The Love In Your Words, cranes on a shipping dock lit up at night
Bottom row, left to right: candles and flowers on gravestones at night, a couple standing underneath an umbrella on a rainy night, fairy lights shaped like stars and moons hanging from trees
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Dani & Ash are 🏴‍☠️ editing 🏴‍☠️ @creatingryunsei.bsky.social · 07/05/2025
DARK WATER DAUGHTER X ONCE UPON A BROKEN HEART A fiery maid races to sea after her bff & a legendary map, but a passionate romance w/ the pirate captain opens her eyes to a world of danger & she must do anything to get the map before she loses her friend. #questpit #Q #NA #RF
The first slide of an Agent's Guide for the novel A SIREN'S CALL. It has a sapphire blue background with bubbles, bordered once in black, then once in a very pale blue. In the centre there is a circle with around a quarter of sea at the bottom and the rest the sky. There are two blue seagrass, one on either side of the circle. Curved around the top of the circle it says the author's names, "Danielle Bradbury" and "Ashlea Screaton", and mirrored at the bottom it gives the name and genre as "New adult slowburn romantic fantasy". The title "THE SIREN'S CALL" is in the centre of the circle but sticks out either end, the letters on the blue are coloured pale blue and the ones over the circle are coloured black. Beneath the title in smaller letters is the word count, "90k words".The second slide of an Agent's Guide for the novel A SIREN'S CALL. It has a sapphire blue background with bubbles, bordered once in black, then once in a very pale blue. At the top there is a black title, split off with a little blue shore bordered with white, reading "Pitch". The rest of the slide reads in white "Courting a Lord could've been Delphine's escape from her violent employer, but when her best friend is sent with pirates after a mythical map, she refuses to be left behind.

A budding romance with the Captain reveals he is tailed by a dark past which could sabotage the mission, but the pirates have claimed her friend as collateral. She must do anything to get the map-even using the Captain's secret against him-or lose her friend."The third slide of the Guide. It has a sapphire blue background with bubbles, bordered once in black, then once in a very pale blue. At the top there is a black title, split off with a little blue shore bordered with white, reading "Comps". Below, there are five images of book covers split evenly, alternating between being on the bottom of the page, or the top of the page. The space above/below the book has some pale blue text, and each book is split from the others with a little decorative line.

From left to right:
The Stardust Thief by Chelsea Abdullah - Journey for a mythical artefact
Dark Water Daughter by H.M. Long - Loyalty & slowburn romance
Daughter of the Pirate King by Tricia Levenseller - Power dynamics & trauma
Once Upon A Broken Heart by Stephanie Garber - Cocky but hopelessly romantic LI
The Ever King by L.J. Andrews - Complex romance & identityThe fourth slide for the novel A SIREN'S CALL. It has a sapphire blue background with bubbles, bordered once in black, then once in a very pale blue. At the top there is a black title, split off with a little blue shore bordered with white, reading "Excerpt". The rest of the slide reads in white "Few things gave Delphine the same rush as finishing a book on stolen time.

The end of this faerytale had been evading her for days, interrupted repeatedly by chiming bells, banal instructions, or nipping in her ear to ‘get a move on!’. Each time accompanied by a lamenting sigh, the book’s scarred spine deforming further as she wedged it open with whatever she could find. Pots and pans weren’t preferable, but were the usual suspects.

It didn’t matter that she could recite the tale cover to cover with her eyes closed. She longed for the rhythm of the words to lull her into another land, another time, another life. An adventure, or a change in scenery from cold stone and colder steel.

Far away from chamber pots, snooty sneers and vile tempers."
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Melanie is querying @melanielocke.bsky.social · 07/05/2025
ONE DARK WINDOW x MALICE A cottagecore witch love interest with healing magic who would be the perfect main character for a cozy fantasy but instead her girlfriend is a shadow sorceress haunted by a monster so now she has to go through the horrors #questpit #A #F #Q #LGBT
Moodboard. Cottagecore. Top left: plus sized redhead woman. Top middle: a basket with a book and herbs. Top right: spellbook, herbs and candle. Middle left: stone circle. Middle right: mirror and strawberries. Bottom left: cottage w flowers. Bottom middle: path in forest Bottom right: tea w flowers
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Melanie is querying @melanielocke.bsky.social · 07/05/2025
ARCANE x OUR INFINITE FATES A dying mage and his partner seek to prevent magic from killing mages. Their efforts turn them both into soulless immortals. Centuries later, two magic scientists seek to stop a blight, and they must find a way to kill these cursed gods. #Questpit #F #W #A #LGBT
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James A Lyons @jalwrites.bsky.social · 07/05/2025
Whilst honouring his estranged uncle's dying wish to reunite six drag queen activists, a young gay man learns the dark truth about his adoptive mother. With her past about to impact his future, he must choose—his uncle’s legacy or the woman who raised him. (New adult romcom) #questpit #Con #NA #AG
A fake magazine cover for Soho Now. It features a drag queen in blonde wig and black dress singing in front of a blue curtain. Text overall reads Mew Adult Romantic Comedy, £1.70, and also a barcode with September 2025 underneath. The main headline reads East End boys and West End girls. 1985 had them, 2025 needs them. Inside the rise, fall, and rise again of The Dragnificent Seven.
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elif ⚡ @rydeen1997.bsky.social · 07/05/2025
Damla wants the perfect, personal portfolio to finally enroll in the art college of her dreams. But in order to draw her mother, she must retrieve her from the pond she loves to swim in - and bring all her secrets out into the light... #questpit #W #A #F #S
Nymph's Pond - an adult fantasy novel currently in progressThe pitch: when her mother disappears into the town's local pond, Damla sets out to retrieve her - only to realize that her mother has no intention to leave it and keeps secrets that could change their relationship forever. The town's grudge against Damla and her mother might not be entirely unjustified... but potentially lethal all the same.

Comps: small-town magic à la THE BOOK OF LOVE (Kelly Link)
complicated sapphic relationships à la BLACK WATER SISTER (Zen Cho)
magical realist künstlerroman à la THIRTY NAMES OF NIGHT (Zeyn Joukhadar)Themes & elements:
- small town vibes
- a distant mansion and an ostracized family
- the struggles of a young artist
- female-centric cast
- complicated mother-daughter relationships
- inspired by the paintings of John William WaterhouseSnippet:
“Your art should strive for something universal. Nobody will care about your mother. Only of your skill.”
Right in front of Damla were beautiful images waiting to be turned to paintings in her mind's eye. The silver of the pond. Her mother, clearer than ever, and yes, more home than ever, too. Wet and looking calm, no unnecessary skin on her, thin but not skeletal, gaunt but not haunted. Blond hair almost golden from the water. Hazel eyes glimmering like polished wood. This was an image that Waterhouse would not have messed up. He’d have thought of it, and here it was, right in front of Damla, her own, personal *Undine*. But in her head, the image turned out ugly just by having Damla’s name on it. She thought of the arm that she had drawn earlier that day, the mangled arm that had mangled everything else about the artwork, and she knew that her mother was right. She had no skill. She didn’t know what she wanted besides wanting *out*. She couldn’t get into college. She was stuck with her mother, an artist without an artwork. 
All she did was paint Damla’s world black from the comfort of her big bathtub.
“And who cares about *yours*?” Damla asked. 
Her mother’s eyes widened ever so slightly, round and fish-like. It was the first time Damla had ever seen her mother in an emotion outside of cool annoyance.
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Charlotte Hayward ✨ @thatchazza.bsky.social · 07/05/2025
DO YOUR WORST x BUSINESS OR PLEASURE Max's to-do list: 💥Suppress his errant teleportation curse 🩺Survive 5th year of med school 🧠Go back to therapy for his OCD NOT on his list: 📰Meet a cute (& nosy) journalist 🎆Fake date her for New Year's Eve 💛Fall hopelessly in love #QuestPit #A #R #F #W
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K.D. Lohr @kdlohr.bsky.social · 07/05/2025
A new #agentsguide to FEAR OF THE WEAVER ✨ Enter cursed sands and holy dreams in my 90k YA high fantasy 🏹 returning to the #amquerying trenches after extensive revisions! #questpit #Q #YA #F #agentguide
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𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐫 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐠 🍃 @charscrawls.bsky.social · 07/05/2025
🎸 daisy jones x knives out 🗡️ the songstress, the high-flyer, the gambler, the sweetheart, the watcher, the matriarch and the rogue. seven suspects. one the killer of renowned rockstar sam corvi. but who? only they can tell you #questpit #Q #A #LF #MY
a moodboard detailing nine images related to my book ALL THE DEVILS in order they are: a neon rock n roll sign, london (notably big ben), a man playing the guitar, a man punching a mirror, a man staring forward into the camera with only his eye showing, someone walking down a hallway, stars falling from the sky, photos hanging from the ceiling and finally, an audience at a gig. all nine images have a red hue.
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austin (🛤️ is querying 🛤️) @austinsgrace.bsky.social · 07/05/2025
HOW TO COME HOME 🛤️ PEAKY BLINDERS x CAT SEBASTIAN 🛤️ A newly freed convict takes a job working for a single father at his small-town general store, only to find that his criminal past and estranged family aren’t so easily left behind bars. #questpit #Q (in June) #A #HF #R
Cover card for How to Come Home, an upmarket queer historical romance complete at 107k words. Background of a cornfield at dusk with a full moon visible, with gold corner decorations in the top left and bottom right corners. A painting of Nathan and Lawrence at the center: Lawrence, sitting to the left, is a white blond man playing piano and smiling, with glasses hanging from his neck. Nathan, right, is a dark-haired white man watching him play. (Art by nikespera)PITCH
Ten years ago, Nathan Gilliard turned informant on his family’s Prohibition criminal empire, damning his brothers to prison in exchange for a lesser sentence of his own. Now a free man, all he wants is a quiet, solitary life, never forgetting what he did to his family—or why.
Taking a job in a small-town general store is the perfect stopgap to get back on his feet after a decade behind bars. But his new boss, single father Lawrence Freburg, is everything Nathan’s upbringing and time in prison weren’t—open, earnest, and kindhearted. As they live and work side by side, business compatibility turns to companionship and then an intimacy neither man expected—a bond that makes Nathan question his pursuit of a solitary life over one lived in partnership. 
But Nathan’s past isn’t that easy to abandon, and when his old life and older secrets return with a vengeance, they threaten to destroy everything he and Lawrence have begun to build. Forced to face the wreckage of his former life, Nathan and Lawrence must confront the consequences of holding their pasts too present if they have any hope of building a future together.COMPS:
Peaky Blinders:
- Crime family, criminal brothers,
- The costs of winning vs. the costs of losing
- The (in)justice of vengeance
We Could Be So Good:
- Queerness & homemaking
- 20th-century American life
- Coworkers/roommates-to-lovers
+ Sounds like…
- Laurel Hell by Mitski
- Babel by Mumford & Sons
- Hozier by HozierSNIPPET
He removes his glasses, careful not to strain the chain as he holds them in one hand and polishes the lenses with his tan shirt. The tension at the corners of his eyes relaxes as he cleans, and Nathan watches the simple calm on his face.

Seeing Lawrence without his glasses is as rare as a lightning strike, and just as stunning. It must be unsettling, frightening, to give up that boon to his vision, but Nathan relishes these moments he can selfishly fancy himself a confidant of Lawrence’s utmost trust. Not just through the physical ease on his face—the implicit trust, the fact he’s comfortable enough to be in such a state with Nathan. 
Or perhaps he just needs to clear a smudge.

[Portrait of Nathan on the left and Lawrence on the right. Art by luneillusoire]
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Melody Thio @melodythio.bsky.social · 07/05/2025
SONG TO DROWN RIVERS x CRUEL PRINCE x 4TH WING x APOTHECARY DIARIES ❤️Soulmates 🗡️Enemies-to-lovers 👑Assassin x Crown Prince 🔥Slow burn romance, fast & furious lust 🩸Vampire-like demons 😈Everyone's morally grey ☠️REVENGE☠️ 🪷C-drama vibe #Q #RF #F #NA #questpit
Moodboard:
1: Woman holding knife against a man's throat
2: Picture of two hands reaching out to each other with the writing "If I die, I'm taking you with me"
3: Woman in dancer's outfit holding a dagger
4: Lotus flowers
5: Man and woman dressed in red Chinese wedding clothes leaning in for a kiss
6: A hand holding down tied up wrists
7: Handsome Chinese man
8: The corridor of an ancient Chinese palace with red pillars
9: A man pressing his lips against a woman's neck
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B. van Bodegom 📃is AGENTED @bvbodegom.bsky.social · 07/05/2025
CABIN IN THE WOODS×JOHN DIES AT THE END×KNIVES OUT When their detective friend is murdered during their annual gaming retreat, 5 dads must use their years of #TTRPG experience—and puns—to solve the crime before they're all killed off like NPCs in a badly-written campaign. 🎲🥓 #QuestPit #A #H #MY #W
The image shows a horror-comedy novel cover titled "DAD BODIES." The top of the cover reads "THE GAME JUST TOOK A DAD TURN" with "DAD" in a different color. 

The background features a haunted house with multiple towers and illuminated windows against a dark backdrop. At the center is a 20-sided die (D20) used in tabletop role-playing games like Dungeons & Dragons, with visible numbers including 1, 7, 13, and 19. The die is surrounded by red blood splatter effects.

At the bottom of the cover are six men with expressions of terror and shock. One man is wearing a white shirt over his head. These men are the dads referenced in the title.
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L. K. Carter @lkcarterauthor.bsky.social · 07/05/2025
Four witches open a cozy bakery, but the detective next door would do anything to expose them for who they really are. If he succeeds they could be burned at the stake or worse...he could ruin their love lives! #QuestPit #Q #A #F #magicrealism #cozy #witch #romance #RF
Moodboard for a cozy, witchy story including a warmly lit library, a greenhouse bursting with plants, coffee and herbs, a fresh baked cinnamon roll, ivy climbing a brick wall, green marijuana leaves, a sparkling clear crystal, and a woman's hand performing a spell above a worn spellbook
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alyssa @alyssaarcher.bsky.social · 07/05/2025
When the King’s lethal plans to eradicate magic threatens to expose a noble’s seer abilities, she exploits her engagement with the King’s son to uncover the Crown’s secrets, but her fiancé’s fascination with poison could make her his next test subject if she’s caught #QuestPit #YA #F #Q #AgentsGuide
Cream background with gray lines curving across it. Brown outlines of flowers border the top left and bottom right corners. “An Agent’s Guide To,” “A Crown of Poison,” “YA Fantasy - 95k words,” and “Alyssa Archer” mark the center of the page in brown.Three graphics of amber jars with white labels sit on a brown wooden shelf. “Craft Your Poison” marks the front of the shelf in black cursive. 
First jar: A yellow flower with green stems sits inside the jar. “Ingredient,” “Enemies to Lovers,” and “‘If you’re going to threaten to poison me, you should understand what you’re trying to poison me with’” mark the label. 
Second jar: Dark indigo berries with lime green leaves fill the jar. “Ingredient,” “Involuntary visions of the future,” and “Blue, unseeing eyes bore into me. Their emptiness seizes my consciousness, twisting it awake. When I blink, the woman’s eyes close, and she disappears into the darkness” marks the label. 
Third jar: A green leaf sits inside the jar. “Ingredient,” “Lessons in poison,” and “]I thought you couldn’t digest information from just reading.’ His chin dips, waiting to see if I uphold the lie I forgot about. I shrug. ‘It had drawings’” marks the label.An aged sheet of parchment lies across a light wood table. “First page” with a line beneath it marks the top of the parchment. 
Text fills the rest of the parchment: Heat skitters across my legs and arms as I sink into the tub in my grandmother Leelee’s washroom. The lavender and rose-perfumed water suffocates the darkened room. My nose flinches at the disturbingly familiar scents, and my eyelids squeeze shut as I remember my vision from five years ago. The bloody images flash behind my eyes, and piercing screams reverberate in my ears. My gloved fingers scrape the tub’s sides as they curl into fists.
“Star.” River’s even voice draws me back to the present and to what I promised her I’d do.
I meet River’s pale Seer eyes. They mirror my own; my sky-blue irises faded to almost white after my Seer abilities showed at twelve.
“Yes,” I grumble, irritated with her forcing me to trigger my first vision. Even though we do this every week, I hate it. I’d rather wear sopping clothes everyday than remember what happened on my twelfth birthday.
 I’m only obeying her wishes because of the deal we made when I was thirteen.
The pleasant warmth from the bath loosens the knots in my back, and my anxious breaths slow until they’re steady.
“Are you ready?” River’s dress plumes around her as she kneels beside the wooden tub.
 “Yes.”
She unsheathes her dagger and flips her hand. A shard of light slips through the closed curtains, highlighting the dark edges of the Eye on her palm. She presses the blade’s tip into the pad of her index finger, and crimson bubbles from the wound. After sheathing her dagger, she leans over the steaming water, positioning her finger beneath my nose. A collage with 12 photos.
First photo is of yellow daffodils. Second photo is the book cover of “Violet Made of Thorns” by Gina Chen. Gold roses on green vines curve up the purple cover. Third photo is of a wine glass filled with a crimson liquid and dried flowers. Fourth photo is of a golden crown on a stool covered by a tan sheet. Fifth photo is of purple foxglove in a blurred field. Sixth photo is of a blond woman wearing a blue gown in front of a wall of red flowers. Seventh photo is of a blond man lying on the floor with a necklace dangling over his head. Eighth photo is a close-up of a light blue eye beside white flowers on the grass. Ninth photo is of a cliff with the sea at its bottom. Tenth photo is of the black pommel of a rusty sword. Eleventh photo is the book cover of “Defy the Night” by Brigid Kemmerer. Purple flowers surround a far away shot of a castle on the purple book cover. Twelfth photo is of purple calla lilies.
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Sarah Hudson @sarahhudsonbooks.bsky.social · 07/05/2025
Plagued by the choice between duty to her people and following her heart, a competition for the princess’s hand in marriage holds the key to her Kingdom’s survival. 🏹Marriage Competition ✨Secret Romance 🔮Meddling Mind Magic 📚Secrets of the Past 💕Second Chance Romance #QuestPit #Q #A #F #RF
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Morgan is Querying @morgan-writes.bsky.social · 07/05/2025
Kira and Xavier have two things in common: neither is in a place to start a relationship and they're extremely attracted to each other. It's only natural that they become friends with benefits. But all too soon, they're torn between following their hearts, or risking everything. #QuestPit #R #W
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Viola Grace @viola-grace.bsky.social · 07/05/2025
In Chicago, 1929, a math genius living in a crime syndicate’s luxury hotel allies with an investigative duo to solve a series of murders, while secretly pursuing her own revenge. ☠️ campy & dark 🃏secret codes & speedy chases 🍸found family, settings as characters, murder & more! #questpit #Q #MY #A
Picture collage includes a man walking away from a burning building, a girl doing math in a chalkboard, a red glowing neon sign that says “hotel”, a table with playing cards and an alcohol bottle, text that reads the title of the book: “What Are The Chances”, red dice, a grand hotel lobby staircase, an old fashioned bar with green walls and velvet red chairs, and an ace of spades pinned to a table with a knife.
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Lily Wzy is drafting a mysterious new wip @lilywzy.bsky.social · 07/05/2025
An #agentsguide to my adult imperial-Asia epic fantasy with tattoo magic, WHEN INK SWALLOWS THE SUN, featuring: 🪭An eldritch craving familial love 🏹A failing chosen one 🪭A saboteur of her own rebellion 🏹An heir w/ perfect life until the facade rips #questpit #agentguide #F #W
When ink swallows the sunIllegitimate child Ning Liyue must navigate the palace to chase clues about her long lost mothers foreign origins. When her quest collides with a failing chosen one trying to revive his tribe’s tattoo magic, they must uncover ugly truths and survive a budding rebellion to achieve their goals—and choose their loyalties in a  crumbling empire 
An excerpt Themes and elements
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Gwend💫lyn Vines @gwenvines.academics.blue · 07/05/2025
ARCANE x BLD OVR BRIGHT HVN x DISCO ELYSIUM 🧑‍🎓cut-throat postgrad STEM academia w/ 🩺corrupted magic tech/ethics 🩻body horror 🤌obsessive ace yearning 🧠neurodivergence as power 🚨unreliable narrator 🛠️blacksmith biceps 🏆dangerous duels 🌿strange plants 👤& the strange man growing them #questpit #A #F #Q
Image from a medical textbook of a man with his arm extended, skeletal structure shown in part, with the text "an agent's guide to SEE IN ME THE WOLF by Gwendolyn Vines," an #agentguide #agentsguide for an #amquerying manuscript.PITCH: (dark STEM academic science fantasy, 107,000 words) 
When Institute grad 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?

For fans of:  the grounded and ugly magical academia of BLOOD OVER BRIGHT HAVEN, BABEL, and THE TWO DOCTORS GORSKI; the criticism of tech venture capitalism of RIPE; the obsessive acespec yearning, body horror, and unreliable narrator of DON'T LET THE FOREST IN, and the corruption of tech and its makers of ARCANE.A painting in the background of a blond man viewed in profile, head bowed, with an X drawn across his face through which an xray of his skull and spine is visible. The text reads

THEMES:
ivory tower classism & egos
manipulative relationships
neurodivergence as power
grey ethics in technology
academic power abuse
consent in medicine
code-switching

in the lower right hand corner in dark text, it reads
(there was only one bed)Image: a silhouette walking up the stairs, head haloed by a lit chandelier.

EXCERPT from SEE IN ME THE WOLF by Gwendolyn Vines/@gwenvines

This time, though, it was not Six whose face was bathed and baptized by light. It was Bash’s, his lone gold hoop gleaming amidst his curls, the spindly shadows of his lashes stretching over his dark eyes, and the sleeve of his linen robe where it draped from his arm rendered translucent by the sun’s rays. It was Bash who sat atop his regal, woody throne and passed judgment upon Jim.

Jim, his blond hair set aflame not by Kontrolle or diffuser but by the sun’s fleeting gift, stared back, waiting. Unlike Etienne, the King Reluctant, Jim had never been told he was the best. Unlike Six, the King Desirous, Jim had never needed to be the best. Unlike Bash, the King Apparent, Jim had never been the best.

Jim’s calling, his compulsion, was to be of use. That is all he had ever needed, wanted, or been. And it was Bash, now, to whom he wished to be useful.
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Nell @nelsnote.bsky.social · 07/05/2025
THE BASS ROCK x THE UNCONSOLED X ALL THE LOVERS IN THE NIGHT Burned-out jazz pianist Clementine falls for a brilliant artist at a seaside inn—then those he paints begin to vanish. 🎹Art‑as‑magic 🌫️ Gothic melancholy 🩶 Envy‑to‑attraction slow burn ❔Psych suspense #agentguide #questpit #A #LF #Q
An agent's guide to the inn at the edge of the sea - 64k upmarket with magical realismThe pitch: Burned‑out jazz pianist Clementine retreats to a seaside inn where a gifted painter rekindles her inspiration. But when the subjects of his portraits begin disappearing, she must learn whether the artist is to blame—or she could be next.
For fans of:
 The quiet loneliness and romance of Mieko Kawakami’s ALL THE LOVERS IN THE NIGHT 
The brooding, gothic atmosphere of Evie Wyld’s THE BASS ROCK
The dreamy surrealism of Kazuo Ishiguro’s THE UNCONSOLED
Tropes/Themes: Psychological Suspense
Speculative elements
Romance Subplot with Yearning
Magical paintings
Manipulation
Artistic creation and self-destruction
The Indomitable Human Spirit
Music
Moody and melancholic
Opening lines: The winter tide exhaled a slow melody against the sand. Clementine let its crested waves spill over her feet, foam gathering in deep snow drifts around her ankles.

There was a ghostly feel to the long stretch of water that lay before her, the distant horizon blending into a misty gray sky.  As the tide pulled back, she was overtaken by the fleeting sensation of falling, as if the water might pull her with it. It had a good rhythm to it.  A steady rhythm.

Time dripped slowly.  With a distant sort of detachment, she noted that her toes were blue.

Water breathed, and Clementine drew a breath, shallow and cold. The taste of wood and salt lay in a heavy coat atop her tongue. She’d come here for quiet, yet the ocean thrashed and quaked in the cavity of her chest, filling its emptiness with a transparent and insurmountable longing.

It was a Thursday, and Thursdays were the worst night of the week. The night you got if you played well enough to fill the slot, but not popular enough for the weekend rush. Clementine had only ever been scheduled for Thursdays.
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Ivy Lin | Querying Author @ivy-lin.bsky.social · 06/05/2025
An agent’s guide to The Love In Your Words: a YA Romance set in Liverpool, where a selectively mute girl falls for an autistic polyglot who helps her embrace her Chinese heritage and neurodivergence. #YA #Romance #writingcommunity #litagents #agentguide
Title: “The Love In Your Words”
Genre: YA Romance
Word Count: 65,000 words
A picture of Lena and Alistair walking underneath an umbrella together, wearing blue and grey school uniforms. The Royal Liver Building is in the background as red paper lanterns float in the sky.Pitch
Sixteen-year-old Lena Mei has always felt like an outsider — too “Western” to be Chinese, too “weird” for everyone else — until Alistair Wong, an autistic polyglot, helps her reclaim her heritage by teaching her to read a Mandarin poem her late mother left behind. As their connection deepens, a devastating family secret threatens to uproot their budding love, forcing Lena to choose between family loyalty and a future with the boy who accepts her for who she is.Tropes & Themes
Autism & Neurodivergence, Language & Identity, Chinese Diaspora, Immigration, Grief & Healing, Friends to Lovers, Slow Burn, Forbidden Romance, Grumpy/Sunshine, Found FamilyComps
“Something More” by Jackie Khalilieh (Autism & Neurodivergence)
“Never Thought I’d End Up Here” by Ann Liang (Language, Heritage & Chinese Diaspora)
“Komi Can’t Communicate” (Overcoming Anxiety & Communication Difficulties)
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Nell @nelsnote.bsky.social · 15/04/2025
Surprised and honored to learn that I was a finalist for not one, but two #revpit editors. I’m so thankful to have been able to participate this year, can’t wait to bring this book to the query trenches! And a huge, huge congrats to all the winners!
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Nell @nelsnote.bsky.social · 27/03/2025
Sometimes I forget I can make fanart for myself from soon-to-be-querying!!
A painting of a woman with long dark hair looking to the said
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Luna 💫 @lunacwriting.bsky.social · 17/03/2025
THIS IS REAL, ISABEL BENES ready for #PopUpPit! (+Big 5 editor interest!) 💗Two gifted kids, now adults, falling apart… and in love? 🏠 Forced proximity 🔥 Rivals to Lovers & Slowburn 🌞 Small-town charm & summer vibes 🌸 OwnVoices Latinx, anxiety, vitiligo, & celiac disease #LuckyPit #PopUpPitA #A
A pitch card for my manuscript: This is real, Isabel Benes. It features an illustrated cover (art by me LunaCWriting) with a young woman and a young man facing each other, set against a bus window.  
Below the illustration, the pitch card includes key information about the book and coms.
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Victoria Lilly @victorialilly.bsky.social · 17/03/2025
An #agentguide for my #amquerying novel, SHRIKE'S EYRIE, a sapphic gothic horrormance set in Victorian England. When an impressionable young spirit-medium is hired to exorcize an evil spirit, the real question is what could possibly go right. #PopUpPitA #LuckyPit #horror #gothic #lgbtqi
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Joy is ✨querying✨ @joyiswriting.bsky.social · 17/03/2025
LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS x THE SECRET GARDEN As ghosts appear and people disappear—the gardeners at Greer Manor seem to be planting more than just flowers . . . 🥀✨big 5✨editor interest 🥀 plant horror 🥀 spooky séances 🥀 flower language #PopUpPitA #PopUpPit #LuckyPit #MG #Q
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Kala is ✨️querying✨️ & ✍️🏽something 💫new💫 @kpbooksnstuff.bsky.social · 17/03/2025
My #agentsguide to CARELESS WHISPERS, a romantic suspense set on a Greek island. REBECCA x RIVIERA x THE PERFECT COUPLE The woman knew secrets; now she's dead. Everyone has a motive... Secrets, Slow❤️‍🔥, Unrequited love, Betrayal, Murder Longlisted for Joffe Books Prize 2024 #LuckyPit 🍀 #PopUpPitA
Page 1 - An Agent's Guide to Careless Whispers, Romantic Suspense, and piece of dialogue: '...our very own Greek tragedy,' says Troy. 'It has it all. Sex, money, adultery. Even - if you believe the rumours -  murder.'
Photo alongside it is a of a woman's pressing finger to her lips signifying secrecy.Page 2 - The Pitch with a blurred photo of a drowned woman alongside it.

'She's always tried to do the 'right thing'. But when a death becomes a suspected murder, a PR exec must decide how far she'll go to protect the people she loves who all have a motive. Especially the dead woman's husband, the man she's in love with.'Page 3 - Snippet with a photo of a man alongside it.
    An unpleasant smile warps his face. He steps closer and leans forward as if they're conspirators. His voice is low and soft, the words a sneer. 'I'm guessing you've not been fighting him off.'
    It's hard to breathe. He's too close, his breath on her skin smoky with whisky and cigarettes. She fights the urge to thrust him away. 'No,' she says in a hard voice. 'But then he's not you.'
    His head snaps back. The dull flush in his cheeks is evident even in the gloom. 'And you,' he says nastily, 'are not Rianna.'
    She gives a humourless laugh. 'From what I gather, that's not a bad thing.'
    'He better not hear you say that. He loved her, you know.'Page 4 has Tropes & Themes - du Maurier's Rebecca vibes; Found family; Loss; Slow burn romance; Obsession; Unrequited love; Secrets; Betrayal; Murder

And The Comps – Nanny Wanted by Lizzy Barber, End of Story by AJ Finn, The Perfect Couple by Elin Hilderbrand, Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier and the Sky Atlantic series Riviera
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Gwend💫lyn Vines @gwenvines.academics.blue · 17/03/2025
ARCANE x DON'T LET THE FOREST IN 🧑‍🎓A cut-throat postgrad academia w/ ⚛️engineer magic 🤌obsessive yearning 🚨unreliable narrator 📻corrupted magic tech 🩺medical ethics & consent 🩻body horror 🏆dangerous magic duels 🛠️blacksmith biceps 🌿strange plants 👤& the strange man who ❤️s 'em #PopUpPitA #LuckyPit #A #F
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?"

Also 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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Q’Zion T. Gipson has a ✨ BOOK DEAL!✨ @qziontgipson.bsky.social · 17/03/2025
Tangleroot x A House of Roots and Ruin x Legendborn x near future science fantasy = THE ROOTS OF DESTINY 🦋 enchanted forest 🩵 BIPOC rep. 🍃 plant magic system 🦋 plants = fae lifeline 🩵 found family 🍃 botany boarding school #PopUpPit #LuckyPit #PopUpPitA #YA #F #SF #SFF #Q
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Anaïs Garnett (Writer) @anais-garnett.bsky.social · 17/03/2025
THE RAVEN BOYS x S.T.A.G.S A series of murders at an elite private school in Ireland spark an aspiring journalist, a burgeoning psychic, and a rebel with a cause to investigate, confronting their privileged lives and sceptical beliefs. #PopUpPit #PopUpPitA #LuckyPit #YA #Mystery #Supernatural
Moodboard of a YA Dark Academia Supernatural Mystery
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Eliwood S(pooky) Ghost @eliwoodsgheist.bsky.social · 17/03/2025
CAMP DAMASCUS x NETTLE & BONE Girl meets boy. Girl meets monsters. Girl has to save the town. Sometimes what you don't know can kill you in BLUDEYE BEACH. 🤷‍♀️Character driven ❤️Slow-burn romance 👻Monster menagerie 🫂Found family #LuckyPit #PopUpPitA #Q #F #H #A
A picrew portrait of a young woman wearing glasses overlaid on a beach. The name Edie Grayson is on top, with a block of text to the right reading:

She hated gym class, scary stories, green beans, and movies where the female love interest never got any of the good lines. She didn’t have a lot of friends, but sometimes, in group settings, she had the satisfaction of saying something really funny, usually on purpose.A picrew image of a young man over a beach with text reading Milo Vance at the top. To the right is a block of text that reads:

“If you’re scared, I’ll do it with you,” Milo said. He said it as though it were the most natural thing in the world. When Edie looked at him, he was holding out his hand, and watching her with a sincerity she didn’t think she’d ever seen on anyone’s face. If it had been anyone else, at any other time, she would have thought they were making fun of her; but not Milo.
A picrew image of a young woman over the ocean with text reading Catarina Novikov at the top. To the right is a block of text that reads:

“I don’t know. We didn’t know any better. But maybe we do now. Maybe Edie’s wrong, I don’t know. But I sincerely hope that I never get to a point in my life where I can’t admit when I’m wrong. And if I am, I can’t change anything I've done, but maybe I can stop myself from repeating the same mistakes. Isn’t that worth at least considering?”

A picrew portrait of a young man wearing sunglasses overlaid on a beach. The name Manny Torres is on top, with a block of text to the right reading:

“You’re right about that. Grief just…becomes this thing inside of you. Like every time you want to see them, or talk to them, it just goes into this hard, black lump, somewhere deep down in your guts. Because those thoughts can’t go anywhere else. They just collect there, stuck inside of you. I think they say grief makes a hole inside of you because we’re all too scared to see what’s inside of it.”
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H. L. Docherty (Updates Only) @hldocherty.bsky.social · 17/03/2025
New name because after removing 67k words, it's basically a new book! ROMEO & JULIET meets THE HUNGER GAMES when a fiery rebel and shy aristocrat find forbidden love amid a brutal uprising, hidden magic, and deadly monsters that could destroy them both. #LuckyPit #PopUpPit #PopUpPitA #NA #FR #Q
ROMEO AND JULIET meets THE HUNGER GAMES in:
SNOWDROPS AND STONES
A 110k New Adult dystopian romantasy by H. L. DochertyThe fire snarled as it chewed the wood of my home.
Heat singed my face, winter's bite contrasting with sweat soaking through my ragged hoodie. I gagged on smoke curling in my throat but swallowed the cough. I wouldn't give them the satisfaction. If they wanted me scared, they should've used explosives.
Mum's eyes flashed at the burnt college entrance sign in our garden. Harroworth Central College was still visible beneath the scorch marks with Scabs not welcome scrawled across it. 
Like we were nothing but dead skin, picked at until we bled.
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