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Carter Elise Key 🗝️

@carterscompendium.bsky.social

75 followers 78 following 73 posts

they/them/theirs • 24 • i’ll try writing or reading anything once 919 ⇾ 973 cw: V.E.S.S.E.L. | cr: biography of x support me on kofi! https://ko-fi.com/carterscompendium

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Carter Elise Key 🗝️ @carterscompendium.bsky.social · 8h

The future of Laerathor is written in the stars—or in blood. 🩸💫

✨ #questpit #a #f #q ✨

⚔️ forged family
👑 prophesied death
🤍 queer & disabled rep

The Bardaegan Trials have only just begun; is risking it all worth it? ♟️🥇

an agent’s guide to ODE: Fern and the nine realms of laerathor. carter elise key & lindsay vena.

pitch - the future of laerathor is written in the stars—or in blood. with everything on the line, Fern, Halvard, and Airika must decide how they want to be remembered. the Bardaegan Trials have only just begun, and this time they come with a deadly cost. is risking it all worth it?

stats:
- word count: 104k
- debut with series potential
- multi-pov 3rd person narration
genre/audience:
- fantasy/adventure
- new adult/adult
- influenced by norse mythology
representation:
- queer (normalized in world)
- disability (hard of hearing/deaf)

comps/tropes:

comp titles:
blood beneath the snow by alexandra kennington
the priory of the orange tree by samantha shannon
all of us villains by amanda foody & c.l. herman

tropes:
- forged family
- slow burn
- political intrigue
- prophecies
- magic has a cost
- doomed by the narrative

excerpt:

with no warning, 1 of the prisoners from verwaringheim swings her head down, her fingers gripping the eave of the roof to keep her from toppling over completely. “hi there!”
“good gods!” Halvard whips around to face an upside-down Juel. “you nearly scared my spirit free!”
“does that mean your spirit still has cost? it should be worth something.” she looks concerned, tilting her head to the side and causing her curtain of hair to sway.
he blinks. “that’s not—nevermind. nevermind. why are you upside-down?”
“i’m not upside-down. you’re upside down,” she giggles. “its all about perspective, prince.”
“juel, who’re ya talkin’ to?” the male prisoner grumbles from above.
halvard’s face blanches. he covers his mouth with his free hand, hoping to communicate to juel not to reveal any specifics of who he is.
she grins at him. “it’s prince halvard!”

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Carter Elise Key 🗝️ @carterscompendium.bsky.social · 51m

!! i support women’s wrongs 📣📣📣

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Carter Elise Key 🗝️ @carterscompendium.bsky.social · 52m

u had me at medieval ireland 🧎🏼

Carter Elise Key 🗝️ @carterscompendium.bsky.social · 54m

YAYAYAYAYAYAYAY im so so so excited for ur pub day 😭😭

Carter Elise Key 🗝️ @carterscompendium.bsky.social · 55m

!!! little mermaid retelling?? i’m obsessed

Carter Elise Key 🗝️ @carterscompendium.bsky.social · 57m

oh this sounds awesome!!

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Reposted by Carter Elise Key 🗝️

Kelton Davis is writing! 🦇⚰️🤠 @keltondavis.bsky.social · 9h

SINNERS x THE DEVILS x CASTLEVANIA

There's three rules to surviving as a nightrunner: don't get comfortable, don't be a hero, and don't be unlucky.

Corado's about to break all three.

🤠 Vampire Cowboys
🦇 Monstrous Night Hordes
🏜️ Pueblo Pit Cities

Querying soon!
#A #F #W #QuestPit

Image: A man in a black cloak and a wide brim western style black hat, holding a revolver; only his eyes as yellow pinpricks are visible.
Text:
A Novel By Kelton Davis
Blood Red Sand
109000 Words
Adult Gothic Western Fantasy
Querying Soon

Art: Apocalypse by Oliver Odmark

Title: Comparable Titles
Images of the covers of The Devils by Joe Abercrombie, Godkiller by Hannah Kaner, and Red Rabbit by Alex Grecian.
Text drawn with an arrow from each image:
Found family (from the Devils)
Reluctant parent figure (from Godkiller)
Western-inspire Gothic setting (from Red Rabbit)
Unlikely travel companions (from all).
Background image: same as first slide.

Title: Pitch
Text: Corado is just trying to survive the night—every night. Being a nightrunner, one of the few brave or foolish enough to defy humanity's vampire masters to traffic himself and others across barony lines, doesn't make it any easier though. With vampire posses stalking the desert during the day and their ravenous Horde filling the sky each night, it's a miracle he's survived as long as he has. Some of it he chalks up to skill, some to instinct, but he knows that when the dawn comes, the main thing seeing him through the night is good old-fashioned luck.

Nothing lasts forever though, and Corado's lucky streak soon comes to a quick and bloody end. After nighttime attack from the Horde leaves him stranded in the desert with a newly-orphaned boy named Hectar, he finds keeping the rest of the world at bay may not be as easy as he thought. Newfound companion in tow, he sets out to find what remains of the boy's family and finally put the whole thing behind him.

But as he knows by now, no job is ever so simple. As he tries to escort Hectar to safety, whispers of rebellion start drifting on the wind. With a world free of the Horde beginning to look like a real possibility, Corado must face vampires, twisted monstrosities, and the darkness lurking in men's hearts before he decides whether the world he's cut himself out of is one worth fighting for after all.

Background image: same as other slides

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Carter Elise Key 🗝️ @carterscompendium.bsky.social · 59m

she’s my pride & joy 🙂‍↕️🙂‍↕️

Carter Elise Key 🗝️ @carterscompendium.bsky.social · 3h

#questpit

if you’re somehow not convinced that the state of the US is in flames, this work is for you.

🩸 those in power are lying to you
🩸 cult of christian fundamentalism/white supremacy
🩸 feminine rage
🩸 reclamation & self discovery

#w #a #sf #h #lf 🔥

title card with pregnancy photoshoot as the backdrop - close image on a woman’s pregnant belly with two sets of hands cradling it

text: V.E.S.S.E.L. / an agent’s guide / carter elise key / M.A. in creative writing thesis project

pitch:

evelyn innately trusts her husband, adam, to handle many of the front-facing affairs. he handles the money, he has a steady ipb, he goes golfing with his griends every Saturday. evie is happily in charge of ensuring thag their home is something to be proud of: clean, tidy, and presentable to the neighbours.

despite the pleasant appearance, things are not what they seem in the adler household. adam desperately wants a son, and evie is trying her best to give him one. she’s already miscarried once, before she even knew she was pregnant, a crime equivalent to manalaughter in her tight-knit, christian fundamentalist hometown. twenty weeks into her second pregnancy, evie suddenly falls ill. she loses the baby, as well as her husband’s hope for a son.

adam decides to admit evie for a three year treatment cycle to V.E.S.S.E.L., a program that assists women with fertility difficulties and ensures a safe, happy, and healthy pregnancy. or af least, that’s how their marketing team has decided to present their “treatments” to the public.

comp titles:

01 - the handmaid’s tale by margaret atwood
02 - tender is the flesh by agustina bazterrica
03 - biography of x by catharine lacey
04 - “cat person” by kristen roupenian

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Carter Elise Key 🗝️ @carterscompendium.bsky.social · 8h

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Carter Elise Key 🗝️ @carterscompendium.bsky.social · Sep 25

its recruitment szn!

my fave parts abt camp fairwood:

🤝 friendly competition
💕 welcoming vibes!
🌱 green meadows cabin <3
🧠 learning abt everyone’s kickass projects
🍾 celebrating together!
✨ weekly cabin updates

DM for an invite link — i promise u won’t regret it!!

Carter Elise Key 🗝️ @carterscompendium.bsky.social · Aug 22

officially halfway thru ode’s first round of edits 🥳

• down 17k words
• added a new chapter 👀
• adjusted pacing to be more consistent

#editing

Carter Elise Key 🗝️ @carterscompendium.bsky.social · Aug 16

this is SO GOOD omg 😭

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Carter Elise Key 🗝️ @carterscompendium.bsky.social · Aug 16

🏰 ODE: FERN AND THE NINE REALMS OF LAERATHOR 🏰

Nine realms. Ten competitors. One king, fated to die, who insists on overseeing the competition which will determine his successor.

How will this unique round of the Bardaegan Trials end?

#posterpitw #f #na

Castle looming over a beach.

“ODE: Fern and the Nine Realms of Laerathor” “A Key & Vena Production” “12.2025” “hitting query trenches soon"

Carter Elise Key 🗝️ @carterscompendium.bsky.social · Aug 16

#posterpitw #f #na

👑 ODE: FERN AND THE NINE REALMS OF LAERATHOR 👑

⚔️ What’s your idea of vengeance? Fern thinks she’s got a pretty good guess, but when those beliefs are tested, they may just crumble under the pressure.

[ hitting query trenches dec 2025 ]

young woman with a sword. ‘ODE: Fern and the Nine Realms of Laerathor’ at the top of the poster, overlaid with the sword. to the woman’s right: “Carter Elise Key & Lindsay Vena” “What is your idea of vengeance?” At the bottom: “Coming soon to the query trenches” then, the cast of characters: “Fern Riis. Halvard Jostad. Airika Falk. Biggs Stigandr. Brendell Falk. Quinby Brodbeck. Ernaline Gisil. Ygor Wistirgaard. Caxton Rask. Juel Soelberg. Torben Ahlstrom. Lumi Hartvigsen. Eostre Dal."

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Carter Elise Key 🗝️ @carterscompendium.bsky.social · Aug 16

🌱 ODE: FERN AND THE NINE REALMS OF LAERATHOR 🌱

#posterpitw #f #na

The chance of a lifetime— some might even kill for it. With everything on the line, Fern, Halvard, and Airika have to decide how they want to be remembered. Everyone wants something, but is risking it all worth it? ⚔️

Young blonde woman in a field with the words “ODE: Fern and the Nine Realms of Laerathor” behind her in the sky. “magic infused world” and “doomed by fate” are on either side of her. At the bottom: “Carter Elise Key & Lindsay Vena” “Coming soon to the query trenches"

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Carter Elise Key 🗝️ @carterscompendium.bsky.social · Aug 15

thank you!! i couldnt decide which moodboard i liked more so i figured i’d give y’all both 🙂‍↕️🙂‍↕️

Carter Elise Key 🗝️ @carterscompendium.bsky.social · Aug 15

YES YES YES YES YES

Carter Elise Key 🗝️ @carterscompendium.bsky.social · Aug 15

i have to know — is her chem test on plasma 👀

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Carter Elise Key 🗝️ @carterscompendium.bsky.social · Aug 15

i’m so!!! omg???

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Carter Elise Key 🗝️ @carterscompendium.bsky.social · Aug 15

i’m obsessed 😭😭

Reposted by Carter Elise Key 🗝️

Professor Alex @shiningcrobat.bsky.social · Aug 15

My QueerPit 2025 pitches thread!
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Professor Alex @shiningcrobat.bsky.social · Aug 15

Legends & Lattes✖️When the Moon Hits Your Eye
👀multi-POV
🌈gay, aro & trans MCs + sapphic, NB, gay, bi & polyam POVs
🎲TTRPG inspired
✉️epistolary chapters
🗣️chapters in conversation
👹human, furry & fantasy heritages
🤷party can’t choose a name
👑royal generational trauma
🗡️mafia
💀death cult
#F #A #QueerPit

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Carter Elise Key 🗝️ @carterscompendium.bsky.social · Aug 15

ghost dog!!!

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Carter Elise Key 🗝️ @carterscompendium.bsky.social · Aug 15

👀👀👀

Carter Elise Key 🗝️ @carterscompendium.bsky.social · Aug 15

this looks SO COOL

Carter Elise Key 🗝️ @carterscompendium.bsky.social · Aug 15

#queerpit #ef #na #editing

THE CRUEL PRINCE X PRIORY OF THE ORANGE TREE

👑 prophecies
⚔️ dying magic
👑 competition for the throne
⚔️ forged family
👑 queer & disabled rep
⚔️ slow burn subplot

on track to hit query trenches dec. 2025

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