Shen Tao
@dragons.bsky.social
500 followers 170 following 85 posts
Canadian writer based in Seattle, WA The Poet Empress Jan '26 🌸 Tor Bramble (US) | Gollancz (UK) | preorders available! https://linktr.ee/ThePoetEmpress
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dragons.bsky.social
So excited to share the beautiful cover of my debut fantasy, #ThePoetEmpress, which I am absolutely floored by! 🥰 It's comes out from Bramble 01.20.26 next year!

(Credits to artist Kelly Chong & designer Esther S. Kim!)

bit.ly/ThePoetEmpress
The cover of Bramble's edition of The Poet Empress by Shen Tao
dragons.bsky.social
The comps! The magic! The social commentary! ❤️
ash-howell.com
A DARKER SHADE OF MAGIC x HOUSE M.D.

Days before graduation, blood-magic medical student Nettle accidentally girlbosses herself into the middle of a murderous conspiracy. Her best friend has been hiding his radical political activism. And worst of all, she’s *really* broke.

#DVpit #F #A #LGBTQ
Reposted by Shen Tao
n-arfaei.bsky.social
A literary NeuroScifi that dives into memory, consciousness and control.

#DVpit #SF #LF #A #IMM #OWN
n-arfaei.bsky.social
An anti-technology cult. Missing memories. A corporate offer she can’t refuse.

A neuroscientist tries to untangle her friend’s murder while leading a team that “quenches” emergent sentience in supercomputers.

Severance X A Memory Called Empire X Ishiguro

#DVpit #SF #LF #A #IMM #OWN 💙📚🪐
Reposted by Shen Tao
cassandrafarrin.com
Straith has a disarmingly charming narrative voice that takes you somewhere unexpected every time. 💙
straith.ca
GREY GARDENS in space:

A fledgling documentarian gets overly entangled with two deposed Imperials in exile on a once-opulent space station.

He must choose: launch his career as a truth-teller, or protect these people from the judgment of a hostile audience.

#DVpit #A #SF #LGBT #TV #novella
Reposted by Shen Tao
cassandrafarrin.com
I had the privilege of reading excerpts of this novel as part of the Clarion Novel Workshop. Uniquely voiced and so vibrant! Agent friends, I hope you’ll check this one out!
dalitdiva.bsky.social
WE SANG DOWN THE EMPIRE 85,000 Word #Spaceopera
🛸 Nesamma Abbas, a washed-up alien musician,
🎸 joins a rebel rock band to take down the Human Empire
✨with a martial art of sound ⚡🎶
.😢She must confront her pain,
🧘‍♀️ Master her powers
⚔️ & choose: revolution
❤️ or redemption
#WOC #Asian #SFF #DVpit
Reposted by Shen Tao
cassandrafarrin.com
this sounds amazing as hell (complimentary)
jelliclejay.bsky.social
SUMMER SONS x CAMP DAMASCUS

BLESSED BE THE FLESH is an adult horror romance about an amnesiac cult escapee and the lonely trucker who picks him off the side of the highway. Remembering his past may destroy him, but what he's forgotten will destroy the world.

#DVpit #A #H #LGBT
A collage with images of sweaty boys almost kissing, a human/bird monster, and a cowboy pulling a horse under an intensely cloudy sky. There are also the words “A love like that made me someone new. Not even because I chose to change, I had no choice in the matter; the feeling swept me up and molded me into someone I didn’t recognize before I could look down and understand just what I had gotten myself into.”
Reposted by Shen Tao
cassandrafarrin.com
Utterly in love with this pitch!
mihika-biswas.bsky.social
A reimagining of the TITANIC in Space🚀🚢

The Sungrazer, a decadent space liner, offers new possibilities for working people like Seren, an aerial silks performer, on a new planet.

But aboard, ambitious CEOs and politicians gamble with the fate of the ship and the lives of many.
#DVPit #SF #A #Asian
Reposted by Shen Tao
cassandrafarrin.com
Loving this setting AND the music magic!
rayrx.bsky.social
To save her family from a memory-stealing plague ravaging 1920s Lebanon, Eura enlists the help of a rival village’s prized musician to find a cure. But there are darker forces at play, and they must confront ghosts of their pasts—even if it ends with 1 of them in the realm below.

#MENA #MV #DVPit
Reposted by Shen Tao
ghabibaweston.bsky.social
ARCANE x #A SPICE ROAD

An artist & an admiral conduct an impossible tea magic heist. Now they're being hunted by a sisterhood of deadly alchemists.

🗝unreliable narrator
🫀intergenerational muli-POV
🩸elements of horror
🫖creative power unlocked with tea magic
🗡colonial rage

#DVpit #F #POC #OWN #WOC
Reposted by Shen Tao
leahning.bsky.social
In the Tongue of Unbanished Ghosts:

🏜️ A desert full of war
🔪 A mother whose secrets lead to her murder
🩶 A clueless, clumsy widower who forges watches with soul
🩵 A war criminal who is, unfortunately, very attractive
🏍️ And there was only one dirt bike

#dvpit #f #a
Reposted by Shen Tao
muteddragon.bsky.social
JinYu Zhao is trying to save enough $ to restore her sister's illusion magic, while disguised, providing abortions. She won't be distracted by her sister mooning over her classmate crashing at their pharmacy #dvpit #a #f #own #poc #asian #nd #r friends to lovers, he falls first
Reposted by Shen Tao
ash-howell.com
A DARKER SHADE OF MAGIC x HOUSE M.D.

🏥 Blood magic, medical degree required
🎓 Graduate? In *this* economy?
✊ Best friend is a secret rebel
💰 Capitalist conspiracies
🗡️ That lesbian tried to stab me, and I think I liked it

#DVpit #F #A #LGBTQ
Reposted by Shen Tao
n-arfaei.bsky.social
Is lobotomizing a machine that has gained consciousness just routine procedure or equal to murder?

Severance X Exhalation X Ishiguro

#DVpit #SF #LF #A #IMM #OWN 💙📚🪐
n-arfaei.bsky.social
A neuroscientist gets recruited to lead a team responsible for finding and “killing” emerging consciousness in supercomputers.

A technical challenge that quickly spirals into a deep ethical conflict.

Severance X Annihilation X Ishiguro

#DVpit #SF #LF #A #IMM #OWN 💙📚🪐
Reposted by Shen Tao
apottern.bsky.social
@alecjmarsh.bsky.social you had me at glittering heist (the best kind). Attention editors and agents scrolling #dvpit don’t miss this!
alecjmarsh.bsky.social
Scotland, 1925: A gentleman thief, a lonely demon hunter and a married sorceress embark on a glittering heist to destroy the English occult.

Forbidden passions and their own ambition threatens to destroy them before the English get the chance.

Bi rep, ace rep, mf, mmf, mm

#dvpit #a #f #queer
Reposted by Shen Tao
apottern.bsky.social
I have had the distinct honor of reading this book in various draft forms and it. is. so. good. Nettle has gotten herself into a hot mess, but this book is a thrill ride. @ash-howell.com is a writer to watch (or, you know, rep! get on it agents!)
ash-howell.com
A DARKER SHADE OF MAGIC x HOUSE M.D.

Days before graduation, blood-magic medical student Nettle accidentally girlbosses herself into the middle of a murderous conspiracy. Her best friend has been hiding his radical political activism. And worst of all, she’s *really* broke.

#DVpit #F #A #LGBTQ
Reposted by Shen Tao
kmveohongs.bsky.social
Listen Val didn’t get a story into Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy for nothing. Plus a dragon named Seafoam
spacevalkyries.bsky.social
DRAGONRIDERS OF PERN x PACIFIC RIM

A disabled mecha dragonrider struggles in an ableist society. When a hivemind of corrupted dragons threatens her people's very existence, she must team up with 3 riders—her lying would-be lover included—to save the solar system.

#DVpit #A #SF #DIS #LGBT #Latine
A moodboard with 9 tiles. The first row has purple spacescape streaks of light like hyperspace, a dragon egg, and a Latina staring at the egg. The second row has purple crystals and middle text that has crossed out "star-scarred, dragonrider, etli's claw, wave rider" then, underlined "me", followed by a person underwater. The third and final row has a closeup of a snake's eye to represent a dragon's eye, a solar system, and scale pattern to represent mecha dragon scales.
dragons.bsky.social
Agreed! Ash is definitely a future star!
dragons.bsky.social
Amazing story! Good luck, Ash!
Reposted by Shen Tao
ash-howell.com
A DARKER SHADE OF MAGIC x HOUSE M.D.

Days before graduation, blood-magic medical student Nettle accidentally girlbosses herself into the middle of a murderous conspiracy. Her best friend has been hiding his radical political activism. And worst of all, she’s *really* broke.

#DVpit #F #A #LGBTQ
Reposted by Shen Tao
alecjmarsh.bsky.social
Scotland, 1925: A gentleman thief, a lonely demon hunter and a married sorceress embark on a glittering heist to destroy the English occult.

Forbidden passions and their own ambition threatens to destroy them before the English get the chance.

Bi rep, ace rep, mf, mmf, mm

#dvpit #a #f #queer
Reposted by Shen Tao
masontmatchak.bsky.social
Two desperate women fleeing imprisonment.
Two draconic artifacts bonded to them.
A group of thieves who'll help them escape.
A powerful noble who'll do anything to get them back.
A secret that could ruin them.
A bond that could save them.
In a city where the sun never rises.
#DVPit #F #A #LGBT #Q
A nine-panel square mood board to promote a book. Upper left square: blue fire on a black background. Upper middle square: the moon, barely visible behind clouds. Upper right square: dark pink scales. Middle left square: a blue-haired woman tying back her ponytail with a determined look on her face. Middle square: two hands held in silhouette in front of the sunset. Middle right square: a pink-haired woman with her hair partly braided and a downcast look on her face. Lower left square: blue scales. Lower middle square: a cluster of white candles, partially melted together. Lower right square: pink crystals viewed up close.