Amanda Lien is querying, editing AND drafting
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alienwrites.bsky.social
Amanda Lien is querying, editing AND drafting
@alienwrites.bsky.social
Querying queer SF, editing queer fantasy, writing gay fantasy/horror || Chaotic, queer, chronically ill || Gave a TED Talk about internet fandom once and will never shut up about it
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Wanted to bring my EAT OUR DUST #AgentsGuide over from the 🐦 site!

Agents, this 96k-word MS is for you if you want:

⚡Queer, non-binary & (ownvoices) chronic illness rep
⚡FAFO-style mentorship
⚡Car chases as a metaphor for power struggles w/the govt
⚡Big 5 editor interest

#agentguide #amquerying
Someone said "oh October's almost over!" and my brain was like "wdym it's like October 11"

It is October 21.

FUUUUCK!!!!
October 22, 2025 at 3:47 AM
What happens when your mom wants to promote you and your sister hates it? You take a job involving burglarizing your dead ex's office...only she's alive, pissed & armed with deadly secrets.

Pro tip: Don't be too good at your job.

6 OF CROWS x ARCANE but messier. #DVPit #A #SF #LGBT
October 8, 2025 at 11:45 PM
FURY ROAD x STATION 11

Out-of-context EAT OUR DUST:
💊”Romanticizing the end of the world is great only if you don’t regularly need a 24-hour pharmacy.”
🚘 “If the world’s going to end, that means I lost the race. End of story.”
🛣️ “I’m not afraid of death. Just of going back.”

#DVPit #A #SF #CI
October 8, 2025 at 10:56 PM
Clara thought her biggest problems were her impending promotion and her younger sister. Then she burglarized her dead ex-girlfriend's office & discovered Amaya's very much alive—and hunting her. Now Clara must choose: unravel a conspiracy or lose her twice. VIOLENT DELIGHTS x ARCANE. #DVPit #A #SF
October 8, 2025 at 10:05 PM
After learning how to stop the end of the world, Jess races to expose the govt researchers who buried the truth – before the climate apocalypse takes out her friends and prevents her from carrying on her mentor’s legacy.

BEGINNING AT THE END x STATION 11

#DVPit #A #SF #CI #LGBT
October 8, 2025 at 9:15 PM
A BEGINNING AT THE END x STATION 11

Surviving the apocalypse while chronically ill? Hard.

Surviving the apocalypse while driving cross-country to expose govt researchers who knew how to stop it and chose not to?

…Yeah, Jess has her work cut out for her.

#DVPit #A #SF #CI #LGBT
October 8, 2025 at 8:17 PM
Gang heir vs tech syndicate
Dead girlfriend who isn't dead
Biometric implants that rewrite identities

Clara's heist was supposed to secure power. Instead, it tore open a conspiracy that could destroy the city's underclass for good. ...Oops.

SIX OF CROWS meets ARCANE. #DVPit #A #SF #LGBT
October 8, 2025 at 7:16 PM
FURY ROAD x STATION 11

After learning the apocalypse is reversible, Jess races to expose what govt scientists tried to hide. As people who’d rather keep the truth quiet close in, she has to choose: remain silent & complicit, or carry on a legacy she’s not sure she wants.

#DVPit #A #SF #CI #LGBT
October 8, 2025 at 7:00 PM
After learning it's possible to stop a climate disaster that will end the world as we know it, Jess races (literally) to expose the government researchers who buried the truth – before she or her mentor dies in the process.

Get in, losers. We're canceling the apocalypse.

#DVPit #A #SF #CI #LGBT
October 8, 2025 at 6:34 PM
Got on my walking pad, started writing...and then looked down two hours later to realize I walked about 4 miles and cannot feel my toes. I feel like this is probably a metaphor for something...
October 3, 2025 at 10:34 PM
After being awoken from a cursed sleep and cut free from her silken chains, Lora must work with the half-mad swordswoman who set her free to save the swordswoman’s kingdom from a mysterious infection — before the madness claims them as its final two victims. #WeeknightWriters
Q5: Share a one-sentence pitch, a collection of tropes you want to work with, or something fun about your main character. #WeeknightWriters
October 3, 2025 at 3:24 AM
I’m going to aim for word count — it’s the easiest metric for me to track (and also work into my project planning system)! #WeeknightWriters
Q4: Will you be measuring your progress in word count, page count, or hours spent working on your #FirstDraftFall project? #WeeknightWriters
October 3, 2025 at 12:20 AM
ADHD stresses me out in so many ways, but one benefit is that I can drink an entire (not decaf) latte at 8 pm and know I'll still be able to sleep in 3 hours. It's the little things...
October 2, 2025 at 11:49 PM
Fantasy with speculative + horror elements! I'm really drawn to fantasy stories with a taste of the uncanny + also inspired by Scottish mythology (shoutout to my great-aunt Elaine for that one). #WeeknightWriters
Q3: What genre(s) will you be writing in for #FirstDraftFall? Feel free to include subgenres if applicable. #WeeknightWriters
October 2, 2025 at 11:43 PM
I've historically been a fairly solitary writer, but it's always fun to dip into a broader community and be a hype person for other folks. Storytelling doesn't exist without community + being part of that tradition through hype and being a listening ear is really important to me! #WeeknightWriters
Q4: What part of #FirstDraftFall are you most excited about? #WeeknightWriters
October 2, 2025 at 11:16 PM
I'm Amanda 👋 Still getting used to Bsky, so forgive my foibles in advance!

I'm currently querying EAT OUR DUST (adult SF), editing an upper YA gaslamp fantasy MS and drafting an untitled adult fantasy with horror elements (THIS GUILDED ABYSS x Silksong). Clearly, this writing week has been busy!
Hello #WeeknightWriters! Come on in, introduce yourself and your WIP, and let us know how your #FirstDraftFall planning is going!
October 2, 2025 at 11:07 PM
I have absolutely NO business planning a new story...but I am anyway lol

I always start with writing the query letter, as well as a one-sentence pitch. This material always changes as the story takes shape, but if I can't TL;DR my idea in these short of formats, I know I'll run into problems later!
#WeeknightWriters #FirstDraftFall Check-in! Let us know how things are going. Are you working on planning tonight? If you already worked on planning, what kind of progress did you make today?
October 2, 2025 at 10:56 PM
Wanted to bring my EAT OUR DUST #AgentsGuide over from the 🐦 site!

Agents, this 96k-word MS is for you if you want:

⚡Queer, non-binary & (ownvoices) chronic illness rep
⚡FAFO-style mentorship
⚡Car chases as a metaphor for power struggles w/the govt
⚡Big 5 editor interest

#agentguide #amquerying
October 1, 2025 at 9:11 PM
Reposted by Amanda Lien is querying, editing AND drafting
Nothing but respect for Eoin Colfer writing an unapologetically environmentalist children's series in the early aughts. And the environmental themes in Artemis Fowl aren't symbolic or incidental; I was twelve being radicalized about polluted oceans and oil drilling and deforestation. King behavior.
August 15, 2025 at 2:51 AM
Waiting for query responses AND an email about a job I interviewed for means I'm basically banned from opening my email app but twice a day bc otherwise I'm just going to keep refreshing multiple accounts over and over and over...
October 1, 2025 at 5:17 PM
Reposted by Amanda Lien is querying, editing AND drafting
Happy book birthday to @voidcricket.bsky.social! THE LEGEND LIMINAL, a surreal found-family road trip novella, is now available. Order from your favorite bookseller or find purchasing links at: www.starsandsabers.com/books/the-le...
#books #NewBooks #NewRelease#ScienceFiction #Scifi #Surreal #Family
September 30, 2025 at 9:37 AM
What I should be doing: Editing

What I am doing: Reading the 14-page queer fantasy novel outline I wrote in a fugue state

Anyway, if you've ever wished someone would write a book that could be comped to THIS GILDED ABYSS and also Silksong...weeeeeeellllll.....
September 30, 2025 at 3:02 AM
if you see this picture post a random image from your device

....I have no explanation tbh
September 29, 2025 at 7:35 PM
Reposted by Amanda Lien is querying, editing AND drafting
so we partner with our local library on an all-queer, all-kidlit little free library... and for the second weekend in a row, somebody has stolen all the brand new books. we are working on a plan, but if you are a queer kidlit author with some books or swag you'd like to donate, can you message me? 🌈
September 28, 2025 at 11:34 PM
Perks of being a marketer + project manager: you can build free trackers for your editing and drafting workflows. Motivation is stored in the completion progress bar!
September 27, 2025 at 11:36 PM