Claire Kidwell
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kiddyjoy.bsky.social
Claire Kidwell
@kiddyjoy.bsky.social
250 followers 260 following 320 posts
Aspiring Cozy/Unsettling Fantasy Author✨
Grandma Hobbyist 🪴
Certified Crow 🐦‍⬛
(she/her) 🩷💛💙
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kiddyjoy.bsky.social
BEAUTY & THE BEAST x STAR TREK

Roan, part of the last team of archaeologists sent to Earth, stumbles into an ancient bunker haunted by the AI mind of a trillionaire. She’s the only one who can fix his tech, but can she save him before Earth is swallowed by the Sun?

#MockPit #FiFRevPit
A collage of photos with text in the middle saying “Archaeologists will date any old thing.” The other pictures include a circuit board, archaeology tools, a record player, a museum interior, an astronaut looking at San Francisco buried in sand, a man holding a dark rose, a person reaching out to a ghostly figure, and an espresso machine.
November 7, 2025 at 2:36 PM
kiddyjoy.bsky.social
#DVparty Day 4: Memes!

Listen, we’ve had our share of night-adjacent shadowy boys in romantasy. It’s time we got some queer rep! 🏳️‍🌈
Images of Pippin and Aragorn from Lord of the Rings in discussion with added text. Pippin: “What about a night-coded love interest?” Aragorn: “We already had it.” Pippin: “We’ve had shadow daddies, yes. What about a shadow enby?”
October 5, 2025 at 12:45 PM
kiddyjoy.bsky.social
#DVparty Day 3: Opening lines!

Surely lying to your professor about your thesis topic is fine, right?
An faded blue image of a fossilized fern, with text across it reading: Heidi adjusted the microscope’s lens, darting glances at the professor to ensure her mentor couldn’t see what she was working on. She compared her sample pressed on the glass slide to the fossil half-concealed under her notes.
October 4, 2025 at 2:34 PM
kiddyjoy.bsky.social
Natural Historian Heidi has a plan: scorn her suitor, keep his money, and start her research. It’s perfect - if she can survive long enough in the cursed forest to finish her thesis.

Think Elinor Dashwood meets Emily Wilde! 🌿✨📚

#writesky #DVparty
A collage of images, starting from top left and going clockwise to center: Elinor Dashwood from Sense & Sensibility, tea being poured into a teacup, a journal with a diagram of a flower, a pink with black spots truffle pig, a partially shadowed hand writing on a chalkboard, a clump of light pink blooming flowers in a forest, a brontosaurus skeleton in a museum, a desk with flowers and journals, and in the center a diagram of ancient plants.
October 3, 2025 at 2:32 PM
kiddyjoy.bsky.social
RETURN THE SKY started with the question “what would happen if someone fell in the love with the night sky?” Add in inspo from Studio Ghibli, Emily Wilde, and Hollow Knight and you got a romantic research-trip-gone-awry bug-filled fantasy!

#writesky #DVparty
A drawing of woman stand looking out against a red sky. She’s dressed in a white button up shirt, a brown vest, and a purple shawl. She’s holding up a pencil and a journal filled with scraps of paper. At her back stands a dark misty figure in a dark green cloak. Where their left eye would be there is a swirling galaxy instead.
October 2, 2025 at 1:48 PM
kiddyjoy.bsky.social
Listen, we’ve had our share of night-adjacent shadowy boys in romantasy. It’s time we got some queer rep! 🏳️‍🌈✨💕

(They’re the main love interest and literally the night sky trapped in a mortal form so 👀)

#UnhingedPit #A #Q #F #LGBT
Images of Pippin and Aragorn from Lord of the Rings in discussion with added text. Pippin: “What about a night-coded love interest?” Aragorn: “We already had it.” Pippin: “We’ve had shadow daddies, yes. What about a shadow enby?”
September 23, 2025 at 2:15 PM
kiddyjoy.bsky.social
EMILY WILDE x NETTLE & BONE

Heidi’s parents think marrying her will cover a scandal.

Heidi has her own plan:
💔 Scorn the suitor
💸 Keep his money
🔬 Use her natural history research to uphold the family’s good name.

That is, if she survives long enough to finish her thesis 🌲

#QuestPit #A #F #Q
A graphic which reads: An agent’s guide to RETURN THE SKY, Adult Fantasy, 112,000 words. PITCH: Assistant natural historian Heidi ventures into the cursed forest for her thesis. She expected danger. She didn’t expect to fall in love with a strange rogue who presents her with a choice - help them and start a war between the forest and her home, or betray them and keep her family safe. Comps are Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries, Where the Dark Stands Still, and Uprooted. Tropes and themes include dark academia, non-binary love interest, yearning, cozy fantasy (with teeth), slow burn, forced proximity, hidden histories and secrets, eventual happy ending, queernormative world, and dark forests.
August 6, 2025 at 3:38 PM
kiddyjoy.bsky.social
UPROOTED x STAR DAUGHTER

The night sky trapped as a mortal is on a mission to rescue their brother and sisters, the forgotten sun, moon, and stars. Their only hope? A curmudgeonly grad student who just wants to finish her thesis.

🌳 Ancient Botany
💗 Slow Burn HEA
🏳️‍🌈 LGBTQ+

#QuestPit #Q #A #F
A collage of four images, starting from top left and moving clockwise: a collection of scrolls and leather bound journals, a painting of a person tenderly kissing the night sky by Eva Gamayun, colorful moss and fungi on a tree branch, and an illustration of a dark shining castle.
August 6, 2025 at 1:57 PM
kiddyjoy.bsky.social
REYLO x A DARKER SHADE OF MAGIC

A dark wizard creates a device to travel between worlds, only to send it off in secret so his superiors won’t abuse it.

Issue is, it lands in the hands of a bartender from the Ozarks who can’t control the power.

🚪Portals
❤️‍🔥Pining
🌘Cults
🍻Beer

#WIPPIT #SFF #A #LGBT
A collage of images, which include a foggy city at night lit up with teal lights from below, an illuminated manuscript with two birds, a shot of Rey and Kylo Ren looking at each other shadowed in black and white, a genteel gloved hand holding another, a stone door in a desert opening up to the night sky, an old rusted bridge in the forest, someone pouring beer from a tap, a gold an teal mosaic tower, and an artist depiction of a monk conferring with St. George.
May 23, 2025 at 4:44 PM
kiddyjoy.bsky.social
SCI-FI BEAUTY & THE BEAST

Roan, part of the last team of archaeologists sent to a dying Earth, stumbles into an ancient bunker haunted by the AI mind of a trillionaire. She’s the only one who can fix his tech, but can she save him before Earth is swallowed by the Sun?

🏺🥀🤖☀️⚙️

#questpit #W #A #SF
A collage of photos with text in the middle saying “Archaeologists will date any old thing.” The other pictures include a circuit board, archaeology tools, a record player, a museum interior, an astronaut looking at San Francisco buried in sand, a man holding a dark rose, a person reaching out to a ghostly figure, and an espresso machine.
May 7, 2025 at 8:15 PM
kiddyjoy.bsky.social
UPROOTED x BRIDGERTON

🪲 A naïve natural historian in desperate need of a guide through the cursed forest.

🌌 A non-binary rogue who will do anything to rescue their family.

👀 A plot to trap the rogue brings them together.

❤️ Their hearts will draw them closer.

#questpit #Q #A #F #RF
Images of Pippin and Aragorn from Lord of the Rings in discussion with added text. Pippin: “What about a night-coded love interest?” Aragorn: “We already had it.” Pippin: “We’ve had shadow daddies, yes. What about a shadow enby?” A graphic which reads: An agent’s guide to RETURN THE SKY, Adult Fantasy, 112,000 words. PITCH: Assistant natural historian Heidi ventures into the cursed forest for her thesis. She expected danger. She didn’t expect to fall in love with a strange rogue who presents her with a choice - help them and start a war between the forest and her home, or betray them and keep her family safe. Comps are Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries, Where the Dark Stands Still, and Uprooted. Tropes and themes include dark academia, non-binary love interest, yearning, cozy fantasy (with teeth), slow burn, forced proximity, hidden histories and secrets, eventual happy ending, queernormative world, and dark forests.
May 7, 2025 at 4:08 PM
kiddyjoy.bsky.social
NAUSICAÄ x EMILY WILDE

Can a natural historian save the one she loves at the cost of her heart, or worse, her research?

🏳️‍🌈 Queernormative world
🪲 Sentient beetles
🥃 Magical distilleries
😈 9ft tall demon marionettes
🌌 The night trapped as a mortal
🎩 Regency vibes
❤️‍🔥 Slow Burn

#questpit #Q #A #F #RF
A collage of images, going from top left clockwise: a bouquet of colorful berries, swooping white towers with spiral balconies, a shiny purple beetle, a colorful shop full of knick-knacks, a blooming crocus in a dark forest, a drawing of a woman reaching out to the night sky as if to pluck a star, a crumbling castle on a moor, and mushrooms growing on a tree. In the center is a quote by Virginia Woolf: “I see you everywhere, in the stars, in the river, to me you’re everything that exists, the reality of everything.”
May 7, 2025 at 2:36 PM
kiddyjoy.bsky.social
EMILY WILDE x FOR THE WOLF

Natural historian Heidi has a plan: scorn her suitor, keep his money, and start her research.

It’s perfect - if she can survive long enough in the cursed forest go finish her thesis.

🪲 Cozy-yet-unsettling fantasy
🏳️‍🌈 Queernorm world
❤️‍🔥 Slow burn

#questpit #Q #A #F #RF
A collage of images, starting from top left and going clockwise to center: Elinor Dashwood from Sense & Sensibility, tea being poured into a teacup, a journal with a diagram of a flower, a pink with black spots truffle pig, a partially shadowed hand writing on a chalkboard, a clump of light pink blooming flowers in a forest, a brontosaurus skeleton in a museum, a desk with flowers and journals, and in the center a diagram of ancient plants.
May 7, 2025 at 1:27 PM
kiddyjoy.bsky.social
#CampRevPit #CRPFireflies

Big midpoint plot twist/reveal on why things are the way they are 👀🪲✨
A collage of four images, one of a painting of a black figure against a red sky with stars around them, an artist depiction of the night sky full of stars, a red cloudy sky with a few shadowed trees, and a line drawing of a figure holding their head in their hands in fetal position.
April 30, 2025 at 3:09 PM
kiddyjoy.bsky.social
My top 5 star reads so far:

🐴 A Sorceress Comes to Call by T. Kingfisher

🪴 The Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst

And the two books that came out this year I’m so excited to read:

❤️ A Harvest of Hearts by Andrea Eames

🦠 Everything is Tuberculosis by John Green
A collage of book covers, which includes A Sorceress Comes to Call by T. Kingfisher, The Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst, A Harvest of Hearts by Andrea Eames, and Everything is Tuberculosis by John Green
April 8, 2025 at 5:21 PM
kiddyjoy.bsky.social
Commissioned this piece of my MCs from @kerbabbles.bsky.social as motivation while finishing up my initial draft 🥰 I love it so much!!!

#RevPit #RevPitWaiting
April 7, 2025 at 4:23 PM
kiddyjoy.bsky.social
UPROOTED x EMILY WILDE

Heidi adjusted the microscope’s lens, darting glances up at the professor to ensure her mentor couldn’t see what she was working on.

🪲✨🌌🏳️‍🌈📚💕

Can a natural historian save the one she loves at the cost of her heart, or worse, her research?

#1stLinePit #Q #A #F #RF #CZ #CMe
A collage of images, starting from top left and going clockwise to center: Elinor Dashwood from Sense & Sensibility, tea being poured into a teacup, a journal with a diagram of a flower, a pink with black spots truffle pig, a partially shadowed hand writing on a chalkboard, a clump of light pink blooming flowers in a forest, a brontosaurus skeleton in a museum, a desk with flowers and journals, and in the center a diagram of ancient plants. A graphic which reads: An agent’s guide to RETURN THE SKY, Adult Fantasy, 112,000 words. PITCH: Assistant natural historian Heidi ventures into the cursed forest for her thesis. She expected danger. She didn’t expect to fall in love with a strange rogue who presents her with a choice - help them and start a war between the forest and her home, or betray them and keep her family safe. Comps are Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries, Where the Dark Stands Still, and Uprooted. Tropes and themes include dark academia, non-binary love interest, yearning, cozy fantasy (with teeth), slow burn, forced proximity, hidden histories and secrets, eventual happy ending, queernormative world, and dark forests.
April 5, 2025 at 3:12 PM
kiddyjoy.bsky.social
Don’t have a great picture of my current writing space (and it’s not really aesthetic) but the view is pretty great 🐈‍⬛🥰🐈‍⬛

#RevPit #RevPitWaiting
Two black cats lounge on a green and yellow cat tree by a window which looks out onto a small grassy field and another apartment building
April 4, 2025 at 11:12 PM
kiddyjoy.bsky.social
(I’ve had this meme idea stuck in my head since I finished drafting)

Listen, we’ve had our share of night-adjacent shadowy boys in romantasy. It’s time we got some queer rep! 🏳️‍🌈✨💕

#RevPit #RevPitWaiting
Images of Pippin and Aragorn from Lord of the Rings in discussion with added text. Pippin: “What about a night-coded love interest?” Aragorn: “We already had it.” Pippin: “We’ve had shadow daddies, yes. What about a shadow enby?”
April 2, 2025 at 3:53 PM
kiddyjoy.bsky.social
Listen, we’ve had our share of night-adjacent shadowy boys in romantasy. It’s time we got some queer rep!

Introducing: the night sky, trapped as a mortal by an ancient alchemist, who is also a gay disaster ✨❤️

#UnhingedPit #A #F #LGBT #Q #Own
Images of Pippin and Aragorn from Lord of the Rings in discussion with added text. Pippin: “What about a night-coded love interest?” Aragorn: “We already had it.” Pippin: “We’ve had shadow daddies, yes. What about a shadow enby?”
March 28, 2025 at 8:34 PM
kiddyjoy.bsky.social
Sci-fi Beauty and the Beast retelling! An archaeologist goes to catalog the last remnants of Earth before it’s swallowed by the sun, and finds the trapped AI mind of a billionaire instead. Can she save him before the sun destroys the planet??

#RevPit #RevPitWaiting
A collage of images, going from top left clockwise: a close up of a circuit board, dusty archaeology tools, a record player, a artist imagining of future San Francisco as a desert, an espresso machine, a hand reaching towards a smoky figure, a museum exhibit, a man holding a rose, and in the center text which reads “Archaeologists will date any old thing”
March 28, 2025 at 2:20 PM
kiddyjoy.bsky.social
Our boys Lapsang Souchong and Genmaicha! Just two cozy black cats who love to cuddle 🥰

Honorable mention the squirrel (Rogue) and crows (Norman, Norbert, and Norma) we’ve befriended 🤣

#RevPit #RevPitWaiting
Two black cats cuddled up sleeping together Two black cats cuddled up sleeping together A squirrel eats a walnut outside a window while a black cat watches Three crows outside with daffodils in the background of an apartment courtyard. The middle crow has a peanut in its beak.
March 27, 2025 at 1:04 AM
kiddyjoy.bsky.social
Too many to pick just one! Listing my top 10 instead ✨

🦠 Tress of the Emerald Sea
🍊 Priory of the Orange Tree
🥀 Heart’s Blood
🏰 Howl’s Moving Castle
⛰️ The Hobbit
☕️ Under the Whispering Door
🐅 The Night Tiger
🍯 The Starless Sea
🏴‍☠️ Cinnamon and Gunpowder
💕 Persuasion

#RevPit #RevPitWaiting
A collage of book covers, which are: Tress of the Emerald Sea, Priory of the Orange Tree, Heart’s Blood, Howl’s Moving Castle, The Night Tiger, The Hobbit, Under the Whispering Door, The Starless Sea, Cinnamon and Gunpowder
March 24, 2025 at 2:19 PM
kiddyjoy.bsky.social
This line always gives me Cheshire Cat vibes 😈✨

#RevPit #RevPitWaiting
An image of a dark forest with italicized text over it reading: “I’ve been around long enough to know that the only humans who stumble into these lands end up either as empiricists or food. If you truly are human,” they said, their derisive tone getting quieter, “which of the two are you?”
March 21, 2025 at 7:22 PM
kiddyjoy.bsky.social
#RevPitWaiting Day 4!

I love the Virginia Woolf quote in the first one, I feel like it truly encapsulates the romance between my characters. The second one is for my main character.

#RevPit
A collage of images, going from top left clockwise: a bouquet of colorful berries, swooping white towers with spiral balconies, a shiny purple beetle, a colorful shop full of knick-knacks, a blooming crocus in a dark forest, a drawing of a woman reaching out to the night sky as if to pluck a star, a crumbling castle on a moor, and mushrooms growing on a tree. In the center is a quote by Virginia Woolf: “I see you everywhere, in the stars, in the river, to me you’re everything that exists, the reality of everything.” A collage of images, starting from top left and going clockwise to center: Elinor Dashwood from Sense & Sensibility, tea being poured into a teacup, a journal with a diagram of a flower, a pink with black spots truffle pig, a partially shadowed hand writing on a chalkboard, a clump of light pink blooming flowers in a forest, a brontosaurus skeleton in a museum, a desk with flowers and journals, and in the center a diagram of ancient plants.
March 20, 2025 at 3:01 PM