iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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London Review of Books @lrb.co.uk · 29/03/2025

‘Some themes, perhaps, resist temporal shaping. The moment at which the marked sheet morphs from functional investigation to aesthetic collectible is endlessly repeated.’ Julian Bell on drawing: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

lrb.co.uk

Julian Bell · On Drawing

While engaged in drawing, we are aware that there is something yet to be brought into sight, some impact on the surface...

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Victoria Lilly @victorialilly.bsky.social · 25/03/2025

Shelving my dead (also bad) querying novel leave me feeling like #WritingCommunity

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it looks like you're writing a novel @gr8writingtips.bsky.social · 24/03/2025

if anyone ever tells you that you should cut a scene you really like because it doesn’t add to the plot, you have my permission to say that you need to include it because i told you you have to

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Victoria Lilly @victorialilly.bsky.social · 24/03/2025

At a crossroads of what to do about my writing career (lol, career) and I'm just, spinning like a top #WritingCommunity

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Bunika Vampire @bunikanovel.com · 19/03/2025

The beautiful model on @gothicbeautymag.bsky.social #57 reminded me so much of Marika from Bunika 🇸🇰 So I created this fictional 18th C 'Slovak Beauty' cover which DOES feature her! [I contacted the magazine with no response, oh well:)] This is a creative tribute, no commercial intent! 1/2

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The Museum of English Rural Life (MERL) @themerl.bsky.social · 19/03/2025

the pinnacle of human achievement

A Google search for 'how many rs in museum of english rural life'. Google's AI overview responds to say: The Museum of English Rural Life in Reading has no "Rs" in its name, it is simply called "Museum of English Rural Life.

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Maureen Johnson @maureenjohnsonbooks.com · 18/03/2025

How your email finds me.

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Nell @nelsnote.bsky.social · 17/03/2025

A burned-out jazz pianist seeking refuge at a seaside inn is drawn into the orbit of a brilliant painter whose work doesn’t just capture his subjects—it devours them. And now she's caught in his frame. Art by the lovely saranillustration #LuckyPit #PopUpPitA #A

Character art of a young woman with long black hair, and a man with blonde hair behind her. They're very close together and it seems like the man may be pulling her backwards.

The background is ocean waves, with a smidge of red.

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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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Emma Al-munshi @emmaalmunshi.bsky.social · 17/03/2025

My new #agentsguide for To Ruin the Sky⚡️ Expect: 🫢Your new tatted-up, morally-grey book bf 💁🏻‍♀️Shadow Mommy FMC - rivals Faith from Buffy 🪞One big metaphor for identity ✨Good vs evil reimagined 🔥Enemies AND lovers 👍🏼Middle Eastern Rep #PopUpPit #PopUpPitA #LuckyPit #RF #PopUpPit #writersky

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kay @kswrites.bsky.social · 17/03/2025

She’s a hopeless romantic. He’s a grump discontented with life. Maybe chasing after an urban legend will get them what they want, if what they want is: 🌕 Midnight rendezvous 🌓 Monstrous vampires 🌒 Scheming gangs & shady detectives 🌑 The secret to controlling it all #PopUpPitA #LuckyPit #A #F

On a background of a city street at night, the words 'for the days we never had' is written on the top of the graphic. In the middle is a graphic of an orange-brown liquid in a cocktail glass. To the left of the glass is a graphic of a man in a hat smoking, with the words "Morally Grey" above it, then a plus sign and below it, the graphic of a heart-shaped sun with the words "Sunshine Romantic" written above it. Below that is a graphic of a woman in a cat with the words "Yearning God" written above it. To the right of the wineglass is a graphic of a silhouette of a cloaked figure with the word "Vampires" written above it, a silhouette of a man holding a magnifying glass with the words "Dubious Detectives" written above it, and a graphic of a dragon with the words "Cutthroat Gangs" written above it. On the bottom right of the graphic is the word "Genres", with five icons over a brown background below it: Silhouettes of a castle, a ghost, a gun, a magnifying glass, and a heart. They represent Fantasy, Horror, Suspense, Mystery, and Romance respectively.

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Gwend💫lyn Vines @gwenvines.academics.blue · 17/03/2025

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

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

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Victoria Lilly @victorialilly.bsky.social · 17/03/2025

My new pitch card for the sapphic gothic horror novel I #amquerying With the economy crumbling and inequality skyrocketing, what can be more pertinent than a story about proverbially eating the rich 😁❤️ #PopUpPitA #LuckyPit #adult #horror #gothic

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Victoria Lilly @victorialilly.bsky.social · 17/03/2025

1872 London. Agnes is a spirit-medium aching for meaningful work, better pay, and a soulmate. When an invitation arrives to visit a grand estate and banish a spirit haunting it, Agnes cannot resist. The adventure, however, turns into a nightmare #PopUpPitA #LuckyPit #horror #gothic #lgbtqi

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kay @kswrites.bsky.social · 17/03/2025

ADDIE LARUE x VELVET WAS THE NIGHT A hopeless romantic drags a grumpy college student with her to chase after an urban legend, and the rest is… A nightmare of scary men and shady gangs and bloodthirsty vampires. Well, this certainly isn’t the romcom she had in mind. #LuckyPit #PopupPitA #A #F

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Ivy Lin | Querying Author @ivy-lin.bsky.social · 17/03/2025

SOMETHING MORE x TOMORROW (x3) To win a $100k coding competition, Mia Pan teams up with an autistic coding prodigy, who she’s crushing hard on. But falling for him makes her wonder: is she autistic too? #YA #LuckyPit #PopUpPitA

Mia and Owen sit in a dark room illuminated by a TV screen. Owen is holding an Atari controller while looking at Mia, who is eating garlic bread.
Art by Joy Ling.

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Leigh Samuels @leighsamuels.bsky.social · 17/03/2025

WHEN YOU GET THE CHANCE X MATILDA X TODAY TONIGHT TOMORROW 🎭 I always loved musicals so I joined my school's production of Legally Blonde. 👩🏻‍🏫 Except the director is a nightmare 👧🏻 Who loves to degrade me 😭 Is it worth giving up my dream? Find out in Undesired Spotlight! #LuckyPit #YA #Con #PopUpPitA

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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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ashlea screaton is querying @ashleascreaton.bsky.social · 17/03/2025

When a fiery maid ran to sea to escape her violent employer, she never expected a passionate romance with a pirate captain–or needing to hunt down a legendary map to save her best friend's life. Once Upon A Broken Heart 💕meets Outlander 🗡️ The Siren’s Call 🏴‍☠️ (series potential) #LuckyPit #PopUpPit

The Siren's Call
NA Romantasy - 85,000 words
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 passionate affair with the Captain reveals he is tailed by a dark past which could sabotage the mission, but her friend's life is tied to the map. She must do anything to get it-even using the Captain's secret against him-or lose her friend.

Book comparisons:
Once Upon A Broken Heart by Stephanie Garber
Dark Water Daughter by H.M. Long
The Ever King by L.J. Andrews
Dance of Thieves by Mary E. Pearson
From Blood and Ash by Jennifer L. Armentrout
Outlander by Diana Gabaldon
Frenchman’s Creek by Daphne Du Maurier

A pirate novel mood board, all in a blue and nautical theme. “Come back to the sea” is quoted amongst corsets, ships, and the vast ocean. It is romantic and sweeping, a sense of adventure.

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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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kay @kswrites.bsky.social · 17/03/2025

ADDIE LARUE x TVD - vampires hiding their fangs - a lost god searching for identity - power-hungry gangs and dubious detectives - morally grey protagonist - regretting (?) what you wished for - realising what you truly are - in the speculative underbelly of Taipei #PopUpPitA #LuckyPit #A #F

On the top half of the image, text on a background of an urban nightscape that reads "For The Days We Never Had", followed by text against a translucent reddish background that reads, "After Kai Le and Ai Yu encounter a mysterious entity at a bus-stand, they find themselves getting what they wanted - and more. Thrown into the world of urban legends, they have to grapple with the monsters they have unleashed, both figurative and real. Are their dreams worth losing themselves over?"; "Adult Urban Fantasy - 94k words".

On the second half of the image is a 7-Eleven at dusk, with a row of pictures over it: the book cover for Velvet was the Night; the book cover for The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue; and the anime poster for Durarara!

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Victoria Lilly @victorialilly.bsky.social · 17/03/2025

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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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Ivy Lin | Querying Author @ivy-lin.bsky.social · 17/03/2025

SOMETHING MORE x TOMORROW (x3) When 16yo Mia Pan learns her mom can't afford rent, she must win a $100k coding competition to stay in NYC—her childhood home—while navigating feelings for her autistic teammate and wondering if she's autistic herself. #YA #LuckyPit #PopUpPitA

An illustration of Mia, the female lead, and Owen, the male lead, sitting together on a desk. Owen is typing on a keyboard and focused on his work. Mia is looking towards Owen and twirling her hair with her index finger.
Artwork by Joy Ling.

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Natalie is ✨ writing a new thing✨ @natalielouise83.bsky.social · 17/03/2025

Orkney, 1909: Twenty-five years ago, men made history. Now, one woman will change it… 🔥 Feminine rage 🪢 Twisty plot 🌊 Atmospheric setting 🧜‍♀️ Fading folklore ❤️‍🔥 Vengeance and redemption 💫 Chronic illness rep (own voices) #PopUpPit #LuckyPit #A #H

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James A Lyons @jalwrites.bsky.social · 17/03/2025

Here We Go Again x It's a Sin Whilst honouring his uncle's dying wish to reunite six drag queen activists, a young gay man hears the 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. #PopUpPitA #LuckyPit

On the left, the title THE DRAGNIFICENT SEVEN is written, with the text angled vertically. To the right is a 9 square moodboard. In the four corners are images of drag queens. Top middle is an image of an LGBTQ+ rights protest in black and white. Bottom middle is a picture of a piece of colourful modern art. Middle left is a road map with a magnifying glass and set of car keys resting on top. Middle right is an image of a young man with medium length hair walking through a city at night. In the centre is a pile of newspaper cuttings with the words 'are the dragnificent seven back?" written over the top in a fake headline style. On the right hand side and acting as a background image, is a drag queen waiting in the wings.
If you use a screen reader or rely on alt text, I always aim to make picture posts as inclusive as possible. If I can improve in any way to make my posts more accessible to you, please do reach out and I will take your feedback on board for future posts.

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Katie Bailey @katiebaileybook.bsky.social · 17/03/2025

When exorcising ghosts, it helps to have a medium with a cool head and sympathetic heart. Instead, we get unlikable, snarky Constance. In a blend of horror/comedy that gets darker as it goes, traveling ghost hunters get in too deep when the dead won’t RIP. #LuckyPit #PopUpPitA #a #uf #h #spec

Cute sparkly purple background with adorable cartoon ghosts. Over it, it says “testimonials for CENTRAL AVALON” and, in speech bubbles, “SCOOBY DOO ASS FOUND FAMILY VIBES HELL YEAH -reader,” “this is a bit dark for my tastes. -literary agent,” “I didn’t entirely hate the protagonist by the end. -reader,” and “a subjective industry -literary agent”

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Victoria Lilly @victorialilly.bsky.social · 17/03/2025

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Victoria Lilly @victorialilly.bsky.social · 16/03/2025

If I were a ghost, I would haunt myself. Sounds about right. #horrorcommunity #horrorwriters

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Max Granger @maxgranger.info · 16/03/2025

Amazing things happening to language and meaning over at @theguardian.com

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Victoria Lilly @victorialilly.bsky.social · 15/03/2025

Testing a new bit of visuals for promoting my querying novel, a pitch card as the kids call them. Whaddaya think? #WritingCommunity #agentsguide #agentguide #amquerying

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Gwend💫lyn Vines @gwenvines.academics.blue · 14/03/2025

jimbook pitch card ft. everyone's favourite morally ambiguous botanist #amquerying #A #F #SFF #booksky #writing #writingcommunity

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Victoria Lilly @victorialilly.bsky.social · 13/03/2025

And submitted my querying manuscript for #revpit Perhaps they can help me fix what isn't working, so pray 4 me #WritingCommunity

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Victoria Lilly @victorialilly.bsky.social · 13/03/2025

On top of my book slowly bleeding to death in the querying trenches, today I got a rejection on my PhD funding application #WritingCommunity #academia

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Victoria Lilly @victorialilly.bsky.social · 12/03/2025

I wish I could think clearly for more than 2 minutes, to have the energy to do more than 2 simple tasks a day, to have one night of refreshing sleep. Much to ask for I guess

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Victoria Lilly @victorialilly.bsky.social · 10/03/2025

Wrote nearly 4k words yesterday and completed a short story in one sitting! Thus (hopefully) bringing my months long writing slump to an end!! 🥳 #WritingCommunity

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Victoria Lilly @victorialilly.bsky.social · 09/03/2025

Perhaps we could profit from taking a leaf out of the suffragettes' book...

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Victoria Lilly @victorialilly.bsky.social · 08/03/2025

Now that the editors have been introduced, it's time to properly roll up my sleeves with my #RevPit submissions. Pray 4 me #WritingCommunity

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✧ risa ⊹. ݁ @itsrisachang.bsky.social · 06/03/2025

After the craziest three weeks ever, l'm ecstatic to announce that I'm now represented by @literaryfey.bsky.social of @belllomaxmoreton.bsky.social! From the time she noticed my pitch right up to her offer, l've been blown away by her enthusiasm for Phoenix Bones!

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Victoria Lilly @victorialilly.bsky.social · 06/03/2025

I see fellow writers get agent interest, lots of interest even, on their agent guides. And then I wonder if I should rework mine. Then I think about four months of querying with next to zero interest and think why bother. Really don't know what to do at this point. #WritingCommunity

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Gwend💫lyn Vines @gwenvines.academics.blue · 04/03/2025

To celebrate finishing my revisions, my INCREDIBLE mentor @rachelkitch.bsky.social designed the cover, typeset & printed a personal copy of the Jimbook for me?! A dream come true to hold my writing in my hands with my art on the cover! 🥹🥰 #writingcommunity #amquerying #booksky #writesky

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