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austinsgrace.bsky.social
austin (🛤️ is querying 🛤️)
@austinsgrace.bsky.social
300 followers 290 following 1.4K posts
he/she | atx/va/dc | writer of queer stories and maker of hyperspecific playlists | shortlisted for #RevPit ‘25
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austinsgrace.bsky.social
my god this is the gayest thing he's done and he's canonically had sex with multiple men at this point
A cluster of young women swanned up to the bar, dresses nearly identical and in every jeweled tone available in fabric. One of them jostled Jensen—purposefully, if the way she batted her eyes was any indication, but he recoiled at the sudden, unexpected touch. Before he spilled his drink on himself or anyone else Evan reached over to guide him away, careful to not add any unwanted contact as he stretched one arm between Jensen and the girl. “Sorry,” he breezed when she shot him an ungracious look. “My friend’s a bit squeamish around taffeta.” He swapped places with Jensen for good measure—the ladies at least had the manners to not snark about him while their arms brushed his back, and the stark tension in Jensen’s limbs was gone once he had space anew.
November 24, 2025 at 8:22 PM
austinsgrace.bsky.social
Jensen has lighter hair than Nathan & the rest of his family, which signals him as Not Quite Part Of Things, but he takes a lot of pride in keeping it & his clothes in top shape. He’s got a bit of a reputation for being a bit fanciful in that regard (esp in Nathan’s mind)
4/4
Digital painting of Jensen, a white man with short brown hair, wearing a brown collared shirt, brown trousers, a gray and green striped vest, and a deep green tie. He’s holding an open straight razor in one hand and the other is in his pocket Art by dracoryss on twitter!
November 24, 2025 at 12:10 AM
austinsgrace.bsky.social
Evan is my token redhead bc redheads are hot ❤️ he keeps his hair long as a personal statement for himself and others, a visible shorthand to separate himself from readily apparent masculinity. To him, it helps make up for not being able to be “out” out
3/
Digital painting of Evan, a white man with freckles and past-shoulder-length red hair, wearing a white collarless shirt and dark suspenders and pants. He’s holding a cigarette in one hand and the other arm is crossed over himself Art by dracoryss on twitter!
November 24, 2025 at 12:10 AM
austinsgrace.bsky.social
Lawrence made me realize that blond men can be hot (only kind of a joke), and he takes a lot of care in keeping his hair maintained + styled- he’s fastidious about hygiene in general, v much a “control on the outside will make me feel more controlled on the inside” person
2/
Digital painting of Lawrence, a white man with fair skin, light eyes with cortical cataracts, and light blond hair. He is wearing gold glasses with a chain, a brown jacket and tie, a light gray shirt, and a blue sweater vest Art by luneillusoire
November 24, 2025 at 12:10 AM
austinsgrace.bsky.social
#AwesomeCharacters

Nathan’s hair is dark and naturally curly, and he’s still figuring out how he wants to wear it after being in prison for so long- he went in as a young man with longer hair, but kept it shorter on the inside out of necessity + ease of care

1/
Digital painting of Nathan, a white man with dark curly hair and dark eyes, wearing a dark green sweater art by luneillusoire
November 24, 2025 at 12:10 AM
austinsgrace.bsky.social
🥃 meet Evan from BLOOD & WATER 🥃

#amdrafting
Dark green background with "meet Evan" and "BLOOD & WATER" in lighter font Moodboard for Evan, featuring art of him (a white man with shoulder-length red hair and freckles, wearing a white collarless shirt and dark suspenders and pants, holding a cigarette with one hand and the other arm tucked over his stomach)
November 18, 2025 at 12:28 AM
austinsgrace.bsky.social
📚 meet Jensen from BLOOD & WATER 📚

#amdrafting
Dark red background reading "meet Jensen" and "BLOOD & WATER" Moodboard for Jensen, featuring art of him (a white man with brown hair, wearing a brown shirt, green tie, and gray patterned vest, holding an open straight razor)
November 18, 2025 at 12:25 AM
austinsgrace.bsky.social
🎼 meet Lawrence, the LI of HOW TO COME HOME 🎼

#amquerying
Dark tan background reading "meet Lawrence" and "HOW TO COME HOME," with a tan decorative border line Moodboard for Lawrence, featuring art of him (a white man with fair skin, light blond hair, and light eyes with cortical cataracts; wearing a dark brown jacket and tie, a dark blue sweater vest, and light blue shirt)
November 18, 2025 at 12:21 AM
austinsgrace.bsky.social
🛤️ get to know Nathan, the MC of HOW TO COME HOME 🛤️

#amquerying
Dark blue background reading "meet Nathan" and "HOW TO COME HOME" in tan font, with a tan decorative line Moodboard for Nathan, featuring art of him (a white man with dark curly hair and dark eyes, wearing a dark green sweater)
November 18, 2025 at 12:16 AM
austinsgrace.bsky.social
the beating's no fun (cw: eye stuff) but the circumstances are really the fucked up part (cw: hate crime, not explicit here but that's what's up) 😔
The lines of Evan’s throat tensed, constricted. He huffed out a short breath and snatched the glasses off his face with wordless haste, sending them clattering to the floor, and the full extent of his beating came into horrible view. One of his eyes sported a burst blood vessel, red so jarring against blue irises it looked more like a splash of paint than something real, alive. His opposite cheekbone was swollen and pink where bruises didn’t stretch down to his jaw, thin red scabs hinting at fingernails catching on skin. Patches of yellow more grotesque than his ill-hued face spoke of blows, slaps, hits not strong enough to bruise but whaled on him nonetheless. Cold, focused fury pierced through Jensen like he was carving himself up with an icicle, melting every second in the wake of his flushed realization. “My fault.” Evan said it stronger this time. Without glasses to hide behind, his off-color stare bore into Jensen, a challenge, a threat. “Don’t you go tattling downtown about this. Don’t you dare.” Jensen knew beatings. He knew injury, mistreatment. “One person didn’t do this. That’s not a fair fight.” “But I still chose to enter it.” So few of the freckles on his face were visible, clouded by stretched swelling or sickly discoloration. “It’s not a matter for you all. It’s just—not.”
November 14, 2025 at 4:10 PM
austinsgrace.bsky.social
wake up new squee-inducing feedback on my first chapters just dropped 😍😍😍

#amquerying
These chapters are so well done, but.I don't have to tell you that. It's clear why you've had interest in the trenches. You're a fantastic writer and have very obviously worked hard on revising this. You've got a beautiful knack for description and the writing is lyrical. It's well-paced and I think you made a good decision querying it as historical first and foremost. That said, I can see where the hints of romance will come in and I am FERAL for them.
November 13, 2025 at 2:24 PM
austinsgrace.bsky.social
here’s how i can work this into B&W walk with me…
Screenshot of a tweet: Her: when you said “magical in bed” this isn’t exactly what i was exp- Me: *holds up 8 of hearts* is this your card Her: *softly* holy shit
November 12, 2025 at 1:36 AM
austinsgrace.bsky.social
oomfs were right this shit was crazy…
picture of Dark Heir by C. S. Pacat on a Kindle
November 6, 2025 at 4:57 PM
austinsgrace.bsky.social
HOW TO COME HOME for #questpit!
After betraying his family’s crime syndicate and spending 10 years in prison, an ex-Prohibition fixer’s plans to atone for his past sins are upended when he meets a handsome disabled shopkeeper.
🛤️ 🛤️ 🛤️
#Q #A #HF #R #HR
Title slide of an agent’s guide for HOW TO COME HOME, a romantic historical novel complete at 107k words. All slides have a background of the painting “Clouds” by Thomas Cole and gold border decorations in the top left and bottom right corners. A portrait of Nathan is in the bottom left corner. He is a white man with short, curly dark hair and dark eyes, wearing a dark green turtleneck sweater. A portrait of Lawrence is in the top right corner. He is a pale white man with neat blond hair, round gold glasses, and light eyes with cortical cataracts. He is wearing a brown coat jacket and tie with a light gray shirt and dark blue sweater vest. Art by luneillusoire Slide 2: PITCH After serving a ten-year sentence for informing on his family’s Prohibition crime syndicate, all Nathan Gilliard wants is to spend his new freedom penitent and alone. Taking a job with handsome disabled shopkeeper Lawrence Freburg seems like the perfect stopgap between life behind bars and his solitary future—but their instant connection is as undeniable as it is unexpected, and business soon turns to intimacy. A life with Lawrence is everything Nathan thought he could never have—partnership, understanding, forgiveness. When his old life and older secrets return in the form of the very people he damned a decade ago, he must face the reasons for his long-suffering betrayal and the dangers of long-held vengeance—and whether holding his past too present will destroy any chance of a having a future. Slide 3: COMPS & CONTENTS Comps: Hozier by Hozier, Laurel Hell by Mitski, Babel by Mumford & Sons, The Companion by EE Ottoman, The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah, Inland by Téa Obreht, The Shawshank Redemption, We Could Be So Good by Cat Sebastian, and Peaky Blinders. Contents: * Queerness without a “coming out” narrative * Siblings who would kill (for) each other * Small-town atmosphere, big-city secrets * Protagonists over 30 * Queer parenting in a historical setting * Disability =/= disabling * The sweeping love story of romance + the hefty plot of historical fiction Slide 4: FIRST LINES Nathan Gilliard digs his own grave as the moon sets and the first streaks of purple lighten the night sky. The half-rusted shovel works only marginally better than his hands at digging into the earth, but the repetitive motion numbed his limbs long ago. Sweat pools into pockets of ice collecting on his scalp and back, trickling down his arms in freezing rivulets, but he doesn’t pause. Half a mile away, the car he stole from his brothers cools down, engine ticking in relief at finally being able to rest after three days of nonstop driving. Christ, he hopes no one’s tailing him—the money waits like obedient dogs at his side, a haphazard group, the solemn image of the mighty Gilliard legacy tossed roughly to the dirt. Two generations of hard-fought profit, stolen in a night. Nathan thinks of the roar his brothers will let out when they realize what he’s done, and digs faster.
November 5, 2025 at 5:00 AM
austinsgrace.bsky.social
like.
The Old Religion by Florence + the Machine volume all the way up meme
October 31, 2025 at 3:21 PM
austinsgrace.bsky.social
Stop scrolling and post two characters who bring you happiness. 😀

i don’t think i’ve shared this publicly yet and they do also bring me much despair but this piece i got for b&w makes me cheese so hard it should be criminal 😚
Art of Evan and Jensen from BLOOD & WATER Evan is a white man with shoulder-length red hair and freckles, standing with one hand on Jensen’s shoulder and the other lifted to show a playing card that’s been marked with a pinprick Jensen is a white man with dark hair seated at a poker table, holding a hand of cards and looking up at the marked card
October 21, 2025 at 3:40 PM
austinsgrace.bsky.social
surprise surprise, another rewrite of this scene for this week's #SundaySnippet
Snippet from BLOOD & WATER: The Gilliard waiting on the other side of the door was not the one Evan expected. Nathan was a shit, but he was a known shit. His presence came with a jibe about Evan’s hair, and Evan retorted with a sneer about Nathan’s uninspired wardrobe. This man was lithe where Nathan was broad, warm brown hair the precise shade of the good whiskey Evan bought in secret outside Gilliard purview styled in neat waves. Despite the summer’s heat, neither the heather linen of his suit nor the fine amber shirt he wore bore any sign of sweat or wear, as though he’d materialized out of thin air for the express purpose of rendering Evan wordless. His eyes, strikingly green and direct, fixed on Evan without greeting, and Jensen Gilliard blew a line of smoke from his full-lipped mouth before removing his cigarette with a fine-boned hand. “Looking to catch flies?” he asked idly. “Or—imitating a fish?”
October 20, 2025 at 12:54 AM
austinsgrace.bsky.social
sprinkling more and more gay people into b&w so when jensen finally crashes out it feels like this
astronauts meme with text reading "wait it's all queer people living happy and fulfilled lives in spite of societal norms" "always has been"
October 19, 2025 at 7:35 PM
austinsgrace.bsky.social
talk a lot about songs that are badges of honor when i put them on playlists but i think we must acknowledge the real MVP
screenshot of nobody by mitski from spotify
October 15, 2025 at 4:13 PM
austinsgrace.bsky.social
today's #sundaysnippet brought to you by internalizing your loved ones' suffering and still loving them anyway
Snippet from BLOOD & WATER: Evan released one hand to grab the back of Jensen’s neck, craning so they leaned into each other and the hard press of skull on skull could ground them. He hoped it didn’t matter that he didn’t know what to say. He hoped it didn’t matter that he didn’t understand, not quite. He was here. He’d noticed. He wanted to be here, he wanted to notice. He hoped that this all-consuming loneliness Jensen had only survived through inflicting misery on himself didn’t still live in some bleak, hopeless part of him, because the idea of Jensen suffering more than he clearly already had ripped at Evan like a blade on his own skin.
October 12, 2025 at 7:43 PM
austinsgrace.bsky.social
heyyyy
Jensen couldn’t bear so many things. Was forced to bear even more. But Evan Cantor’s touch, his presence, was no burden. Sometimes it felt like the only thing keeping him from being levelled entirely.
October 10, 2025 at 1:48 AM
austinsgrace.bsky.social
tloasyapping with my friend and this is why she’ll always be the first person to read anything i write 💀💀💀
text conversation: - elizabeth taylor, father figure, ruin the friendship (honestly i think it’s one of her best songs ever but i am confused why it’s on the album), and title track is fine + I also really enjoy ruin the friendship & knew for sure that you would like father figure - gagged… + I thought it was very gilliard coded - HELPPPPP
October 9, 2025 at 2:50 PM
austinsgrace.bsky.social
and, of course, for #DVparty day 6, a moodboard for BLOOD & WATER! in the HTCH-verse, but set in 1920s St. Paul, MN, in the waning days of the Gilliard gang's rule...
Moodboard for BLOOD & WATER Top row: A row of buildings in an urban environment with steam coming up from the bottom; two white hands clasped and dripping blood; two ornate rocks glasses Middle row: A painting of brewery tanks; two white men kissing in a car; two hands sharing a cigarette against a red background Bottom row: Two hands clasped in bed; two white men laying in front of a closed door sharing cigarettes; a card table with playing cards and poker chips
October 7, 2025 at 6:07 PM
austinsgrace.bsky.social
for #DVparty day 5, I think this meme I very hastily threw together gets across Nathan's whole deal pretty accurately 😅 poor guy, he really goes through it
Meme in four panels: 1. steal $100 from my family and turn state's witness to send my brothers to prison 2. serve a 10 year sentence for my cooperation (don't worry about what happens in the interim) 3. take a job working for a man who turns out to be the love of my life and upends my plans to spend my life atoning for my sins 4. take a job working for a man who turns out to be the love of my life and upends my plans to spend my life atoning for my sins
October 7, 2025 at 5:42 PM
austinsgrace.bsky.social
for #DVparty day 3, HTCH's opening lines! they've remained relatively unchanged since I first wrote them- I find beginnings to be one of my favorite parts of writing and something I'm particularly good at, if I do say so myself!
Prologue Kansas, 1927 Nathan Gilliard digs his own grave as the moon sets and the first streaks of purple lighten the night sky. The half-rusted shovel works only marginally better than his hands at digging into the earth, but the repetitive motion numbed his limbs long ago. Sweat pools into pockets of ice collecting on his scalp and back, trickling down his arms in freezing rivulets, but he doesn’t pause. Half a mile away, the car he stole from his brothers cools down, engine ticking in relief at finally being able to rest after three days of nonstop driving. If anyone was truly tailing him—Christ, he hopes they aren’t—they’d take some time finding him, but he only managed that scant distance while hauling bags of money in arms trembling from lack of sleep. The money waits like obedient dogs, a haphazard group, the solemn image of the mighty Gilliard legacy tossed roughly to the dirt. Two generations of hard-fought profit, stolen in a night. Nathan thinks of the roar his brothers will let out when they realize what he’s done, and digs faster. Three days after his snap decision, he’s cooled from righteous fury to steel acceptance, determination clenched in the hard set of his jaw as the sky churns from night to dawn. The full gas tank was a blessing, an assurance that he wouldn’t need to stop until he crossed state lines. The rush of theft propelled him as much as the abundance of gasoline, and three days and hundreds of miles later he’s rested here, somewhere north of Kansas City. Though it doesn’t matter where exactly he is on a map as long as it throws Ian and the others off his scent.
October 7, 2025 at 5:33 PM