Better to fully live imperfectly, than partially live perfectly. Human art is > AI

#art #create #writers

First, I won 3rd place in CWA’s First Chapter Contest, then yesterday I received two full manuscript requests!

My reminder to go listen and learn.

Created this for my teen boys. Happy Valentine’s Day!
#valentine

Just a preview of upcoming articles I'm working on for the Substack... (and ignore the "paid" button--that always shows up for my drafts, but at least 3 of these will be free ;)

Drop a comment if there are any topics you'd like me to write about in the future!!

Applications are now OPEN for our annual Dana Wood Chaney Writers Fund scholarship. This $1500 tuition grant goes to one writer working on a writing project that addresses social change.

More info and how to apply is here: buff.ly/3WXg5d8

#writingcommunity

Literally read this while eating two mini birthday cake donuts.

Am I the only one who doesn’t want escapism, but instead wants to double down on this dystopian present and read stories where characters find revenge?
#amquerying

Do you know (or are) a creative writing instructor who'd be interested in teaching a nine-week after-school class in Chicago?

Details and how to apply are below!

(Please share far and wide.)

#writinginstructor

—Stories that examine contemporary issues using horror/speculative elements as the vehicle (think Jordan Peele or Stephen Graham Jones)
—Sentient plants or natural settings with a sinister undertone (a la Annihilation)—bonus if it speaks to our climate crisis without being too heavy handed
3/6 #MSWL

Writers, remember we are not pitching directly to posts! Happy hunting!

I’m sorry, what??? Go home, Grammarly, you’re drunk.
#WritingCommunity

*takes a bow

😆 But you are!!!

Me. It’s me. Always me.

Anything @storystudiochicago.bsky.social hosts is phenomenal and I’m here for it!
#writingcommunity

Moodboard featuring four photos: Bottom left: view of a museum second floor. museum has columns and arches in the architecture. Left: closeup of a violin as someone plays it. Top right: Violin sitting on a dark surface. Bottom right: artistic music staff with notes. On the right is a color palette in browns ranging from dark to light. A sticky note in the bottom right says: Finn's Fiddle

LIGHT FROM UNCOMMON STARS x ARCANE

When a god offers Lelia the life she’s always wanted in exchange for her help on a museum heist, she agrees with barely a second thought. But Lelia’s not used to consequences, and stealing a legendary relic comes with several.

#2025pit #A #F #DIS #LGBTQ #ND

Collage of 5 images overlaid with word KINSHIP: sharp metal nails coming out of a bright red lipsticked mouth, a lesbian couple clasping hands, a bloody white cloth against a pink background, light shining behind a spiderweb with a juicy spider and the shadow of a hand, a man's bare back as he is held by another man.

KINSHIP, 84k, #A #H #T w/ #LGBTQ rep. Megan’s reunion with her long lost brother is complicated when he kills his lover. Luckily, Megan’s prepared for this. Subversion of gothic tropes + send up of true crime culture. #2025Pit

VOX x CLOUD CUCKOO LAND

Cybele is valued as a mutation free, breedable female. Offered as a prize in a gladiatorial competition, she seeks revenge in a deadly confrontation with her kidnapper and discovers the truth about her adoptive mother’s role in her tragic life. #2025Pit #A #D

Title screen of an agent's guide to Woodbine with a floral patterned background

Pitch text: The Ghost Woods meets The Silence Factory in Woodbine, a Gothic thriller set in post-war Hampshire, UK, that explores love and nature as twin entities in their power both to heal and destroy. Stained-glass artist Tom Piper has lost his home to the bailiffs, his wife to another man and his daughter to an argument he can’t take back. But redemption comes in the form of Mary Goddard, the enigmatic owner of a crumbling country estate, who is willing to pay any price to restore a set of windows depicting the haunting love story of Tristram and Isolde. After a violent altercation with Mary’s delusional twin sister brings Tom and Mary together, their unlikely friendship quickly blossoms into something more. But when the lunatic sister starts talking sense at the same time as a mysterious creeper proceeds to wreak havoc throughout the house – and upon Tom himself – he is forced to question whether the feelings he has for Mary, and she for him, are the real thing or a madness all their own. Image shows a mood board featuring a fire, a moon on a misty night, a woman looking at herself in a handheld mirror and a grand doorway in a stately home.

Comparison titles showing book covers of The Puzzle Wood by Rosie Andrews, The Ghost Woods by CJ Cooke, The Asylum by Karen Coles and The Silence Factory by Bridget Collins.

Opening lines of Woodbine: The bride’s face was missing, that was the first thing I noticed. No one had escaped unscathed – the groom had lost everything from the waist down and the witnesses had been obliterated – but the neat hole at the neckline of her dress looked deliberate, as if a child had staved it in with a slingshot after the blast. I suppose that’s almost precisely what happened, though I didn’t know it at the time. I tutted and shook my head. Such a shame. Behind me, my new employer cleared her throat. ‘What do you think? Is there any hope?’

THE GHOST WOODS meets THE SILENCE FACTORY in WOODBINE, a Gothic thriller in which a lonely stained-glass artist must reassemble the fractured pieces of his memory before a malevolent creeper destroys his last chance at love.

#2025pit #A #HF #T

And here I am!

The sun is dying and there was a living being inside the mysterious artifact from Mercury. The first android CEO of the Sol System has to save his citizens, but his enemies and love life make it nearly impossible. Novel working title: ANCESTORS OF EARTH
#2025pit #SF #A

The Title Page of the Agents Guide. The title of the book is THE STOLEN IDOL by Christopher Lee. It is a 86K word YA Fantasy. An image drawn and colored digitally by the author is in the center of the page. The image shows a broken opal colored disk in front of the Cat Si's golden eye.

The Pitch: Winning a jousting tournament should be easy for a centaur, and it is, until the false horse head falls off Fotini’s shoddy disguise. She quickly steals the tournament prize, a golden idol, and gallops toward the forest ripping off her heavy jousting armor to outrun the tournament guards. When she arrives home to fulfill her contract, she discovers she accidentally ditched the idol with her disguise. Along with two fellow thieves, she retraces her steps praying the idol is still there. Hopefully it wasn’t cracked, or worse, found by a disgusting human. Seventeen-year-old Jaimie Whitfield is accused of being a fae changeling, a creature who kidnaps children and assumes their form. If he does not escape, he will be executed for impersonating himself. His father will then invade the fae kingdom to rescue a son who hasn’t actually been kidnapped, all because he saw Jaimie kiss another young man and would rather believe his son has been kidnapped than accept his sexuality. As he awaits his demise, Jaimie turns to the broken idol he found by the roadside with a quiet prayer. He doesn’t expect an answer, but is shocked when a mysterious black cat slips through his high tower window. Jaimie joins the shapeshifting cat known as the Cat Sí and the not fully human trio of thieves who dropped the idol to begin with. These outcasts race to warn the fae of the coming invasion. Along the way, Jaimie and his new friends learn long-forgotten secrets of how the Irish fae, the Cat Sí, and the Celtic gods are involved in an ancient feud with pantheons across the sea.

Tropes and Themes: Found Family Generational Trauma Unrequited Love Betrayal Acceptance LGBTQIA+ Representation Celtic Mythology Greek Mythology Norse Mythology Egyptian Mythology Heroes Journey Small Trickster Fae Magical Girl Transformation

For Fans of: Daughter of Sparta series by Claire M. Andrews New take on several ancient myths Mentions of gods from other lands Ancient setting Lore by Alexandra Bracken Original story with mythical characters Intense fight scenes She-Ra (Netflix) Lighthearted LGBTQIA+ representation Found family Scary cat lady

A centaur cheats at jousting, until the fake horse head goes KERPLOP!

🌈Mythology X SPOP
🗡️Betrayed by the man he loves
🗡️Betrayed by his father
🐈‍⬛Cat Si from Irish folklore
🐐Snarky/greedy satyr
🐎Badass centaur
🧚‍♀️Tricky pixies can't lie
☀️Gods from many pantheons

#2025pit #YA #F #writing #Q

a woman is holding a cupcake and saying if the apocalypse comes beep me Alt: Buffy Summers holding up a pager and saying "If the apocalypse comes, beep me."

A walking, talking corpse just lost a magic marble, triggering a chain reaction that threatens to burn the world down. Haf the demihuman fixer is going to find it, even if she never sleeps again.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer x This Body's Not Big Enough For Both of Us

#2025Pit #Q #A #F #LGBTQ

All dark adventure blogger turned law school student Riley wants is to solve the lethal riddle 💀 of her college town📚🌲before someone else winds up dead. All rock star Liam wants is Riley... & for her not to dismantle his career🎸 in her pursuit. All The Creature wants is their blood🩸
#2025Pit #Q #NA

A collage of Victorian-era images surrounding the words 'when the dead talk, secrets don't stay buried.' The images include: a woman holding a candle, a policeman finding a body, four images of seances, a woman stalking another woman in the street, and a slum.

🔪 Ada - a medium & fraud, turns to murder, determined to create the perfect ghost

🪦 Harriet - terrified of spirits, cursed with the ability to hear them

☠️ When her best friend is murdered, Harriet must face her fear & seek out the dead to find the killer

✨Dual POV #YouDeservepIt #a #hf #q soon

February better not throw us an extra day this year.

a large white house with a gazebo in the background Alt: a large white house with a gazebo in the background, and people are running around frantically

A closed room country house murder you say?

May I introduce you to FUCK THIS MURDER

🐊🐊🐊

- a humorous, foul mouthed mystery, complete w/ sabotaged pre-wedding jaunts (bad food, poison oak, BEES), rekindled romance, a murder forest, & much more!

#2025Pit #A #M #autism #Disabilty #LGBTQIA+ #OWN

Most dreaded feedback: Your characters are flat. Gaaahh!

Want to learn how to avoid writing boring characters? Take this five-session online class with writer Wayétu Moore -- Novel Foundations: Characters.

The first class is Jan. 28. Register now!

https://buff.ly/3Pv1uS1

#writingcommunity

School crest of Uther Academy.

Surviving high school isn’t easy under normal conditions—and it’s even harder when things get paranormal. Jennifer and August transfer to the mysterious Uther Academy, where they search for answers while learning the three Rs: revenge, redemption, and romance.
#2025pit #Q #YA #M
Art-Evelyn Abel