Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Jess Freed

Vicky Weber - Agent, Author, Educator 📚 @vickyweberbooks.bsky.social · Aug 10

This week, try writing a scene that’s just for you. No pressure. No audience. No goal. Just joy. That’s how you reconnect with the reason you started. #WritingCommunity

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Jess Freed @jessfreedwrites.bsky.social · Aug 6

Shattered by the loss of her Olympic dream, Cat joins a magical circus only to find that the performers are really prisoners

And now that her memories have returned, she has days to free herself & her true love… #QuestPit #AG #F

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Clarkesworld @clarkesworldmagazine.com · Jul 23

I'm looking at the news stories about the FDA's drug approval "AI" and keep seeing reporters using the industry MARKETING term "hallucination" instead of saying that it's faulty, doesn't work, and provides inaccurate information a human would have been fired for. Stop pulling punches.

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Jess Freed @jessfreedwrites.bsky.social · May 10

I can’t stop staring at this character art by @honeyscribbles.bsky.social 👀

DARE TO BELIEVE is about an Olympic gymnasts forced to perform in a magical circus with star crossed lovers 🎪🖤

A red-haired woman embraces a blond haired man in the background of a magical circus

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Jess Freed @jessfreedwrites.bsky.social · May 7

The Greatest Showman x The Invisible life of Addie La Rue

A gymnast is forced to perform in a magical circus alongside a man she doesn’t recognize, but he knows her… and he’s watched her die dozens of times.

💕”Who did this to you?”
💫Grounded fantasy
🖤Dark whimsy
🎪Atmospheric

#Questpit #F #Q #AG

Images of a circus with magic. Reds, blacks, and whites are the main color scheme.

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Jess Freed @jessfreedwrites.bsky.social · Apr 4

✨PUBLISHING NEWS✨

I’m so excited to share that I’m now represented by Grace Demyan at Rosecliff Literary 🥳

After 5 years of querying 4 manuscripts, & hundreds of rejections, I finally found the perfect person to represent my darkly whimsical stories 🖤

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Jess Freed @jessfreedwrites.bsky.social · Mar 28

I had the best buddy matchup in SmoochPit and just knew this story was going to get picked up!!! Can’t wait to see Killer Summer on shelves 🥹

Bookishbabeiswriting @bookbabewriting.bsky.social · Mar 28

✨SOME NEWS✨
I am thrilled to announce I am now represented by @alexbrownwrites.bsky.social @madwomanliterary.bsky.social !!! Alex's love and enthusiasm for my chaotic girlies was something from my wildest dreams and I am SO EXCITED to work together on Killer Summer and my future projects as well!

moodboard with be one heartbreaker sign, girl's jawline, girl with red and rose petals on her face, sign that says girls girls girls and one last kiss goodbye. Title Killer Summer an Indigenous sapphic YA bubbling horror by H.D. Pine represented by Alex Brown at Mad Woman Literary Agency

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Jess Freed @jessfreedwrites.bsky.social · Mar 28

AHHHH congrats!!! I KNEW you were going to get picked up so quickly 🙌

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Jess Freed @jessfreedwrites.bsky.social · Mar 27

Being postpartum & a writer is fun because I wake up to the most nonsensical ideas in my notes file every single morning 🤣 Today included:

“Sculpting - something with minds”
“Room 101”
“Dark hair?”

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Ryan La Sala @ryanlasala.bsky.social · Mar 22

Do the writers using AI not realize that the expediency of this tool is just rushing them towards the inevitable limits of their own underdeveloped ability? Shortchanging yourself out of hard work means you will ultimately produce rapid drivel. Even worse, you won't be able to tell.

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Jess Freed @jessfreedwrites.bsky.social · Mar 15

Baby slept (kind of) last night, so I was able to edit a short story today 🙌

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Britt Middleton @brittmiddleton.bsky.social · Feb 18

I'm thrilled to share this guide to my 90K rom-com, a retelling of Taylor Swift's "Miss Americana & The Heartbreak Prince" packed with heart, heat and a swoony country-pop soundtrack.

🎨: @legendsofaukera.bsky.social

 #agentsguide #amquerying #writingcommunity #swifties #booksky #romancebooks

A pink and red background and graphic with cowboy boots and paisley print with text describing a romantic comedy manuscript called Miss Americana & The Heartbreak Prince.

A pink and red background and graphic with paisley print with text describing a romantic comedy manuscript called Miss Americana & The Heartbreak Prince. Next to it, a character drawing of a Black woman with braids embracing a white blond man wearing a guitar.

A pink and red background and graphic with paisley print and images of comparable movies, TV shows and books including Insecure, Sweet Home Alabama, The Wedding Date and Yours Truly.

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Bookishbabeiswriting @bookbabewriting.bsky.social · Feb 14

Happy SmoochPit showcase to all my fellow mentees. Thank you to my incredible mentor @rowanbrightonbrown.bsky.social who gave the best feedback and advice I could ask for! Also thank you to all the volunteers who made this possible I am so grateful for the community I was able to build.❤

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A.K. Browne @akbrowne.bsky.social · Feb 14

BRIDGERTON X HANDMAID’S TALE
Welcome to Rhoada, where you court for a season, then buy your first wife at auction.

FOOL’S GOLD is querying soon.

✉️ Blackmail
⛪️ Theocracy
🔄 Reverse Harem
🔪 Revenge
❤️ 🔥 And a love willing to bring the world to its knees

#cupit #a #dtr #fbw

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Bookishbabeiswriting @bookbabewriting.bsky.social · Feb 14

Jennifer's Body x Together We Rot
It's going to be a killer summer.
😍 Sapphic Pining
❤️ Friends to Lovers
👀 Cannibalism as metaphor for love
💖 Monstrous romance
🎀 Bubblegum horror vibes
🌽 Cult town in Canadian Prairies
🎡 Ferris wheel confessions
💋 Querying after SmoochPit
#Cupit #YA #HOR #INR #LGBT

creepy hazy moodboard with pinkish red overtones. Old town bar with neon sign, Ferris wheel at night, silhouette of woman in front of red stain glass window, shadow of two people embracingbed with white curtains around it, cowboy hat, old church with red sunset, girl with match between teeth, a spilt BFF necklace, a heart, and a sign that says Yes I do bite. Flames line the edges.

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Bookishbabeiswriting @bookbabewriting.bsky.social · Feb 12

Jennifer's Body x This Delicious Death
Boys start to disappear in Lyric’s backwards backwoods hometown and her best friend/crush Eleanor was the last person they were seen with, leaving Lyric to investigate if something is monstrously wrong with her friend.
#questpit #YA #Q #H #R

girl with lighter, girl in cowboy boots sticking foot out, ferris wheel at dusk, girl running in cowboy boots, cassette tape with flowers, girl licking red off her hands.

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Rommy Driks @ms-rommy.bsky.social · Feb 12

AGATHA ALL ALONG X BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER with a Latina lead.

A grief-stricken Latina witch must team up with a foreboding Japanese fox spirit to retrieve her niece’s soul and prevent a civil war in Philadelphia’s faerie queendom.

#QuestPit #Q #SFF #F #ContemporaryFantasy #amquerying

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Megan Macmanus @meganmacmanus.bsky.social · Feb 12

Taken captive after a botched raid, Revni needs to get north before she’s declared dead. Eavus needs to get her south to prove he’s not a deserter.To survive, they’ll have to decide who to trust–because they are both slaves & conquerors in enemy land & everyone else wants them dead. #questpit #F #YA

A collage of images, including Roman soldiers and coins a Viking ax and ship, hands tied with rope, and a cobbles road.

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Amy Lee Wheeler @amyleewheeler.bsky.social · Feb 12

Vegas, ‘89. Amber Lynne’s used to being forgotten—but she won’t be invisible forever. Babysitting pays, but men like Randy pay more. Hustling through family secrets, gamblers, and Catholic guilt, she’ll do whatever it takes to get out.

#QuestPit #ComingOfAge #90sLit #VoiceDriven #BookClubFiction

Piggy & Kermit nostalgia, car culture, neon dreams. Glamour & grit, lost innocence, and the chaos of 90s Vegas—where money, music, and mistakes shape the way out. #LonesomeTown

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Kayla Hill @kaylahillbooks.bsky.social · Feb 12

He’s a threat to the crown they both serve. 👑 ⁣
She’s a threat to more than just his heart. 💔
As the web tightens, the Spinners always come first.⁣ 🎻

THE SPINNERS' GUILD, an adult romantic fantasy

#QuestPit #A #F #RF #Q

A violin hidden behind a web. Text says: An agent's guide to THE SPINNERS' GUILD

DEAHNNA’s music gifts her the power to Spin listeners under her spell, compelling them to reveal secrets she can use to protect her city. After two years spent abroad as a diplomat, she uncovers news of a brewing revolution that sends her rushing home, where she’s tasked to root out the rebels—only to discover that the one behind it is none other than her once great love: Zephyr, the monarch’s own son.

ZEPHYR’s city is flooding and he will do anything to save his people, even if it means overthrowing his own tyrannical mother. When the monarch closes the borders, shutting off the city’s final hope for aid, he must decide if he can trust Deahnna with his secret, or if she’s a threat to more than just his heart.

Together, they’ll have to work through old heartbreak and incite a rebellion if they want to shatter the sovereign’s grip on the city before it sinks beneath the waves.

The tropes: music-based magic system, second-chance romance, glittering political intrigue, ballroom mayhem

Moodboard with 4 images: two people dancing; a dark hallway; a window in a shattered greenhouse; a violin in water

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Lee🍄🌈🍉 @leeiswriting.bsky.social · Feb 12

#ReadersGuide to
The Misery of Daughters

🌘 A young mother’s rage is unravelling and so too is her forbidden death magic…

#QuestPit #F #A #W #LGBT #ND

A graphic with dark green and light green mottled background and leafy border. At the top reads: Reader’s Guide. In the centre in large letters reads: The Misery of Daughters. At the bottom reads: Adult Sapphic Fantasy

Amalia’s husband is determined to cleanse her of *taint* but her forbidden death magic is all that keeps her youngest daughter from being consumed by a magic mutating plague. So, when Amalia is forced to follow her husband—newly appointed ambassador—east to the newly independent Oseria, she’s faced with the opportunity to escape. Only, her husband’s cult has eyes everywhere and her children are held on the other side of a conflicted border as incentive; step out of line and face the consequences.

Meanwhile, Nadya, dragon riding illusionist and daughter to the mountain strongholds commander, has returned home to the news of the Magaelian ambassador’s arrival. She doubts their intentions are as pure as they claim, and she’s determined to get to the truth lest betrayal strikes her again. But she was unprepared to find herself in reflected in the cold black eyes of the ambassadors wife. Or caught up in her mystery.

Another graphic with a green mottled background and leaves. Reads: T. Kingfisher's What Moves The Dead
X
M.L Wang's The Sword of Kaigen
• Women's Rage
• A Cult
• Generational Trauma
• A mother who'd burn the world
• Light Body & Nature Horror
• A magic Mutating Plague
• God's & Elemental Magic with a twist
• Neurodivergent Rep
• Sapphic Slow Burn
• Dragons & Monsters

Mood board. General vibes: dark, mysterious, deathly, poisonous, rotten. Quote: “do not mistake my silence for kindness.” 9 images left to right, up to down. 1. A dark sheer gown with blue embroidered flowers, and a gloved hand. 2. A spiderweb among the flowers, illumined by a faint moonlight. 3. A white woman’s chest exposed with inky black veins creeping up her neck. 4. Purply-red berries rotting. 5. pale woman’s torso and arms laid among some vines, shes in a sheer white gown thats wet. 6. Dead, dried out and decaying flowers. 7. A woman’s hands holding a dagger against the folds of her gown. 8. Scorched and rotten tree roots. 9. The back of a white woman hugging herself, long black hair slick against her bare pale skin.

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Abigail is ✨Agented✨ @abigailwadlington.bsky.social · Feb 12

TANGLED x ANASTASIA

In a realm where people go to forget their worst memories, an orphan with Tourette’s recruits an infuriating pickpocket to help her win her own memories back, hoping to recall her lost family.

#QuestPit #Q #YA #F

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Sara Harte @saraharte.bsky.social · Feb 12

When Edwardian heiress Celia accidentally makes a deal with a charming demon, she must break the contract before his presence threatens her advantageous betrothal—and her heart.

EMILY WILDE x HALF A SOUL
Slow burn, reluctant allies-to-lovers, forbidden romance

#QuestPit #Q #A #HR #PR #RF

Eight images depicting a blonde haired man, a painting of a demon, an open book, a hand touching a woman's chin, a man and woman in period clothing sitting beside each other, a classical painting of a woman, a formal old fashion room, and the back of a brown haired woman's head wearing Edwardian attire

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