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Carter Elise Key 🗝️

@carterscompendium.bsky.social

72 followers 78 following 65 posts

they/them/theirs • 23 • i’ll try writing or reading anything once 919 ⇾ 973 cw: ODEWIP | cr: death of the author support me on kofi! https://ko-fi.com/carterscompendium

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Carter Elise Key 🗝️ @carterscompendium.bsky.social · Aug 15

#queerpit #ef #na #editing

THE CRUEL PRINCE X PRIORY OF THE ORANGE TREE

👑 prophecies
⚔️ dying magic
👑 competition for the throne
⚔️ forged family
👑 queer & disabled rep
⚔️ slow burn subplot

on track to hit query trenches dec. 2025

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Carter Elise Key 🗝️ @carterscompendium.bsky.social · 14d

its recruitment szn!

my fave parts abt camp fairwood:

🤝 friendly competition
💕 welcoming vibes!
🌱 green meadows cabin <3
🧠 learning abt everyone’s kickass projects
🍾 celebrating together!
✨ weekly cabin updates

DM for an invite link — i promise u won’t regret it!!

Carter Elise Key 🗝️ @carterscompendium.bsky.social · Aug 22

officially halfway thru ode’s first round of edits 🥳

• down 17k words
• added a new chapter 👀
• adjusted pacing to be more consistent

#editing

Carter Elise Key 🗝️ @carterscompendium.bsky.social · Aug 16

this is SO GOOD omg 😭

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Carter Elise Key 🗝️ @carterscompendium.bsky.social · Aug 16

🏰 ODE: FERN AND THE NINE REALMS OF LAERATHOR 🏰

Nine realms. Ten competitors. One king, fated to die, who insists on overseeing the competition which will determine his successor.

How will this unique round of the Bardaegan Trials end?

#posterpitw #f #na

Castle looming over a beach.

“ODE: Fern and the Nine Realms of Laerathor” “A Key & Vena Production” “12.2025” “hitting query trenches soon"

Carter Elise Key 🗝️ @carterscompendium.bsky.social · Aug 16

#posterpitw #f #na

👑 ODE: FERN AND THE NINE REALMS OF LAERATHOR 👑

⚔️ What’s your idea of vengeance? Fern thinks she’s got a pretty good guess, but when those beliefs are tested, they may just crumble under the pressure.

[ hitting query trenches dec 2025 ]

young woman with a sword. ‘ODE: Fern and the Nine Realms of Laerathor’ at the top of the poster, overlaid with the sword. to the woman’s right: “Carter Elise Key & Lindsay Vena” “What is your idea of vengeance?” At the bottom: “Coming soon to the query trenches” then, the cast of characters: “Fern Riis. Halvard Jostad. Airika Falk. Biggs Stigandr. Brendell Falk. Quinby Brodbeck. Ernaline Gisil. Ygor Wistirgaard. Caxton Rask. Juel Soelberg. Torben Ahlstrom. Lumi Hartvigsen. Eostre Dal."

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Carter Elise Key 🗝️ @carterscompendium.bsky.social · Aug 16

🌱 ODE: FERN AND THE NINE REALMS OF LAERATHOR 🌱

#posterpitw #f #na

The chance of a lifetime— some might even kill for it. With everything on the line, Fern, Halvard, and Airika have to decide how they want to be remembered. Everyone wants something, but is risking it all worth it? ⚔️

Young blonde woman in a field with the words “ODE: Fern and the Nine Realms of Laerathor” behind her in the sky. “magic infused world” and “doomed by fate” are on either side of her. At the bottom: “Carter Elise Key & Lindsay Vena” “Coming soon to the query trenches"

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Carter Elise Key 🗝️ @carterscompendium.bsky.social · Aug 15

thank you!! i couldnt decide which moodboard i liked more so i figured i’d give y’all both 🙂‍↕️🙂‍↕️

Carter Elise Key 🗝️ @carterscompendium.bsky.social · Aug 15

YES YES YES YES YES

Carter Elise Key 🗝️ @carterscompendium.bsky.social · Aug 15

i have to know — is her chem test on plasma 👀

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Carter Elise Key 🗝️ @carterscompendium.bsky.social · Aug 15

i’m so!!! omg???

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Carter Elise Key 🗝️ @carterscompendium.bsky.social · Aug 15

i’m obsessed 😭😭

Reposted by Carter Elise Key 🗝️

Professor Alex @shiningcrobat.bsky.social · Aug 15

My QueerPit 2025 pitches thread!
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Professor Alex @shiningcrobat.bsky.social · Aug 15

Legends & Lattes✖️When the Moon Hits Your Eye
👀multi-POV
🌈gay, aro & trans MCs + sapphic, NB, gay, bi & polyam POVs
🎲TTRPG inspired
✉️epistolary chapters
🗣️chapters in conversation
👹human, furry & fantasy heritages
🤷party can’t choose a name
👑royal generational trauma
🗡️mafia
💀death cult
#F #A #QueerPit

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Carter Elise Key 🗝️ @carterscompendium.bsky.social · Aug 15

ghost dog!!!

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Carter Elise Key 🗝️ @carterscompendium.bsky.social · Aug 15

👀👀👀

Carter Elise Key 🗝️ @carterscompendium.bsky.social · Aug 15

this looks SO COOL

Carter Elise Key 🗝️ @carterscompendium.bsky.social · Aug 15

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Carter Elise Key 🗝️ @carterscompendium.bsky.social · Aug 13

I’m looking for more friends to swap support for #queerpit and #posterpit this Friday & Saturday!! interact with this post to be added to my list 🌱

Carter Elise Key 🗝️ @carterscompendium.bsky.social · Aug 12

is anyone participating in #queerpit here?? let me know and i’ll be sure to follow so we can support each other!!

Carter Elise Key 🗝️ @carterscompendium.bsky.social · Aug 8

coming up with modern aus of the characters that live in my head with my coauthor is sm fun like??? we’re so funny???

Reposted by Carter Elise Key 🗝️

mar is querying ☁️🏜️ @margreyfield.bsky.social · Aug 6

SixofCrowsxPoppyWar
When the Dusters vanished and left Nara behind, she resorted to a life of crime to survive.
In one last heist to save her best friend, Nara teams up with the two people who imprisoned her to steal a Healing relic while evading ghosts from a life she can't remember
#questpit #Q #F

A Guide To
DUST WE SHALL RETURN
An 88k Fantasy Heist
By Marceline Greyfield

Pitch
A convict stolen from her country, with no memory and a shattered leg, reluctantly teams up with a martial scholar and a vampiric shapeshifter to steal a healing artifact from a Dynaster to save her best friend's life. But when they find Nara's kidnapper commisserating with the Dynaster, Nara must choose between unraveling the secrets oof her past to find where her people vanished to, or protecting her friends and her future from a religious ritual that threatens to split the barrier between man and god.

Themes & Tropes
Tri POV (F/M/NB)
Physically disabled FMC (#OWN)
MMC talks like a Jeff Buckley or Hozier song
Nonbinary MC fighting to save their sister
Ensemble cast
Found family
Unique magic system
Sibling bonds
E2L second-chance romance
Religious machinations
Twisty, slowly revealed backstories

Comps
Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo: A heist as the central plot with similar worldbuilding and a romance subplot.
The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang: Fragmented memories, last of her kind protag, morally complex characters.
Memento by Christopher Nolan: Protagonist with a failing memory seeking revenge. Distrustful allies.
The Priority of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon: Strong FMC with unique magic, ancient rituals, and political intrigue.

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Reposted by Carter Elise Key 🗝️

Kelton Davis is querying! 🏹⚔️🌠 @keltondavis.bsky.social · Aug 6

GODKILLER X BONE SHARD DAUGHTER

A desperate heir. A disgraced warrior. A deadly assassin.

🏹 Strong FMC
🏹 Rich Worldbuilding
🏹 Hunt for Redemption
🏹 Cyclical Trauma
🏹 Found Family

Currently Querying!

#Q #A #F #QuestPit

Background: A red forest
Title Card
Text: An Agent's Guide To: The Daughter and the Nameless Son by Kelton Davis | Adult Fantasy | 100k Words | Querying Now!

Background: A red forest
Foreground: Six images surrounding a quote (from clockwise): A sunset, a hammer striking hot metal, a red-red arrow fletching, a red-haired archer, a grizzled old man, a red forest.
Text: As she walked away, freshly divested of every life she'd ever known—Crown Daughter, ranger, loyal servant to the demesne—she realized that, where she expected to find fear and despair, she found only a rapidly strengthening resolve.
She'd already lost everything.
All she could do was win it back.

Background: A red forest
Title: Comps
Images: Covers of GODKILLER by Hannah Kaner, THE JUSTICE OF KINGS by Richard Swan, and THE BONE SHARD DAUGHTER by Andrew Stewart. Arrows connect similarities between comps.
Text:
From GODKILLER: Cross-Country Quest to Forbidden Land, Surrogate Parenthood (shared with THE JUSTICE OF KINGS)
From BONE SHARD DAUGHTER: Disgraced Heir, Strong FMC (shared with both others)

Background: A red forest
Title: Pitch
Text: Niozene has never been good enough.

As daughter and crown heir to the Mother, a living goddess and ruler of her country, perfection is the only standard she’s ever known. Yet, despite her flawless scholar’s education and a polished career as a ranger, Niozene has failed to convince the Mother to look past her greatest flaw—she lacks the holy power to control the minds of others that ordains her family as living gods with divine right to rule.

When a shape-changing assassin nearly kills the Mother on Niozene’s watch, she is stripped of her titles and given an ultimatum: return with the assassin’s head, or face excommunication from both her homeland and the afterlife. Desperate, she accepts the task as a final chance to prove herself and show the Mother she deserves a place as her daughter.

Allowed only the help of Sonsan, a surly tracker and criminal also facing excommunication, Niozene dreads that she may have lost her chance at redemption before she has even left home. But when Sonsan reveals that he shares the same strange shape-changing power as the assassin, Niozene realizes his assignment to accompany her is more than coincidence. As they track the assassin deep into a forbidden land, confronting demons, ancient magic, and the ghosts that haunt their dreams and blood, they must uncover the truth behind their quest—and the buried history neither knew they shared—if they wish to live to see their promised redemption.

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Reposted by Carter Elise Key 🗝️

kj is ✨querying✨ @kjsilver.bsky.social · Aug 6

❤️‍🔥 THE HEALER WITCH ❤️‍🔥

If you thought coming back to the place you hate the most was bad, imagine getting tangled in a Healer’s dodgy business AND constantly putting your life in danger in the process.

The odds are not in their favour, but the Gods are.

#agentsguide #questpit #Q #A #F

Purple and orange flames over a dark background. White text reads: The Guardians of Melya present, The Healer Witch. A Bewitched 97K Adult Fantasy by K J Silver

Purple and orange flames over a dark background. The white text reads: The pitch - Captain Onwyn Storm's life changes the moment he agrees to work for General Redwood, though he will soon learn just how much. While trying to prove himself and fulfill the bargain he's made to be rid of his father's corrupting influence once and for all he is forces to work with Lunary. A Healer Witch who has more secrets than he can keep track of and could very well cost him everything he has worked so hard for. Or his life, if he's not careful.

Purple and orange flames over a dark background. White text reads: The Prologue - And so Ylluriel had endured centuries of watching how they destroyed each other. Over land, resources, family feuds. The reason didn’t seem to matter, for they always found another excuse to turn against one another. The greed, the hopelessness. The anger and blood lust. The jealousy and despair. They had all infected the lands of Melya like a plague that no one could stop. Ylluriel had easily grown tired of staying aside. Of having the power to change things and not do anything to help the children that she loved so fiercely. Her love was so great that she was willing to go against Melya herself, the Mother of all. Her grandmother.
It wasn’t the first time she had defied her, after all, and she was sure it would not be the last. Especially not when a child, so desperate to live, had found her way to her realm.

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Carter Elise Key 🗝️ @carterscompendium.bsky.social · Aug 6

i need it in my hands yesterday !!! 🐈‍⬛🐈‍⬛

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Reposted by Carter Elise Key 🗝️

Madeline ✨🧜‍♀️ @immadeline.bsky.social · Aug 6

STARLING HOUSE X EMILY WILDE
BUT W/CATS 🐈‍⬛

Debt-ridden cat trapper, Ivy, needs $.

Flynn Overton offers her $20k to trap the feral cats on his family’s abandoned estate.

Ivy accepts despite….

👻The girl haunting the swing set
🐈‍⬛ The strange cats
🪞The rippling mirror

#QuestPit #F #A #S #R #W #UA

9 square collage. From left to right.
Photo of a castle surrounded by foliage
Man and woman embraced. Man is dipping woman.
Black cat in grass.
Black cat with purple eyes and crescent moon symbol on its forehead
Golden oval mirror in a woman’s hands
Round stained glass window in a cathedral
Girl on swinger
Pile of $100 bills four cats lounging in the grass

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Reposted by Carter Elise Key 🗝️

Catie Stroud ✨ @ladystroud.bsky.social · Aug 6

A reluctant, messy princess must navigate a twisted portal realm—complete w/ time-bending complications, cryptic riddles, & one maddeningly distracting stranger—to right her wrongs.

Dark, adult Narnia meets Prime’s MLJ in this romantic fantasy full of twists, humor, & heart 🧪

#questpit #A #RF #F

Yield is for fans of books with queer main characters, slow burn(s), found family, the one horse trope, fantasy with spicy romantic subplots, and women’s wrongs.

Comps include elevator pitch of NARNIA x My Lady Jane, book comps include Assistant to the Villain, Emily Wilde’s Encylcopaedia of Faeries, One Dark Window, Nettle & Bone, and the Folk of the Air series

Vibe/mood board including songs like Hot to Go by Chappell Roan, Fickle Game by Amber Run, and Vertigo by Alice Merton

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