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katexmachina.bsky.social
Kat Spada 🖼️ is querying
@katexmachina.bsky.social
240 followers 280 following 99 posts
Writer & podcaster (@femfreq.bsky.social)
https://katexmachina.com 🇲🇽🇺🇦🇮🇹💙💜💖
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katexmachina.bsky.social
As part of my library volunteering, I wrote a book for adult literacy learners through the CA State Library. They're not cheap, because they're made to be durable for use by tutors at the branches, but if you want one, you can scroll through and pick up a copy here: www.mixbook.com/photo-books/...
June 20, 2025 at 4:28 PM
katexmachina.bsky.social
Excuse me?
May 29, 2025 at 12:02 AM
katexmachina.bsky.social
I don't *love* this bit of website traffic...
May 29, 2025 at 12:01 AM
katexmachina.bsky.social
Excited to be Currant Jam & Gelée zine's taste maker for the month of May. Check out the spotlight at www.instagram.com/p/DJcWRTtRH1F
A purple graphic of Kat Spada beside Alvin (of The Chipmunks) under the header, "Gelée 'Taste Making'" A text graphic that reads: Everyone Should Care About... The music video for "KFC Santeria" by Cain Culto. The incredible costume design on the new sitcom "North of North." Ludwig Göransson going the way of Hans Zimmer instead of Max Martin. The trailer for "The Smashing Machine." Libraries. A text graphic that reads: No One Should Care About... The Data Explorer feature on QueryTracker Premium. If you're an author seeking representation, it's only $25/year but it's really not doing you any good to imagine what abstruse self-reported behavior might mean you're in an agent's "maybe" pile. BRB gotta go refresh my QT list for profile updates. A text graphic that reads: Only I Care About... The audiobook experience of "Putting it Together: How Stephen Sondheim and I Created Sunday in the Park with George" by James Lapine at 2x speed. Random narrators reading Mandy Patinkin and Bernadette Peters' words, but not in their voices. Sondheim by way of The Chipmunks. Thrilling.
May 9, 2025 at 7:35 PM
katexmachina.bsky.social
For #QuestPit I'm sharing part of the Agent's Guide for PAINTED FLOWERS NEVER DIE, plus an excerpt from @theblcklst.bsky.social's professional manuscript evaluation, which described the novel as having "strong commercial appeal."

I #AmQuerying this book club-ready spec fic w/ romance.
#Q #A #S #R
A graphic introducing the Agent's Guide for PAINTED FLOWERS NEVER DIE, 90K words, book club ready, speculative fiction. By Katherine Spada. @katexmachina on Bluesky; @kat_ex_machina on Twitter A text graphic with The Pitch for PAINTED FLOWERS NEVER DIE, which reads: Maria and her husband have known fame from a young age, her as a dancer and him as a Grammy-winning music producer. When he dies in a headline-dominating plane crash, Maria spends twenty years unable to wrench her life out of the ashes of grief. Her career stalls as she becomes a celebrity known only for her proximity to tragedy. Until the night her husband’s portrait is debuted at the Art Institute of Chicago. In the midst of drunkenly humiliating herself, Maria sees an apparition that offers her a chance to escape her misery. She chases it through the museum and leaps, piercing the veil of real life and plunging into the worlds beyond the canvas. Believing she can reunite with her husband if she finds his portrait, Maria searches within the museum’s collection, navigating the exciting and often dangerous scenes of well-known paintings, helped and hindered by the figures within them. She encounters others like her, teaming up with Liam, a professor from London with a troubled past, to help save him from being stuck in the paintings forever. Their growing bond opens Maria up to the potential of new love, challenging her goal of reunion with her long-dead husband. As she and Liam explore 19th century Paris, pop art, and Pollock, confronting the past and pursuing a violent art thief, Maria rediscovers the vibrant, empathetic person she was before loss. Ultimately she must decide whether to embrace an unknown future in the real world, or hide behind the painted fantasy of a static existence in her husband’s portrait. A graphic with comp titles that reads: Like THE MIDNIGHT LIBRARY by Matt Haig, it captures the hopefulness of a woman's journey through different worlds, which forces her to face the question, "What makes life worth living? Fans of V.E. Schwab's THE INVISIBLE LIFE OF ADDIE LARUE will appreciate its elements of romance kindled within fantastical circumstances. There are also cover images for A LOVE SONG FOR RICKI WILDE by Tia Williams, Akira Kurosawa's DREAMS, Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine's SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE, and Lucy Dacus performing "Ankles." A text graphic that reads: The Black List PAINTED FLOWERS NEVER DIE by Katherine Spada Professional Evaluation Excerpt PAINTED FLOWERS provides an interesting perspective on how we memorialize and remember those we've lost, and what moving on means for different people; watching Maria interact with other [crash] victims' loved ones offers some deeply humanizing context. The world of high art is painted with delicious specificity—the posturing, the inflated sense of self-importance! The paintings are magical and exciting, so lush and sensory-driven, especially with the built-in game of trying to identify the paintings before the book itself does. [Spoiler]'s cameo in particular is entertaining yet thematically relevant, without being too in-the-weeds so as to alienate the reader. The prose operates in two modes: more familiar, commercial-leaning women's fiction, and then these detailed, immersive descriptions. This is also illustrative of what the book is doing as a whole: offering a simple, emotional, book club-friendly narrative, and layering magical realism over it. This novel straddles the worlds of contemporary and fantasy fiction in a similar way to Matt Haig's mega-bestseller THE MIDNIGHT LIBRARY, or V.E. Schwab's equally popular THE INVISIBLE LIFE OF ADDIE LARUE, though the magic here operates on a smaller scale. Magical realism has been gaining momentum since these comparative novels were published, and PAINTED FLOWERS' unique combination of both adventure novel and character-driven healing novel give it strong commercial appeal.
May 7, 2025 at 3:27 PM
katexmachina.bsky.social
I just love sequels!
Two DVD cases sit beside each other: SPLASH (Ron Howard, 1984) and A BIGGER SPLASH (Luca Guadagnino, 2015)
May 1, 2025 at 7:09 PM
katexmachina.bsky.social
PAINTED FLOWERS NEVER DIE is a transporting story about fame and grief and art and the feeling of being alive!

@posterpit.bsky.social #PosterPitQ #AmQuerying #A #PosterPit technically book club speculative fiction with romantic elements but let's say #R #SF #C for hashtag reasons
A woman at a museum holds hands with a man, just out of frame. Her other hand clasps that of the man in a portrait on the museum wall, reaching across the frame between real life and the art.
April 19, 2025 at 3:02 PM
katexmachina.bsky.social
Ok, so I'm a day late and not really following the assignment, but the novel I #AmQuerying, PAINTED FLOWERS NEVER DIE, is threaded through with art from top to bottom! Music, dance, and film, sure, but the settings are painting after painting. Here are some of the pieces that inspired key scenes…
Beach of Silenus, Robert Thompson (1964) Excavation, Willem de Kooning (1950) La durée poignardée (Time Transfixed), René Magritte (1938) Nightlife, Archibald Motley (1943)
April 8, 2025 at 5:14 PM
katexmachina.bsky.social
I'm allergic and thus, not a pet person. But there is a furry fellow that factors heavily into the manuscript I #AmQuerying, PAINTED FLOWERS NEVER DIE…
March 26, 2025 at 3:22 PM
katexmachina.bsky.social
Yes! This isn't even the full playlist I made for PAINTED FLOWERS NEVER DIE. If I had to pick *one* as the book's theme? "Never My Love"… the Blue Swede version early on, and The Association's version later. Music is a big part of the story but I worked hard to cut actual lyrics from the manuscript!
Some playlist selects including "Never My Love" by The Association, "Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want" by The Dream Academy, "White Rabbit" by Jefferson Airplane, "Vincent" by Don McLean, "Live Forever" by Oasis, and "Sunday Morning" by The Velvet Underground & Nico.
March 25, 2025 at 7:24 PM
katexmachina.bsky.social
One of my favorite parts of The Black List's professional evaluation of the manuscript I #AmQuerying, PAINTED FLOWERS NEVER DIE:
March 22, 2025 at 5:43 PM
katexmachina.bsky.social
I've submitted scripts to The Black List for evaluation over the years, but this was my first time submitting the manuscript I #AmQuerying through their new fiction program! See more from their professional reader at katexmachina.com/writing
March 20, 2025 at 11:35 PM
katexmachina.bsky.social
LEAVE MY ZOMBIE BOYFRIEND ALONE! A cheerleader whose boyfriend has succumbed to a zombie infection takes him with her on her search for a cure, gathering up a goth sidekick and a cowardly scientist with a mysterious past. #ScreenPit
March 19, 2025 at 6:43 PM
katexmachina.bsky.social
EMERGENCY SCHOOL: When a disaster preparedness school hits hard times, its anxious proprietor calls her free-spirited sister to come home and keep the business afloat. With a chosen family of friends and colleagues, they convert the emergency school into a small-town amusement park. #ScreenPit
March 19, 2025 at 6:24 PM
katexmachina.bsky.social
ANIMAL INSTINCTS: After a red carpet outburst a publicist loses her job and has to build back her reputation through community service & anger management. When she’s assigned to clean up poop at the zoo, she has to get down and dirty, bringing her unique skills to help the animal kingdom. #ScreenPit
A fashionable young woman with a vintage camera does a model pose. In the background, a gorilla appears to give a lecture to visitors at the zoo.
March 19, 2025 at 5:55 PM
katexmachina.bsky.social
Happy #ScreenPit day! Starting with my strangest pilot, one I haven't gotten out of my head ever since I visited Chernobyl with my parents.

CHERNOBYL'S GOT TALENT: When the mutated survivors of the nuclear disaster have a chance to audition for Eurovision, their talent will cause a meltdown.
March 19, 2025 at 4:52 PM
katexmachina.bsky.social
These movies aren't all 1:1 comps for PAINTED FLOWERS NEVER DIE, but they share themes, vibes, or plot points with the novel. #AmQuerying
A grid of movie posters including Ferris Bueller's Day Off, What Dreams May Come, Wings of Desire, Loving Vincent, An American in Paris, Richard Linklater's Before trilogy, One Day, and Paris Je T'aime.
March 17, 2025 at 5:40 PM
katexmachina.bsky.social
These movies aren't all 1:1 comps for PAINTED FLOWERS NEVER DIE, but they share themes, vibes, or plot points with the novel. #LuckyPit #PopUpPitA #PopUpPit #AmQuerying #Adult
A grid of movie posters including Ferris Bueller's Day Off, What Dreams May Come, Wings of Desire, Loving Vincent, An American in Paris, Richard Linklater's Before trilogy, One Day, and Paris Je T'aime.
March 17, 2025 at 5:37 PM
katexmachina.bsky.social
And since music is a huge part of the protagonist's life, here are some of the songs on the playlist I created while writing PAINTED FLOWERS NEVER DIE. #LuckyPit #PopUpPitA #PopUpPit #AmQuerying #Adult
Some playlist selects including "Never My Love" by The Association, "Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want" by The Dream Academy, "White Rabbit" by Jefferson Airplane, "Vincent" by Don McLean, "Live Forever" by Oasis, and "Sunday Morning" by The Velvet Underground & Nico.
March 17, 2025 at 3:17 PM
katexmachina.bsky.social
PAINTED FLOWERS NEVER DIE is book club-ready speculative fiction with two scoops of romance. It's all about a widow navigating fame, art, and searching, above all, for the feeling of being alive.

#LuckyPit #PopUpPitA #AmQuerying #Adult #PopUpPit
Against a background of an oil painting of a bouquet, the Agent's Guide for PAINTED FLOWERS NEVER DIE, a 90K word book club-ready work of speculative fiction. By Katherine Spada, @katexmachina on Bluesky and @kat_ex_machina on Twitter. A two-paragraph pitch that should be high contrast enough for a screen reader. Images representing comp titles: The Midnight Library by Matt Haig, The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab, A Love Song for Ricki Wilde by Tia Williams, Akira Kurosawa's film Dreams, the Playbill for Sondheim's Sunday in the Park with George, a photo of Lucy Dacus performing Ankles on a late-night show. The Mood Board including a picture of John Lennon and Yoko Ono, Georges Seurat's A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, Frida Kahlo's Self Portrait with Monkey, Edward Hopper's Nighthawks, Kylie Minogue at Michael Hutchence's funeral, Bisa Butler's The Safety Patrol, a still of Amélie and Nino riding a moped around Montmartre.
March 17, 2025 at 3:17 PM
katexmachina.bsky.social
Music is a big part of this story, so I had to make a playlist, of course. The one I made to listen to while writing is actually much longer than this!
March 14, 2025 at 7:41 PM
katexmachina.bsky.social
I #AmQuerying my book club-ready speculative fiction novel PAINTED FLOWERS NEVER DIE. Here's my #AgentsGuide in case you're looking for a story about fame and grief and art and the feeling of being alive!
March 14, 2025 at 7:41 PM
katexmachina.bsky.social
I never said it was easy being a hater of the 2005 PRIDE & PREJUDICE. I'm not against re-adapting source material if you can do something special! Gerwig's LITTLE WOMEN is my fav, and I can't wait for Zoe Kazan's EAST OF EDEN. I've just… never been so let down after a decade of THIS to obsess over:
March 14, 2025 at 3:58 PM
katexmachina.bsky.social
boxd.it/93FDcL
March 8, 2025 at 5:47 AM
katexmachina.bsky.social
Had a little fun contributing to Currant Jam zine's theoretical categories before the #Oscars tomorrow! See the rest at instagram.com/p/DGrXT8-ppIO
March 2, 2025 at 1:17 AM