Allison Araya DeBusk ✨
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shes-allison.bsky.social
Allison Araya DeBusk ✨
@shes-allison.bsky.social
120 followers 120 following 52 posts
Querying 🖋️ | Reading 📚 | Petting cats 🐈‍⬛
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shes-allison.bsky.social
Writing a college-based story meant including Halloween was a must. 🎃 Here's some snippets from my new adult WIP featuring
🧹 last minute costume shopping
👽 a costume inspired by my sister
🍬 flirting over candy
The Halloween section was clearly ransacked by other students from the college and children from the city. I gingerly step around costume accessories strewn on the floor to get to the racks of adult costumes. I thumb through them. “Remy,” Ambrose says. He holds up a Harley Quinn costume. I shake my head. “What about this?” Naomi holds up a sexy nun dress. “Hilarious,” I deadpan. I might have to buy a white sheet and dress as a ghost. “Remy,” Elisa shouts. She waves from the hallway to the bedrooms, the headband with two little balls standing up from it bouncing. Her makeup shimmers in the light, just like her silver long sleeve shirt and short skirt. I apologize to everyone I bump into trying to get to her. “There’s some quieter spots back here,” she says as she leads us into one of the bedrooms. “Have you seen Nessa?” We shake our heads. “Matching costumes and we aren’t even at the same party,” she grumbles. Everyone else is talking too, but they’re discussing the movie. “What’s your favorite candy?” I ask quietly. “Almond Joy.” I wrinkle my nose. “I didn’t grab any of those. I hate coconut.” I pull the candy out from my pocket and hold my cupped hands in front of him. He takes a small bag of M&Ms. “You consume a lot of sugar,” he says. “Tis the season.” I open a Reese’s. “That’s your favorite?” he asks. I nod. “A basic but good choice.” “I live for your approval,” I joke. He laughs, and my cheeks heat.
October 31, 2025 at 4:23 PM
shes-allison.bsky.social
Ren Faire, my beloved
A group of people mostly in renaissance festival costumes. Me holding a bird on my arm. My husband and I smiling at one another
October 26, 2025 at 3:55 AM
shes-allison.bsky.social
Without a doubt, the 2D Restaurant in Chicago is one of the coolest places in the city ✏️ @stalbergwrites.bsky.social
October 19, 2025 at 5:24 PM
shes-allison.bsky.social
The best I have is field from the very first page of The Axis of You and Me 🎥 💙 🏳️‍🌈 #WIPSnips #queerying
Shooting a war drama isn’t for the faint of heart. I smear the mud around my mouth, trying to leave it intact but also trying to avoid swallowing it. I bounce on my feet, ready to run. My boots slip a bit in the mess on the wide open field. “Action.” I run forward, rifle bouncing against my back. The saucer helmet shakes around my head and falls off. I throw myself to the ground to roll into the trench. Two other guys tumble into me. Out of the view of the camera, we laugh and try to catch our breath. Further down the trench, one of the stunt guys leaps in and lands on a mat. Another falls in as if stumbling from a gunshot. “Cut.” Another actor offers me a hand to pull me to my feet. One by one, we take the ladder out of the trench into air filled with smoke from the gunfire. “That was it, boys,” someone shouts from behind the cameras and monitors. We ran that five times, I think. Someone hands me my lost helmet. “Thanks.”
September 19, 2025 at 9:06 PM
shes-allison.bsky.social
Not a single "Thanks. It has pockets" scene in this whole manuscript. #WIPSnips
When we stop to wait for the elevator, he leans his head against the wall. I take my phone from my pocket and take a photo of him, and then I take another when he flips me off.
September 13, 2025 at 3:50 PM
shes-allison.bsky.social
Hi I forgot my personal social medias existed for a month, so it's time for a little reintroduction!

libra ☀️, virgo 🌙, taurus ⬆️
🌈 queer
🖋️ querying my first romance novel
📓 drafting two other novels
🐈‍⬛ cat mom
📽️ movies obsessed
✨ Swiftie
🏀 new WNBA fan
💻 social media editor at Knee Brace Press
September 12, 2025 at 9:01 PM
shes-allison.bsky.social
post four characters you identify with 👀
Katara from Avatar: The Last Airbender Rumi from KPop Demon Hunters The cover of Love Off the Record by Samantha Markus Leia from Star Wars
August 14, 2025 at 4:13 AM
shes-allison.bsky.social
#WIPSnips of my cute characters on their first date 💚
In the middle of the assortment of one-story shops, a house with multiple stories towers above them all. The white paint is a little worn and chipped, but the lights inside glow warmly. Above the door is a sign that reads “the books make the home” in cursive. “We should each buy a book for ourselves and one for the other person,” I say as he holds the door open for me. Inside, it smells like lavender and paper, better than any candle. “Split up and meet upstairs in 15 minutes?” he proposes. “Only 15 minutes?” I stare up at him, unimpressed. “In a bookstore?” “Time starts now.” He turns to the right to go into what had probably been a living room, so I turn left.
August 12, 2025 at 4:52 PM
shes-allison.bsky.social
I'm currently querying my first novel, THE AXIS OF YOU AND ME, a dual POV, queer romance. 🏳️‍🌈💕📚

(Shout out to everyone with their gorgeous pitches that inspired me to make one of my own)

#Q #A #R #questpit
A duotone photo of photographers with flashing lights. Text reads, The Axis of You and Me. Pitch Avi Davies dreams of Oscars, and he’s stayed closeted and isolated in the interest of achieving his dreams. Aidan Kelly, a father in a polyamorous marriage, doesn’t know he’s bisexual until Avi, and what starts as a normal work fling isn’t just a fling anymore. The path to their own movie-worthy happy ending isn’t as straightforward as following a script. For the Taylor Jenkins Reid fans 2010s Tumblr users parasocial chronically online queers Casey McQuiston fans celeb gossip lovers Snippet “I didn’t know you knew who I was.” As if I could forget him. As if he wasn’t on my tv all the time. As if his face wasn’t plastered all over the Tube in posters for his latest show on the West End. His face isn’t quite so delicate anymore, but I like it more than ever. “Oh, I knew who you were, Aidan Kelly.” I cock my head to the side. “You looked a little different out of a military uniform, but you’re still pretty.”
August 6, 2025 at 8:08 PM
shes-allison.bsky.social
Characters being cute 💚 #WIP
He quickly looks both ways before he pulls me into the street, breaking into a run. “My drink,” I shriek as I try to keep up. I bump into him after we jump onto the other sidewalk, giggling a little.
July 30, 2025 at 10:48 PM
shes-allison.bsky.social
(Whoops missed a day) From my #WIP, tentatively titled Paper Bags and Plastic Hearts
I chickened out earlier, too off-balance from his attention before class. Now waiting makes it worse, the two of us nearly chest to chest in front of the door, much closer than he was hours ago. “Do you have Halloween plans?” I ask. We are friends. Friends ask friends to do things together.
July 30, 2025 at 10:47 PM
shes-allison.bsky.social
Bones but not gross #WIP
After moving in with them, I did a big chop. I had reliable access to haircuts and I took advantage of it. But now, with the hair trailing down to my collarbones, I think there’s freedom and control in that too.
July 28, 2025 at 9:40 PM
shes-allison.bsky.social
Can you hear the people sing?
July 21, 2025 at 1:38 AM
shes-allison.bsky.social
I like drawing from my college experience writing this story, but I did leave out the part of the real experience in which we had to talk a guy we knew out of drunk driving home in a Jimmy Johns.
Ezra pulls me by the hand into the dark room after we pay the cover fee. We’re downtown near one of the other universities in the area for a show. Ezra’s adamant. It’s a show, not a concert.
July 10, 2025 at 4:44 PM
shes-allison.bsky.social
July 8, 2025 at 2:36 AM
shes-allison.bsky.social
July 8, 2025 at 2:36 AM
shes-allison.bsky.social
My latest reads 📚
July 8, 2025 at 2:36 AM
shes-allison.bsky.social
Actually surprised I have a #WIPSnips for this one
He makes it a little warmer when I move my hand. His sleeve slides up his arm to show the bird tattooed at his wrist. “How did you pick the designs for your tattoos?” I ask. He looks down at his arms, although his black henley covers the ink. “I’ve picked a lot from flash sheets, designs artists post on Instagram.” He tugs on his sleeve until the license plate on the back of his forearm is visible. “This one is the license plate that was on my dad’s favorite car, though.” “He’s a big car guy?” “He was into street racing when he met my mom,” he says as he pulls the sleeve back to his wrist. “I think it was a rebellious thing for her.”
June 18, 2025 at 10:55 PM
shes-allison.bsky.social
Convenient that I started writing a basketball romance
At lunch, we sit with those newbies too. I ask about their travels, what they think about the U.S. so far, and what they miss about home. “Did you get to watch Kalyani play for the national championship?” one of them asks me. I swallow my food. “Uh, yeah, I was there.” I take a long sip of bright blue Gatorade. “She’s incredible,” another chimes in. “You’re close, right?” “We came into UConn together,” I say. I’m not lying. “She was injured and missed a year, so I graduated before her.” They can fill in whatever else they want around that. If they’re asking, they’ve seen the videos we posted all the time when we were best friends. They’ve probably seen the edits of us if they’ve spent too long scrolling. “It’ll be a bit before we play Vegas,” Kia chimes in. “Y’all ever been line dancing?” She graciously pulls all the attention with a dramatic story about the time we tried line dancing as a team building activity. She elbows me as she laughs, and I manage to laugh too.
June 17, 2025 at 12:44 AM
shes-allison.bsky.social
Pride flag inspired moodboards for my MCs Avi and Aidan 🏳️‍🌈

I'm currently querying The Axis of You and Me about these two actors who fall in love and make a real mess of it
A collage of pictures in pink, purple and blue with white text that says "Aidan" A collage of green, teal and blue images with white text that says "Avi."
June 13, 2025 at 4:31 PM
shes-allison.bsky.social
Eeeeee so excited to share my baby coming out to her moms. My sweet demisexual girl from my WIP 💟
“You want to bring a boyfriend home?” Anne exclaims. “She means yes,” Bri interjects. “We can clear out, give you privacy,” Anne continues. I cover my face with my hands. “We don’t need privacy for anything.” “We know you’re educated and prepared, but remember that consent is everything.” “We aren’t having sex,” I say, muffled by my hands. “I don’t know if I want to.” “Oh.” When I peek between my fingers, Anne shrugs. “Okay.” I drop my hands to twist them together. “It’s kind of been a thing. Figuring all of this out. Asexuality and aromanticism. My friends and I talked about how sexuality is a spectrum that goes in a bunch of ways, and I think that makes sense for me, but I don’t feel ready to label anything.” “Pick a label or don’t,” Anne says. “As long as you know you are perfect the way you are, however you feel about romance or sex.” I drop my hands to the counter, flat against the cool marble. Deep inside me, I can feel the truth of that resonate, all the way out to my fingertips. Doubt twists on top, but I know she’s right.
June 5, 2025 at 5:03 PM
shes-allison.bsky.social
Happy Pride! 🖤🤍💜🩶
June 5, 2025 at 1:57 AM
shes-allison.bsky.social
From the project I'm querying, The Axis of You and Me 🏳️‍🌈
“What kind of motorcycle do you have?” he asks. He’s slouching against the headboard. I’m still on the other end of the bed, reclined back and leaning on an elbow. “A Mercedes.” I pause. “How do you know I have one?” He flushes and looks away from me. I smile bigger at his embarrassment. “Two years ago, you pulled up next to me at a stoplight,” he admits. “You remember that?” I can feel my smile stretching wider, past the point people say is flattering. “You didn’t say anything.” “I was very surprised,” he argues, finally looking back at me. There’s still color on his cheeks, but he smiles too. “I didn’t know you knew who I was.” As if I could forget him. As if he wasn’t on my tv all the time. As if his face wasn’t plastered all over the Tube in posters for his latest show on the West End. His face isn’t quite so delicate anymore, but I like it more than ever. “Oh, I knew who you were, Aidan Kelly.” I cock my head to the side. “You looked a little different out of a military uniform, but you’re still pretty.”
June 4, 2025 at 9:26 PM
shes-allison.bsky.social
Book mail ✨ Thank you, @nicolezelniker.bsky.social, for letting me be Avery’s first reader literal years ago 💜
May 29, 2025 at 1:43 AM
shes-allison.bsky.social
We traveled over the weekend, and I am my most productive on planes. 🖋️ Two snippets from different WIPs with very different voices.
May 28, 2025 at 6:15 PM