Paris Soto (is querying!) 🏜️🐺🎭

I think about this Robert McKee quote all the time, especially when drafting a new idea:

“Tragedy is getting exactly what you wanted, and paying the full price for it.”

#writercommunity

Challenged myself to write a story without a single speculative element, and I did it! Granted, it’s about a woman trying to observe Yule when she’s roped into her neighbor’s hallaca building party, so the witchy elements are still present 🤭❄️

Live Updates: María Corina Machado of Venezuela Is Awarded the Nobel Peace Prize

Congratulations to new Nobel Peace Prize laureate María Corina Machado for her courageous struggle to bring democracy to Venezuela.

Happy Banned Books Week! 🖤

First batch of queries out.

She’s finally out there in the world, slumbering with the other giants in slush piles, waiting to sink her teeth into the right reader.
#querying

Yeah! Mine leans more on that tenderly comedic voice common in Backman’s novels as opposed to a more dry wit like Rachel Harrison (for example) but I love all the fresh takes! Time for a werewolf renaissance 🤍

More timely comps are:
ONCE THERE WERE WOLVES by Charlotte McConaghy and DAMNATION SPRING by Ash Davidson 🤍

It’s if JANE EYRE stumbled into FX’s THE BEAR. A western gothic with a post-comedy voice perfect for fans of genre bending authors Charlotte McConaghy and Fredrik Backman.

I placed 🖤 so honored!

Tonight, my manuscript will be listed among other finalists at the
Pacific Northwest Writers Assocation conference awards ceremony (!!)

I couldn’t attend, but the fact that my title, name, and photo will be displayed in a ballroom full of writers and industry professionals is pretty surreal. 😅

a close up of a man 's face with his mouth open and a surprised look on his face . ALT: a close up of a man 's face with his mouth open and a surprised look on his face .

Query letter READY. One sentence pitch READY. Elevator pitch READY. Target audience READY. Bio READY. Comp titles READY.

97k word manuscript READY.

1 page, 2 page, 5 page and 7 page versions of my synopsis…eh 😅

Reading first two pages of my query-ready manuscript at my library’s open mic today.
WHO SIGNED ME UP FOR THIS?!

*checks notes*
Oh.

The same manuscript that I’ll be querying in two weeks! The manuscript itself is done, but I’m prepping and polishing all the materials for submission!

I love thinking about how everyone was someone’s first crush

To the Bluesky community and everyone who follows and fights.

Portrait of a mother who takes kids to historical sites more than parks.

Things I said to my kids today:
“Is that a ghost? Oh, no it’s just Judy Garland singing.”

“Watch out for the chamber pot.”

1 minute into Fox and the Hound and already crying…

How on earth did I manage to finish reading The Deep by Nick Cutter this week?

To quote The Dead Zone…

Lavar Burton holds up a book called “There has never been a time when the people who’ve banned books were the good guys.” There is a cat sitting in a chair reading a book with a cup of tea

Complete this sentence:
In 2025, final girls can be…

And it’s the best part — the doing of it. The creating, the building, the piecing together. 🖤

With #questpit over Bluesky is back to feeling like an empty school hall 😅

Themes:
⚡️Inevitability
⚖️Vengeful past/justice
💀Human hubris
🤐 Alienation
🕯️“Who are the real monsters?”
🦷Regret, “We always think we’re doing the right thing.”
🫁 toxic-masculinity/hierarchy/control/repression
👣Fractured relationship the natural world
🏔️Colonization
⚰️Grief

Valentine Velásquez is not for the faint of heart. 🕯️just a small excerpt!

#amquerying WHAT THE SOUND CARRIED is my 104k word historical horrormance/WHYdunnit 🕯️🖤

Perfect for fans of Isabel Cañas, Alma Katsu, Stephen Graham Jones, and Amy Harmon

The Hacienda x The Hateful Eight
#querying #pitch

Amaaazing 👏🏼

Love this!

Love this!

Aster would do anything to be the best writer the world has seen—even if it means spilling her blood to commune with the greats that came before her.

• power v obsession
• what’s real v what’s not
• LGBTQ & mental health rep
• dark academia vibes

#NA #H #Q #QuestPit

A Silence So Divine Avoiding damnation doesn’t always mean snuffing your Darkness, but stepping into it.

“May the path Fate pave be just.”

A SILENCE SO DIVINE
🪶 115k words | Gothic Fiction 🕯️

A mute girl, a deaf boy, and a callous executioner will do whatever it takes to protect one another—or they’ll die trying.

#QuestPit #Q #DF #PR #R #A #agentsguide #gothicfiction