Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

M.RYBO art

@m-rybo.bsky.social

Character expressions

#amquerying #YA #GraphicNovel 🎨🖌️ #WriterIllustrator
Lore Olympus x TV show LOKI x High School Musical

👩‍❤️‍💋‍👩 #Sapphic #Romance
📖Greek #Mythology
🌧️ #GrumpySunshine☀️
🧂 #Fantasy (light)
🎒H-School Crush
#YAbooks #authorilustrator #litagents #kidlit #romantasy #agentguide #querying

November 8, 2025 at 11:43 PM Everybody can reply

3 likes

3

Hailey's Forest

@haileysforest.bsky.social

busy thinking about the yearning and slow burn in KNEADING ANSWERS...

🥘workplace romance
⏲️forced proximity
🍲coded cookbook mystery

#amqeuerying #writingcommunity #agentguide

November 7, 2025 at 9:10 PM Everybody can reply

3 likes

3

Becca Anderson

@beccaandersons.bsky.social

The Graysons have 99 problems and no one to blame but themselves for about 88 of them.

These chaotic brothers are among the cast of COUNT THE THUNDER, a YA fantasy thriller about murder, electromagic, and the lengths you’ll go for the people you love.

#amquerying #agentguide #writesky #yafantasy

November 7, 2025 at 1:01 AM Everybody can reply

5 likes

5

M.RYBO art

@m-rybo.bsky.social

#amquerying my YA Graphic Novel
🎨🖌️Writer-illustrator

Lore Olympus x TV show LOKI x High School Musical
👩‍❤️‍💋‍👩Sapphic Romance
📖Greek Mythology
🌧️☀️Grumpy Sunshine
💕Love Coach
✨Light on Fantasy
🎒High School Crush
#GraphicNovel #writerillustrator #authorilustrator #litagents #kidlit #cartoonist #agentguide

November 6, 2025 at 6:36 AM Everybody can reply

2 reposts 5 likes

2 5

Nick Wilford

@nickpwilford.bsky.social

In a world where gender can be changed with one DNA-based op, what happens when your previous identity’s genetic signature is used without your knowledge? After witnessing a murder by a man bearing her former face, Ella finds out the hard way. #QuestPit #YA #SF #Q #agentguide

November 5, 2025 at 7:19 PM Everybody can reply

5 reposts 17 likes

5 17

Katie Brown

@authorkatiebrown.bsky.social

THE BEASTS WE BURY X TO KILL A KINGDOM

A siren who can't sing must hunt her first soul by her 18th birthday or she'll die. When the thief she's meant to hunt steals her heart instead, she must choose whose soul to save: his or hers

✨️fallen gods
✨️dried seas

#QuestPit #YA #DF #F #agentguide #Q

November 5, 2025 at 5:18 PM Everybody can reply

2 reposts 11 likes

2 11

Quintana McConnell

@qmcconnellwrites.bsky.social

An #agentguide to THE LAST GREAT ALMOST.

Every Summer After x Dawson's Creek in this character-driven romance/lit fic blend told in dual
POV.
90s/2000s nostalgia, small town optics, generational trauma, & emotional imprinting.
#questpit #Q #R #LF #amquerying #literaryagent

November 5, 2025 at 4:37 PM Everybody can reply

4 reposts 24 likes

4 24

Kaitlyn Ikumi DelaCruz

@kikumi67.bsky.social

Japanese-American teen Misa navigates abuse at the hands of a deceased family friend, risking her family's clean image in their culturally insular community—where silence is conformity—if she speaks up

🎌Immigrant story
🌸Coming of age
🫂Family tension
❤️First love

#QuestPit #YA #OWN #Q #agentguide

November 5, 2025 at 3:00 PM Everybody can reply

14 reposts 38 likes

8 14 38

Isabelle 🫀 editing

@qqueenlyart.bsky.social

A Certain Hunger X Diavola

Critical Position's first #Agentguide

🫀Why choose love triangle
🫀Misogyny in chess
🫀Eat the rich like that one Dutch minister
🫀Too many beds and using none of them

#H #R #A #W #Questpit

Title "Critical positions" with subtitle "a horror novel (with romance)" over a background of a filled dinner table

On the left is a brown and red moodboard and on the right is a pitch for the novel critical positions

November 5, 2025 at 12:15 PM Everybody can reply

12 reposts 1 quotes 34 likes

3 12 34

Rick Allden

@rickallden.bsky.social

🎇#QuestPit 🎇

#MG #AmQuerying #Fantasy

Labyrinth X Narnia

To find her parents, Emily enters the world they vanished into - only to discover a princess who wants her friendship forever…and is prepared to erase every reason for Emily to leave

#AgentsGuide #AgentGuide

November 5, 2025 at 10:52 AM Everybody can reply

1 reposts 1 likes

1 1

Nick Wilford

@nickpwilford.bsky.social

After witnessing a murder by a man who bears her former face, a trans girl who transitioned by her DNA being changed from male to female uncovers a sinister cloning scheme and must expose the culprits to stop further abuse of trans people. #QuestPit #YA #SF #Q #agentguide

November 5, 2025 at 9:47 AM Everybody can reply

8 reposts 30 likes

8 30

Joy is ✨querying✨ 🥀🪦

@joyiswriting.bsky.social

Excitedly presenting an #agentguide for HEART OF THE BAYOU, my sapphic horror-romance—now in an inbox near you!!

🫀Deep Southern cryptids
🫀sapphic pining
🫀coming of rage
🫀monsters as a metaphor for queerness & disability
🫀 ✨Big 5✨ editor interest x2

#questpit #YA #Q #H #R #LGBT

An agent’s guide to: HEART OF THE BAYOU
A YA Horror-Romance

The pitch:

The deadly legends that prowl the bayou eat more than just souls— and one wants Elle's heart for her own ...

When a paranormal migration brings a slew of deadly soul-eating cryptids to the quiet swamps of Louisiana, subsequently cornering the paranormal clinic 17-year-old Elle works at—she must find out why the bloodthirsty monsters are migrating before BOLT, a paranormal branch of the FBI, threatens to shut down the clinic and arrest its supernatural patients.
But when she discovers her crush is hiding some monsters of her own, the kind of cryptid that might just take down the clinic and Elle's heart—she'll have to decide if she's ready to take the girl's advice and finally risk letting her own inner monsters out of the closet ...

Comps:
They Bloom at Night, I Feed Her to the Beast, A Feast for the Eyes, This Ravenous Fate, Hear Her Howl, The Coven Tendency

Snippet from HEART OF THE BAYOU:

I'd heard of the brutality of how these cryptids killed. How the survivors were lucky if you managed to escape with only an arm lost. How they enjoyed ripping people from flesh to tendons and finally bone, before they dove for the final kill and snapped their prey's neck, the tell-tale halo of blood flowering above their victims' heads

I only hoped there was something I could salvage once the beast finished.
The man's shrieks didn't cease until the monster's eyes glowed brighter, rubies sparkling in the center of a dangerous black mass. His body stilled, transfixed in terror. A silent scream began to pry his lips apart as if drawn by an invisible force. I winced, the sounds of bones clicking, dislocating, and popping as the man's eyes rolled to the back of his head. A fleshy lump burst through his shirt, pulsating and twisting like worms had taken ahold of his skin.

Tropes & Vibes:
“Only one bed”
Abandoned houses & creepy dockyards
Sociopolitical commentary
Neurodivergent, queer & anxiety rep
Lesbian MC’s
Cryptids & legends from the Deep South
Small town horror
The monster wins in the end . . .
Sassy x Stabby FMC’s

Central moodboard:
Swamp pictures, an orange moon, flannels, heart-shaped carabiners, a “don’t go into the woods” sign, girls kissing, a religious sign, a truck in a field

November 5, 2025 at 8:35 AM Everybody can reply

27 reposts 3 quotes 57 likes

5 27 57

Stephanie Winter

@wintersleep85.bsky.social

NAUSICAÄ X FF7

Nature is decaying, nobles are hoarding magic, and demons prey on everyone. A possible chosen one, a man who failed his destiny, and a woman rejected by fate must work together for one last chance to save the dying world.

#questpit #Q #F #A #agentguide

Dark forest. An agent's guide to The Blessing Returned. Adult fantasy. 98,000 words.

Dark forest. Pitch. Idealistic Hana Hahl lives in a world that is slowly dying after a failed quest to bring back magic. The only ones left with power are self-serving royals and dark mages, while desperation has given rise to an anti-magic order. Caught up in a mystical event, Hana is blessed with an immense power that could restore nature to the world. As Hana struggles to control the overwhelming force, Lady Kalyn Nossi, the only known survivor of the disastrous quest, directs her to the one person who can help her. Matthias Azel, the failed chosen one, reluctantly agrees to teach Hana while concealing his past from her. Accompanied by Kalyn and a charismatic prince with a dangerous secret, they journey to seek answers about Hana’s destiny. They fend off demonic threats and the anti-magic forces as Hana struggles with magic that seems to resist her and a growing fear that the world isn’t meant to be saved.

A dark forest. Comps. Nausicaä. One Dark Window. The Starless Crown. Godkiller. Final Fantasy VII Remake. Tropes. Chosen One (s)? Ecofantasy. Dieselpunk. Grumpy/Sunshine. LGBTQIA+. Multi POV.

A dark forest. Snippet. She took a cautious step forward, unaware she was in a spectral form. Little drops of shimmering light followed her path, dissolving into the ground. “But this has to be a sign?” Grass grew where the light fell, delicate bits of nature that should be impossible. “Maybe it’s returning!”
The young woman spoke with such bright reverence as if life was a fairy tale and magic was all they needed for a happy ending. It was as if she couldn’t see the shadows approaching her. The inevitable death.
“Magic should never return.”
After speaking those words, he sprang forward and shoved her away from the shadows. Pain rocked him as soon as he touched her. The scorching mystical agony tore a scream out of him, but it kept her away from the unearthly menace, and the shock did what he intended.
Sent him back to his body.

November 5, 2025 at 6:48 AM Everybody can reply

40 reposts 110 likes

6 40 110

Maddy A

@gazineye.bsky.social

#QuestPit #Q #A #F #agentguide #agentsguide

WHAT VENGEANCE MIGHT BRING

For fans of epic fantasy, elemental magic, dragons, reluctant heroines, and romantic subplots.

✨Rich world building
🗝️Found family
✨Secret History
🗝️Female rage

110k words || adult epic fantasy || Madelaine Atteberry

An Agent’s Guide to WHAT VENGEANCE MIGHT BRING

The background image is a yellow butterfly resting among a group of cobblestones. On the other cobblestones are faint runes.

PITCH

Rowen Ember would rather eat dirt than admit to her fabled ancestry, but violent attacks have revealed a mysterious gap in her people’s collective memory.

Alongside a lordling, a bounty hunter, a markswoman, and a young rebel, Rowen must finally face that fairy tale that haunts her family name.

Background image is a person with a torch exploring an abandoned brick building. Along the margins are faint runes. Below the pitch are three images of women superimposed with the words “anxiety” “rage” and “grit”.

COMPS- three titles: The Obsidian Tower by Melissa Caruso, The Raven Scholar by Antonia Hodgson, and The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty.

VIBES: action-packed quest; lost, runic language; found family; ancient ruins; dragons; reluctant chosen one; rugged, natural setting; swords, shields, & elemental magic.

Background image is a forest path. Faint runes line the margins.

SNIPPET: “Split knuckles. It’s always the split knuckles that last the longest.

Every motion, each grasp of a mug, clench of a quill, idle drum of the fingers reawakens that nagging sting. What good are healers anyway, if they can’t fix the split knuckles after everything else?

Rowen scowled down at her hands, covered in soft green bruises that had been nudged along that afternoon by a local healer. Of course, they hadn’t bothered with the angry, miniscule lacerations that crested her knuckles, but they had taken care of any lasting damage caused by that day’s spars.

Conscious of the guaranteed response, she spread her fingers across the table before her, wincing as each joint protested the movement.”

Background image is a crumbling ruin against a dark sky. Faint runes line the margins.

November 5, 2025 at 6:22 AM Everybody can reply

16 reposts 43 likes

3 16 43

Jen is Querying

@jenknowsprose.bsky.social

ALCHEMY OF A BLOOD MOON 🌙
The dreams that once consoled wall-flower Selene have mutated into blood drenched nightmares. Now she must seek the guidance of her coven and forgive the man that betrayed her—or be swallowed alive in the dark. #questpit #q #pr #litagents #amquerying #WriteSky #agentguide

November 5, 2025 at 5:30 AM Everybody can reply

42 reposts 2 quotes 110 likes

10 42 110

M is queer-ying MG

@notonlyicarus.bsky.social

celebrating #questpit with a new #agentguide !!
Summer 1920. 8 children. 1 house. 1 games master. He’s a kid too, but this is his house, and it answers to him alone. Trapped in his games, they’ll have to get creative if they want to survive.
🐊 RevPit 25 winner
🐊 big 5 editor interest
#Q #MG #H

green tree grove in the background. At the top, Green on black, it says KNOWING THE TWINS with an agent’s guide right underneath. lower left black paint swipe with green writing says: Upper MG Horror, multiple POVs, 1920s setting. lower right black paint swipe with green writing says: #RevPit 2025 winner, big 5 editor interest.

dark green background, title says THE PITCH. on the left are two green moodboards. the top one has weeping willows reaching water, a hand reaching from a tree trunk, a lake surrounded by trees, hands reaching for each other, a house surrounded by trees and a lake, someone running out of sight in a maze, a lake surrounded by trees, candlesticks on tree branches, and a pier jutting out into water. The bottom one has a hand reaching through tree bark; painting of Icarus as he falls by Gowy; a hand reaching to grasp berries; a lightbulb attracting butterflies; a tree grove; a piano in a greenhouse; Houasse painting of Daphne’s hand growing foliage; painting of crows on a branch; hands reaching through lily pads. on the left, over a white drawing of a crocodile: Summer, 1920. Eight children must play 14-year-old Alistair’s dangerous games, where understanding him may be the only way to outpace him—and escape the summer alive. How do you survive a puppet master when you’re his marionette?

light green background, title at the bottom centre says THE COMPS with tree drawings on either side. at the top centre are three pictures of three book covers. THE WRONG WAY HOME by Kate O’Shaughnessy has an arrow saying “internally-driven conflict & revelatory abuse”. LORD OF THE FLIES by William Golding has an arrow saying “adult-free environment & emergency hierarchy”. NOT QUITE A GHOST by Anne Ursu has an arrow saying “psychological stakes”.

dark green background. title in the top centre is THE THEMES. underneath is a list: abandonment, sibling opposites, parentification, reclaiming girlhood, dangers of a saviour complex, wanting to be closer to the monster, how to survive abuse, the ways fear transforms you, puberty a loss of freedom. behind the list is a drawing of a weeping willow. on the right is a drawing of a Manor House. on the left are drawings of an old 1920s phone, some berries and fire.

November 5, 2025 at 5:10 AM Everybody can reply

45 reposts 2 quotes 89 likes

12 45 89

Kanani O’Kelly

@kananiokelly.bsky.social

MOANA x SHADOW AND BONE

An #agentsguide to WHISPERS OF THE SEA, my #amquerying young adult fantasy.

Feat:
🌊 Hawaiian-inspired mythology
🌋 setting as a character
🌊 angry female mc

#QuestPit #YA #F #Q #OwnVoices #AgentGuide

The introduction to my young adult novel, Whispers of the Sea.

The pitch:

A teen girl embarks on a journey to a mysterious island where she’ll team up with a boy to uncover the whereabouts of her missing uncle. But to save him, Keahi must interfere with the King’s plans to restore power to his kingdom—except the throne was never his to claim, and the island only answers to one: the girl with a heart of fire.

For fans of: Disney’s Moana, Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo, and Curious Tides by Pascale Lacelle

November 5, 2025 at 5:08 AM Everybody can reply

59 reposts 1 quotes 130 likes 1 saves

10 59 130

Emma Al-munshi

@emmaalmunshi.bsky.social

A KINGDOM TO DROWN ME

6 Keys 🔑
5 Centuries of magical politics ✨
4 Djinn on a mission ⚔️
3 Threats Mona Al’Maii must navigate 💀
2 Hot-headed, kindred souls 🖤
1 Secret that could ruin it all 🧭

The Knight and the Moth x Heavenly Bodies

#Questpit #Q #RF #agentsguide #NA #agentguide

November 5, 2025 at 5:03 AM Everybody can reply

45 reposts 3 quotes 90 likes

12 45 90

Mel Reynard

@meljrey.bsky.social

Here’s my adult epic fantasy #AgentGuide for #QuestPit

Ingredients:
🥷 1 stabby shifter
⚔️ 1 brooding smuggler
❤️‍🔥 2 for 1 on slow burn romances
✨ 3 kinds of forbidden magic
🚩 everybody lies
🐉 more twists than twisted dragon horns!

#A #F #OWN

A photo of a dark haired woman in the jungle. Title: An Agent/Reader Guide to The Breath of SIlence - A fantasy novel by M J Reynard

A photo of a rainforest with the Title "Comps":
A Feather so Black - magical FMC in a non-magical world
The Last Vigilant - A broken MMC with a life debt
The Jasad Heir - Forbidden magic
The Raven Scholar - Intrigue & deadly agendas
One Dark Window - slow burn sub plots

A rainforest photo with the following text:
The Pitch
In a world where magic is forbidden, an outcast shifter & a broken soldier form a fragile alliance to smuggle a relic, but as betrayal leads to murder, they must stop a vengeful sorceress or lose all magic – forever!
The Breath of SIlence by M J Reynard

Illustrations of a POC woman in leather armour and a Caucasian man in a Regency style shirt and coat with brown hair.
The following quotes:
"He's a liar!"
"She's hiding something."
City in the sky!

November 5, 2025 at 5:00 AM Everybody can reply

30 reposts 2 quotes 54 likes 1 saves

6 30 54

JP Wright

@jpwrightwrites.bsky.social

FAITH — When a gentle schoolteacher falls into South Carolina’s blackwater, he’s saved by an ageless woman born of the river—and cursed with her hunger. This is no romance.
Full agent guide below. #agentguide #SouthernGothic #MR #writingcommunity #DarkLit #Folklore #PitchReady #DebutAuthor

November 4, 2025 at 5:22 PM Everybody can reply

Jay Burrell

@grumblygoose.bsky.social

An #agentguide to

🐦‍⬛WHITE RAVEN, WHITE LILY🐦‍⬛

an adult lesbian #romance told through #dualPOV and set in a no-magic second world with #fantasy vibes

#amquerying #lgbt #ownvoices #speculative #litagents #writingcommunity

Freedom above all
WHITE RAVEN, WHITE LILY
Speculative lesbian Romance
125K

PITCH
In a city suffering under the boot heel of invaders, a woman fighting for the freedom of her people is confronted with her past when the daughter of the fascist leader she murdered comes looking for revenge.

THEMES
A critique on colonialism, capitalism, and classism, this novel examines the generational cycle of violence and what it takes to end the cycle. The romance explores how to build an equal partnership when there are power imbalances, on both sides.

AUDIENCE
For fans of queer romance that’s a little dark but not too dark, speculative fiction lovers who like light fantasy and dystopian, readers looking for second-world settings not based on European societies, those who enjoy their fiction with a large helping of societal critique, and anyone who enjoyed the television series Arcane.

A comparison of media and WHITE RAVEN, WHITE LILY that notes what elements they have in common. Media includes: The Starving Saints, Arcane, The Unbroken, Fable for the End of the World, Blood Over Bright Haven.

FIRST PAGE
Cass had just knocked the other fighter out to the roaring cheers of the crowd when she saw her.
In a box seat, surrounded by pipe smoke and velvet suits, a woman leaned forward, elbows on her knees, head cocked.
A woman Cass had not seen in over a decade. The woman she had come to this cesspool to find. The woman she had spent the past six months searching for.
The woman she was going to murder.
The woman met her eyes and smirked.
Copper tinged the air, the blood on Cass’s knuckles hot and wet. Her fists clenched as she imagined whacking away that smirk. Walloping and walloping until the woman could never smirk again, never blink again, never breathe again. Pummeling until her hands were stained red.
The woman had blood on her hands, too. The blood of Cass’s parents.
After the fights ended, Cass snagged her jacket from the locker room and darted back down the tunnel to the pit. Concentric rings of ancient concrete walls circled the pit. Stairs in each ring led from the arena floor at the bottom to the street level several stories above. Cass dashed up the stairs two at a time, hoping she hadn’t missed her chance.

November 1, 2025 at 10:23 PM Everybody can reply

3 reposts 12 likes

3 12

Nick Wilford

@nickpwilford.bsky.social

Ella thought she’d left her old life behind when she transitioned using a high-tech DNA-based procedure, but after seeing a man with her former face committing a murder, she uncovers a sinister cloning scheme and must use all her wits to stop further mayhem. #GhostPit #YA #SF #Q #agentguide

October 31, 2025 at 12:38 AM Everybody can reply

1 reposts 5 likes

1 1 5

Ivy Lin | Querying Author

@ivy-lin.bsky.social

I am officially querying THE LOVE IN YOUR WORDS, a YA Romance complete at 70,000 words! Here is my up-to-date Agent Guide.

#ya #romance #neurodiverse #ownvoices #agentguide #agentsguide

Title: “The Love In Your Words”
Genre: YA Romance
Word Count: 70,000 words
A picture of Lena and Alistair walking underneath an umbrella together, wearing blue and grey school uniforms. The Royal Liver Building is in the background as red paper lanterns float in the sky.

Comps
“Something More” by Jackie Khalilieh (Autism & Neurodivergence)
“Never Thought I’d End Up Here” by Ann Liang (Language, Heritage & Chinese Diaspora)
“Komi Can’t Communicate” (Overcoming Loneliness & Communication Difficulties)

Opening
Words don't come easily to me. Before they reach my lips, they fade like the smoke rising from a joss stick in front of my mum's shrine. My lighter brightens her portrait's uncanny youthful beauty, gazing out as if she's still alive, inviting me to speak. But when I extinguish the flame, the image slips back into shadow, a reminder that she's gone.
I kneel and clasp my hands, wanting to say what I should've said before she passed almost a year ago. Words that weren't, "I wish I had more friends." But my teeth close like gates, keeping my thoughts captive, even when I'm alone in my tiny, brick garden, surrounded only by a bin and a rusty barbecue.
For now, all I can do is wish, so I bow and whisper a message in my mind. I want Mum back, as impossible as it may seem. If I can't have that, then I want someone like her to enter my life—someone to sweep away the loneliness and help me speak... or even accept me when I'm silent.

October 30, 2025 at 8:15 PM Everybody can reply

2 reposts 12 likes

2 12

Nick Wilford

@nickpwilford.bsky.social

In a world where gender can be changed with one DNA-based op, what happens when your previous identity’s genetic signature is used without your knowledge? After witnessing a murder by a man bearing her former face, Ella finds out the hard way. #GhostPit #YA #SF #Q #agentguide

October 30, 2025 at 6:23 PM Everybody can reply

3 reposts 15 likes

3 15

Nick Wilford

@nickpwilford.bsky.social

After witnessing a murder by a man who bears her former face, a trans girl who transitioned by her DNA being changed from male to female uncovers a sinister cloning scheme and must expose the culprits to stop further abuse of trans people. #GhostPit #YA #SF #Q #agentguide

October 30, 2025 at 12:15 PM Everybody can reply

10 reposts 24 likes

1 10 24