Sarah Ressler

@mresslerdraws.bsky.social and I have a full dummy ready to submit to an agent we are excited about. This agent did an edit of another manuscript and enjoyed it. That project doesn’t have artwork yet

Do I query both stories, only the dummy, or wait for the art on the second project and submit both?

Getting ready for #fallwritingfrenzy!

Woot, woot! 🎃
The #FallWritingFrenzy #kidlit competition rules and images are up! Check them out here:
lydialukidis.wordpress.com/fallwritingf...
#WritingCommunity #amwriting #amreading #competition #fall #writing #stories @kaitlynleann17.bsky.social

My 5th grader’s writing assignment.

Me too, buddy 🤣

For consideration as an addition to the Oxford Dictionary, presented by my four-year-old daughter:

Tripily: adv, characterized by excessive tripping or stumbling.

Example: “How did your hike go this morning?”

“Tripily!”

Writing in beautiful places

First page of Found Harbour. It reads: Gran yelled out from the porch: “George, George, come quick! The devil just rode past the house on a bicycle.” The devil? Mother had stepped out back to feel if the tablecloth on the line was dry. I left the potato I was peeling in the bowl, hopped up and trotted out toward the front of the house. The devil, it turned out, looked like a thin man in a long brown jacket, its bottom edge hanging down over the top of his bike’s rear tire so it flicked up like a horse’s tail when it touched, trailing mud up his back. The devil was a tall man, his knees stumping up past the handlebars, making it so he had to keep a sort of bow-armed hold on the handles to avoid them, which on the snowy path that went by Gran’s house and that eventually passed our house too and led to the wharf, had his front tires wobbling like the nose of a dog snuffling in the grass. I watched him fighting to keep the bike steady, waiting for him to topple, until he grew smaller down over the hill and disappeared beyond some bushes. I went back into the kitchen just as my mother was flapping Gran’s tablecloth over the kitchen table. It whooshed the hair back over my forehead. “Who was it, Danny?” she asked, smoothing out the wrinkles. “I don’t know,” I said, picking up the small bowl of last fall’s potatoes Father had dug from the corners of the yard that Mother had placed on the chair. “He had a bike? Probably Quentin Porter, then,” she said when I nodded. “Just moved back.” “It was one of the strangers,” Gran asserted, shuffling in through the door. She bent low to the cupboard and took out two bread pans, and eventually found the tin of flour where it had always sat next to the stove. “Who in town got babies now? Kendall Grimes? Seems she’s due again. You tell her not to leave none of the little ones by a window this evening, else come morning she’ll have more problems than just not knowing who the fathers are. She won’t know who her little baby is either.”

Set in a fictional Newfoundland outport in the 1950s, Found Harbour is a light literary novel which uses folklore and fantasy elements to explore how nostalgia for the past is a yearning for a sanitized fantasy world that never truly existed.

#BluePit 📖 #Q #A #HS #F #Canada

An agents guide to catch you in the trees yay thriller romance approximately 90k words

It’s always the boyfriend… right? Lennie Torres’s senior year captaining the XC team turns deadly when her ex bff goes missing and she ends up a suspect. Her only way out? Team up with nemesis golden boy Lysander Hayes, the boyfriend of the missing girl and the last person to see her alive. But Lysander not the only one keeping secrets and if both Lennie and Lysander want to make it through xc season, they’re going to have to figure out how to trust each other or someone’s going to end up dead.

Comp titles: nothing more to tell, no place left to hide, they’ll never catch us Unconventional comps: the marauders era cruel summer 2022 pretty little liars 2010 Tropes/vibes: rivals to lovers, running culture, private school, chaotic academia, dual timeline, dual pov, ride or die friendships

Hayes takes my hand, wrapping his fingers firmly around mines “Deal.” His eyes glint an odd silver in the chrome and linoleum hallway and I think of people making deals with devils at crossroads. I wonder if they get the same storm of nerves I have swirling in my blood right now. I don’t trust Hayes. But I need him. “Deal.”

NOTHING MORE TO TELL X AGGGTM

Lennie doesn’t know what happened the night her ex-bff went missing but she does know one thing: it’s always the boyfriend.

#BluePit #Q #YA #M #agentguide

Thank you!

Thank you!

Louie thought being a pirate would be more exciting, but it’s mostly boredom until one day he discovers the real treasure: music! Now he’s teaching his salty crew to rock, but the grumpy captain isn’t having it…or is he? BAND OF PIRATES is a swashbuckling tale of tunes and teamwork
#bluepit📖
#PB
#Q

An unfortunate misunderstanding between author and illustrator turns a spooky ghost story into a nonsensical goat story. Will they ever be able to get on the same page? For a hilarious meta mashup, WELCOME TO GHOSTVILLE…or is it Goatsville?
#Bluepit📖
#PB
#Q

The knight usually saves the princess, but when he falls out of the story through A RIP IN THE PAGE, the Narrator must scramble to get to The End. He makes the best of a bad situation using gelato, a Pegasus named Cupcake-McSparkletail, and a princess who doesn't need a knight #bluepit📖 #Q #PB

😆 yes! I’m pretty proud of this one. It was so much fun to write!

A woman in a white empire-waisted gown stares into the distance. A gold clock is superimposed over her. The text over the image reads, "The Genesis Clock."

Pitch for The Genesis Clock: Imbued with time magic, chronoglass could alter the Napoleonic Wars. For cryptographer Georgiana Adams, it gives her the chance to erase the moment that soiled her character and forced her betrothed to leave her. For Joshua Durand, the chronoglass would undo the mistake that crippled him in the Battle of Trafalgar and cost him his job as a British spy. When they catch each other stealing chronoglass, they make a deal: they won't turn the other in as long as they work together and ration the precious magic. The deal should be easy--until they fall in love.

Comparable titles for The Genesis Clock: - The Austenian writing style of Pride and Prejudice - The time-traveling spies of This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone - The feminist social commentary of Queen Bee by Amalie Howard - The Regency magic of A Fragile Enchantment by Allison Saft

A snippet from The Genesis Clock: "The opportunity to control time, to hold raw power even for a moment, lured Joshua in. His fingers closed around the chronoglass. Frigid cold shot through his bones, so cold he wanted to drop the glass, so cold his knee almost collapsed, but then it warmed to his skin. He looked around the room for a sign that something had changed. Everything was the same. The map, the steaming tea, Mr. Brooke standing beside the ticking clock. Brooke smiled and opened his mouth, but something about the movement of his lips was odd. He spoke, speech gargled. What in heaven's name ...? Joshua's gaze sharpened. Steam curled back into hot liquid. The second hand moved backward one, two, ten seconds. He reached for his gloves, and they rose on their own to meet his fingers, skin and velvet meshing. His body reacted before his mind did. Muscles unclenched, and velvet and chronoglass crumpled to the desk. Joshua sucked in a breath. The stories were true."

PRIDE & PREJUDICE x TENET

A socialite-turned-cryptographer must time travel to reverse her ruined reputation and get her fiancé back—but when she meets a handsome time traveler, she wonders if finding love in the past is worth the risk.

#BluePit📖 #Q #YA #F #DIS #ND #agentsguide #amquerying

Cooper dreams of being brave. In fact, he refers to himself as Cooper The Super Dog! But when everything scares you, what will it take to find your courage?

#bluepit📖 #PB #Bravery #Q #silly

a cartoon drawing of a person cutting a chocolate cake with a knife ALT: a cartoon drawing of a person cutting a chocolate cake with a knife

“The Great British Bake Off” x “The Salt Princess”

Royals aren’t supposed to bake, but Princess Amira can’t help but sneak into the kitchen. When a grumpy king comes to visit, will Amira’s treats win him over? Or will she barred from baking forever? #bluepit #picturebook #PB

#BluePit📖, #Q #PB Working title: Dino-Nauts (Dark Humor, STEM 350 words)

How Dinosaurs Went Extinct: A Safety Guide by Dyckman meets The Rock From the Sky by Klassen

🦕🦖🌍☄️🚀🎉🛰️

1940 black and white photograph of "Terrible Trudy," the tapir escape artist from the San Diego Zoo

“THERE’S A RHINOCEROS IN THE SEWER!”
After busting out of her confines at the San Diego Zoo, a tenacious tapir finds herself in a new sort of wild—1940s suburbia.
Tapir Escape! The True Story of “Terrible Trudy” is a #nf #pb for fans of Mr. Tiger Goes Wild #bluepit #bluepit📖

In this zany, groovy 😎 comedy find out why cats do not wear pants, especially at the disco! #pb #humor #bluepit #q #children's

#bluepit📖
When Harper’s worries threaten to consume her, she seeks solace in the branches of her tree, Esperanza, where she gathers strength to face the big problems in life that have no solutions.

A lyrical story about mental health that focuses on finding peace in nature.
#PB #Q

1940, San Diego Zoo. When Trudy, the new tapir, breaks loose, the only female zoo director in the world must not only save Trudy from angry suburbanites, but she must also figure out how to tempt the tapir to stay put. TAPIR ESCAPE! is a #nf #pb based on a true story #bluepit #bluepit📖

Thank you!!

a black and white drawing of a cat 's face with its eyes closed and its mouth open . Alt: a black and white drawing of a cat 's face with its eyes closed and its mouth open .

‪EDDIE MUNSTER x OLSEN TWINS x VEGGIE TALES

These humans have no idea… I’m a WERE-PUP!

#BluePit #PB #HA #Q #BluePit 📖 #BeYourSelf

Who hasn’t taken a bad school picture? For Sophia that’s the only kind she really knows. In BEST PICTURE DAY EVER Sophia is on a mission, and this picture will be different. In the end, Sophia ends up redefining what a “ bad” picture really is! #BluePit #BluePit📖 #PB #Q

Jazz prodigy Clifford Brown’s life was one of both sheer perseverance and artistry. Brownie took on challenges and misfortunes as well as lit up the jazz world like none other. His tenacity and his trumpet will always be with us.
#BluePit #BluePit📖 #PB #NF #W

All Lacey wants to do is make her friends feel special with a secret valentine…but when AJ sees her drop one, and someone else recognizes her handwriting…will she be able to pull it off?

#bluepit📖 #PB #Q #sweet-hearted

FABLEHAVEN x JANITORS
12yo Terrance just wanted to hike Angels Landing—not get chased by monsters only he can see. When a storm traps Zion and magic floods the canyon, 18yo Ranger Samantha recruits him into the Jr Ranger Program—a front for Beholders who protect the Unseen world.
#Bluepit📖 #MG #F #W

The knight usually saves the princess, but when he falls out of the story through A RIP IN THE PAGE, the Narrator must scramble to get to The End. He makes the best of a bad situation using gelato, a Pegasus named Cupcake-McSparkletail, and a princess who doesn't need a knight #bluepit📖 #Q #PB

An unfortunate misunderstanding between author and illustrator turns a spooky ghost story into a nonsensical goat story. Will they ever be able to get on the same page? For a hilarious meta mashup, WELCOME TO GHOSTVILLE…or is it Goatsville?
#Bluepit📖
#PB
#Q