catherine hellens 🪷

happy ✨ cover reveal day ✨ to THE IRON GARDEN SUTRA!

The first time I finished my readthrough, I loved it so much that I had to call a friend at 2am and cry about it. I can’t wait for you all to be crying too.

Read an excerpt below! ⬇️

I don’t want to “streamline” my writing. I don’t want to “increase my output.” I don’t want to “write a novel with one click.” I want to write stuff only I can write. I want to read and write novels with soul and heart and a unique voice. Fuck AI. Long live real writers.

Seren Kilig is represented by Shannon Lechon at Azantian Literary Agency. Seren is depicted by a drawing from littlestpersimmon on Bluesky, which is of Seren’s character, Rivers. Rivers is a brown-skinned androgynous Filipino wearing a black cloak with cloth bandages around their neck. The background of the image is a grainy vintage picture of a university library.

APPARATUS, an adult Historical Fantasy by Seren Kilig. The background is a grainy 2x4 moodboard centered around 1920s imagery. This imagery includes a flapper girl in a sparkly red dress, text that says “body & soul”, a dagger hidden in a book, a tube of lipstick overtop handwritten letters, red wine pouring into a glass, a deck of tarot cards, text that says “coffee and cigarettes”, and a red die with a miniature crown.

Ultimately, the Sword picks the Scribe — but I think @shannonlechon.bsky.social and I work better as partners, wouldn’t you say?

After the most stressful month of my life, I thought I'd want rest, but no. We have so many more queer, cutting, and unflinchingly Filipino stories to talk about ~ 🪶

SO EXCITED ABOUT THIS YES!!!

two chapters left to write in this first draft of the weird tree book. vibrating out of my skin about it.

i have four chapters left to write in this draft of weird trees and almost feel anxious suddenly

Movie you’ve watched more than six times using gifs.

(“Hard mode” no Star Wars, Star Trek, or LOTR)

reference: Alphonse Mucha girl with long dark hair and blue dress holding a lyre in her hands. Everything is done in shades of blue

Commission for @lirille.bsky.social 💎🤍

65,000 words on the weird tree book, and had the first made-me-cry moment (i did not expect it to happen now, if it was ever going to with this book). maybe 30k more before the end?

🔫

Bologna Children's Book Fair 2025: Reaching Boy Readers Where They Are Citing research on everything from academic performance to mental health, dropout statistics, and incarceration rates, panelists of “Where the Boys Are: The Right Books Can Make Them Heroes” discussed...

“The data’s clear that #boys are struggling and looking for new stories—any story, really—to help them understand their masculinity. If publishers continue to dismiss this half of the market as ‘non-readers,’ others will fill that void to everyone’s peril.”

www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/...

Commissioned art of Lady Inquisitor from Dragon Age 3. Elven woman lays on the glowing moon and cuddls it. She has a long curly white hair with shaved side, face tattoo and wears pink dress and Cullen’s coat

Commission of Lady Inquisitor for @/vic_toodles on X 🌕

A neon purple, pink, and blue column of light has the cover of Psychopomp on it with checkered yellow and green squares behind it. The cover of Psychopomp, art by Katerina Belikova, shows a woman named Young in a spacesuit/miner's suit. The book cover text reads: author of Liar, Dreamer, Thief Maria Dong "Science Fiction at its best" - Yume Kitasei, author of The Deep Sky and The Stardust Grail. PSYCHOPOMP. The quote reads, "A visceral psychological foray. Psychopomp is a visceral psychological foray...there's no better author than Maria Dong to both bring us into the labyrinth of the human mind and bring us back out again."

PSYCHOPOMP blurb 8 comes to us from Elaine U Cho, author of Ocean's Godori (and fun fact, also my agent sibling!)

Donate to Help Soumi survive after she lost her life savings to a scam, organised by Keir Alekseii Roopnarine Hey all, My name is Keir and I am a friend of Soumi's. … Keir Alekseii Roopnarine needs your support for Help Soumi survive after she lost her life savings to a scam

My friend @soumiroy1.bsky.social is a brilliant writer and scientist who is in a terrible position right now. Please help in any way you can, even if it's just sharing or boosting ❤️

gofund.me/74bc7dde

Catherine Hellens sci-fi fantasy author queer, capricorn, she/her rep: shannon lechon

psst psst, my author web presence is up on tumblr now—it’s my goofy website of choice, so feel free to keep up with me more actively there!

catherinehellens.tumblr.com

Talking about goals goals goals goals and none of you mention the real goals: Antoine and Evka

I literally could have picked any version of him too but had to go with the high res 😔 I love one (1) crossbow wielding serial author dwarf

Yeah this has been one of the greatest crimes against me in my entire life

I have a BRAND

MASSIVE shout out to Asra Arcana Game as well 💜🔮🐍

Four Video Game Men You Find Attractive💜

The premise for this on goodreads is so dope oh my god, sign me up for this instantly

The Iron Garden Sutra is coming out from Erewhon Books and Kensington Publishing in February 2026. The image depicts an illustrated, golden, bunch of mushrooms with a faint blue glow spreading upwards. Blue spores can be seen floating towards the title.

i have a book coming out (next year)! it is about horrors. what a ✨coincidence✨.

it's also about faith, and mushrooms, and connection.

it would mean the world to me if you added it to your TBRs!

100 adds and i shall do a sneak peek 👀

www.goodreads.com/book/show/22...

✨💎COVER REVEAL💎✨

LOCAL HEAVENS—a queer dystopian love story + cyberpunk Gatsby reimagining. on capitalism, the American Nightmare & radical hope. out Oct 14th.

design: Charlotte Strick
art: @madebykaran

✨ Pre order now (& save your receipts!)

🧵details below

backrooms x silent sea
looking for her missing girlfriend, a woman discovers a familiar door on a deserted spaceship. the rooms within almost feel like home. but home has a soul—this place does not.
🚪themes of home
🪽leaving a toxic r/s
👁️thin line btwn memories and real life

if the recent attacks on science are getting you down, there's no better time to check out the agent's guide to my cathartic academic revenge tale. SEE IN ME THE WOLF pulls no punches, so gird yourself if you've ever spent time in academia... #agentsguide #agentguide #amquerying #writingcommunity 📚💙

GODCORE INDEED

I am eating this book still

#emmrook #datv #emmrichvolkarin #rook