Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Rissa Allen (is querying)

Cheyne & Sarah are querying 📜🖊️ @goodrenwrites.bsky.social · Jul 14

When the mysterious Lilith transfers into Avira's small school and captures her heart, Avira's controlling best friend takes it as a declaration of war.

🎨Art competition
☢2012 apocalypse?
🏳‍🌈Bi MC
🌲 Mysterious happenings in the woods
❄ Midwestern Setting

#BluePit #BluePit 📖 #Q #YA #LGBT #PN #SP

A moodboard designed to look like Netflix. It displays a preview image of a girl with brown hair leaning against her suburban house's porch railing, smiling with her face resting in her hands. She wears a tie dye and bright orange sweatpants. The text reads, Currently Querying. The title listed is: Rainbow Soul. Below is a summary blurb which reads: 2012 is supposedly the end of the world, but Avira's Jr Year doesn't need any paranormal intervention to feel like doomsday. Between her best friend competing against her in the art contest that could determine Avira’s future and beefing with her new crush, not to mention the things in the shadows she doesn’t understand, it’s plenty apocalyptic.
Below it says: More Like This. Thumbnails are displayed in a row showing the following titles: Heartstopper, Pretty Little Liars, Always the Almost, The Summer of Jordi Perez, Ultraviolet, The Adventure Zone: Amnesty, Prison of Plastic, Gravity Falls, Laura Dean Keeps Breaking up With Me, and Girl Serpent Thorn.

4 9

Reposted by Rissa Allen (is querying)

stacyzappala.bsky.social @stacyzappala.bsky.social · Jul 14

In this groovy 🐈 disco themed story find out the hilarious reason cats do not wear pants 😜

#pb #q #children's #animals #cats #bluepit

1 4

Reposted by Rissa Allen (is querying)

R. A. Ruhl is Querying🌙 @raruhl.bsky.social · Jul 14

#BluePit 📖 #A #Q #H #DIS #LGBT
HALF SICK OF SHADOWS: Gothic horror, 19th cent setting w modern diversity. Inspired by Dracula w Lovecraftian tone. 2 friends working at a remote manor must uncover bloody secrets and resist seductive nightmares to oppose robber barons that physically drain the people.

A moodboard with 9 pictures. In order from left to right, top to bottom: a frozen white flower, a first quarter moon, a drinking glass with drops of blood, a golden mask, iron gates that lead to a mansion, a violin, a broken mirror with the reflection of a hand, a foggy evergreen forest, and a yellow flower on a striking dark background.

4 15

Reposted by Rissa Allen (is querying)

Laura Garden @lauragarden.bsky.social · Jul 14

Outback Brokeback Mountain x Ribbonwood
Age-gap Grumpy/Sunshine Aussie ranchers battle climate change and their demons to keep the ranch alive and become a family.
Queer parenting, Women's Soccer, Climate Fiction.🌴

#BluePit #CliFi #Amquerying #LGBT #WF w/ #R #OV #A #Q #writingcommunity #bluepit📖

3 10

Reposted by Rissa Allen (is querying)

stacyzappala.bsky.social @stacyzappala.bsky.social · Jul 14

A unicorn shifter must save a unicorn hating princess, and her people in order to bring peace against the once enslaved 🦄 can Brody do this to show that we are all equal and can he change the princesses mind and heart and avoid falling for hers?
#novella #q #ya #romance #bluepit #fantasy

2 8

Reposted by Rissa Allen (is querying)

Craig Lincoln @craiglincoln.me · Jul 14

DEEP BLACK VELVET NOTHING

A salvager finds a lead on discovering a long-lost dreadnought—the same one his brother crewed when it disappeared. But some things are better off staying lost

🤖construction mechs
👨‍👩‍👦‍👦sibling drama
☢️scary space stuff
🚀rival crews

#BluePit 📖 #SF #Q #A

3 7

Reposted by Rissa Allen (is querying)

Punk Rocking Rose @punkrockingrose.bsky.social · Jul 14

Phoebe has dreams sometimes of monsters destroying the city, and sketches them out. As it turns out, her dreams are prophetic, and she ends up joining others in fighting back against the monsters by becoming monsters herself using a Monster Token.
#BluePit📖 #A #Q #LGBT

2 6

Reposted by Rissa Allen (is querying)

Craig Lincoln @craiglincoln.me · Jul 14

SHINE

Within the Murk, only burning shine—potent energy crystals—can keep the lights on and the matter-devouring mites at bay. A miner aims to escape mining, while the ship's new helm officer looks to climb the ranks. But together they uncover a secret no one was meant to know.
#BluePit 📖 #SF #Q #A

2 6

Reposted by Rissa Allen (is querying)

L. D. Rex is Querying @ldrexauthor.bsky.social · Jul 14

A preteen boy is in denial about his grandfather’s Alzheimer’s. The duo love to go on adventures like ice fishing. One night, he slips down an ice hole and is saved by a young version of his granddad in the Sixties. How will he get home, and resolve his grief?
#BluePit #Q #MG #ADV #F

a man in a white shirt is holding a pair of glasses in his hands

Alt: a man in a white shirt is holding a pair of glasses in his hands

media.tenor.com

3 9

Reposted by Rissa Allen (is querying)

R. A. Ruhl is Querying🌙 @raruhl.bsky.social · Jul 14

HALF SICK OF SHADOWS will resonate with anyone who's doomscrolled on diagnosis websites and includes:
-trans man and bisexual woman MCs
-chronic pain rep
-sapphic and nonbinary vampires
-ecocriticism
-power of friendship in opposing capitalism
-pet chameleon
#BluePit 📖 #A #Q #H #DIS #LGBT #ND

R. A. Ruhl is Querying🌙 @raruhl.bsky.social · Jul 14

#BluePit 📖 #A #Q #H #DIS #LGBT
HALF SICK OF SHADOWS: Gothic horror, 19th cent setting w modern diversity. Inspired by Dracula w Lovecraftian tone. 2 friends working at a remote manor must uncover bloody secrets and resist seductive nightmares to oppose robber barons that physically drain the people.

1 7 19

Reposted by Rissa Allen (is querying)

krys plummer @krysplummer.bsky.social · Jul 14

Raised in NY, 17-year-old Art is unaccustomed to the games of dominance and manipulation that the powerful people of her world play. So when she is captured and brought there, she is forced to reckon with the fact that she is tragically out of her depth.
But... Art *is* learning.
#Bluepit #Q #YA #F

2 5 12

Reposted by Rissa Allen (is querying)

Sova Erickson @fae-author.bsky.social · Jul 14

Just a final repost before I sign off, thank you all for stopping by! This was a fun pitch event and it was great to see everybody’s ideas! I wish yall luck in the trenches of querying we all trudge through

#Bluepit📖 #A #F #R #Q #LGBT #ND

Sova Erickson @fae-author.bsky.social · Jul 13

ENCHANTING ROLES
A fae and a half-demon fated to be together before either even realize it

✌️Dual POV
🌈Sapphic Romance
🌠Star Crossed Lovers
🍬Sweet Moments
🌶️Extra spicy moments too
💀Dubious Consent
🧚‍♀️Fae Aristocrats
🪄Enchanting magic
😈Demonic twists
🗡️Nefarious Plots

#Bluepit📖 #A #F #R #Q #LGBT #ND

2 9

Reposted by Rissa Allen (is querying)

Joanne E. Peter @ravenvyper.bsky.social · Jul 14

CRESCENT CITY x GUILD HUNTER x JEKYLL & HYDE
When two worlds collide in unexpected ways, Falciel has to fight and escape captivity or save the huntress determined to kill him.
*Sci-Fi/Romantasy dystopian
*Enemies-to-Lovers
*Morally gray angels & demons
*Multi-POV
#BluePit📖 #Q #A #R #SF #F #DIS #POC

1 4

Reposted by Rissa Allen (is querying)

Von Beckford @vonbeckford.bsky.social · Jul 14

7.13.2025 14-year-old Tung moves to a Halloween-obsessed town with a witchy past. He thinks they’re just tourist trap fiction until they begin chasing him into the night, toward the secrets the town doesn’t even know exists. “Hocus Pocus” meets “The Witches of Eastwick” #BluePit📖 #Q #W #F #D

2 2 5

Reposted by Rissa Allen (is querying)

Morris The Spider @morristhespider.bsky.social · Jul 14

Deep Cuts X And Just Like That

Need vs. want. Eli wants to be a dad. Gettie needs him to admit it. He won’t because she can no longer conceive and getting what he wants means giving up Gettie. He needs to figure his 💩 out.

#BluePit 📖 #DIS #Q #WF/BC/R

Borrowed Bandana agents guide title slide of a platinum record framed over a red bandana

Borrowed Bandana agents guide details slide featuring an open notebook page with Polaroid photos clipped on the top and a summer tour packing list

Borrowed Bandana agents guide pitch slide with an illustration of the male and female characters

Borrowed Bandana agents guide comps slide featuring an illustration of a man riding a motorcycle

2 5

Reposted by Rissa Allen (is querying)

Laura Garden @lauragarden.bsky.social · Jul 14

Grumpy Nev is as protective of her best farmhand, single mom Ronnie, as she is of her classic rock band and secret drinking habit.

6'2" soccer star Ronnie has put her criminal past behind her and wants a safe, stable home.

#BluePit #CliFi #Amquerying #LGBT #WF #R #A #Q #writingcommunity #bluepit📖

1 2 6

Reposted by Rissa Allen (is querying)

Poornika Kakkanaiah is agented ✨ @poornika.bsky.social · Jul 14

LEGENDBORN X WEDNESDAY

When students of color are mysteriously drained of their magic, Nisha must identify the culprit before she loses her powers...or her life.

🤎 South Asian MC
🎓 Magic school
🏆 Competition
🫶 Found family
❤️‍🔥 Rivals to lovers

#BluePit 📖 #Q #YA #OV #POC #F #amquerying #agentsguide

An agent's guide to SEASONALS. YA Fantasy. Complete at 99,000 words. Background is a puddle with autumn leaves on its surface.

Pitch. When Nisha Ravichandran becomes the first South Asian to cast fall magic, a type of magic that only belongs to the oppressors of her race, she commits to Meteora's College of Fall to find a way to change her magic. But she soon learns she is not safe at Meteora when a series of attacks leaves her fellow students of color drained of their magic. To stop the attacks, Nisha must shed her internalized shame and wield her fall magic against the threat before she and her classmates permanently lose their powers, or worse, their lives.

Tropes & Themes. 1st Generation protagonist. Self-acceptance. Magic school. Season-based magic. Gripping mystery. Rivals to lovers. Found family. High-stakes competition. Diverse cast. Climate change. On the left is a photo of a dining hall at a university.

2 3 17

Reposted by Rissa Allen (is querying)

Poornika Kakkanaiah is agented ✨ @poornika.bsky.social · Jun 2

I've updated my #AgentsGuide for SEASONALS, which is now complete at 99,000 words!

For fans of:
⚔️ YA Fantasy
🤎 South Asian protagonists
🎓 Magic schools
🏆 Competitions
🫶 Found family
❤️‍🔥 Rivals to lovers

#amquerying

An agent's guide to SEASONALS. YA Fantasy. Complete at 99,000 words.

Tropes & Themes.
On the left is a picture of a long table in a dining hall at Oxford University.
On the right is a list of text that reads: 1st Generation protagonist. Self-acceptance. Magic school. Season-based magic. Gripping mystery. Rivals to lovers. Found family. High-stakes competition. Diverse cast. Climate change.

1 3 13

Reposted by Rissa Allen (is querying)

Michelle Lindsey Hutchins @mlhutchins.bsky.social · Jul 14

An evil mage stealing a kingdom. A spreading drought curse. The ensuing famine. Only one person can bring it all back from the brink. And she just refused the call.
#BluePit 📖 #Q #YA #F #WF #ND #RainMagic

2 4

Reposted by Rissa Allen (is querying)

A. Bastedo is ✨Resenting Deadlines✨ @abastedo-writing.bsky.social · Jul 14

A #BluePit buzzer-beater, from way downtown!

LOVE ME! LOVE MY ESOTERIC SLOP!

In Their Shadows by A. Bastedo
Upmarket Gothic Fantasy
70,000 words
Actively querying #agents
#Q #F #H #A #WritingCommunity #SFF

The Ritual X The Buried Giant X The Left Hand of Darkness

The text reads: This book smells like blood and fire, like mossy rocks and rusted steel. This book smells like wet dog fur and Frankincense. Smell it. This book reeks.

This is over the backdrop of Robert S. Duncanson's 1856 painting Remembrances of a Scene Near Auerbach. This painting shows a distant, shadowed ruinous castle at the end of a sharp dropping gorge in the clouded sunlight. Robert Duncanson’s trip to Europe in 1853 probably inspired Remembrances of a Scene near Auerbach. In the distance, a lake disappears into tree-covered mountains, and nestled into the hills sits Auerbach Castle, a German fortress that still exists today. Shafts of sunlight stream through the clouds, illuminating the castle and making it the focal point in the landscape. Like many nineteenth-century American artists, Duncanson was fascinated with Europe’s classical and medieval ruins as aesthetically pleasing markers of the passage of time and its effect on the landscape. i believe this passage of time and the ruins is an important aspect of the story.

The Pilgrim of the World at the End of His Journey by Thomas Cole

Thomas Cole died before he was able to complete his final group of paintings, titled The Cross and the World. In the beginning of the series, two young men each begin a pilgrimage---one to the cross and the other through the world. The route to the cross is mountainous and difficult, while the pathway through the world tempts with a beautiful valley. By the end of their journeys, the pilgrim of the cross discovers the bright light and angels of redemption, but the pilgrim of the world finds only a wasteland of emptiness and fear. Cole used very little color in these paintings to emphasize the vivid contrast between the glorious light of God and the dark confusion of a world without faith.

The Text Reads: For these fields, the ground fought them, it claimed their sons, their slaves, their hungry nights. Yet they persisted as men so often must. With blood and years they tore the ground and ate of its flesh. From the cold stones they raised monuments to their new gods and whispered around them beneath the darkening skies.

3 9

Reposted by Rissa Allen (is querying)

Michelle Lindsey Hutchins @mlhutchins.bsky.social · Jul 14

A young woman who can control rain by singing is the only hope of drought-cursed kingdoms. Betrayal propels her onto a journey fraught with monsters and vampiric companions. She must learn to trust--despite past abuse--to save the kingdoms and her family.
#BluePit 📖 #Q #YA #WF #ND #F

1 6

Rissa Allen (is querying) @honeyscribbles.bsky.social · Jul 14

Ooh yes 😍😍😍

1

Reposted by Rissa Allen (is querying)

Poornika Kakkanaiah is agented ✨ @poornika.bsky.social · Jul 14

LEGENDBORN x WEDNESDAY

At Meteora University, students of color are in danger of losing their magic. But when Nisha becomes the first of her race to have fall magic, she must find out if her unique powers will help her stop the threat or make her a bigger target.

#BluePit 📖 #Q #YA #OV #POC #F

Nine photos. Top left photo is autumn leaves on the ground. Top center photo is swirling clouds. Top right photo is a black potion in a glass bottle on the ground. Middle left photo is of a young woman in a ballgown. Middle photo is a gothic building. Middle right photo is of bookshelves. Bottom left photo is a gothic corridor. Bottom center photo is a foggy forest. Bottom right photo is a silhouette of a man.

1 5 10

Reposted by Rissa Allen (is querying)

Nicky (🦵🏼🔑) Rodriguez looking for a new agent @artofnickyrdrgz.bsky.social · Jul 14

💥 #OS #Q #NA #DIS #LGBT #BluePit #SP #POC The Unlucky Ones & the Edge of Nowhere-2 queer adults w/ life-changing powers navigate grief+mortality on a sudden road trip out of California hoping they'll figure out what's next. melancholy of lost summers, post-college ennui, dollops of QP love+radiation

6 panel comic page showing a jeep driving on an empty highway surrounded by green. the woman passenger looks over, annoyed at the man driving, and says something. he responds nervously, only for the woman to react with an EWW. he then responds by throwing his hands out, accidentally honking the horn while exclaiming something in embarrassment.

5 panel comic page showing a man looking concerned, a woman's eyes glowing blue with a corresponding panel of that same man with his eyes now glowing green. the next panel indicates a return to present because of its solid border; it shows the woman falling back into her seat. the final panel, an open one that takes up the background of the page behind the previous panels, shows her looking out the window of a jeep.

sonia and lúcio holding hands and crying as we see a valley behind them

header image for the unlucky ones and the edge of nowhere featuring lúcio and sonia sitting in a car looking at each other somewhat fearfully. there’s a neon glow coming from lúcio and sonia’s eyes are also glowing.

6 10

Reposted by Rissa Allen (is querying)

Matthew Holvey 📚 querying 🔎 @matthewholvey.bsky.social · Jul 14

THE DYING LIGHT is the grim fantasy of ANATHEMA meets the complex weave between humans and gods in GODKILLER.

It’s filled with divine power struggles 🪬, a heartbroken heroine who fears to love again 💔, and the triumph of hope over darkness. ✨

#BluePit📖 #Q #D #F #NA #LGBT

Matthew Holvey 📚 querying 🔎 @matthewholvey.bsky.social · Jul 13

THE DYING LIGHT
Orissa battles endlessly against the black forest’s monsters that assault her city, but everything changes the day her long-dead girlfriend returns from those grim trees with a secret that could save them all.

🌳 Dark forest
💞 Lost love
🐙 Ancient evil

#BluePit📖 #Q #D #F #NA #LGBT

3 13