iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Sarah Ressler @resslerwrites.bsky.social · 23/06/2026

A doodle reenactment of a conversation with my 8 year old

Sarah Ressler @resslerwrites.bsky.social · 07/05/2026

Hot take from a pre-published picture book author: I agree with Mac. Rather than going on the attack over one line in a wonderful book, I hope we can take a step back, review children’s literature with a truly critical eye, and have meaningful conversations from which we can learn #kidlit

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Mike Ressler @mresslerdraws.bsky.social · 23/03/2026

Working on a new picture book dummy called “Band of Pirates”written by @resslerwrites.bsky.social. Enjoy the first few spreads! #kidlitart #kidlit #writingcommunity #amquerying

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Sarah Ressler @resslerwrites.bsky.social · 01/03/2026

#pbrisingstars It’s my first year applying and the last year of the program, but hey…

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Sarah Ressler @resslerwrites.bsky.social · 28/02/2026

Found this gem in our library’s discards and I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to repurpose. The possibilities are endless #repurposedart #libraryfinds #kidlit #successfulbathrooms

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Sarah Ressler @resslerwrites.bsky.social · 11/11/2025

An idea that’s been half formed in my brain for years. Would you read this book? #kidlit #writingcommunity #Iamquerying

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Sarah Ressler @resslerwrites.bsky.social · 26/09/2025

@mresslerdraws.bsky.social and I have a full dummy ready to submit to an agent we are excited about. This agent did an edit of another manuscript and enjoyed it. That project doesn’t have artwork yet Do I query both stories, only the dummy, or wait for the art on the second project and submit both?

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Lydia Lukidis @lydialukidis.bsky.social · 16/09/2025

Woot, woot! 🎃 The #FallWritingFrenzy #kidlit competition rules and images are up! Check them out here: lydialukidis.wordpress.com/fallwritingf... #WritingCommunity #amwriting #amreading #competition #fall #writing #stories @kaitlynleann17.bsky.social

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Sarah Ressler @resslerwrites.bsky.social · 11/09/2025

My 5th grader’s writing assignment. Me too, buddy 🤣

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Sarah Ressler @resslerwrites.bsky.social · 22/07/2025

For consideration as an addition to the Oxford Dictionary, presented by my four-year-old daughter: Tripily: adv, characterized by excessive tripping or stumbling. Example: “How did your hike go this morning?” “Tripily!”

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Lee Burton - Author | Editor @leeburton.bsky.social · 14/07/2025

Set in a fictional Newfoundland outport in the 1950s, Found Harbour is a light literary novel which uses folklore and fantasy elements to explore how nostalgia for the past is a yearning for a sanitized fantasy world that never truly existed. #BluePit 📖 #Q #A #HS #F #Canada

First page of Found Harbour. It reads:

Gran yelled out from the porch: “George, George, come quick! The devil just rode past the house on a bicycle.”
The devil? Mother had stepped out back to feel if the tablecloth on the line was dry. I left the potato I was peeling in the bowl, hopped up and trotted out toward the front of the house.
The devil, it turned out, looked like a thin man in a long brown jacket, its bottom edge hanging down over the top of his bike’s rear tire so it flicked up like a horse’s tail when it touched, trailing mud up his back. The devil was a tall man, his knees stumping up past the handlebars, making it so he had to keep a sort of bow-armed hold on the handles to avoid them, which on the snowy path that went by Gran’s house and that eventually passed our house too and led to the wharf, had his front tires wobbling like the nose of a dog snuffling in the grass. I watched him fighting to keep the bike steady, waiting for him to topple, until he grew smaller down over the hill and disappeared beyond some bushes.
I went back into the kitchen just as my mother was flapping Gran’s tablecloth over the kitchen table. It whooshed the hair back over my forehead. “Who was it, Danny?” she asked, smoothing out the wrinkles.
“I don’t know,” I said, picking up the small bowl of last fall’s potatoes Father had dug from the corners of the yard that Mother had placed on the chair.
“He had a bike? Probably Quentin Porter, then,” she said when I nodded. “Just moved back.”
“It was one of the strangers,” Gran asserted, shuffling in through the door. She bent low to the cupboard and took out two bread pans, and eventually found the tin of flour where it had always sat next to the stove. “Who in town got babies now? Kendall Grimes? Seems she’s due again. You tell her not to leave none of the little ones by a window this evening, else come morning she’ll have more problems than just not knowing who the fathers are. She won’t know who her little baby is either.”

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Rissa Allen (is querying) @honeyscribbles.bsky.social · 13/07/2025

NOTHING MORE TO TELL X AGGGTM Lennie doesn’t know what happened the night her ex-bff went missing but she does know one thing: it’s always the boyfriend. #BluePit #Q #YA #M #agentguide

An agents guide to catch you in the trees yay thriller romance approximately 90k words

It’s always the boyfriend… right? Lennie Torres’s senior year captaining the XC team turns deadly when her ex bff goes missing and she ends up a suspect. Her only way out? Team up with nemesis golden boy Lysander Hayes, the boyfriend of the missing girl and the last person to see her alive. But Lysander not the only one keeping secrets and if both Lennie and Lysander want to make it through xc season, they’re going to have to figure out how to trust each other or someone’s going to end up dead.

Comp titles: nothing more to tell, no place left to hide, they’ll never catch us
Unconventional comps: the marauders era cruel summer 2022 pretty little liars 2010
Tropes/vibes: rivals to lovers, running culture, private school, chaotic academia, dual timeline, dual pov, ride or die friendships

Hayes takes my hand, wrapping his fingers firmly around mines “Deal.” His eyes glint an odd silver in the chrome and linoleum hallway and I think of people making deals with devils at crossroads. I wonder if they get the same storm of nerves I have swirling in my blood right now.
I don’t trust Hayes.
But I need him.
“Deal.”

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Sarah Ressler @resslerwrites.bsky.social · 13/07/2025

Louie thought being a pirate would be more exciting, but it’s mostly boredom until one day he discovers the real treasure: music! Now he’s teaching his salty crew to rock, but the grumpy captain isn’t having it…or is he? BAND OF PIRATES is a swashbuckling tale of tunes and teamwork #bluepit📖 #PB #Q

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Sarah Ressler @resslerwrites.bsky.social · 13/07/2025

An unfortunate misunderstanding between author and illustrator turns a spooky ghost story into a nonsensical goat story. Will they ever be able to get on the same page? For a hilarious meta mashup, WELCOME TO GHOSTVILLE…or is it Goatsville? #Bluepit📖 #PB #Q

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Sarah Ressler @resslerwrites.bsky.social · 13/07/2025

The knight usually saves the princess, but when he falls out of the story through A RIP IN THE PAGE, the Narrator must scramble to get to The End. He makes the best of a bad situation using gelato, a Pegasus named Cupcake-McSparkletail, and a princess who doesn't need a knight #bluepit📖 #Q #PB

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Rachel North - querying @rachelnorthauthor.bsky.social · 13/07/2025

PRIDE & PREJUDICE x TENET A socialite-turned-cryptographer must time travel to reverse her ruined reputation and get her fiancé back—but when she meets a handsome time traveler, she wonders if finding love in the past is worth the risk. #BluePit📖 #Q #YA #F #DIS #ND #agentsguide #amquerying

A woman in a white empire-waisted gown stares into the distance. A gold clock is superimposed over her. The text over the image reads, "The Genesis Clock."

Pitch for The Genesis Clock:

Imbued with time magic, chronoglass could alter the Napoleonic Wars.

For cryptographer Georgiana Adams, it gives her the chance to erase the moment that soiled her character and forced her betrothed to leave her. For Joshua Durand, the chronoglass would undo the mistake that crippled him in the Battle of Trafalgar and cost him his job as a British spy.

When they catch each other stealing chronoglass, they make a deal: they won't turn the other in as long as they work together and ration the precious magic. The deal should be easy--until they fall in love.

Comparable titles for The Genesis Clock:
- The Austenian writing style of Pride and Prejudice
- The time-traveling spies of This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone
- The feminist social commentary of Queen Bee by Amalie Howard
- The Regency magic of A Fragile Enchantment by Allison Saft

A snippet from The Genesis Clock:

"The opportunity to control time, to hold raw power even for a moment, lured Joshua in.

His fingers closed around the chronoglass. Frigid cold shot through his bones, so cold he wanted to drop the glass, so cold his knee almost collapsed, but then it warmed to his skin. He looked around the room for a sign that something had changed. Everything was the same. The map, the steaming tea, Mr. Brooke standing beside the ticking clock.

Brooke smiled and opened his mouth, but something about the movement of his lips was odd. He spoke, speech gargled. What in heaven's name ...?

Joshua's gaze sharpened. Steam curled back into hot liquid. The second hand moved backward one, two, ten seconds. He reached for his gloves, and they rose on their own to meet his fingers, skin and velvet meshing.

His body reacted before his mind did. Muscles unclenched, and velvet and chronoglass crumpled to the desk. Joshua sucked in a breath.

The stories were true."

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Cynthia Leavitt - Children's Author @cjleavitt.bsky.social · 13/07/2025

Cooper dreams of being brave. In fact, he refers to himself as Cooper The Super Dog! But when everything scares you, what will it take to find your courage? #bluepit📖 #PB #Bravery #Q #silly

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sarabraas.bsky.social @sarabraas.bsky.social · 13/07/2025

#BluePit📖, #Q #PB Working title: Dino-Nauts (Dark Humor, STEM 350 words) How Dinosaurs Went Extinct: A Safety Guide by Dyckman meets The Rock From the Sky by Klassen 🦕🦖🌍☄️🚀🎉🛰️

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Lara Willard @larathelark.bsky.social · 13/07/2025

“THERE’S A RHINOCEROS IN THE SEWER!” After busting out of her confines at the San Diego Zoo, a tenacious tapir finds herself in a new sort of wild—1940s suburbia. Tapir Escape! The True Story of “Terrible Trudy” is a #nf #pb for fans of Mr. Tiger Goes Wild #bluepit #bluepit📖

1940 black and white photograph of "Terrible Trudy," the tapir escape artist from the San Diego Zoo

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stacyzappala.bsky.social @stacyzappala.bsky.social · 13/07/2025

In this zany, groovy 😎 comedy find out why cats do not wear pants, especially at the disco! #pb #humor #bluepit #q #children's

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Katie @katiemahood.bsky.social · 13/07/2025

#bluepit📖 When Harper’s worries threaten to consume her, she seeks solace in the branches of her tree, Esperanza, where she gathers strength to face the big problems in life that have no solutions. A lyrical story about mental health that focuses on finding peace in nature. #PB #Q

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Lara Willard @larathelark.bsky.social · 13/07/2025

1940, San Diego Zoo. When Trudy, the new tapir, breaks loose, the only female zoo director in the world must not only save Trudy from angry suburbanites, but she must also figure out how to tempt the tapir to stay put. TAPIR ESCAPE! is a #nf #pb based on a true story #bluepit #bluepit📖

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MornaSG.bsky.social @mornasg.bsky.social · 13/07/2025

Who hasn’t taken a bad school picture? For Sophia that’s the only kind she really knows. In BEST PICTURE DAY EVER Sophia is on a mission, and this picture will be different. In the end, Sophia ends up redefining what a “ bad” picture really is! #BluePit #BluePit📖 #PB #Q

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MornaSG.bsky.social @mornasg.bsky.social · 13/07/2025

Jazz prodigy Clifford Brown’s life was one of both sheer perseverance and artistry. Brownie took on challenges and misfortunes as well as lit up the jazz world like none other. His tenacity and his trumpet will always be with us. #BluePit #BluePit📖 #PB #NF #W

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Cynthia Leavitt - Children's Author @cjleavitt.bsky.social · 13/07/2025

All Lacey wants to do is make her friends feel special with a secret valentine…but when AJ sees her drop one, and someone else recognizes her handwriting…will she be able to pull it off? #bluepit📖 #PB #Q #sweet-hearted

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Jason @jason-antares.bsky.social · 13/07/2025

FABLEHAVEN x JANITORS 12yo Terrance just wanted to hike Angels Landing—not get chased by monsters only he can see. When a storm traps Zion and magic floods the canyon, 18yo Ranger Samantha recruits him into the Jr Ranger Program—a front for Beholders who protect the Unseen world. #Bluepit📖 #MG #F #W

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Sarah Ressler @resslerwrites.bsky.social · 13/07/2025

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Sarah Ressler @resslerwrites.bsky.social · 13/07/2025

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Sarah Ressler @resslerwrites.bsky.social · 13/07/2025

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B. van Bodegom 📃is AGENTED @bvbodegom.bsky.social · 13/07/2025

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 rely on years of #TTRPG experience—and puns—to solve the crime before they're all killed off like NPCs in a badly written campaign. #BluePit 📖 #A #H #M #Q

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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Author Lilybeth/L.E. Schultz @lilybeth-writes.bsky.social · 13/07/2025

A mistaken identity leads to pranks, a bad luck hex and an unexpected romance. 😆 You Deserve Each Other + The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches 🛏️ Only One Bed 🐕 Dog Companion ⚔️ Rivals to Lovers 🏳️‍🌈 Bi FMC 🌲 Forced Proximity 🧙‍♀️ She’s a Witch 🤠 He’s a Cowboy #bluepit #bluepit📖 #A #R #Q #OV

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Cynthia Leavitt - Children's Author @cjleavitt.bsky.social · 13/07/2025

Poppie shared his secret sauce recipe with CJ before he passed, now they must find a way to make it without him. #bluepit #PB #loss #Q #Italian #CloseToMyHeart

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Sarah Ressler @resslerwrites.bsky.social · 13/07/2025

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Sarah Ressler @resslerwrites.bsky.social · 13/07/2025

An unfortunate misunderstanding between author and illustrator turns a spooky ghost story into a nonsensical goat story. Will they be able to get on the same page? For a hilarious meta mashup, WELCOME TO GHOSTVILLE…or is it Goatsville? #Bluepit📖 #PB #Q

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Sarah Ressler @resslerwrites.bsky.social · 13/07/2025

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Sarah Ressler @resslerwrites.bsky.social · 11/07/2025

Any #kidlit #picturebook authors getting requests from #smallpitch? I’ve really enjoyed reading everyone’s pitches!!

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Sarah Ressler @resslerwrites.bsky.social · 09/07/2025

Hey, #bluepithype, Not my art, but it’s from my story! Here’s a sketch from by husband @mresslerdraws.bsky.social for our #picturebook “A Rip in the Page.” I write the words and he creates the illustrations. Partners in life and in #kidlit. #writingcommunity #kidlitart

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Sarah Ressler @resslerwrites.bsky.social · 09/07/2025

A day late, but hello #bluepithype! I am a #picturebook author who loves to write laugh-out-loud, outside-the-box stories. I am a teacher and mom and I’m constantly inspired by my kids and the chaos in my life! #writingcommunity

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#SmallPitch @smallpitch.org · 08/05/2025

It's official, #SmallPitch comes back for another indie/small press-focused pitch event on July 7-8, 2025 🌊 This time, it will be open to all unagented authors from the #WritingCommunity. Check our website for more details ⬇️

smallpitch.org

#SmallPitch, the big pitch event for small presses

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Mike Ressler @mresslerdraws.bsky.social · 03/07/2025

I am new to Bluesky and I wanted to introduce myself on #kidlitartpostcard day! My name is Mike Ressler and I am a #kidlit illustrator. You can see my portfolio at www.mresslerillustrator.com #kidlitart

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Sarah Ressler @resslerwrites.bsky.social · 03/07/2025

What do I put on a children’s book author website if I don’t have anything published yet? I started one, but it’s pretty barren. Do I really need it? #kidlit #writingcommunity #iamquerying

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Sarah Ressler @resslerwrites.bsky.social · 30/06/2025

Thank you to the organizers, posters, and donors for #kidlitzombieweek! I had a great time, but now I have zombies on the brain. Watching my chickens in the backyard while I continue revising my zombie manuscript. Congrats to all the winners!

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Sarah Ressler @resslerwrites.bsky.social · 27/06/2025

I solemnly swear I’m using my yummy brain (mmmh braaaains) to bring a zombie manuscript back to life #kidlitzombieweek

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