iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Starla Rajavuori @srajavuori.bsky.social · 12/02/2026

I am ecstatic to announce that I've signed with literary agent @alexbrownwrites.bsky.social. My spooky middle grade set during Arctic Finland's polar night is in incredible hands, and I can't wait to see where this journey goes!

Text: big news I am now represented by Alex Land Mad Woman Literary, over a photo of the northern lights.

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Starla Rajavuori @srajavuori.bsky.social · 20/01/2026

Had an amazing time meeting and hearing from wonderful people at SCBWI's winter conference! Great craft workshops w/ @drydenbks.bsky.social, @katemckean.bsky.social, and Meg Medina. Kid lit is facing real challenges, but this community's dedication to young readers is pretty unshakeable. #scbwiNY26

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Fil Cameron @flcr24.bsky.social · 05/11/2025

ADULT SIX OF CROWS WITH GHOSTS Jack’s sworn to protect the dead, so when a book on harvesting magic from ghosts falls into the wrong hands, he’ll stop at nothing to steal it back. His crew has a few more scruples. The masked serial killer offering to partner up? Less so. #QuestPit #F #A #Q

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Nikki is 💫 revising ⚔️ @nikkipwrites.bsky.social · 05/11/2025

THE DARK CURSE Middle Grade Fantasy 84k words If you could wake up in your favourite video game, would you want to? More to the point, would you ever want to leave? #questpit #MG #F #LGBT #Q

A collage of pictures, with a young male hand reaching out to grab them: a sword and knights helmet, someone casting a fire spell, an inviting path into the woods, a knight holding a sword, a mountain behind an old-fashioned house, a cloaked magic user, a white horse galloping, and a mountain range.

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Mr. Jones strikes up a conversation @sirbenjaminjr.bsky.social · 05/11/2025

🪄 #QuestPit 🪄 Kinda Charming #Upper #MG #Fantasy | 70K+ | Standalone with series potential Prince Neil Charming isn't 'the' Prince Charming - he's his clumsy little brother. 🐉Magic, mishaps, & matchmaking 👑Evil uncle & royal family pressure 😂Witty & sarcastic dialogue #Q #AmQuerying See below🔽

A classic fairytale castle framed in ornate golden scrollwork. Centered text reads: “Kinda Charming” in bold fairytale-style font.

A fairytale garden background with soft lighting and vines. Bold header reads "The Pitch" followed by text:
"When Prince Neil Charming, awkward younger brother of the Prince Charming, is sent on a quest to rescue a princess and prove he’s more than just a royal afterthought, he accidentally ensures every fairytale ends happily - just not for him. But when his wicked uncle seizes the throne, Neil must stumble his way through myths, magic, and matchmaking mishaps to save Ever After and be the prince he was always meant to be."

Set against a twilight fairytale courtyard, the image is titled "The Characters" and lists key characters from Kinda Charming:
Cornelius "Neil" Charming – awkward younger brother of Prince Charming.
Gwendolyn Page – master-level fairytale historian.
Milo Smith – blacksmith’s apprentice and inventor.
Grimm Charming – evil uncle with a pet dragon.
Maximilian Charming – celebrity prince and older brother.
Cinderella Charming – level-headed royal married to Max.

A vine-covered columned courtyard with elegant lettering reading “Themes.” Below are humorous and heartfelt themes from Kinda Charming:
Fairytale Parody
Accidents, Adventures, & Inventions
Frenemies to Lovers (Oh, La La!)
Royal Family Dynamics (Yikes!)
Self-Discovery & Appreciation
Magic, Myths, & Poultry
Underdog Triumph
Trope Evil Uncle/Villain (Mwah Ha Ha!)

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Briana Lee ✨is Querying✨ @briana-lee.bsky.social · 05/11/2025

#questpit ZOEY AND SASSAFRAS meets The Great British Bake-Off 24 cupcakes? No biggie. No eggs?! BIG biggie. A birthday party emergency turns cupcake baking into science-loving Mae's biggest experiment yet. 🧁🥚 CUPCAKE CHEMISTS is #1 in a STEAM chapter book series with real recipes! #Q #OS #CB #MG

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Author Adlin K.T. @adlinktauthor.bsky.social · 05/11/2025

🇵🇷Irene's Summer Plan: 🧓🏾Visit Abuelo, but guess what he's evil 🌀Stumble into a new world via a portal 🏝️Learn Taíno gods are real 🌟Unlock her star magic 🦜Wake Slumbering Parents 👻Purify a spirit 💎Destroy a medallion 🕷️Stop a power hungry chieftain #QuestPit #MG #F #Q #LGBT

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Starla Rajavuori @srajavuori.bsky.social · 05/11/2025

❄️ Tourist brochure: "Visit Arctic Finland's magical holiday season!" Reality: 🌌 Endless darkness. 👻 Ghost children. 🌲 A Yule monster hunting kids. Twelve-year-old Anu’s hidden shamanic powers might save them—or she'll join the ghosts warning future victims. #QuestPit #Q #MG #H

Midwinter hunt- book title over image of northern lights

Twelve-year-old Anu is terrified of the dark, which—in Arctic Finland's endless winter nights—is what you'd call a problem. "Seeing" dead people each time the lights go out doesn't help. Anu's been trying the ignore-them-and-hope-they'll-stop approach. But when a mysterious tourist boy shows up with proof that her ghosts aren't hallucinations—and are connected to attacks on local children—hiding in her cozy, well-lit cabin isn't an option anymore.

She teams up with him and her once-close cousin, who she might have blamed for triggering her visions to begin with. They discover the attacker is Staalu: an ancient spirit that hunts children during winter's darkest weeks. Now he's after Anu too, using ghost children to deliver his very personal threats.

Turns out Anu's shaman ancestor once bound this evil, but he's broken free. With more children disappearing, she must uncover the town's lost folklore and her family's buried secrets to recreate the binding ritual. When Staalu takes her little sister as bait, Anu must face complete darkness—her greatest fear—and trust the visions she's always tried to suppress, or lose her forever.

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Tamara 🌽👻🍁🎃🧛‍♀️ @tamaratoday.bsky.social · 05/11/2025

SIX OF CROWS X WHAT WAKES THE BELLS After his sister is cursed by a vengeful goddess, a former pickpocket must steal a relic from the most powerful man in the city to save her. But he can’t pull it off alone, and not everyone in his ragtag crew can be trusted. #QuestPit #NA #F #BVM #POC #Q #Heist

Left to right.

Top row: A foggy city with a spire in the background. The hands of a clock approaching 12. Smoke from an explosive in a building.

Middle row: A man in a waistcoat pointing at something. “Tick… Tock…” A man in a waistcoat sitting down.

Bottom row: Silver coins covered in blood. A group of people standing inside a clock tower. Rain on a cobblestone street.

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Joy is ✨querying✨ @joyiswriting.bsky.social · 06/08/2025

Proudly presenting my new guide for my revised manuscript w/ ✨Big 5+✨ editor interest! In the life of a Victorian noble, society will rip you to shreds. But in this Iris-istibly deadly mystery, so will the flowers that lurk around Greer Manor. . . 🥀 #questpit #MG #Q #H #MY

An agents guide to: What Lurks Beneath the Glass
By Joy Culp

Pitch: 13-year-old Maggie must team up with Adelaide, the morbid and lonely heir of Greer Manor, to solve a deadly mystery and prove her father's innocence in a recent fire after Mr. Greer blames him for planting explosive bushes. But as the mystery turns paranormal, and people start disappearing, the girls realize there may be something scarier lurking than just specters, and the rare botanical specimens that inhabit the Manor's greenhouses may have a taste for more than just bugs—
Beware the plants you trod on . . .

Comps: The Swifts, Don’t Let the Forest In, Serafina and the Black Cloak, Little Shop of Horrors, Aggie Morton: Mystery Queen, The Haunting of Aveline Jones

49,000k Historical MG Garden Horror

Snippet:
She gently brushed her hand over one of the fat triangular petals, its leathery surface rough like the skin of an exotic reptile. She rose on her toes, disrupting several flies before peeking over the center. A gaping circular hole was in place of where the pollen should've been, and crawling in the center of the flower was a horde of shiny black beetles. The creepy little insects climbed over each other rapidly, thousands of legs rolling and rippling like the tides of the ocean. While their curved pincers chomped away at the gooey inner flesh of the flower.
She shivered, quickly backpedaling away from the foul sight as she fell. She landed roughly on the ground, her hands hitting something strangely squishy, almost like a delicate cake. She lifted her hand in horror, as slimy red hunks clung to her fingers. A thin line of mucous connected the lumps, the sap dripping from her fingers.

Carnivorous flowers & hungry plants, Inspired by Alnwick Poison Garden, Haunted teaparties & spooky seances, Victorian Horticultural society, cottageGORE & botanical horror, subterranean greenhouses

Moodboard from left to right: abandoned greenhouse, fancy manor, Victorian girl, poisonous flower, Venus flytrap, a conservatory, a historical woman with a skull, an abandoned estate, a person drowning.

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Starla Rajavuori @srajavuori.bsky.social · 05/11/2025

The problem isn't that Anu sees ghosts. The problem is they see her back. And they've told something very old, very patient, and very hungry exactly where to find her. CITY OF GHOSTS X 30 DAYS OF NIGHT #QuestPit #Q #MG #H

The words midwinter hunt an agents guide on top of a background of a dark snowy forest

Twelve-year-old Anu is terrified of the dark and sees ghost children—kind of a problem in Arctic Finland where polar night lasts months. But when a mysterious tourist boy proves her visions are connected to attacks on local kids, hiding isn't an option anymore. They discover an ancient folk monster her shaman ancestor once defeated has returned to hunt children again. When it takes her little sister, Anu must face the darkness and trust the ghostly visions she's always tried to suppress.

Three comp titles for the book- it came from the trees, the cursed moon, and the girl in white

fear as inheritance
the price of burying history
empathy as bravery
light as protection
friendship versus isolation
what happens when stories are forgotten
modern comfort, ancient danger
the cost of seeing what others can’t
healing the wronged
learning to trust the dark

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Starla Rajavuori @srajavuori.bsky.social · 30/10/2025

A ghost-seeing girl afraid of the dark. Her horror movie-obsessed cousin. A tourist boy with a mysterious secret. Together they're Arctic Finland's most dysfunctional monster-hunting team. Too bad the monster's already hunting 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮. SMALL SPACES X 30 DAYS OF NIGHT #GhostPit #MG #H #Q 👻

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Frankie Sutton @frankiesutton.bsky.social · 30/10/2025

#GhostPit #YA #H 👻 Turning 16 on Halloween? Heck yeah. Losing Mom in a Harvest Fest ritual? Heck no. Play devour the soul w/Damien like it’s spin the bottle? Wait, what? Marnie discovers more tricks than treats w/the horrifying truth between her, Damien, & an apocalypse.

text at top: Happy Apocalypse Day, Marnie!

top row pictures: cloaked figure, old church, girl running in forest

middle row pictures: moonlight, Sweet 16 cake, silhouette of kid with hands reaching for the kid

bottom row pictures: close up of sad girl, desk of candles and a book

bottom: row of candles

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Starla Rajavuori @srajavuori.bsky.social · 30/10/2025

You had me at undead museum actors! 🤩 Love this.

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Starla Rajavuori @srajavuori.bsky.social · 30/10/2025

Northern Finland holiday vibes check: ❄️ Arctic winter 🌨️ polar night 🦌 reindeer tours 🌲 northern lights ⛄ holiday magic 👻 ghost children 🌑 endless darkness 👹 child-hunting Yule spirit 🔪 sister's next. It's Anu's shamanic bloodline vs. ancient hunger. #GhostPit #MG #H #Q 👻

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Starla Rajavuori @srajavuori.bsky.social · 30/10/2025

12-year-old Anu's terrified of the dark and sees ghosts—which is a problem when Arctic Finland’s polar night lasts for weeks and a child-hunting folk monster awakens. Her buried shamanic heritage might help—if she can face the darkness. CITY OF GHOSTS X 30 DAYS OF NIGHT #GhostPit #MG #H #Q 👻

Snow covered cabins at night under the polar lights.

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Starla Rajavuori @srajavuori.bsky.social · 07/10/2025

#GauntletChat I hope to catch up! Since being stuck in outline mode made me get a later start. 😬 The month is still young!

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Starla Rajavuori @srajavuori.bsky.social · 07/10/2025

I love the novel journal as coined by James Scott Bell. Journaling briefly about my thoughts on a project every. single. time. before writing each day really helped me through my first drafts when I was starting out writing years ago. It helped me to see that not every writing day has to be great.

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Starla Rajavuori @srajavuori.bsky.social · 07/10/2025

Hello #GaunletChat! I'm Starla, writer of mainly middle grade fantasy and horror (but sometimes also YA/adult). My Novel Gauntlet goal is 30k words on a new historical fiction project! 🕯️🖋️

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Starla Rajavuori @srajavuori.bsky.social · 26/08/2025

Just getting started here—hi! I write middle grade novels filled with magic, myth, and a strong sense of place. My completed manuscripts include a California-based historical fantasy, a Finnish mythology-filled fantasy, a contemporary folk horror, and a wintry fairytale retelling. Happy to be here!

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