Tempest Teapot ❌ 👑 🐸

#WIPSnips #WritingCommunity #amquerying #writesky #epicfantasy 💙📚 🪐📚

From Epic Fantasy WIP, Waking the Saints. First description in the sequel of an adversary to Queen Lualih.

For our readers who may not be aware, author @ziibiing.com has created a directory of charities and fundraisers providing rent support and essential services to Minnesota families impacted by ICE. We encourage you to check out Stand with Minnesota, and to donate if you are able.

In This Exchange of Names, I Say Please I am sure we were meant to be friends, but you see, you came too late. In kindergarten, I was the awkward child trying to hold the classmates’ hands at recess. I mouthed their words along with them…

Our final piece in the Jan 2026 Regret issue is Wen Wen Yang’s “In This Exchange of Names, I Say Please.” What a heartfelt way to close out a month of retrospection
#flashfiction #literary #writingcommunity
@muteddragon.bsky.social
www.flashfictiononline.com/article/in-t...

Stand With Minnesota Stand With Minnesota is a hub for supporting, learning, and taking action to support Minnesotans impacted by ICE and federal enforcement.

For those not in the Twin Cities, please check out www.standwithminnesota.com

For those in the Twin Cities, please keep standing with our neighbors anyway you can: marching in protest, organizing food drives, working as legal observers documenting the abuses, or eating at immigrant restaurants.

So many people are helping but the need and the fear is so great. I want to wake up some morning and not find hundreds of chat messages about ICE agents circling school bus stops.

Someday I may write a story with what I’ve experienced, but for now, I just want my neighbors to be safe.

While dropping off more 3D printed whistles, the coffeeshop staff wouldn’t allow me to leave until I had accepted a free hot beverage before returning to patrolling the area in single-digit weather.

I brought a cowbell and rubber chicken to a peaceful noise demonstration at a hotel where ICE agents were staying. We saw a Fuck Ice sign in the window two stories above an Ice agent flipping us off.

I’ve called in an unmarked ICE agent parked illegally with a broken taillight creeping on the school bus stops and gleefully learned that the local PD had pulled them over.

I’ve stood watch outside a mosque in subzero weather, greeting my neighbors for Friday prayers, and receiving hugs, tea, sambusas, jalepino pizza and other hospitality that could not be refused.

I tried to relax at a coffeeshop with a friend but when I thought I heard whistles, I couldn’t sit still until I went outside to check if it was a raid - it was just the coffee steamer squeaking. I can’t stop scanning cars for suspicious details, like out-of-state plates or tinted windows.

I’ve listened to a grade school teacher explain why she left her class with a sub, so she could help a student whose father had been kidnapped.

I’ve stared down agents who pulled up next to us and joked if we had any questions. When we asked where they were going next, they pretended not to be able to hear us and drove off.

I’ve followed a platoon of thirty plus stolen valor commandos, decked out in full tactical gear with guns, tasers, and pepper spray, stomping past a public library and up to the traffic court to detain only two men. One of the ICE cowards shoved me from behind while saying “stop touching me.”

Dear friends,
I haven’t been posting as much lately about writing because of so many things in my home state of Minnesota. When they say write what you know, I will now have a lived experience for resistance under occupation. So many stories of heartbreak, but also bad-ass bravery and sharp wit.

Hey #writers, who'd be up for doing a workshop to raise some funds for Minnesota charities? @alexpenname.bsky.social and I are putting something together.

Repost and spread the word, please!

#WIPSnips #amquerying #writesky #epicfantasy 💙📚 🪐📚

From my Epic Fantasy novel Demon’s Bargain. Released on bond, Despard considers whether to trust his newfound ally.

Graphic shows silhouette of couple filled with courtyard, leather armor, and a structure consumed by flames. Six of Crows X Witch King Demon's Bargain A bastard gentrywoman, Kahyla struggles to protect her siblings against assassins, demon-eaten mages, and political rivals intent on the throne. She faces a demon's bargain: fight with soul-destroying magic or lose her family, her beloved, and her life. 120k Epic Fantasy Novel. Tropes list: Deliberate values dissonance Feminist within patriarchy Heel-face turn Slow burn Forbidden love Powers via Possession Coming of Age Quiet girl finds her voice Target markets: adult fantasy for darker themes, detailed world-building, and a blend of magic and political intrigue. YA for coming-of-age story and slow burn romance, while skewing older for the consequences of difficult life choices. #F #R #YA #A #Q Body count 11, proposals 4, weddings 2

Kahyla faces a DEMON’S BARGAIN where all the options are bad: fight with soul-destroying magic or lose her family, her beloved, and her life.

Opening line:
Blood and ash, which way through the rocks?
Ending lines:
“And if you find more demons?”
“Then I fight,” she said.
#QuestPit #F #R #YA #A #Q

Dark, moody fantasy moodboard with imagery suggesting magic, forged weapons, and emotional power, created for an adult fantasy novel pitch.

DAWN OF THE CICADA
adult fantasy, 105,000 words
Disney-style enchantment with folklore teeth.

Her enemies wield steel; Lisara wields their darkest emotions, animating them into living weapons that could consume her as easily as her foes.

#questpit #F #Q #RF

Graphic shows silhouette of couple filled with courtyard, leather armor, and a structure consumed by flames. Six of Crows X Witch King Demon's Bargain A bastard gentrywoman, Kahyla struggles to protect her siblings against assassins, demon-eaten mages, and political rivals intent on the throne. She faces a demon's bargain: fight with soul-destroying magic or lose her family, her beloved, and her life. 120k Epic Fantasy Novel. Tropes list: Deliberate values dissonance Feminist within patriarchy Heel-face turn Slow burn Forbidden love Powers via Possession Coming of Age Quiet girl finds her voice Target markets: adult fantasy for darker themes, detailed world-building, and a blend of magic and political intrigue. YA for coming-of-age story and slow burn romance, while skewing older for the consequences of difficult life choices. #F #R #YA #A #Q Body count 11, proposals 4, weddings 2

Kahyla faces a DEMON’S BARGAIN: fight with soul-destroying magic or lose her family, her beloved, and her life. The demons are real but the saints require her body as a vessel.
⛓️Feminist
🦶 Heel-face turn
❤️ Slow burn
🕴️Powers via Possession
🗣️Quiet girl finds her voice
#questpit #Q #F #R #YA #A

Queen of Swords Press Titles Checkout out this list on Bookshop

#Booksky Like print books? Us too!
You can get ours direct from us or via our Bookshop storefront or at cool indie bookstores, including DreamHaven Books (in person only for now), Magers & Quinn, @boneshakerbooks.bsky.social, @subtextbookstore.bsky.social and beyond! bookshop.org/lists/queen-...

Graphic shows silhouette of couple filled with courtyard, leather armor, and a structure consumed by flames. Six of Crows X Witch King Demon's Bargain A bastard gentrywoman, Kahyla struggles to protect her siblings against assassins, demon-eaten mages, and political rivals intent on the throne. She faces a demon's bargain: fight with soul-destroying magic or lose her family, her beloved, and her life. 120k Epic Fantasy Novel. Tropes list: Deliberate values dissonance Feminist within patriarchy Heel-face turn Slow burn Forbidden love Powers via Possession Coming of Age Quiet girl finds her voice Target markets: adult fantasy for darker themes, detailed world-building, and a blend of magic and political intrigue. YA for coming-of-age story and slow burn romance, while skewing older for the consequences of difficult life choices. #F #R #YA #A #Q Body count 11, proposals 4, weddings 2

A bastard gentrywoman, Kahyla protects her siblings against assassins, demon-eaten mages, and rivals intent on the throne. She faces a DEMON’S BARGAIN where all the options are bad: fight with soul-destroying magic or lose her family, her beloved, and her life.

#QuestPit #F #R #YA #A #Q

#WIPSnips #WritingCommunity #amquerying #writesky #epicfantasy 💙📚 🪐📚

From Epic Fantasy Waking the Saints. Zorrik has hunted down mages before they can open a path to demons. Now he needs the help of a secret mage called the Raven to awaken a saint before an army of demons arrives.

Let's show up and support local business, this and every Saturday. This list is not even close to exhaustive so go out and find those in your area that are sharing their culture in Minnesota.

Southwest Metro:
Black Sea Deli - two locations
Sambusa Halal

Get your whistles, find your neighbors, follow the out-of-state plated cars and shun them out of town.

#WIPSnips #amquerying #writesky #epicfantasy 💙📚 🪐📚

From my Epic Fantasy novel Demon’s Bargain. Ambushed in an alley, the soldiers protecting the Tamrin children are outnumbered. Barely trained, Kahyla chooses to stand up and fight back.

#WIPSnips #WritingCommunity #amquerying #writesky #epicfantasy 💙📚 🪐📚

From Epic Fantasy WIP, Waking the Saints. ComSec when the mage-hunter wants to meet with a mage.

#WIPSnips #amquerying #writesky #epicfantasy 💙📚 🪐📚

From my Epic Fantasy novel Demon’s Bargain. Quiet girl finds her voice.

How much further do they ride vs how much further does he keep following her? He follows her into a country that hates him, into prison, into battle. All without knowing she loves him back.

Tattoo = ink on hands

#WIPSnips #amquerying #writesky #epicfantasy 💙📚 🪐📚

From my Epic Fantasy novel Demon’s Bargain. I may have shared this one before, but I like this introspection as he realizes he’s fallen hard for Kahyla.