The streets are silent. Food is scarce. Safety is a myth.

THE QUIET AFTER is a gritty post-apocalyptic survival thriller #WIP set in the ruins of the present.

(Images below are from the #FoodPit over on Twitter.) #Booksky

Chapter 3: The Kid Grinder Lunch was pizza, green beans, canned peaches, and milk, each lumped or dumped into a neat section divided by ridges in her tray. She had never really appreciated how nicely the food was placed before, but today she did. She only wished that the cafeteria workers had centered the food better. School lunch was never wonderful, but they did a really bad job this time. The beans were tough and bitter and she had a hard time swallowing them. The peaches were so soft and soggy she had a hard time telling them apart from the liquid they were packed in. The milk looked and tasted and felt like it was chalk dust that had been mixed with water. She tried to make it go down her throat without touching her tongue, but it didn’t work. The only exception was the pizza, which was amazing this time, at least by school lunch standards. She hoped they would make it more in the future.

I only have "liquid" once in my WIPs. I'm not really feeling sharing another food related snip right after #FoodPit, but my cow died overnight, so realistically I'm not going to feel right about sharing any other either.

This is the first meal Sophia has in the alt reality.

#WIPSnips #WriteSky

Picture of an instant ramen block against a pink backdrop with the following quote under the word "snippet": “Really? After judging my cooking methods, you’re making it in plastic bowl?” “I’m trying to save you from doing extra dishes.” He walks over to the fridge and holds up an egg. “Can I?” I give him a vague gesture of acknowledgment. “Don’t worry,” he grins, “I’ll make sure it cook it properly.” I roll my eyes. Kai fills the bowl with boiling water, then cracks the egg into it. I hand him a pair of chopsticks to hold the lid in place. He chops up the rest of the green onion, carefully scooping up the slices. I peer over his shoulder when he removes the lid and sprinkles the scallions in. The egg whites have cooked through, leaving a perfectly shaped yolk. “Behold,” he says, holding out his bowl, “a lazy poached egg.” “Can you even call it a poached egg if the yolk is just sitting out naked like that?” I ask, eying his bowl skeptically. Kai picks up his chopsticks. “Fine, it’s a half-poached egg,” he shrugs. “Still tastes good though.” I leave him to his Gudetama egg and turn back to my own bowl, relishing in its lingering warmth.

I love instant ramen, so I had to include it in my #FakeDatingFoodie romcom featuring a restaurant kid and the boy from the rival "Chinese" food fast-casual chain trying to put her family's mom-and-pop noodle shop out of business 🩷 #FoodPit #YA #R

Him: Come to dinner with me tonight. Her: Do I have a choice in the matter? Him: Well, I've already purged the cabin of all my dinner knives so... Her: A fork works wonders in a pinch. Him: Then you'll be delighted to learn we're having soup.

When they’re supposed to be enemies but the banter won’t stop bantering - even about soup.

PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN meets SNOW WHITE AND THE HUNTSMAN in this 98k romantasy.

#Foodpit #Q #R #F #A

Food featured in KISS THE WALL 🏁🏳️‍🌈

🌭 fast food, fast cars, fast friends
🥯 boring meetings benefitted by bagels
🍪 comfort food made with love
🍆 this one ain't gettin an explanation
🥤 sponsorships out the wazoo

#foodpit #q #a #romcom

Both of my #FoodPit posts in case any #Agents are searching the feed for a Dark Fantasy with a strong romantic subplot, feminine coming-of-rage, and a dash of weird humor. Cause why not?!

I'm querying VEILSTRIDER now 🫶

#AgentGuide below as well 🥰

🕊🔥🐦‍🔥

Then my #WIP sequel to TITANIC VOYAGE, IMMIGRANTS' JOURNEY coming this year? I hope? #TT #NA

MY CHARACTERS ARE EATING GOOD #FoodPit. Well, mostly. Including but not limited to…

One thing about time travel that might surprise you is that people aren't as consistent as you see in the movies. For example, most nights my Mom makes pupusas de loroco, my favorite. It's one of the reasons I like this day so much. She even remembers to put my curtido in a bowl, because I like to eat it separately, instead of on top of the pupusas like everyone else. But sometimes she makes tamales instead. She cooks them with the bones still inside the meat, and I really do not like that. It makes them hard to eat and feel bad in my mouth. Mom says we're salvadoreños and so we have to do it that way. I don't get it. No one is forcing us to leave the bones in the meat because of where my grandparents were born.

Soft Time

Autistic kid Joaquín thinks he's reliving the same day every day, but if that's the case, why doesn't his mom make the same thing every night?

#MG #SF #ND #OV #W #FoodPit

“Time for dessert, kids! Remember to head straight to the cafeteria.” Sophia smiled. Maybe her school day wasn’t going to end on such a bad note. Dessert was mashed potatoes with butter and gravy. A carton of milk claimed the space it always occupied. Peas stacked unnaturally next to it, threatening to overrun the barrier between them at any time. A small, dry, thin cookie seemed to shy away from the other items, hiding in the corner of the tray. Sophia made no real effort to conceal her disappointment, but the rest of the children at her table didn’t notice because it had turned 2:22 and so they were starving. Sophia didn’t know whether to be amused or disgusted by their enthusiasm. The potatoes were eerily flavorless, and the gravy was watery. The butter put in a good fight but was not capable of saving its companions. The peas were hard and bitter. They were not crunchy, but peas never should be, and so it was wrong that they tried. Sophia decided she had a strict no milk for dessert policy, but then she realized the cookie might be better with it and changed her mind. She dunked the cookie, and to her delight it improved them both.

Just As Real

Sophia's first day at school in the strange alternate reality she's struck in has been really hard, but when she finds out they have dessert at the end of the day she thinks that maybe things aren't all bad there.

#MG #SF #ND #OV #Q #FoodPit

Soon it was 10:21 and the class was dismissed to the cafeteria. Mid-morning snack was something coin-shaped, but larger, fuzzier, and bright school bus yellow. It was accompanied by Lima beans, applesauce, and milk. Someone Sophia didn’t recognize took the seat across the table from her. “Did you ever figure out what the assigned problems were for Math yesterday?” she asked. “How did you know I didn’t know them?” “You told me yesterday, silly. You also told me you live on Maple Lane and your favorite—” She and everyone else except for Sophia took several bites at 10:26. “— color is green.”

Sophia was suspicious, but she couldn’t figure out how else she would have known those things. “No, I didn’t figure it out. I ended up just not doing them yesterday. How do you know which ones to do?” “It’s really easy! You just pay close attention when the teacher gives the assignment, and then just go with whatever your gut says.” The only thing Sophia’s gut had been saying lately was that she wasn’t hungry. Sophia said, “I feel like I did that the best I could on my first day and I just got my paper back and it says I did the wrong problems.” “Don’t worry. It can take some practice to get it right at first, but you can do it. You are in fifth grade now, you know.” Sophia knew that nothing in nature was the color of the perfect cylinder in the largest section of her tray, but she didn’t have that level of certainty about her gut’s ability to understand what Mr. Armstrong clearly wasn’t saying. She wondered why such an easy question to answer had to be as hard for her as the Lima beans were.

Just As Real

The kids at the school in the bizarre alternate reality Sophia is trapped in eat precisely timed meals as often as hobbits. Some of the other expectations people have for her are even stranger and harder to figure out.

#MG #SF #ND #OV #Q #FoodPit

Conversations with Readers #1; Reader: “I am very emotionally invested in the Ava/Cole relationship already (insert crying emoji) Ima need them to work things out or I might actually cry” insert three crying emojis. Me: “Maybe they do, maybe they don’t?” insert girl shrugging emoji. Reader: “I will be reading tonight until I have to go to sleep,” insert nervous emoji. Conversations with Readers #2; Reader: “Also sorry it’s taken me a minute, today I’ve been able to sit down and actually read read and I cannot put it down!” Conversation with Readers #3; Reader: “Not you booping the goddess of memories” insert laughing emoji, crying emoji, laughing emoji, “I may or may not have laughed out loud in a very quiet room when I read that part” insert three laughing emojis Conversation with Readers #4; Reader: “I’ve been resisting the urge to text you so many times because I didn’t want to blow up your phone,” insert laughing emoji, “I’ve been out here laughing, crying, all the things.” Conversation with Readers #5; Reader: “The consequences were so perfect considering the (expletive) they did to get themselves there in the first place” insert OK gesture, “And I really did love it so much for real,” insert crying emoji x3 and 3 heart emojis, “I couldn’t put it down, I had to know what was happening!” Conversation with Readers #6; Reader: “I love Waffles so much,” insert crying emoji x3, “I just picture Oakley with two heads, growing fifteen feet tall with spikes and scary teeth,” nervous emoji, crying emoji. Me: “Rawr” insert laughing emoji Reader: Also (expletive) Katarina and creepy (expletive) Jeff. And Demeter for that matter.” Me: insert laughing emojis, “Yeah they’re awful.” Reader: “I have so many things to talk to you about, so many emotions,” (insert crying and nervous emojis).

SNIPPET

While he may seem perfect, I can’t trust myself around him. Not until I know more about myself and where I am. Because if I let this man into my life & he hurts me? I’m not sure that ice cream & wine are going to fix that level of heartbreak

📸Readers say
#FoodPit #Q✍️82k #A #F w/ #R #H

Despite the name, mid-morning snack was about the same size as lunch was. It featured colorless corn and a small slice of meat that belonged to no identifiable animal. There was a carton of milk, of course. At exactly 10:26 all the other children started eating as one, just like they had at the first meal. For several minutes all she heard was chewing. The girl with the red hair was seated next to Sophia, and when she started talking, it surprised her. “I’m sorry I asked you if you went to a barn. That was kind of mean. I just didn't know what to say. No one has ever said that kind of thing to me before. Friends?” Sophia didn't know what kind of thing she was talking about, but she really needed a friend right now. “Friends.” She didn't say anything else because she was afraid she would ruin the moment somehow. It had been that kind of day. The redhead went back to eating whatever it was. Sophia wondered if she should eat any of hers. She didn't like her options.

Sophia decided she was too bored not to eat. At least it was something to do. She almost immediately regretted it. The main course was like a fish’s idea of what chicken tasted like, and it was too soft and yet stringy at the same time. The corn tasted good (better than it looked), but the texture was like she was chewing thousands of tiny plastic bags. She wasn't sure if the dark sludge was gravy or chocolate pudding. She left it alone, so she never found out. She had a staring contest with the cow on her milk carton. She lost, so she had to drink the milk. She tried to swallow it like a pill. That didn't work either. She got up and took her tray to the conveyor belt.

Why does the school in the strange new alternate reality Sophia is trapped in serve four meals during the school day? Why aren't any of them good? There is so much Sophia doesn't understand about the people she's with.

#MG #SF #ND #OV #Q #FoodPit

A snippet of text from a fantasy novel

One more little snippet from 🌿HEAVY IN YOUR ARMS🌿 this time feat. some ale!

#FoodPit #A #RF #LGBT #Q #amquerying

Mood board/Agent's guide for my novel CARGO - a queer SF/heist/romance - 113,000 words "Did you hear? There's a human on board." A graphic of the wall of a spaceship with sticky notes and polaroid photos taped up. There are twinkle lights hanging from the ceiling. alien ship's cook (fussy, anxious) + terrifying monster (ordinary human)

PITCH: Tai’s terrified of humans. Everyone is. Violent pack hunters, humans are notorious for their strength, sharp teeth, and carnivorous appetites. But the ship’s cook is safe among the multispecies crew of the cargo hauler Coreward Baker: everyone knows the warrior species rarely leave their own space. Then Captain Raz hires Clarke, a human horticulturist. Even after Tai overcomes their fear, they can’t stand Clarke. She’s bossy. Annoying. Useless in the galley, bad in a space suit. She might as well be cargo. Worse, she’s intent on befriending Tai—and why can’t they stop thinking about her, anyway? That’s when things go wrong. As Tai starts to realize their feelings for Clarke, they’re horrified to learn that nobody on their crew of dropouts and runaways is quite who they seem, least of all Clarke. And it’s no coincidence. Raz reveals they’ve each been handpicked for a heist he’s spent years planning—and no one’s allowed to say no. PRIORITIES: make dinner remain cozy haul cargo go for drinks pull off one last score try not to fall in love

FIRST PAGE: “Did you hear? There’s a Human on board.” I choked on my noodles and turned to stare at the diners at the next table. Like most of the restaurant’s patrons, the pair had hidden their profiles, a halfhearted attempt at anonymity. “Gross,” the speaker’s crewmate said, oblivious to my alarm. “I hope it leaves soon.” “Don’t let it hear you say that,” the first worker laughed. She made a show of looking for Humans, her eyes darting from table to table. It. I frowned. I knew the workers’ language distinguished between people and things, and ‘it’ was an unkind choice of words at best. The second worker shuddered. “I don’t know why we let them come here.” The first laughed. “Are you going to stop them?”

COMPS: Murderbot by Martha Wells Someone You Can Build a Nest In by John Wiswell The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers TROPES: Non-binary narrator masking anxiety with sarcasm lying to themselves non-human perspective (afraid of humans) neurodivergent main characters metaphorically disabled protagonist slow-burn friends-to-lovers and enemies to lovers in the same relationship disabilitynorm and queernorm setting found family loveable pet/terrifying monster

Agents, this decision’s a piece of cake: in a nutshell, you’re looking for queer sci-fi with eleven cooking scenes, a foodie ship’s cook, alien fusion cuisine, and a cat who only wants protein cubes. Message me, I’ll spill the beans, and we can bring home the bacon together. #FoodPit #SF #Q #LGBT

On the Wile, women gain power through the ritual slaughter of men. Ripley’s first kill is meant to secure her place among her sisters, until the man beneath her sickle refuses to beg & the rules she’s lived by begin to fail.

Feminine Rage🔥
Forbidden❤️

#Foodpit #H #R #F #NA #Q

Milky Way Cafe's specials:

The ghost speaker - Hot chocolate, a seat tucked away in the corner, and a blueberry, maple, and bacon scone.

The scientist - Black coffee, any day old scone, and local gossip.

The daemon - A second cup of coffee that you can’t remember ordering.

#Foodpit #Q #PN #MY

I didn't know #foodpit was even a thing, but I'm definitely going to participate. There ended up being a lot of meal scenes in Just As Real because they were the perfect opportunity to have the characters talk to each other and because they just eat so often in that alternate reality.

“I led them around the corner to reveal tables and shelves well stocked with many cured meats, drying herbs dangling from above, wheels of cheese, preserved fruits and vegetables, and a jar of crackers.”

An excerpt from my 12k chapter book:

THE CAT OF VERSAILLES

#FoodPit #KidLit #AmQuerying

From Chase being sent to pick up a pie for his mom in Ch. 3 (more like matchmaking effort on his mom's part), to an explosion of flour morphed into a flour-fight in Ch. 9, Chase & Kallie are in for something they didn't expect...could it be love? #foodpit #YA #F #R #Q

You’re eating your meal and I’ve got mine. You notice that my plate and silverware don’t match yours and I pretend that I brought my food down from First Class. Your eyes light up. “How is the food in First Class?” Oh, Clara, I so want to please you! “Would you like to try some?” “Liam!” Rocky yells. He’s so loud, I wince. “Are you all right?” you ask. “I’m fine, Miss Jones.” You turn your attention back to my plate, and I cut a bite of lunch meat with my fork, then spear it and hold it out to you. “Go ahead.” You look between me and the fork, your eyes round. “Liam, you idiot!” I’m surprised you don’t hear Rocky’s shouts through the earpiece. “We’re going to have to start all over! Again!” You bite your lip, then grab the fork. I wait for the utensil to fall through your projected hand and clatter onto the real table, but there’s no noise. I stare at you because you’re holding it. You’re a projection holding a fork made of real metal. You take a bite, scrunch up your lips, and then eye me. Your face goes scarlet and you set the fork down. “I’m sorry,” you whisper. “That was so forward⁠—” “I asked you to, Miss Jones. How could it be forward to do as I asked?” You turn away, searching out your sister again. “Well?” I ask. “How was it? The food, I mean.” Some of the tension leaves your shoulders and you turn towards me again, offering a small smile. “Well . . . I’m afraid First Class food may be too sophisticated for me.” I laugh. “It has been sitting out a while. But yours looks delicious.” And it does, Clara. I know it’s a projection, but you have thick slices of pot roast—you’ve cut it all into pieces—and a piece of hearty bread covered in butter. You pause, considering, then slide your projected plate closer to mine. Your cheeks are still pink and there’s a sparkle in your eyes. “Would you like to try it?” I get goose flesh from the thought. —Titanic Voyage by Julie Bihn

Cover of Titanic Voyage by Julie Bihn as a book mock-up. Night sky and ocean background, with an amusement park on the horizon and a porthole in the center, with a black-and-white picture on the promenade deck of the Titanic? Olympic? with a man in the background and a spotlight or glowing ball of blue light above him.

#FoodPit

Clara and Liam dine together at the last tea served in Third Class on the Titanic. (Also, it's a romantic and suspenseful time travel novel, but the "spice" level is around that of a snickerdoodle cookie. Sweetness level too, come to think of it.) #NA #P

Final FoodPit post - Everyone wants to be first! First in line, first to cross the finish, first first first. But not Pancake. First is the worst! No one likes the first pancake & he knows it. Can Pancake convince kids there is value in trying, even if you are not always first? #FoodPit #PB Agented.

A moodboard showing beer, wine, champagne, and strawberries

🌿HEAVY IN YOUR ARMS🌿 as food and drink!

#FoodPit #A #RF #LGBT #Q #amquerying

Prepping for #foodpit?

A #FakeDatingFoodies #YA romcom sampler menu:
🍦taiyaki soft serve
🍜 spicy soup noodles
🥮 every kind of mooncake imaginable
🍤 Costco-sized bag of shrimp chips
🍨artisanal ice cream
🍣sushi buffet
🍳instant ramen with a gudetama egg
🧋boba
🍉fruit sliced with love
#FoodPit

Conversations with Readers #1; Reader: “I am very emotionally invested in the Ava/Cole relationship already (insert crying emoji) Ima need them to work things out or I might actually cry” insert three crying emojis. Me: “Maybe they do, maybe they don’t?” insert girl shrugging emoji. Reader: “I will be reading tonight until I have to go to sleep,” insert nervous emoji. Conversations with Readers #2; Reader: “Also sorry it’s taken me a minute, today I’ve been able to sit down and actually read read and I cannot put it down!” Conversation with Readers #3; Reader: “Not you booping the goddess of memories” insert laughing emoji, crying emoji, laughing emoji, “I may or may not have laughed out loud in a very quiet room when I read that part” insert three laughing emojis Conversation with Readers #4; Reader: “I’ve been resisting the urge to text you so many times because I didn’t want to blow up your phone,” insert laughing emoji, “I’ve been out here laughing, crying, all the things.” Conversation with Readers #5; Reader: “The consequences were so perfect considering the (expletive) they did to get themselves there in the first place” insert OK gesture, “And I really did love it so much for real,” insert crying emoji x3 and 3 heart emojis, “I couldn’t put it down, I had to know what was happening!” Conversation with Readers #6; Reader: “I love Waffles so much,” insert crying emoji x3, “I just picture Oakley with two heads, growing fifteen feet tall with spikes and scary teeth,” nervous emoji, crying emoji. Me: “Rawr” insert laughing emoji Reader: Also (expletive) Katarina and creepy (expletive) Jeff. And Demeter for that matter.” Me: insert laughing emojis, “Yeah they’re awful.” Reader: “I have so many things to talk to you about, so many emotions,” (insert crying and nervous emojis).

...the bacon seems to have gotten stuck in my throat, I try to figure out what could have possibly happened in the past five seconds to cause the glowy thing. Before I started talking, she was perfectly fine...but now? Now, Persephone looks like she wants to fucking hit something
#FoodPit #Q #A #F

How did a little orange cat use delicious Italian spaghetti sauce to save a wolf family from King Louis XIII’s hunting party?

Find out by reading my 12k children’s chapter book THE CAT OF VERSAILLES 🐈🇫🇷

#FoodPit #KidLit #AmQuerying

One of the perks of working at CYO-P is that you get to make your own meal once per shift. And employees can get creative. We don't let the customers order calzones, but they're my favorite. When money's tight, like today, I make mine double-sized, with one pizza crust as the top and another as the bottom. I filled it with:

Regular sauce Rocket fuel sauce Every cheese, except blue cheese-did you know the blue parts are mold? Gross Every meat Extra hamburger Mushrooms Every kind of pepper Artichoke hearts Garlic, quantity: vampire- massacre

Oh, and I sprinkled some oregano on top because I am classy. I wanted to call it the best calzone ever created in the history of calzones, but I'm not vain. I did take a moment to admire the World's Third Greatest Calzone before Lindsay slid it into the wood-fired pizza oven.

Cover to The Accidental Time Travelers Collective Volume 1. Brown/gold background, silhouette of a man going through a door to somewhere blue-green.

In this delicious short story, a slacker pizza shop employee creates a time-traveling treat. “Turtle Day, or Kate Malone and the Magic Calzone” and 11 other stories in THE ACCIDENTAL TIME TRAVELERS COLLECTIVE VOL. 1. #FoodPit #P #TT

Still life with a cup of chocolate by Spanish painter Juan de Zurbarán, circa 1640, sourced off Wikimedia Commons. (Technically, this is not quite how chocolate would be prepared in England in the 1660s, but it's similar and the image has the right vibe, LOL.) Underneath is written in old-timey typesetting: "A Receipt for Chocolate. Take a pound of Cacao Nibs, half a pound of Sugar, twelve each of Almonds and Hazelnuts, one ounce ground of Cinnamon and half an ounce ground of Aniseed and a quarter an ounce ground of Nutmeg, and half a drachm each of Allspice and long Pepper, and have a servant grind into a paste about half an hour to an hour, and make it into little cakes about one ounce, and let set. When you would use them, warm over the fire some good Claret Wine, and in it dissolve one cake every four ounces of drink, then take off the fire and stir in orange flower water, rose-water, musk, &c., as suits your fancy. Then dump down your Nemesis's doublet-front while calling him a Scoundrel, Devil, & Rogue, and declare eternal Hatred and Vengeance upon him."

Craving some 17th century cold-weather vibes? Please enjoy this historically accurate recipe for drinking chocolate for #FoodPit, inspired by my #W IP #YA(?) swashbuckling farce, THE DUEL IN 1660! ❄️☺️☕

Image with a blue background. Snowy/Christmassy decoration at the top. In the top center is the text: SUGAR & FROSTY by Bethany Averie. Text in the center reads: 18-year-old Chase Frost loves anything with cinnamon (it's his secret weakness). Particularly cinnamon rolls. But fall in love with newcomer, Kallie Sugar? No way. He wouldn't. Even if he can't get her out of his mind. 18-year-old Kallie Sugar enjoys a mocha coffee. What she doesn't enjoy is colliding with cold/aloof Chase Frost on an icy sidewalk! She wouldn't fall for him if he was the last guy in North Pole Village! Never mind that when they accidentally touch it's electric, maybe even...magical. On the left side is a silhouette of a girl with gold sparkles. On the right side is a silhouette of a guy in a tux with frost over it. There is an image of a cinnamon roll and one of two coffee mugs.

What's the way to cold/aloof Chase Frost's heart? Anything with cinnamon. Particularly cinnamon rolls from newcomer Kallie Frost's parents' bakery. SUGAR & FROST #Foodpit #YA #F #Q

Bougatsa - creamy custard and flaky phyllo

pomegranate hot chocolate with toasted marshmallows

Charcuterie - In the 1920s, Greek charcuterie was heavily influenced by the influx of Anatolian Greeks (Karamanlides) fleeing Asia Minor, who brought with them, or revitalized, ancient traditions of curing and drying meat, specifically in Athens. These, along with local Greek traditions, were centered around "pastomageirio" (taverns of salted goods).

Skaltsounia - traditional Greek, crescent-shaped, half-moon pastries that are often enjoyed around Christmas, during Lenten fasting periods, and at weddings

A recipe for a curse, love, disaster, and fate in Ancient to 1920s Greece. Foods of Alaria's Curse: Bougatsa, Ices, Muscat of Rio Patras, Pea soup, Loza, Charcuterie, Pomegranate hot chocolate with toasted marshmallows, Spanakopita, Skaltsounia, Kourabiedes.

#W #A #RF #foodpit