Six weeks and SEVEN(?!) offers of rep later, I’m thrilled to announce I’m now represented by Lauren Gardner at @belllomaxmoreton.bsky.social 🥳🥂Lauren’s vision for this book is unmatched, as is her enthusiasm for my autistic ghoul and the woman he’s pathetic for! Editors, watch this space 🌊✨🥀

Being LGBTQ+ and getting diagnosed with autism and a chronic illness within the span of a year is incredible work if I may say so myself, I just know the anti-woke brigade are frothing at the mouth to condemn me

A MORTAL DROWNING, my academic rivals to lovers romantasy ft. #ownvoices autistic rep, gothic undertones, Welsh folklore & big 5 editor interest is sitting pretty with 8 full manuscript requests (& 1 partial) after just 3 weeks of querying - and now, behold it in ✨meme form✨ #UnhingedPit #F #R #Q

I see your toxic shadow daddy and raise you a sopping wet, pathetic loser so obsessed with the FMC (who’s literally immortal btw) that he nearly 💀 himself multiple times to protect her - while also being hunted by a deity drowning a nation in search of him 🤡 #UnhingedPit #Q #F #R

Competing for magic that’ll save you from your immortal ex is fine until you fall for your academic rival - worse yet when he needs it to evade the deity drowning a nation in search of him 💀🥀 With 8 full requests (and 1 partial) in under 3 weeks, behold AMD in ✨meme form✨ #UnhingedPit #Q #F #R

✨Author News ✨ After amicably parting with my agent, I’m seeking new representation w/ A MORTAL DROWNING, my academic rivals to lovers romantasy ft. #ownvoices autistic rep, gothic undertones, Welsh folklore (& big 5 editor interest!) #Agents hit me up if you’re intrigued 👀

Finally got my query inbox below 500, got another full request for my own book (no other agent respond so I can maintain my 100% request rate plz), my chronic illness is actually behaving for once, the sun is shining, and I’m spending the weekend in the countryside!! WAR IS OVER

Nah 2025 is actually cursed, my glass shower screen just exploded for no reason?! To top it off, this was just after I came back from a not fun medical procedure 😭

Playing up my Welsh accent while in Scotland this weekend to make it VERY clear where my loyalties lie (read: in pursuit of a Celtic union)

The boots I ordered aren’t going to arrive in time for the weekend, so if you see me wearing vans that are literally split in half at @cymerafestival.co.uk no you don’t x

My job is great because in what other industry could I possibly attend business meetings and repeatedly refer to shadow daddies without anyone batting an eyelid

Everyone go read my querying advice! NOW!! 🏃‍♀️ I promise I know what I’m talking about (most of the time) 😇 (and while you’re there, subscribe to the TBP substack - it’s a GOLDMINE for bts publishing info and advice) #WritingCommunity

Cackling over the fact that when I visited family this weekend, my mum (who has no context of this book) referenced this art and commented on how lovely she looks but that he’s ‘a bit unnerving’ - hats off to Essie (the artist) for so perfectly nailing these characters’ vibes 💀

I’ve got a 4.5 hour train journey on Friday (and another on Sunday) and I am so excited, I LOVE long train journeys! The books I can read!! The writing I can do!!!

God I love wales, I’ve been home a few hours and I’ve already been given a walkthrough tour of someone’s new (illegally) encrypted firestick, and somebody nicknamed ‘Dave the House’ had been referenced multiple times

Best thing about pivoting to working in publishing are the reactions I get when I tell other people in the industry that my degree’s in business management, I previously worked at a tech start up, and I had a former career in management consultancy because bestie I’m confused too

Hay Festival is all over my TikTok fyp at the moment and it’s making me SICK with jealousy

I was obsessed with lilo & stitch when I was little and for some reason my child brain interpreted the Elvis references and Elvis-inspired soundtrack as him being Hawaiian, when I tell you I was STUNNED when I discovered he was a white man from Mississippi 😭

Can the 15 people ahead of me in my library’s queue for sunrise on the reaping please cancel their reservations, I’m losing my patience x

Hello 999, I’ve been watching videos of Michael Sheen talking about Wales until it made me want to cry again

God really does give his toughest battles to his strongest soldiers (it’s hair wash day)

If I see one more author justify using gen AI art by framing it as a class issue, I’m going to scream!! I did NOT spend years in the wattpad trenches making my own covers with nothing but the free version of canva and a dream for this discourse (and dare I say, they’re not bad??)

I rarely take breaks from writing and every time I do I remember why I don’t because someone tell me why I’ve spent this evening wandering aimlessly between my bedroom and living room like a forlorn victorian ghost

When I say I want gothic vibes in my submissions inbox, I mean this. Literally at the timestamp pictured too, thanks x

Still thinking about the pyramid scheme interview I overheard at a cafe the other day where the interviewer stated their interests as stock investment, football, and reading self-improvement books without any irony whatsoever

Not to be dramatic but I would happily commit arson if it meant I never had to use the microsoft authenticator app again

When all is said and done Keir Starmer is, above all else, just incredibly lame

I’ve been hesitant to refer to my book as having light gothic undertones (let alone explicit gothic vibes) but having read some of the recent books marketed as gothic fantasies, actually I think I’m being way too cautious lmao

Don’t think I’ve ever googled a quirk I’ve noticed about myself without the result coming back as a sign of autism lmao

Jealous of authors who can commission character art of their couples in some flirty banter style embrace, mine would literally just be the MMC curled into a ball weeping at the FMC’s feet

A mortal man with no memory of his past and a goddess the earth has no memory of compete for their university’s magic in a world where magic, and the language that sustains it, is dying… …and whichever student loses will have their own extinction to worry about 💀🥀 #QuestPit #AG #A

Competing for magic that’ll save you from your immortal ex is fine until you fall for your academic rival* - worse yet when he needs it to evade the deity drowning a nation in search of him 🥀Dark academia 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿Folklore 💖Autistic rep *who’s chronically unserious #QuestPit #AG #A

A STUDY IN DROWNING meets ADDIE LARUE (with a Rebecca Ross vibe) in a world where altered mythology acts as an allegory for stifling oppressed voices, and where the alienation of autistic people perpetuates their inherent feelings of wrongness 🥀✨ #QuestPit #AG #A #ownvoices

Yet to have any caffeine today, I’m so brave

A STUDY IN DROWNING X EMILY WILDE 🎓Academic rivals to lovers ☀️Grumpy x sunshine 🏰A touch of darkness 🌶️Romantic spice ✨Language-based magic system 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿Cultures surviving against all odds 🙂‍↕️Sopping wet pathetic loser MMC 💖Autistic rep #ownvoices #QuestPit #AG #A

Me pre-agenting: I don’t think I’ll be a super editorial agent, just provide some helpful guidance to steer authors in the right direction 🙂 Me to literally every author I’ve signed:

It’s a tough one, but if I had to pick my highlight of the week it’d either be getting carted off to hospital for an emergency iron infusion or locking myself out of my flat at 11pm last night and gatecrashing a friend’s place to avoid sleeping on the streets 🤩

No idea what this says about me or my mental state, but I’ve had the biggest urge to go horse riding recently? 😭 Like??

Fun fact! 10 of the last 15 booker prize winners were men, as were 8 of the last 11 Pulitzer Prize for fiction winners 🙂 (stats courtesy of an anon person via the @xoxopublishingg Instagram, fact checked by myself)

Do not ever say "team building" to me. Are you trying to piss me off

Finally faced the minor life admin task I’ve been putting off for months that took me 10 mins to complete

Not to brag but the Wattpad book I wrote when I was 16 that was uploaded to goodreads without my permission and which I cannot for the life of me get removed has a solid 4.37 rating 💅

I’ve had a stream of new subscribers to my newsletter recently and I have no idea where they’re coming from omg? But thank you??

Welsh mythology is actually so funny, like ‘sorry my half brother killed your horses, to make up for it here’s a cauldron that can literally resurrect the dead??’ In what world is that a fair exchange omg

Bring back funny men in romcoms, I beg!!

And here’s the art by itself ✨ (as #PosterPit was me hard launching it!!) My autistic sunlight deprived ghoul and his all-consuming obsession, a solar goddess whose strength is her softness. Their dynamic is literally this: ☀️🧎🏻‍♂️ (this is actually him smiling btw) Art by khal_essie on 📸

A STUDY IN DROWNING X ADDIE LARUE 🎓 Academic rivals to lovers ☀️ Grumpy x sunshine 🏰 A touch of darkness 🌶️ Romantic spice ✨ Language-based magic system 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 Cultures surviving against all odds 🙂‍↕️ Sopping wet pathetic loser MMC 💖 Autistic rep #ownvoices #PosterPit #PosterPita #F #NA

A mortal man with no memory of his past and a goddess the earth has no memory of compete for their university’s magic in a world where magic, and the language that sustains it, is dying… …and whichever student loses will have their own extinction to worry about 💀🥀 #PosterPit #PosterPita #F #NA

Competing for magic that’ll save you from your immortal ex is fine until you fall for your academic rival - worse yet when he needs it to evade the sea deity drowning a nation in search of him 🥀Dark academia vibes 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿Welsh folklore-inspired 💖Autistic rep #PosterPit #PosterPita #F #NA

🖤MY LADY JANE X CASTLEVANIA🖤 A witch & a thief compete to steal a necklace from an evil priest A task easily resolved in 20 pages if not for the: ❣️flirting 🗡️bickering & 💃DANCING PLAGUE ~slowly but surely~ bewitching everyone in town #posterpitA #YA #F #posterpit