Tessera
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K.A. Hela ✨ Starting a new WIP✨

@jundlife.bsky.social

SPED teacher by day, secret writer on the sly. Mediocre Magic: The Gathering player, Bar Trivia Teammate, FF14 Treasure Hunter, Reader of Weird Books, Paint By Number Master, Documentary Hound, Owner of a three-legged cat. DM to swap Beta reads!

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Amanda Turek💎Writing Rushak@acturek.bsky.social · 2w ago

Two brothers take their gem magic outside to unearth the truth, fight evil, protect buried treasure, and confront their mental health problems. The magic has caveats, the truth isn’t pretty, the demons find out, and there’s an explosion. Brother’s Keeper #QuestPit #A #F #W #WritingCommunity

I Love Rocks: Geology Enthusiast Hugs Stone

Alt: I Love Rocks: Geology Enthusiast Hugs Stone on top of her with a hat repeatedly falling off her head.

static.klipy.com

Catherine Winters@catherinewinters.com · 2w ago

Nia Moredi just wants to look out for her little brother. Miss Laval needs to attend a governess-teacher meeting. Baarsin Dorvierre's being watched. Pickpocket Wren needs to recharge her misdirection charm. If only Nia could remember which of them she's supposed to be today. #QuestPit #YA #F #LGBT

A Pickpocket's Guide to High Society (And Higher Mathematics) YA Fantasy 80K words Catherine Winters dot com Against a subtly textured background of mathematical formulae and a hexagonal summoning grid feature a collection of intriguing objects: The outstretched hand of some mechanical clockwork automaton made of white porcelain. A purple and gold masquerade mask. A set of brass architect's tools: a compass, a protractor, calipers. A set of gears laid out, pulled from some kind of mechanism. The Pitch When she picks the wrong pocket, sixteen-year-old Nia unlocks a magical talent she didn’t know she had and catches the attention of people she doesn't want to know. Blackmailed into stealing a mysterious box, Nia accidentally awakens a living clockwork doll—that promptly runs away. Accused of betraying the blackmailers, Nia and her band of would-be thieves go on the run, pursued by magehunters, street gangs, and the secret police. When the doll returns to make a deal, Nia turns to the man whose lucky coin unlocked her magic, only to find him missing. Caught in a lie, Nia’s soon posing as an heiress, in the clutches of the man’s elderly landlady—who's intent on introducing the girl she knows as “Baarsin” to high society. As Nia finds herself disappearing into the role, she and her friends must race against time to track down the people behind it all: a secret society of mathematicians whose influence reaches all the way to the governor herself.Excerpt Caz tensed. “There’s someone following us,” she hissed. “I know,” Nia said. The man had been tailing them through the crowd for almost six blocks now. “He won’t be the only one.” She tugged Caz into the empty foyer of a boarding house and pulled out her misdirection charm. “Take my hand and stay quiet!” “That won’t work on me,” Caz protested. “No,” Nia said, willing herself to believe. “I can do this.” With all her strength, she pushed more of herself into the charm, the equation unfolding in her mind’s eye. She reached out, and as the world darkened around them, turned the doorknob, Caz clutching her arm. Nia pulled the taller girl close as the man pushed past them, failing to notice the door was already opening. On the busy sidewalk, Caz let out a breath. A small boy leaning against a nearby lamppost glanced in their direction, an uncertain expression on his young face. Caz cringed. “Sorry!” she mouthed.Comps & Tropes Includes the covers of four books: Never Ever After by Sue Lynn Tan Den of Liars by Jessica S. Olsen Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo's Beyond the Black Door by A.M. Strickland "Tropes" is loosely used here and includes: Stealing is magical (literally) Fish out of water (you probably guessed) Working for the wrong people Ancient magic (in over their heads) The MacGuffin is blackmailing us "Aren't you a little young to be a criminal?" Metaphorically dyslexic LI (she's also dyslexic) Creepy clockwork doll that complains all the time Good at magic, as long as she has a compass & protractor Grifter vs. con artist Sword lesbian (in training) Lying (a lot) Found family of scoundrels Ace protagonist (who hasn't had time to think about that) One big job and then we can retire (oh no, somehow everything went wrong) Let's break into a data centre! No chosen ones, no choosing ceremonies, just hard work and practice.
Jules@julesanew.bsky.social · 2w ago

THE SHADOWS (WIP in 3rd Draft) #W #F #A #QuestPit A middle-aged shopkeeper & retired magical con artist takes one last job to save store & family. She could end the corrupt power of the Skyborn mages. She could end up losing herself, her magic & all she holds dear. Talk about a midlife crisis.

Moodboard for The Shadows WIP. Upper left: Illustration of a crowded, cramped city alley. Upper mid: Four black-clad people with face masks in a warehouse. Upper right: Shadowed cobblestone alley with someone at the mouth sweeping. Mid left. Two memes. "A niche character trope I like is the person who is nice, a good person and acts well-adjusted, then they do something where it's like oh you're secretly a little bit insane actually. Middle: A shadowed portrait of a woman with sparks coming out of her hands. Mid right: A meme: Original poster: "80% exhaustion 10% sarcasm %20 don't care" Reply poster: "that's 110 percent". OP: "20% of me doesn't care." RP: "should've seen that coming." Bottom left: Warmly lit storefront doorway on a cobblestone street. Bottom mid: Painting of fancy buildings on islands floating well above the ground. Bottom right: Cramped thrift store with shopkeeper.The Shadows: The Pitch The worst day of Ania’s life was when her beloved cousin Piren was dragged off to the floating towers of the Above to serve as a source to the Skyborn mages. The second worst day was when he was returned. Discarded. Drained of his magic and broken in spirit. Ania left behind her rebellious past to support her cousin as he once supported her. In a city where any display of magic makes you a target of the Skyborn, keeping your head down and your magic a secret, taking care of your friends, your family and your neighborhood is the only safe way to survive. But now, everything she’s built over twenty years of safe, carefully constructed life is falling apart. To recover what she’s lost, Ania takes on one last dangerous heist that strikes at the heart of the Skyborn’s power. She may end up losing herself. She may just bring the entire system crashing down.The Shadows: Comp Titles MA Carrick: Mask of Mirrors. Con artist MC out to save her family (and maybe the world). Shannon Chakraborty: Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi. I'm retired. Really. Okay, fine, one last job. Robert Jackson Bennett: Foundryside. Magical technology, a corrupt ruling class and problematic heists. Fonda Lee: Last Contract of Isako. I'm too old for this shit but no one else can do it.“Except you can help me without bringing the bluejackets and their hunters down on my head!” Ania yelled, throwing her arms in the air. “All I’m asking you for is money. You’re asking me to risk my life! My family’s life!” She glared at him, grinding out her words through clenched teeth. “You want me to dust off magic I haven’t used in twenty years! How is that fair?” She spat the last word. “It’s not fair!” Verasi spat back at her. “None of this is fair!” He flung a hand out. “Our people, our friends and family, our neighbors, are ripped from their homes in the middle of the night. They’re enslaved, ridden so hard they break. Maybe it takes a year. Maybe it takes five. Maybe it only takes a couple of months.” He continued in a harsh whisper. “We live in constant fear that it’ll be one of us. If not one of us, someone we know. Someone we love. Their propaganda machine is turning our own people against us. You know they’re not even testing people to see if they have any magical talent now? They’re just rounding people up at random and carting them off Above. None of them come home, not the same way they left.”