First, I won 3rd place in CWA’s First Chapter Contest, then yesterday I received two full manuscript requests!

My reminder to go listen and learn.

Created this for my teen boys. Happy Valentine’s Day! #valentine

Just a preview of upcoming articles I'm working on for the Substack... (and ignore the "paid" button--that always shows up for my drafts, but at least 3 of these will be free ;) Drop a comment if there are any topics you'd like me to write about in the future!!

Applications are now OPEN for our annual Dana Wood Chaney Writers Fund scholarship. This $1500 tuition grant goes to one writer working on a writing project that addresses social change. More info and how to apply is here: buff.ly/3WXg5d8 #writingcommunity

Am I the only one who doesn’t want escapism, but instead wants to double down on this dystopian present and read stories where characters find revenge? #amquerying

Do you know (or are) a creative writing instructor who'd be interested in teaching a nine-week after-school class in Chicago? Details and how to apply are below! (Please share far and wide.) #writinginstructor

—Stories that examine contemporary issues using horror/speculative elements as the vehicle (think Jordan Peele or Stephen Graham Jones) —Sentient plants or natural settings with a sinister undertone (a la Annihilation)—bonus if it speaks to our climate crisis without being too heavy handed 3/6 #MSWL

Writers, remember we are not pitching directly to posts! Happy hunting!

I’m sorry, what??? Go home, Grammarly, you’re drunk. #WritingCommunity

Me. It’s me. Always me.

Anything @storystudiochicago.bsky.social hosts is phenomenal and I’m here for it! #writingcommunity

LIGHT FROM UNCOMMON STARS x ARCANE When a god offers Lelia the life she’s always wanted in exchange for her help on a museum heist, she agrees with barely a second thought. But Lelia’s not used to consequences, and stealing a legendary relic comes with several. #2025pit #A #F #DIS #LGBTQ #ND

KINSHIP, 84k, #A #H #T w/ #LGBTQ rep. Megan’s reunion with her long lost brother is complicated when he kills his lover. Luckily, Megan’s prepared for this. Subversion of gothic tropes + send up of true crime culture. #2025Pit

VOX x CLOUD CUCKOO LAND Cybele is valued as a mutation free, breedable female. Offered as a prize in a gladiatorial competition, she seeks revenge in a deadly confrontation with her kidnapper and discovers the truth about her adoptive mother’s role in her tragic life. #2025Pit #A #D

THE GHOST WOODS meets THE SILENCE FACTORY in WOODBINE, a Gothic thriller in which a lonely stained-glass artist must reassemble the fractured pieces of his memory before a malevolent creeper destroys his last chance at love. #2025pit #A #HF #T

And here I am! The sun is dying and there was a living being inside the mysterious artifact from Mercury. The first android CEO of the Sol System has to save his citizens, but his enemies and love life make it nearly impossible. Novel working title: ANCESTORS OF EARTH #2025pit #SF #A

A centaur cheats at jousting, until the fake horse head goes KERPLOP! 🌈Mythology X SPOP 🗡️Betrayed by the man he loves 🗡️Betrayed by his father 🐈‍⬛Cat Si from Irish folklore 🐐Snarky/greedy satyr 🐎Badass centaur 🧚‍♀️Tricky pixies can't lie ☀️Gods from many pantheons #2025pit #YA #F #writing #Q

A walking, talking corpse just lost a magic marble, triggering a chain reaction that threatens to burn the world down. Haf the demihuman fixer is going to find it, even if she never sleeps again. Buffy the Vampire Slayer x This Body's Not Big Enough For Both of Us #2025Pit #Q #A #F #LGBTQ

All dark adventure blogger turned law school student Riley wants is to solve the lethal riddle 💀 of her college town📚🌲before someone else winds up dead. All rock star Liam wants is Riley... & for her not to dismantle his career🎸 in her pursuit. All The Creature wants is their blood🩸 #2025Pit #Q #NA

🔪 Ada - a medium & fraud, turns to murder, determined to create the perfect ghost 🪦 Harriet - terrified of spirits, cursed with the ability to hear them ☠️ When her best friend is murdered, Harriet must face her fear & seek out the dead to find the killer ✨Dual POV #YouDeservepIt #a #hf #q soon

A closed room country house murder you say? May I introduce you to FUCK THIS MURDER 🐊🐊🐊 - a humorous, foul mouthed mystery, complete w/ sabotaged pre-wedding jaunts (bad food, poison oak, BEES), rekindled romance, a murder forest, & much more! #2025Pit #A #M #autism #Disabilty #LGBTQIA+ #OWN

Most dreaded feedback: Your characters are flat. Gaaahh! Want to learn how to avoid writing boring characters? Take this five-session online class with writer Wayétu Moore -- Novel Foundations: Characters. The first class is Jan. 28. Register now! https://buff.ly/3Pv1uS1 #writingcommunity

Surviving high school isn’t easy under normal conditions—and it’s even harder when things get paranormal. Jennifer and August transfer to the mysterious Uther Academy, where they search for answers while learning the three Rs: revenge, redemption, and romance. #2025pit #Q #YA #M Art-Evelyn Abel

THE MAID X KITCHEN CONFIDENTIAL. Hungry for mystery? Take a seat and enjoy CAMPERS ON TABLE 12, where the stakes are high, and the steaks are medium rare (and yes, the jokes are corny). When the manager's niece dies, one town's hospitality community pitches in to find her killer. #2025Pit #Q #A #M

VOX x CLOUD CUCKOO LAND Cybele leads her assigned companion on a dangerous quest to reveal her hidden past. When a deadly confrontation with her kidnapper reveals the tragic truth about her adoptive mother’s betrayal, she must choose between revenge and compassion to finally live free. #2025Pit #A

Lisa Jewell x Riley Sager Under the guise of neighborly kindness, Allie & Wes sneak into a wealthy stranger's home, unaware of hidden eyes. When they are blackmailed for trespassing, and a body is found soon after, Allie fears they'll be framed for murder—if they survive. #2025Pit #A #T #S #M

GIDEON THE NINTHxFFXIV When magicless Mick agrees to be an adventuring partner for Eleanor, his mage best friend (and crush), a mishap turns him into a dragon and binds him to the gods' dead adversary. Now they're rushing to break his curse before his existence triggers a war. #2025pit #F #R #A

❤️YA contemporary romance ⌨️ 70k words Raised by her strict Tiger Mom, Maggie Wang fake-dates the hockey team grump to make her crush jealous, only to fall for the wrong guy and risk breaking all her mom’s rules. #2025pit #Q #YA #R #CON#poc #writingcommunity #amquerying

California Fish & Wildlife K-9 Warden Kat Grant is run off the road at night, stalked at her home, and threatened at gunpoint before she faces the ultimate danger—an assassin hired by businessmen who want to capitalize on California’s new oil … water. #2025Pit #A #S #T

TREASURE PLANET X STARFIELD When Jak finds an ancient wrist computer with his new friend Eris—a tech prodigy—he couldn't have guessed it would tear him from his home on a pirate space station to an interstellar quest for answers about his dad's legacy, old mysteries & himself. #2025Pit #YA #SF #M

An agent’s guide to my YA Tangled x Anastasia cozy fantasy, THE FORGOTTEN REALM, feat: 🪻Disability and LGBTQ rep 🧚Swiss folklore ✨Found family 🎊Whimsical festivities 🐶A really cute dog Querying in March! #litagents #YA #F #2025Pit #agentsguide

LEGENDBORN X AVATAR: THE LAST AIRBENDER When fighters start disappearing from an underground elemental tournament, a sixteen-year-old participant with wind powers must uncover the tournament’s secrets before she loses a match and shares their fate. #2025Pit #YA #F #Jewish

💫 CROWNED IN LIGHT 💫 NICK AND NORAH'S INFINITE PLAYLIST X RAVEN CYCLE SERIES 🌹Romance/Romantasy 👨‍👨‍👧Polyamory ❤️‍🔥Slow Burn 👨‍👨‍👦‍👦Found Family ⚖️Gods & Goddesses 🎵Music! ♿Diversity 🏳️‍🌈LGBTQIA+ 💖Soul Mates ✨Magical Realism Agent's guide included 📖 #Q #YA #A #R #UW #NA #F #RF #SPEC #LGBT #OV #YouDeservepIt

WHAT THE RIVER KNOWS X THE GIRL OF FIRE AND THORNS Hatshepsut’s shaking hands poise the dagger for his throat, but she can’t kill him, partly because he’s already dead. A badass heroine💪🏾 Visions from the gods🔮 Swoonworthy romance🌹 An assassin’s blade🗡️ Murder most foul🔪 #2025pit #YA #Q

#Agents if you like the martial competition and political intrigue of AN EMBER IN THE ASHES, the forbidden romance and family loyalty themes of THESE VIOLENT DELIGHTS, and the E2L banter of FOURTH WING, I have a book for you! ❤️‍🔥 Slow burn 🎭 Secret identity 🔪 Morally grey FMC #F #R #RM #2025pit

Best selling horror writer, James Lord, kept the secret of his genius for a lifetime. Every horror he imagines comes to life until the final sentence is written. Once dementia set-in, the nightmares he unleashed cannot be contained…until he finds a worth successor to finish the story. #2025pit #h

TENDER IS THE FLESH + THE GIRL WITH ALL THE GIFTS As a wild human, Rachel’s flesh is considered a delicacy. Captured & sold at market, her fate now rests on her ability to convince her not quite human buyer that she is worth more alive than on his dinner plate #2025Pit #Q #A #SF #H #SpecFic

BABY TEETH x THE VIOLENCE in a twisted tale where the normal everyday residents of a picture-perfect small town find that the new daycare center--and the teachers who run it--are not what they seem #2025pit #H #A

The land is overrun by undead, ruled by the Necromancer King. People are broken, hope is lost. Bolan is bent on revenge, willing to do whatever it takes to kill the Necromancer. Some call him Deathsbane, a hero in the dark. But he knows the truth. Can evil destroy evil? #2025pit

#2025Pit TWIN PEAKS x TOMB RAIDER X JACKAL My #A #SPF #T #M has... 🤗 found family 🦌 weird stuff in the mountains 👀 fighting small town drug lords 💪 two strong female MCs dealing with their respective trauma 👻 supernatural murder ⛰️ an atmospheric town in the Blue Ridge

A sentient school's job is never done. Pollenvale University has curated the perfect set of students to unravel an evil plot. Except maybe they aren't so perfect. Can they overcome arcane sigils, a tempermental copier, family legacies, and gnomes to survive initiation? #2025Pit #ya #f

When the delicate balance of corruption is disrupted by eldritch-power-wielding warlords ‘The Twins’, thief Nightjar and thief-catcher Illyana have to set aside their lethal cat-and-mouse game to try and survive while their feelings for each other grow too strong to ignore #LGBT #A #RM #2025Pit

Bourdain x Myth Adventures x Star Trek DS9 An interstellar TV show host and her film crew team up with an alien refugee child, a union activist, and a scary fast-food worker to try to stop a trafficking ring on a space station. #2025pit #A #SF

Ceelyo, a future prince consort, searches for wish-granting pearls. His sheltered life is turned upside-down when a mysterious visitor reveals that old threats have grown stronger than ever, and the magical pearls are real, just not in the way that Ceelyo thought. #2025Pit #F #YA

#2025pit #SPF #shortstory If LOVE, DEATH, AND ROBOTS had a baby with WHITE CAT, BLACK DOG:STORIES it would be my collection OF SIGHT AND SOUND. Irreverent, dark and a little goofy with literary overtones. Stand at the edge of an abyss from your reading chair. Comfortable discomfort!

Get out and repost #2025Pit “Their tales created mine—the one who birthed me, the one who raised me, the one who loved me, and the one who protected me. I don’t believe in happy endings, only satisfying ones, and any ending can be an acceptable one if it’s on your terms.”