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Catherine Ford

@catherinewford.bsky.social

260 followers 450 following 410 posts

Writer of fantasy and kidlit | Homeschool mom | Eternally fighting weeds in my vegetable garden

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Catherine Ford @catherinewford.bsky.social · Apr 19

SONG TO DROWN RIVERS x BONE SHARD DAUGHTER

🌼 Artistic FMC
🌼 Queen leads soulless cult
🌼 Brooding prince
🌼 Charming rebel spy ally
🌼 Character-driven
🌼 Sub-tropical world

#PosterPitQ #A #F

Woman floating upward through water into light.
Text:
One woman fights for freedom, conscience, and love in a totalitarian regime in: Shadow’s Gift.
When Syrala, trapped in the palace as a pawn, learns the queen severed her subjects’ souls, she must outwit the dynasty to reclaim her own–but to succeed she must betray the prince she’s learning to love.
Featuring: Political intrigue, Soul-based magic, Journey of self-discovery, doomed romance

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Catherine Ford @catherinewford.bsky.social · Apr 20

Thank you so much!

Catherine Ford @catherinewford.bsky.social · Apr 19

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Catherine Ford @catherinewford.bsky.social · Apr 8

Thank you so much!!

Catherine Ford @catherinewford.bsky.social · Apr 5

Love that.

Reposted by Catherine Ford

Chase Grayson is Agented🌙 (Updates Only) @adropofmagick.bsky.social · Apr 5

The rain made it easier to rob his grave.

ONE DARK WINDOW x IMMORTAL DARK

#1stLinePit #Q #YA #F

A Memory of Moonkissed Malice
Villain Era Protag
Frenemies to Lovers
Queendoms
Found Family
Fantasy Dark Academia
Vampires
Feminine Rage
Corrupted Moon Magic

The Pitch
18-year-old Alyss Veylas wishes to attend Nocturne Collegiate for one reason—revenge. Five long years after her sister was murdered by the school’s guardian, she finally gets that chance. Armed with a Moon Fragment granting memory magic, and the aid of her ex and his new girlfriend, Alyss must confront the woman who took away the person she loved most.

Chapter One
The rain made it easier to rob his grave.
My shovel carved through the sodden earth, the water contorting into murky veins around its edge. Desperation drove each labored thrust, the burning ache in my muscles but an afterthought to the prize that lied in wait. Even the Valera Forest held its breath; the fog thick enough to smother the night’s whispers. All was silent save for the spilling of soil under the deluge that drenched us.
Us.
As I lifted my gaze to the boy standing across from me, I found that word had lost all semblance of warmth.

For Fans Of...

The lush, gothic prose of...

A fantasy academia setting like...

A murder mystery similar to...

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Catherine Ford @catherinewford.bsky.social · Apr 5

Love the dark humor here.

Reposted by Catherine Ford

Rachel Blaine @rachelblaine.bsky.social · Apr 5

“My hands squeeze my temples as I focus all my energy on my bowl of dried crickets. If I could resurrect them, could they write this pointless essay for me? They'd likely mock me with their nonexistent knowledge of what it's like to be a pure red girl. Useless writing partners.”
#1stlinepit #YA #SF

AN AGENTS GUIDE
TO
PURE RED
YA ECO SCIENCE FICTION
82000 Words
By Rachel Blaine

THE PITCH
Sixteen-year-old Candy has been hiding her unique ability to shift between male and female her whole life, now scientists want her for the one thing she can't hide, her skin color.
After a new discovery is made public that only those with pure red skin can survive another onset of catastrophie climate change, Candy, a pure red, embarks on a journey to find her birth parents hoping they can help her understand how to better control her ability so she can stay a girl and avoid spending her adolescence as a science experiment.

Comparable Titles
THE
LAST
BOOKSTORE
ON
EARTH
LILY BRAUN-ARNOLD
DUSTBORN
ERIN BOWMAN
SWEET TOOTH

THE EXCERPT
• My hands squeeze my temples as I focus all my energy on my bowl of dried crickets. If I could resurrect them, could they write this pointless essay for me? They'd likely mock me with their nonexistent knowledge of what it's like to be a pure red girl. Useless writing partners. I guess I'll have to write this essay myself for the sixth year in a row.
• My pencil lingers over my notes as I contemplate how to answer the same ridiculous prompt we get each year to pay tribute to The Great Coloring. Why Is Your Skin Color Special? I had a teacher once who swore he came up with the essay topic himself. I may have blurted out that it so obviously came from the Dome's unmistakable ducation agenda which caused him to punish me with one week of lunchtime alone in his classroom. Little did he know, I've spent ninety-five percent of my school lunches sitting alone. Joke's on him.

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Reposted by Catherine Ford

Gert Ramm 🦋 @rammwriter.bsky.social · Mar 17

Slow Horses x Dark Matter

When an intelligence agent is framed for the UK's role in a temporal disaster, he must clear his name and seal a lethal time rift - before a Russian spy from the future gets everyone killed.

#A #T #SF #PopUpPitA #PopUpPit #LuckyPit #litagents #agentguide 🦋

Dark blue background with time-delay image of the night-time stars. They resemble a tunnel. Text reads:

An agent's guide to:

Out of Time
By Gert Ramm
Espionage/time travel/Thriller

Images from Pixabay.

Dark blue background with time-delay image of the night-time stars. They resemble a tunnel. Text reads:

1972 has been a rough year for intelligence officer Eddie Fletcher, and it’s only January.

First he discovers the Cold War is really about time travel, then he’s framed for the UK’s role in a temporal disaster.

Sealing a lethal time rift is the only way to clear his name - much easier said than done when he’s being hunted by the British government.

Then there's a Russian spy on a mission so vital he’s travelled from 1997 to complete it.

Pitch:

Slow Horses X Time Travel

Images from Pixabay.

Dark blue background with time-delay image of the night-time stars. They resemble a tunnel. Text reads:

Comps:
Slough House Series (Mick Herron)
Wrong Place, Wrong Time (Gillian McAllister)
Four Minutes (Brian Andrews/Jeff Wilson)
Dark Matter (Blake Crouch)

TV Comps:
The Ipress File
Day of the Jackal
Life on Mars
Callan

Images from Pixabay

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Catherine Ford @catherinewford.bsky.social · Apr 5

Great voice!

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Reposted by Catherine Ford

Christina Adrian @christiemadrian.bsky.social · Apr 5

An old boyfriend from high school strolled past the back of my car. A toddler walked beside him. In his arms, he held a baby no older than six months. What in the absolute hell did Mom talk me into? #1stLinePit #R #A #humor #disabilityrep #Q #AmQuerying

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Catherine Ford @catherinewford.bsky.social · Apr 5

Love this.

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Reposted by Catherine Ford

Jenn Lee Frances @jennleefrances.bsky.social · Apr 5

“Gran has always known my future.”

Don’t Let The Forest In x Final Destination

If she touches him—it Burns
If he kisses her—he’ll Die

Death is Coming

THE TRUTH OF FEAR
🖤Tarot & Hauntings & Hexes
🖤Bi 4 Pan Cursed Love
🖤Coming of Age & Rage
🖤Feminist Horror + Romance

#1stLinePit #YA #H #R #SPF #Q

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Reposted by Catherine Ford

Amelia @ameliagthorn.bsky.social · Apr 5

❝Magic untended festers. Magic forgotten rots.❞

Kaos x The Witcher x Godkiller

#1stLinePit #agentsguide #F

The title cover to an agents guide for the project.

The background is a volcano erupting, streams of lava flowing across the page.

The words

“An Agent’s guide to” - in glowing orange surrounded by a black box.

“The Dying Religion” - in an echo effect in black and white font surrounded by an orange glow.

“Adult epic fantasy” - in glowing orange surrounded by a black box.

The pitch page for the project. The pitch itself is in a large black box with dashed orange borders, the word pitch intersects with the box and is in a black and white echoing font.

The pitch is:

No one expected orphans to survive the war
meant to end magic, least of all win it.
But victory’s price? The death of their God.

Now war returns to a still healing continent,
the enemy intent on slaughtering
the five remaining Gods.

and the children raised as Holy-War cannon
fodder must decide if they’re worth saving.

The background is a volcano erupting, streams of lava flowing across the page.

The comps & tropes page for the project.

The background is a volcano erupting, streams of lava flowing across the page. Every box is black with an orange, dashed border, and the boxes for tropes and comps have the appropriate title, partially intersecting the relevant title. The quotes do not.

Comps:

Kaos, Witcher and Godkiller

The quote “martyr, coward, traitor or fool. Your choice, really, you’ll serve our needs one way or the other.”

The quote “there is only one religion in war, and believe me when it’ll you it’s a godless faith.”

Tropes:

Gods pay their dues
Hero x villain
Found family
Heist into hell
Friends to lovers to enemies
Morally grey mc & villain
Magic comes with a price

A villain and hero page for the project.

The hero and villain both have information about the individual characters in two separate black boxes, both with orange dashed borders. The word “hero” and “villain” intersects the relevant boxes (right and left respectively)

The background is a volcano erupting, streams of lava flowing across the page.

Villain

The gods killed all he loved
Out for revenge on the gods
Brainwashed veteran
Waterbender
Raised as cannon fodder
Reborn as propaganda
In love with the hero

Hero:
Raised to be the weapon of the gods
Out to destroy the institution that forged him
Guilt ridden veteran
Electricity bender
Raised as cannon fodder
Remade as a national threat (not what graphic says but need to resave that one)
In love with the villain

In the centre is the quote “your first mistake was thinking that people like you and I were ever born to do anything but burn.”

With arrows pointing from hero (the receiver) to the villain (the speaker.)

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Reposted by Catherine Ford

Crissie (C.T. Wood) @crissthecreative.bsky.social · Apr 5

I didn’t run from the ballroom. I walked quickly. The laughter & chatter of the gala danced across the hotel, chasing me as I escaped the festivities. I settled into the sun that shined through the full windowed doors of the hotel lobby.

#1stlinepit #WIP #R #F #P #ROMCOM
Art by ThereseU3U

AN image of the Greek god Apollo in modern clothing with text in the top right corner that says "PERCY JACKSON x TWILIGHT but for adults.... because immortals dating teens is kind of weird if you actually think about it." Then the title across the center is A Greek God Got Me Pregnant. Then in the center at the bottom text that reads "When Larkin discovers she’s pregnant after a very out-of-character one-night stand with a man who turns out to be the Greek god Apollo, she must face monsters, vengeful gods, & most terrifyingly, her feelings for Apollo to protect herself & her unborn child."

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Reposted by Catherine Ford

James Keller @thekellerverse.bsky.social · Apr 5

"We have been observing your Earth."

Mass Effect x Treasure Planet.

#1stlinepit

#ADV #SF #F

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Reposted by Catherine Ford

Jennifer Luce @jenniferluce.bsky.social · Apr 5

"Bright droplets of red bloomed against the crisp, white layer of fresh snow.

A trail, unbeknownst to my victim, that would be his demise."

👻 PR w/ body horror
🇰🇷 Inspired by Korean folklore
🌦 Set in the PNW

#1stLinePit #A #P #R #H #WIP

3 by 3 grid of pictures: a woman with a bloodied face, a silhouette of a couple about to kiss, Korean architecture of a dokkaebi, a mouth with fangs, a woman looking down at a flower, a woman with yellow eyes, a woman staring into shattered glass, a silhouette of a woman, a hand clawing at the wooden floor

Gumiho
Adult paranormal romance with horror elements
Dark secrets, ticking time bomb, cinnamon roll mmc, grumpy sunshine trope, Forbidden and slow-burn romance, reluctant villain, dangerous attraction, Korean folklore and culture set in modern day PNW

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Reposted by Catherine Ford

Natalie is ✨ seeking new rep ✨ @natalielouise83.bsky.social · Apr 5

All morning Morton Sinclair had watched the tempest rage outside his window, the rain hurling itself in sheets against the glass with such savagery he feared it might break.’

#1stLinePit #C #HF #A

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Reposted by Catherine Ford

Rachel is Editing @rpiswriting.bsky.social · Apr 5

#1stlinepit

“Lianna Bontrower had a heart cursed to be stolen.”

#wip #f #r #adult #writingcommunity

Illustration of the main characters of my fantasy romance WIP. Lianna, a plus sized woman with dark brown curly hair stands in front of Fyrgus, a man with black hair and black fox ears. He is holding her in his arms and they stare lovingly into one another’s eyes. His hands are at her hip and waist and they are blackened with curse marks and have claws. Her hand raises up behind her to play at his hair. She wears a a midnight banyan embroidered with silver moons and a pink chemise a la reine inspired dress. Fyrgus wears a crimson coat embroidered with suns,

Shuffle of my fantasy romance WIP: Rosemary and Flame. The couple is in the center surrounded by trees and florals and a black fox, grey cat, a dragon flames, the sun and the moon

The great witch Beatrice Bontrower is missing and it’s up to her daughter, Lianna to find her. But Beatrice is lost in a magical land full of dangers and heart snatching fae and Lianna has no magic of her own. What’s a poor woman to do? Obviously bind herself to the first barely trustworthy fae she meets. He’s after the ring on her pinky, a family heirloom said to hold ancient magic, and he’ll do just about anything to get it, including helping a wayward woman find her missing mother. Together they traverse the wilds of Faerie on a path of danger and discovery, for Beatrice was a woman of many secrets and these secrets have teeth.

Tropes:
-Grumpy/sunshine
-Plus size 30 y/o fmc
-A magical quest
-Finding yourself as an adult
-Bickering is a love language
-He falls first but she saves him

Characters:
-An incorrigible flirt of a herione
-A grump with a dramatic flare
-A dragon king with a problem
-Don quixote but make him a cat
-A murderous witch

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Catherine Ford @catherinewford.bsky.social · Apr 5

Horrifying! Grabbed me by the throat.

Reposted by Catherine Ford

rachel russell 🌿 @byrachelrussell.bsky.social · Apr 5

Purple stained the lips of the girl paled by death. As if she had taken a sumptuous bite of a delectable fruit before drowning.

𝒶𝒹𝓊𝓁𝓉 𝓂𝒾𝒹𝓌𝑒𝓈𝓉 𝒻𝑜𝓁𝓀 𝒽𝑜𝓇𝓇𝑜𝓇
🍂 #1stLinePit #WIP #A #H 🍂

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Catherine Ford @catherinewford.bsky.social · Apr 5

The earth at the mouth of the Burrow was warm and loose.
Mullen sank down before it, cradling the stillborn buckling in his arms. He laid it in the Burrow, where the the air reverberated with life, vibrating in time with his heart.
#1stlinepit #A #F #WIP #Cme

Dagger, person holding soil & seedling, bare feet walking on fallen tree, cloaked figure with bow & arrow looking around side of house, peasant with sword, married couple holding sword, peasant woman looking behind her in fog, mysterious underground burrow, tree turning into a hand, burrow under tree.

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Catherine Ford @catherinewford.bsky.social · Apr 5

Oh thank you so much!!

Catherine Ford @catherinewford.bsky.social · Apr 5

Thank you!!

Catherine Ford @catherinewford.bsky.social · Apr 5

Frightening!!

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