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Rio Lombana

@riolombana.bsky.social
1.5K followers 2.2K following 162 posts

🏳️‍⚧️ they/all 📚 Fiction in Escape Pod, Adventitious, Small Wonders, elsewhere 👀 First reader at Apex 🪼 VP '25 🥋 Jiujitsu brown belt bio.site/riolombana Rep: Valentina Sainato @ JABberwocky

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Alex Brown 🇵🇸 (they/them) @bookjockeyalex.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
It's Banned Books Week. My fellow librarians, listen carefully: your book displays should be almost exclusively writers who are alive. Yes, I know classic literature is also being banned, but most of those authors are dead. They aren't suffering financially from bans and challenges.
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Maggie Tokuda-Hall @maggietokudahall.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
It is the start of Banned Books Week and as such it's an EXCELLLLENT moment to donate to @authorsabb.bsky.social. We are laser focused on tbe single issue of fighting book bans. It's hard work, and we've done it with all volunteers for about 3 years-- and now we finally have a program manager.
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Rio Lombana @riolombana.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
Have you heard of the Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus? You know, the Great One who moves beneath the earth? No? Well, if you want to hear the Word of Our Tentacled Lord and Savior, my short story "Other Gods" is published today in the inaugural issue of the Pacific Northwest Gothic magazine.
pnwgothic.com
volume one - PACIFIC NORTHWEST GOTHIC
Samples from Volume I Lapis Corvos Allie MariniPoetry Allie Marini is a former Florida woman now living in the PNW. She is a cross-genre writer, visual artist, maker, and tarot reader. She runs Creepy...
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Rio Lombana @riolombana.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Just bought my ticket!
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Alex Brown 🇵🇸 (they/them) @bookjockeyalex.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
I'd love to see a policy like this for SFFH cons like WorldCon.
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Rio Lombana @riolombana.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
I’ll be teaching on The Art of Brevity: Writing and publishing short speculative fiction, with my co-teacher @kaitlinschmidt4.bsky.social Our classes include a generative workshop portion, which I’m especially excited about in the context of micro fiction. You can walk away with a complete story!
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Rio Lombana @riolombana.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
I'm delighted to announce that I'm now represented by @valentinasainato.bsky.social at JABberwocky Literary Agency! awfulagent.com/new-client-a...
awfulagent.com
New Client Announcement: Rio Lombana – JABberwocky Literary Agency, Inc
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Rio Lombana @riolombana.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
I'm unreasonably excited for this con 🌈
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Blaft Publications @blaft.bsky.social · 02/08/2026
Call for subs!
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The Ubergroup @theubergroup.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
This world needs you and your art. #writing #art #music #rebellion
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Abhijeet @bingingout.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
"Seneschal of Shattered Tor" is a postcolonial high fantasy about a society trying to Be Better* and the leaders dragging them into the future. I hope you enjoy it! * T&C apply
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Rio Lombana @riolombana.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
Another banger from Wen Wen. Tears at the end for me.
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Rio Lombana @riolombana.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
The fOOfs anthology is here -- The Best of Strange Fiction in 2025! Buy it to support a small press, and for its excellent weird cover, and if you wanna read my feminist dystopian satire: "His Goose Is Cooked"
foofaraw.press
The Foofs (2025)
Best of Strange Fiction anthology
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Rio Lombana @riolombana.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
Still glowing from #WorldCon. Heart full, body exhausted, brain buzzing, chomping at the bit to write write write Can't wait to see you all next year à Montréal!
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Rio Lombana @riolombana.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
The #Worldcon emails have included increasingly dire warnings about the bone-chilling power and intensity of the hotel's air conditioning. Also, there's this. So.... I'm packing layers??
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Tenebrous Press @tenebrouspress.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
🏳️‍⚧️ Huh. This feels like something y'all should be preordering, reposting, & generally losing your minds over🖤☠️ YOUR BODY IS A FEVER DREAM, companion to our beloved YOUR BODY IS NOT YOUR BODY 40~ 🏳️‍⚧️+GNC creators deliver the best Weird Cosmic Horror of the year. Out Oct 6. Get: store.tenebrouspress.com
Publisher holding a test print of YOUR BODY IS A FEVER DREAM
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Rio Lombana @riolombana.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
I’ve been dreaming on a time loop story for a while now, can’t wait to have an excuse to write it
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Rio Lombana @riolombana.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
ime nonviolent communication can solve a lot of relationship problems. but, um. not all of them. at least, not problems that ride in with the storm and settle into the whites of your girlfriend's eyes ...anyway, please enjoy Kaitlin's and my cowritten sapphic horror story, it's free to read!
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Rio Lombana @riolombana.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
You can read my story "The Mortification and Ecstasy of Sally Colt, Deserter and Outlaw" on Small Wonders today! ...unless you're tired of stories about toxic lesbians in mech suits. Then I suppose I'd advise you stay far away from this one.
smallwondersmag.com
The Mortification and Ecstasy of Sally Colt, Deserter and Outlaw - Small Wonders
My mech suit is my Lady, my love, my metallic goddess of war. I thought Her eternal, fused forever to my body and soul, but now nothing speaks in my mind but the screaming terror of imagining a lifeti...
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Lia Lao @thelialao.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
my favorite story i’ve written (“revolutions, as told by a humble rice farmer”) is out in @podcastle.org! 🥹😭 referencing tang dynasty poetry it asks “what if we focused on this RANDOM RICE FARMER instead of the empire??” it’s a deconstruction of nationalism & v queer podcastle.org/2026/08/11/p...
poster with the words “revolutions, as told by a humble rice farmer”, “fantasy”, “3500 words”, “history from the bottom-up, emperors get decapitated, but we keep farming rice” “@thelialao”

on the left side are picture of rice paddies and on the right side are two men wearing hanfu
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Rio Lombana @riolombana.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
"I’ll weep an ocean, one drop at a time. No iron can resist the tide." Aimee Ogden is an inspiration, truly. Incredible new flash story about how one must absolutely not run away with a demon lover (under no circumstances!!)
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meagan kane @spocksbrain.bsky.social · 08/08/2026
short fiction is so good and yet beloved by so few. everyone should read a short story a day. i set a goal to read a hundred this year because I like measurables and i've been slacking, and now i'm up to #317, which still doesn't feel like enough.
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Rio Lombana @riolombana.bsky.social · 02/08/2026
Issue 4 of Adventitious is out! In it is "Life Imitates," Kaitlin's and my coauthored sapphic horror story in which therapy speak is how they get ya, and self-gaslighting invites in more than mere self-doubt... Subscribe to read it now, or be patient and read it later—if they don't get ya first.
adventitious.net
Adventitious | A Speculative Short Fiction Magazine - Adventitious.
Adventitious is a speculative short fiction magazine publishing boundary-defying stories, novellas, and unclassifiable work.
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Rio Lombana @riolombana.bsky.social · 01/08/2026
Beautiful and haunting covers. Look for my words behind two of them!
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Rio Lombana @riolombana.bsky.social · 01/08/2026
WorldCon schedules are up! Come listen to me talk about being queer and fighting (in fiction) (but also IRL)
Where to find Rio at WorldCon:
The Bi Standard: Respecting Bisexual Identity in Storytelling - Thurs Aug 27 6 PM
Anything You Can Do: Women and Nonbinary Warriors - Fri Aug 28 12 PM
As You Are: Identity Acceptance in SFF - Sat Aug 29 9 AM
And Now, I Die: Fight Choreography for Writing - Sat Aug 29 12 PM
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Rio Lombana @riolombana.bsky.social · 01/08/2026
kayfabe swole queer theory emo declinist
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Scott Lynch @scottlynch78.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
It's new release day! First up, THE WIZARD WHO KEPT HIMSELF SUSPICIOUS, my fair-play murder mystery about a scruffy cigar-smoking deductive investigator named Colum-- I MEAN SHIVERICK-- who will neither confirm nor deny that he can actually cast spells. Get it at: www.amazon.com/Wizard-Himse...
The cover design for my short story "The Wizards Who Kept Himself Suspicious." A rather Gandalfian wizard emerges from a turquoise sea; the brim of his hat is drawn to resemble a small island with palm trees, and also has water cascading off of it.
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Alex Brown 🇵🇸 (they/them) @bookjockeyalex.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
*whispers* you know we can do this cultural debate about art thing all the time, right? Websites and news organizations used to have culture critics on staff whose entire job was writing about books, movies, and TV. People read them and then discussed them. We have the technology to do this again.
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Rio Lombana @riolombana.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
Without saying your age what is your favorite movie from the year you turned 18?
static.klipy.com
Doug Jones as Paleman in Pan's Labyrinth
Alt: Doug Jones as Paleman in Pan's Labyrinth
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Abhijeet @bingingout.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
My short story "New Game Plus" will be in @adventitiouswords.bsky.social soon! Keep an eye out if you like video games, wobbly fourth walls, or knowing why you can't play cards in the jungle
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Rio Lombana @riolombana.bsky.social · 19/07/2026
I love it all but I think the little frog is my favorite
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Rio Lombana @riolombana.bsky.social · 18/07/2026
Honestly every soccer game could have a score like this and I’d enjoy watching the sport a lot more
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Alex Larkspur 💛📚🌻 @applesncinnamon.bsky.social · 13/07/2026
#BluePit 🏹THE BIRD AND THE BLADE🍃 🪶 MM Fantasy Romance 🪶 Bandit x Noble 🪶 Kidnapping! 🪶 Questioning Power Structures 🪶 Singing Bandits 🪶 Robin Hood Vibes 🪶 Certified Bird Guy #📖 #A #F #R #W #LGBT
Over a green background: THE BIRD AND THE BLADE: MM Fantasy Romance 
Comps: Not For the Faint of Heart, The Scottish Boy, Greenwode 
Tropes: 🪶 MM Fantasy Romance
🪶 Bandit x Noble
🪶 Kidnapping!
🪶 Questioning Power Structures
🪶 Singing Bandits
🪶 Robin Hood Vibes
🪶 Certified Bird Guy
A picture of an arrow, a feather, and a sword 
Blurb: Callum Amberline is about to get married, but there is one small problem. He’s been kidnapped by bandits. Callum should be furious and indignant, but he’s not these bandits seem to understand him better than his family or betrothed ever have. Especially Wilder, the son of the bandit queen. But one shouldn’t be friendly with one’s kidnappers. 
Wilder may have made an impulsive decision kidnapping the betrothed of his arch nemesis, but he’s having a hard time regretting it. He likes Callum, noble though he may be. 
As the unfortunate circumstances of their meeting catch of with them, Callum and Wilder must ignore the simmering attraction between them. You can’t fall in love with your kidnapper. 
Right?
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PJ (he/him) is querying... @pjwrites.bsky.social · 13/07/2026
THE EVERWINTER KING Desperate to find his missing sun god, a former holy king returns home to compete in trials meant to bring his god back, and stop the onslaught of an endless winter. 🏳️‍🌈 Queer norm world ☀️ Light-based magic 🏳️‍⚧️ Trans love interest 👑 Hidden royalty #BluePit #📖 #Q #A #F #LGBT #DIS
Title page for an agent's guide to THE EVERWINTER KING. The title is placed over a moodboard featuring a Mediterranean inspired setting and royalty imagery. In addition to the title the page reads "Adult Fantasy Standalone. Queer normative world. MM romance subplot. 99,000 words."THE EVERWINTER KING's pitch.

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

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

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

EXCERPT STARTS BELOW

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

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

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

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

“Aye.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

Bonus comp! Dragon Age 2.
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Rio Lombana @riolombana.bsky.social · 13/07/2026
THE BLESSÈD EVER-CHANGING MAP An autistic demi-girl nun and her golden retriever boyfriend track down God to demand They explain the invisible wall shoving her across their magical shifting world. Two disaster bisexuals, trapped in a sidescroller. Will they kiss? #BluePit #📖 #Q #F #A #LGBT #ND
THE BLESSED EVER-CHANGING MAPPitch: Remi's peaceful life as a nun is interrupted when an invisible wall appears, sweeping her across her magical, shifting world like a 3D sidescroller. To escape this curse, she’ll have to break her vow of silence, not fall in love with (or murder) the chatterbox traveling with her, and confront the Mapmaker Themself—the god who created her world.HOWL'S MOVING CASTLE x DUNGEON CRAWLER CARL X THE WIZARD OF OZFIRST LINE: The monastery's map had just gone out of date again when Remi found another crack in the world.
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William Shakespeare @shakespeare.lol · 12/07/2026
The evil that men do lives after them, The good is oft interred with their bones
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Amelia Savage @ameliasvgauthor.bsky.social · 13/07/2026
BETTER THAN THE MOVIES X PLAYING FOR KEEPS After her kiss-cam accident with The Jerk became viral, 17yo Jess thought she’d reached rock bottom. But to make things worse, she sets up a fake-dating scheme with him. No way she’ll get lower than that and catch feelings, right? RIGHT? #Q #R #YA #Bluepit
Agent’s guide. Baseball background with hearts. sports YA romcomBaseball background. the pitch: A kiss doesn’t mean anything… And certainly not the fact that they hate  each other.Characters: the only girl in her team photo montage. Childhood-best-friend-turned-pain-in-the-a**Comps: Heartbreakers and fakers, Better than the movies, Playing for keeps, Throw like a girl
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Apex Magazine and Book Company @apexmag.bsky.social · 10/07/2026
We have decided to remove a short story from Issue 153 of Apex Magazine. After meeting with our reading and editorial teams, we'd like to share with you what happened, and importantly, how we plan to move forward from here. Thank you for sticking with us. 💜👽
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Rio Lombana @riolombana.bsky.social · 07/07/2026
@kaitlinschmidt4.bsky.social and I are about to be sharing a TOC with some incredible authors!!
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Emily Smiley @emilysmileywrites.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
Just found out I got accepted into @viableparadise.bsky.social! So excited!!!!
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Rio Lombana @riolombana.bsky.social · 08/06/2026
I hear the 2027 Nebulas will be in Seattle!? Be here or be square doesn't quite have the same ring to it... Come thru or feel blue??
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Rio Lombana @riolombana.bsky.social · 05/06/2026
Thrilled to share my very short story "Everyone Drinks at Sunrise" published by @pseudopod.org today, alongside some other creepy tales. I especially love the host's commentary. Liberal guilt, it turns out, *is* delicious.
pseudopod.org
PseudoPod 1032: Flash on the Borderlands LXXVIII (78): Terraeque urbesque recedant
“We didn’t cross the border, the border crossed us.” “Again?” “Every damn time,” Kate said, running a hand through her hair. “Aren’t there supposed to be satellites checking the routes all day long?
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Rio Lombana @riolombana.bsky.social · 29/05/2026
Pleased to share my teeny tiny PNW-themed story, published by the ever-lovely Foofaraw Press and their microfic imprint.
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Rio Lombana @riolombana.bsky.social · 10/05/2026
And I was thrilled to receive one of them. Can't wait to see my words in Kaleidotrope!
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Rio Lombana @riolombana.bsky.social · 05/05/2026
I read a lot of stuff by trans people, sometimes because I seek them out, but often just because they do things like show up in Apex Magazine (where I'm a first reader) or win the World Fantasy Award "Unsettled Nature" by @jordankurella.com "The Yoke of Stars" by @rblemberg.bsky.social
apexbookcompany.com
Unsettled Nature
Once were a time on a jackalope when folks kept their thinking to themselves. People lived, and people died, natural-like, in...
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Rio Lombana @riolombana.bsky.social · 04/05/2026
I'm pleased to announce that my story "His Goose Is Cooked" was a finalist for the Foofs Award!!
metastellar.com
His Goose Is Cooked
Gina’s got a man problem—her husband’s intestinal parasite turns out to be an endangered species, which is illegal to kill. Maybe things will change if the new Supreme Court nominee is …
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Rio Lombana @riolombana.bsky.social · 29/04/2026
Congrats Louis!!
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Gibster @gibsterific.bsky.social · 29/04/2026
Curse of the Golden Tattoo Thankfully, it’s not every unkind word said to Gemma that’s stiched into her skin—only from loved ones. Her family curse passes from mother to daughter. To avoid passing it down when she becomes pregnant, she must find magic of her own. #QuestPit #A #F #U #Q
Curse of the Golden Tattoo.
Shows a squiggle of ink and a tattoo gun from the letter G.
Golden text and a red and orange threaded carpet.Pitch
Thankfully, it’s not every unkind word said to Gemma that’s stiched into her skin—only from loved ones.
Her family curse passes from mother to daughter.
To avoid passing it down when she becomes pregnant, she must find magic of her own.

Golden text and a red and orange threaded carpet.First Lines
My mother gave me my first tattoo when I was six months old—by accident. I believe that story. Accidents happen. Words slipped out.
All the other tattoos were on purpose.
Golden text and a red and orange threaded carpet.Comps
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue meets Ten Thousand Doors of January.

Golden text and a red and orange threaded carpet.
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alix e. harrow @alixeharrow.bsky.social · 28/04/2026
when we mourn le guin, we mourn one of our greatest writers & thinkers. but we also mourn one of our all-time greatest haters
All you do is take all the sex out, and use little short words, and little dumb ideas, and don't be too scary, and be sure there's a happy ending. Right? Nothing to it. Write down. Right on.

If you do all that, you might even write Jonathan Livingston Seagull and make twenty billion dollars and have every adult in America reading your book.

But you won't have every kid in America reading your book. They will look at it, and they will see straight through it, with their clear, cold, beady little eyes, and they will put it down, and they will go away. Kids will devour vast amounts of garbage (and it is good for them) but they are not like adults: they have not yet learned to eat plastic.
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Megan A. Saraceno | Author @meganasaraceno.bsky.social · 29/04/2026
Mulan x Avatar: The Last Airbender x Fourth Wing A woman rejected by the gods steals her brother’s place in war and manifests forbidden divine power while falling for her lethal commanding officer. SONG OF THE SICKLE Adult romantasy, 118k words #Questpit #Q #A #RF
An Agent's Guide to Song of the Sickle, an adult romantic fantasy, 118k words, First in a planned series. Background picture of wheat field. Big picture of amber ring and smaller picture of incense burning.The Pitch, with small pictures of a military training camp and an old watchtower covered in moss. What if Mulan had magic, and instead of being rejected as a bride, she was rejected by the gods?Comp titles include The Jasad Heir by Sara Hashem for hidden identity and forbidden magic, Blood and Steel by Helen Scheuerer for training ground romance, and The Knight and the Moth by Rachel Gillig for weaponized faith system.the opening lines of the book, beside a picture of a sickle with wheat. Tomorrow the gods would judge me. Tonight, I pretended they didn't exist. I swung the scythe, blade slicing through wheat. My shoulders screamed, but at least the burn was honest. Sweat carved tracks through the chaff dusting my skin, but I kept moving. One more row. One more bundle. Anything to keep my thoughts at bay.
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