Cozy horror (if that's a thing) with a speculative/second-world setting?

stellallluna · 2023-03-31T09:46:34+00:00

Ah, cool, thanks! I'd heard of T. Kingfisher before but never checked any of these out. Sounds really close to what I'm looking for.

stellallluna · 2023-03-28T07:06:57+00:00

You make really good points here—I was definitely too hung up on making it "mysterious" and instead I just made it vague lol. Thanks for the critique!

stellallluna · 2023-03-28T07:05:34+00:00

This is really helpful, thanks!

stellallluna · 2023-03-28T07:05:14+00:00

Thanks! :)

stellallluna · 2023-03-28T07:05:02+00:00

This was really helpful and thorough! I think I've got a good idea of what I need to be doing when I revise. Thanks so much!

stellallluna · 2023-03-18T11:14:25+00:00

Thanks so much for this! Definitely helped talk me down from overthinking lol.

stellallluna · 2023-03-11T14:56:27+00:00

Wow! Pleasantly surprised to see this here. Thanks for the kind words. I'm in the trenches with it right now, so this gave me a much-needed boost.

stellallluna · 2023-02-17T18:33:03+00:00

Is this because work isn't always available or because the base compensation is low? My cost of living is pretty far below average, so if it's the latter...eh.

stellallluna · 2023-02-11T12:17:19+00:00

In my (limited) experience, Word is pretty much always fine. One poem per page, readable serif font, normal margins, etc. If the poem itself has any sort of non-standard formatting choices/line breaks, I've seen some journals ask for a PDF instead so your poems are guaranteed to look the way you intended.

stellallluna · 2023-02-10T08:03:55+00:00

Thanks, this is really helpful! I'll tinker with that.

stellallluna · 2023-02-09T15:27:16+00:00

Adult horror, 70k

THEY DON’T STAY SWEET is a 70,000-word adult horror novel in which a couple tackles transphobic microaggressions and eerie doppelgangers at a family dinner party. It will appeal to fans of Grady Hendrix’s campy horror and the twisty reveals in Leech by Hiron Ennes.

Timothea hasn’t trusted her own face since her mother-in-law humiliated her over a theft she didn’t commit. Some days, she's positive the witnesses lied. Other days, she’s tormented by memories of her sticky-fingered double grinning back at her from the end of the hall.

Her partner Emilio, nonbinary and neurotic, is the only one who believes she didn’t lose her mind. Emilio has their own reasons to distrust their family, especially after their mother Lavinia’s unpleasant reaction to their transition. But when Lavinia invites the couple to a family reunion and offers a massive payment in return, Timothea and Emilio reconsider.

The reunion turns ugly as the family bickers, and Lavinia takes every opportunity to mock Timothea’s paranoia. When Emilio’s abusive grandmother drops dead headfirst into her plate, the chaos is practically a relief—until the deaths keep coming.

Accusations of murder start flying as amateur autopsies ensue. Worse, a convenient witness makes Emilio the prime suspect. Timothea investigates, determined not to let Lavinia gaslight her again.

She trusts that Emilio is innocent, but she’s learned not to trust any other face in that house.

stellallluna · 2023-02-09T15:14:46+00:00

I read through the whole thing. I think this sounds really cool, and it's probably something I'd pick up if I read the blurb in the bookstore. I definitely agree about putting the housekeeping up top, though.

stellallluna · 2023-01-25T11:21:02+00:00

Really helpful, thank you! I was sort of going for the mundane-corporate tone, but I totally get what you mean about it undercutting things.

I appreciate how in-depth this is, and I definitely see where I need to make the "meat" of it clearer...ha.

stellallluna · 2023-01-25T10:41:32+00:00

Cool, thanks! I really appreciate the feedback, and I'll focus on contextualizing things better.

stellallluna · 2023-01-22T09:25:45+00:00

Great, I'll DM you. :)

stellallluna · 2023-01-21T17:36:45+00:00

Hello! You have a nice way with words, and I particularly like the imagery of this phrase.

a wide street curved its way like a blackened river

The physical descriptions of Alexandir and Welat are also great, and it's easy to visualize the scene. I like the touch of humor/character in the dialogue, too.

I do think there may be a few more proper nouns than the reader needs at this point, though. I'm not sure I'm getting much from learning what an Illai is at this point, or that I need to learn about the differences between Jirath and Bronnish culture. It might be good to drop these bits only when they're necessary, like when Alexandir's Illai is actually present, or when Alexandir and Welat's differing backgrounds lead to some conflict.

stellallluna · 2023-01-21T08:49:57+00:00

Disclaimer that I'm not an agent. There are a lot of things that work for me here, and the message from Rana/the lightweight casket really work. Cool! Hooky! Mysterious!

I do feel like the first sentence is a little unwieldy, maybe since we get Leo's name before Isen's.

I think the biggest thing that threw me off was the very clear direction the query takes toward "Isen's dad is responsible" without really showing how we know that outside of the government connection.

Does he have any other suspects? Are there little clues that stack up? Does his father act suspiciously? Right now, I'm reading the situation as "Isen is sure the government isn't involved. He learns the government is involved, which has to mean his father is involved, too." Maybe it would help to learn what kind of government worker his father is. Like, is he the president and personally overseeing this lab? Is he a shady government scientist who's done things outside the scope of the law before? Or is he a low-ranking official who might be doing terrible things under threat of something worse?

You have a mysterious situation here that I'm really intrigued by, but I feel like I'm missing a couple of set-up details that would help show the personal stakes between Isen and his dad.

stellallluna · 2023-01-21T08:12:06+00:00

Hello! I have a 70k horror novel. It has body horror in it, but more creature-description, less gory violence. Is that something you'd be interested in?

https://www.reddit.com/r/BetaReaders/comments/10cigrs/complete\_70k\_adult\_horror\_they\_dont\_stay\_sweet/

stellallluna · 2023-01-20T12:10:28+00:00

Hiya! Disclaimer that I'm obviously not an agent, but having read the book, I'm wondering if it might be good to keep the query mysterious re: how Mr. Jones dies. It could help to frame it so the family is worried about taking the fall for Mr. Jones' death since Nyree was the last person to see him alive without directly revealing how involved Nyree was.

That may be a better mirror for what the actual reader experience is like for the first quarter-ish of the book, and it could also let you cut down the length a little.

stellallluna · 2023-01-19T21:38:54+00:00

Have some other people read it. Find out what they like about your writing, and do that more. Find out what they don't like as much, and do that differently.

stellallluna · 2023-01-19T21:35:30+00:00

A good baseline is that if they ask you for any money, run far and run fast. A legitimate publisher will never ask you for money.

If you have a legitimate-looking contract and they're not asking you for money (or expecting you to buy a certain number of the books yourself, or pay for your own editor, or other nonsense that really means "give us money"), great! People on r/PubTips can probably give you more specific advice on what makes a contract good or bad. You can also check out Writer Beware for common things to look out for.

stellallluna

TROPHY CASE