B. Engstrand

The Shapes We Take In The Fire: An Agent's Guide

A bisexual designer takes a new job working on a high-profile ad campaign with a debt-ridden Latina writer, and chooses to risk his hard-won sobriety and mental health for her love, one he never thought he could deserve—especially after he destroyed his last relationship.

For fans of how to end a love story, seven days in june, atmosphere and tomorrow, tomorrow and tomorrow

Excerpt: And for the first time in months, he dreamed in color again. The dreams weren’t like before. They weren’t chaotic fever-swamps of guilt and fire, of parties and bodies blurring into chaos. He didn't suffer through another nightmare, masquerading as a memory. The images were gentle, at last. Peaceful. He dreamed of watercolors dripping onto the canvas, drawing on the shape of her hands resting on a notepad. Of an inward current taking shape. Of warmth without fire. THEMES Queer identity 
& reinvention The cost of secrets and self-erasure Recovery as a way of living The impact of trauma on intimacy Class divides 
and power

An Agent's Guide to: THE SHAPES WE TAKE IN THE FIRE!

✌️dual pov/dual timeline
🌶️ open door slow burn
🎶 moody and lyrical
🫂 touch starved
🏳️‍🌈LGBTQIA protagonists
✊🏽BIPOC & minority voices

#Cupit #CR #POC #LGBT #MHR

Top pics: A WW2 nurse in a grey dress, medical arm band, white apron & headscarf looking away at a building with the title in curly grey font Healing Silver, and a woman & soldier in the middle of war hiding each other with a quote: “Behind every strong soldier, there is an even stronger woman who stands behind him, supports him, & loves him with all her heart." Middle pics: A picture of the hospital tent from MASH with a quote: “Love is like war; easy to begin but very hard to stop.” H.L. Mencken, & A picture of Nurse Margaret and Radar when he was sick in MASH, with a quote: “Love and war always go together. They are the peaks of human emotion! Evil and good, beauty & ugliness.” - Rick Riordan Bottom pics: A picture of an attacked Diagon Alley in HP with a quote: “His kiss was a poison that my body craved. I was an addict, diving headfirst into the drug I knew would destroy me.” - J.M. Leigh, and a picture of witches doing a spell, quote "All is fair in love & war." Edward Smedley

Top pics: a girl standing in an airport looking at the destination board with the title: Our Bridge of Stars & a man with his feet on his suitcase sitting in an airport watching a plane take off with a quote, “One day the plane ticket will be one way.” 2nd row pics: 2 Swedish flags flying in the wind with a quote, “Distance means so little, when someone means so much.” – Tom McNeal & 9 American flags flying with the Statie of Liberty in the background. 3rd row pics: of a man typing on a laptop & a couple uniting in an airport and the girl lifted off the ground with a quote, “I fell in love with his soul before I could even touch his skin. If that isn’t true love, then please tell me what is.” Bottom pics: a girl hold a coffee and texting with a quote, ““I hate days like this: Where I can literally feel every single mile between me and him.” & a couple holding hands "How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard." - A.A. Milne, Winnie the Pooh

A light yellow Background. Top left pic is a garden leading up to a castle. Top right pic is hot pic flowers, maybe roses growing in a garden. Middle left pic is a king in a suit facing away. In the middle is the title in hot pink fancy font Beauty of the Gardens. Middle right pic is a bride in a long flowy wedding dress standing in a stone archway with climbing ivy. Bottom left pic is a girl in a white and pink flower dress from above reading a book with a white sheet on the grass, a basket of flowers, a straw round hat, and a pie. Bottom right is another garden with an extravagant cathedral in the background.

Top left pic is an old art piece of a steamboat traveling down the Missouri River by the old town of Hermann. Top right pic is an art piece of Hermann not long after it began. The title is there A Home in Hermann. 2nd row left pic is of a couple kissing in the town of Hermann in the winter, the pic is made to look older. 2nd row right pic is a pic from the movie A Christmas Vintage which was set in Hermann, it is the main characters kissing in a gazebo in front of a Christmas tree. 3rd row left pic is of people enjoying Oktoberfest in Hermann (it is known as little Germany in Missouri). 3rd row right pic is of the gates of the Hermannhof Inn decorated with two gold deer on the columns and wreaths on the gates. Bottom left pic is a picture of Hermann, Missouri today during the winter. There is a quote on it “No matter how far we may roam, there will always be a place to call home.” Bottom right pic is a picture of Hermann, Missouri today during the spring.

Here is my list for #Cupit

1. Healing Silver #W #A #RF

2. Our Bridge of Stars #W #A #CR

3. Beauty in the Gardens #W #NA #RR

4. A Home in Hermann #W #A #HR #CR

Thank you!!

Oh this is gorgeous!! 🤩

A gothic style original painting of a vampire dressed in black holding a man dressed in white linen in a stone corridor, surrounded by candle light and moonflowers.

A pitch card that reads benevolent vampire Ishmael’s carefully balanced life is shattered when Edric, the tutor of his adopted nine-year-old spirit medium son, awakens a love he thought lost centuries ago.

A tropes and themes page that reads: DUAL POV, love after grief, queer love and joy, soft gothic, sentient manor, soft fatherhood, ghosts, awkward vampire and sunshine human, Victorian era, queer normative setting, opera house and music, yearning soulmates, and happily ever after

A snippet page that reads in every world, in every time, I would choose you. You are the song of the stars, and the whisper among the trees. It has been you. It has always been you.

A Vampire’s Lament 🖤🦇🥀
Book One in the Time and Time Again series. Benevolent vampire Ishmael’s carefully balanced life is disrupted when Edric awakens a love he thought lost centuries ago.
#Cupit #PR #GR #LGBT #writingcommunity #writerscommunity #queerwriters

photo montage: baseball catcher; teens kissing; boy and girl on prom night; cupcakes; baseball; couple running before sunset We are not together.

BETTER THAN THE MOVIES X PLAYING FOR KEEPS
After her kiss-cam accident with The Jerk became viral, 17yo Jess thought she’d reached rock bottom. But to make things worse, she sets up a fake-dating scheme with him. No way she’ll get lower than that and catch feelings, right?
RIGHT?
#RC #YA #Cupit

Photo collage: A boy reading comics, pumpkin latte, boy with a mask, two teens hugging before sunset, Christmas market, basketball I’m invisible

17yo comic-nerd Zach is a liar. That’s his superpower. So when his best friends break up, shattering the trio, he dresses up as a superhero to get things back to the way they were. But he never expected Stella would ask him to help unmask the guy she’s falling for.
Being a hero sucks.
#RC #YA #Cupit

Wait is that an agent like for #cupit already?!? 🤩😱

These comps?! ❤️‍🔥

Collage-style promotional graphic for the novel Babel on Callisto. Four illustrated polaroid images show two men, Jack (blond) and Elias (dark-haired with glasses), in different scenes: wearing space suits, working together in a lab, leaning close in a quiet moment, and kissing. The background is pink and textured with scientific sketches and handwritten notes. A torn paper excerpt of prose is centered. Text on the images reads “Babel on Callisto,” “Now Querying,” “88K Sci-Fi Horromance,” and “@saraduranauthor.”

Now querying!

• • •

ANNIHILATION x BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN

✨two exiled men (and their secrets)
✨one lunar prison (and its horrors)
✨a cosmic entity that wants them dead
💖the love they’ll lose if they don’t survive

#SF #H #R #LGBT #AmQuerying #CuPit

A muted background with a castle and ravens. The words are in white with purple outline.

#CuPit #A #HR #WIP
CLAN OF THE RAVEN, Book One of the Donan Raven series
To save his crumbling clan, brooding Highland heir Adam Ravenworth must guard a shipwrecked Irish beauty—whose dangerous secrets could ruin them both. But her touch awakens the man beneath ‘The Raven.’

#CuPit #Q #A #Cozy #FR

Desperate to save her beloved town from an economic freeze, an unemployed witch with a history of robbing criminals risks her “good witch” status by joining forces with a debut Overlord to stage the heist of a lifetime: a coup

Project Sugar and Spice moodboard Top row: Black business woman with colorful bandana around her hair scribbling notes down on a notepad; pistachio cupcake decorated with buttercream and a rose made of pink buttercream frosting; black business man in white shirt and gray jacket picking up a pencil and jotting down notes Middle row: Interior design of a cafe bar; "they're both stubborn and it's complicated" quote; restaurant cafe interior with light coming into the establishment Bottom row: Zeppole Italian ricotta donuts sprinkled with powdered sugar displayed in a white bowl; piece of carrot cake with buttercream frosting and walnuts on top; homemade blueberry lavender meringue tartlets on a white plate

🧁 She's a jaded pastry chef
🍰 He's a charismatic baker
❤️‍🔥 When their rivalry reaches an all-time high & sweet lies turn to bitter truths, will they achieve their desires unscathed or will all they've worked for burst into flames?

Coming soon to a bookstore near you 👀

#Cupit #CR #POC #BIR #NA #A #W

A moodboard of a siren and knight. There is a face with a blue butterfly, a red headed siren, sunflowers and sea shells, and a hand with a butterfly.

The Siren’s Knight 💙🦋🌊🗡️

Esther, a lonely knight who is head of her guard, has her world turned upside down by Adele, a playful siren who wants nothing more than to see beyond the seas.
#Cupit #FR #A #LGBT #sapphicromance #💜🌈 #wlwbooks

The extras 🥰

Haunted by a cruel god and the nightmares of her past, Isla sacrifices her life to save her friends from a plague, all while ensnared into more deals to sustain the god’s vitality.

🩸Dracula, but immoral gods
🫀past trauma via body horror
🩶You came, you called

#CuPit #Q #A #horroromance

So cute 🤣❤️

NEW ART!!

It is done and I love themmmm 😭

#books #fantasyromance #procreateapp #bookart #bookrecs

SCREAMING at this Maaya+Ares sketch!! I can’t ever keep art a secret, I swear. Thinking of using it for something bookishly special✨👀

Also pray I won’t ruin it when I add color 💀

#procreate #bookart #characterart #booksky #author

(posting a day late here… I keep forgetting bsky exists😅)

My synopsis is done!!!

Which means this’ll be hitting a few agent inboxes this evening 👀

HAZELTHORN X THE SPIRIT BARES ITS TEETH
Journals of a Familiar
Hawthorne has never left the cathedral. Raised in silence and prepared for a future he doesn't understand, everything changes when he meets Violet, a witch with wild dreams of escape.
#questpit #W #YA #H #LGBT

An Agent's guide to: THE SHAPES WE TAKE IN THE FIRE!

✌️dual pov/dual timeline
🌶️ open door slow burn
🎶 moody and lyrical
❤️ he falls first
🫂 touch starved
LGBTQ friendly
BIPOC & minority voices

#questpit #Q #A #R #U

Love your excerpt! 😍

MEALS ON WHEELS

When your boss already owns your soul, its hard to argue for better work conditions.

🔪 unhinged protagonist
🌲 PNW vibes
👻 horror with giggles
🫦 offbeat romance

Urban fantasy. Seattle backdrop. Middle aged leads.

Magic. Murder. Spice. Coffee.

#QUESTPIT #W #A #F #RF #PR #H

#Questpit !!!
In final edits of NO DEVIL... So excited to start querying in FEB!
#W #A #H #MY #DR

LOVE this concept!! And those comps 👀 good luck querying this month!!

😭🫶🏼 So much time put into that first paragraph 🤣

Ohhh great concept!! 😍

BESIDE YOU

No matter how hard you try, some things are already too far gone.

🩸 murder and monsters
🍁 new england vibes
🖤 dark romance
🫠 overworked protagonist

Dark Fantasy. Neo-gothic vibes. New England setting.

#questpit #w #h #df #dr #rf