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🍂 Michelle 🕯️

@mdkerkhoven.bsky.social

Dark fantasy & horror author • she/her • 🏳️‍🌈 • Mostly updates •

243 Posts1990 Follower 748 Folgt

🍂 Michelle 🕯️@mdkerkhoven.bsky.social · 8mo ago

the author, the first page & the moodboard of 𝗗𝗘𝗔𝗗 𝗚𝗢𝗗𝗦 𝗥𝗜𝗦𝗜𝗡𝗚, my queer YA dark fantasy/horror 👀👾🌊 #amquerying

🍂 Michelle 🕯️@mdkerkhoven.bsky.social · 8mo ago

quick PSA that I wrote a queer YA dark fantasy/horror about logging into a dead game to save your sibling and accidentally helping an eldritch horror break into reality…👀 #amquerying

🍂 Michelle 🕯️@mdkerkhoven.bsky.social · 8mo ago

“the sea & her lighthouse” 🌊😩

🍂 Michelle 🕯️@mdkerkhoven.bsky.social · 8mo ago

Saw iron lung today & all I can say is deep ocean horror>>>

🍂 Michelle 🕯️@mdkerkhoven.bsky.social · 9mo ago

After amicably parting ways with my agent, I’m officially seeking representation for 𝗗𝗘𝗔𝗗 𝗚𝗢𝗗𝗦 𝗥𝗜𝗦𝗜𝗡𝗚 (sub-ready!) So here’s an agent’s guide to my 72,000-word queer YA dark fantasy/horror blend, with Big 5 editor interest 👾 Agents, I’d love to connect!

An agent’s guide to DEAD GODS RISING, queer YA dark fantasy & cosmic horror

In 2013, in the town of Blackwater Cove, Washington, a local game studio launched Dead Gods Rising—a groundbreaking horror MMORPG that blurred the line between game and reality.

Then its players started disappearing.

Sixteen-year-old town favorite, Atlas Calloway, was the first. Two more followed. Eventually, a developer was arrested, and the servers went dark. But the disappearances didn’t stop.

Two years later, Lark Calloway can’t escape her brother—his shadow constantly reminds her she’ll never be enough. When he begins appearing to her where no one else sees him and a USB holding an encrypted copy of Dead Gods Rising arrives, Lark discovers something impossible: the server’s still running, and the missing kids are trapped inside. Saving them might finally put her first.

But the game’s drowned interior mirrors Blackwater Cove too closely, the NPCs know too much, and worst of all, the deeper Lark ventures into the game’s submerged world, the more reality itself unravels.

To bring her brother—whose life might not have been as perfect as Lark always thought—home, Lark must endure his eternally upbeat best friend, navigate monstrous server zones, and survive the final, painful patch of Dead Gods Rising—where the missing players are waiting, and something far older than the game is watching.

Something that will kill to keep her and Atlas both.

This Raging Sea meets Stranger Things and Warcross.

Prologue: ‘The sea always gave back what she took. Except for Atlas—him, she kept. And it might’ve been Lark’s fault.’

72,000 words, Big 5 Editor interest

Trope map around character art of a brown haired girl, blond haired boy, and curly brown haired boy. Tropes are: Tumblr-era setting, queer cast, gloomy coastal town setting, cosmic horror elements, angry & unlikely FMC, and toxic sibling dynamics.

🍂 Michelle 🕯️@mdkerkhoven.bsky.social · 12mo ago

MIDNIGHT MASS x THE WICKED DEEP A suspected witch strikes a bargain with the captain of the ghost ship haunting her pious coastal town to break its curse—only to be targeted by a vicious pastor who’ll stop at nothing to keep the curse intact. #PitDark #YA #DF #LGBT #agented

🍂 Michelle 🕯️@mdkerkhoven.bsky.social · 12mo ago

THIS RAGING SEA x STRANGER THINGS A teen girl enters a defunct MMORPG to begrudgingly search for her missing brother—whom she’d rather leave missing—only to find out an eldritch sea monster is using the game as a gateway to reality. #PitDark #YA #DF #LGBT #agented

🍂 Michelle 🕯️@mdkerkhoven.bsky.social · last yr.

“𝙇𝙚𝙩 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙢 𝙧𝙚𝙥𝙚𝙣𝙩?” 𝘝𝘪𝘷𝘪𝘢𝘯 𝘤𝘩𝘶𝘤𝘬𝘭𝘦𝘥. 𝘐𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘢 𝘤𝘰𝘭𝘥, 𝘥𝘦𝘢𝘥 𝘴𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥. “𝙁*𝙘𝙠 𝙧𝙚𝙥𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙜. 𝙄 𝙬𝙖𝙣𝙩 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙢 𝙙𝙚𝙖𝙙.” Vivian Ruygh, by the amazing oliv_pit 🌊

🍂 Michelle 🕯️@mdkerkhoven.bsky.social · last yr.

‘𝘒𝘢𝘵𝘫𝘢 𝘧𝘦𝘭𝘵 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘢 𝘤𝘢𝘳𝘤𝘢𝘴𝘴 𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘪𝘯 𝘪𝘵𝘴 𝘩𝘪𝘥𝘦, 𝙧𝙤𝙩𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙗𝙪𝙩 𝙥𝙖𝙧𝙖𝙙𝙚𝙙 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙖𝙡𝙡 𝙩𝙤 𝙨𝙚𝙚.’ Katja Boden, by the amazing oliv_pit 🌿

🍂 Michelle 🕯️@mdkerkhoven.bsky.social · 2y ago

“𝙄𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙖𝙡𝙡𝙚𝙮.” 𝘝𝘪𝘷𝘪𝘢𝘯 𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘧𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘢𝘨𝘢𝘪𝘯. “𝙒𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙙𝙞𝙙 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙢𝙖𝙣 𝙬𝙖𝙣𝙩 𝙛𝙧𝙤𝙢 𝙮𝙤𝙪?” 𝘒𝘢𝘵𝘫𝘢 𝘴𝘢𝘵 𝘣𝘢𝘤𝘬. “𝙃𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙤𝙪𝙜𝙝𝙩 𝙢𝙚 𝙖 𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙘𝙝.” “𝘼𝙧𝙚 𝙮𝙤𝙪?” 𝘚𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘮𝘪𝘭𝘦𝘥. “𝙈𝙖𝙮𝙗𝙚.” #WritingCommunity

🍂 Michelle 🕯️@mdkerkhoven.bsky.social · 2y ago

#PopUpPitE #LuckyPit 🫀 • Chronic illness rep 🧹 • Witches ⚓️ • A ghost ship 🍂 • Sleuthing lesbians 🌊 • Coastal town w/ sinister secrets ‘𝐃𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐡 arrived by neither steed nor raven, but as it did every solstice—aboard a coal-black galleon with charred sails.’

Ruth Cantu is querying 🦄@ruth-cantu-writes.bsky.social · 2y ago

DAWN OF ONYX x DISCOVERY OF WITCHES Divine fate must be broken if it thinks Alys Sathos is supposed to help free the enemy witch realm of their compulsion wielding Queen and not even the brooding Prince who captured her is going to change her mind. #LuckyPit #PopUpPitA #F #A

An Agent’s Guide to Eleutheria. 133k Adult high Romantic fantasy. Image of woman in a glass dome holding a moon in one hand and in other.

Pitch: Alys Sathos has no interest in liberating the enemy Night Realm of their mind-controlling queen and not even destiny will change her mind. When she’s captured and forced before the queen, her enemies’ fight becomes her own and her growing feelings for the mind-bound prince might be more deadly than the queen herself.
Tropes: captive to forbidden lovers, freewill themes, mob mentality, non western FMC thrust into western fantasy world, neurodivergence in high fantasy, dueling witch realms, swords and epic battles, power of history and books, queer normative world

Comps: THE HURRICANE WARS- enemy realms at odds. A DAWN OF ONYX- captive to lovers. A DISCOVERY OF WITCHES- creature history and lore
Chapter One Sample: Gritting my teeth until my jaw ached, I held her stare; a pathetic bit of defiance against power I couldn’t match. She rose and loomed over me on the dais, never blinking. The hairs on the back of my neck prickled one by one as her dark sapphire eyes glowed silver.
Compulsion.
Icy fingers sank into my mind, ripping through my will. Ko’s pale green face replaced any other thought. A desire to run a sword through him overtook everything; my hopes, my dreams, my very will that had formed an airwitch captain from an orphaned street rat.

amarie is ✨ON SUB✨@amariewrites.bsky.social · 2y ago

FOR LOVERS OF ALWAYS BE MY MAYBE x TALIA HIBBERT x DANIELLE ALLEN When Amara struggles to find a contractor to renovate her plus-size boutique, she enlists the help of her ex-childhood best friend (& first love), Theo, who she hasn’t spoken to in 8 years. #LuckyPit #PopUpPitE #Agented

thea liu @authorthealiu.bsky.social · 2y ago

OUR INFINITE FATES x STUDIO GHIBLI Hanna is convinced nothing will ever change on her island-in-the-sky—including dying at 17 in every one of her lives. Then a boy from below crash-lands in his plane. He could be her salvation…or her next death. #LuckyPit #PopUpPit #PopUpPitE

moodboard with pink and purple tones featuring pink flowers, clouds, Fuji mountain, a street in Japan, a girl surrounded by flowers, and the quotes “souls don’t meet by accident” and “let’s meet again, for the first time”

Art of a dark haired boy and girl kissing beneath a tree, surrounded by poppies and hydrangeas

a (dil)emma ✨️ is AGENTED!@emmailene.bsky.social · 2y ago

EDITORS!! ✨️👀🗡🔥 When Alya, a notorious assassin, makes a deal to kill the deadly prince's enemies in exchange for her secrets kept buried she never expects to: A: hunt down & kill the lost Romanov heir B: start falling for the prince she may have to kill #PopUpPitE #LuckyPit #agented #PopUpPit

Rowan Brighton Brown @rowanbrightonbrown.bsky.social · 2y ago

A Southern inheritance is always dark—whether it's a penchant for pills, a blood-soaked family farm, or an ancient magic. Sierra spurns them all, but when her dad disappears, she must choose which monsters to slay, and which to become. #PopUpPitE #LuckyPit

amarie is ✨ON SUB✨@amariewrites.bsky.social · 2y ago

When Isadora struggles to keep her aunt’s magic shop open, she’s given the chance to grumpy demon, Gio, in order to secure his inheritance. If she can make it a year, he’ll give her the funds needed to get the shop out of debt. #LuckyPit #PopUpPitE

Heather Carter @hlcarterauthor.bsky.social · 2y ago

LAKESEDGE X HILL HOUSE A shadow demon has marked Chloe as the future bride of the ruthless Underworld prince, trapping her in a haunted house. She has 3 weeks to break the bond or forever live in darkness. A handsome ghost may hold the key. #LuckyPit #PopUpPitE #A #F #R

A dark staircase background. White text reads: A DEATH WITHOUT YOU, HEATHER CARTER, CAN TRUE LOVE TRANSCEND THE CHASM BETWEEN LIFE AND DEATH? ON SUBMISSION NOW. Three images- one book cover of Lakesedge by Lyndall Clipstone, a movie posted for Netflix's The Haunting of Hill House, and a movie poster for The Phantom of the Opera

Sarah Rowlands @sarahauthor27.bsky.social · 2y ago

🫐BELLADONNA x OUTLANDER☘️ 🖤1912 Gothic Romantasy 🌿BodyHorror plant monsters 🌸CottageGore When Estella discovers an enchanted glen with old Irish curse, she must hide her monstrous symptoms (and her interest in the Irish) from her husband before they become his medical experiment #PopUpPitA #LuckyPit

austin (🛤️ is querying 🛤️)@austinsgrace.bsky.social · 2y ago

(re)introducing HOW TO COME HOME: ⛓️ PEAKY BLINDERS x CAT SEBASTIAN 🏳️‍🌈 upmarket queer historical romance 🛤️ an ex-con w/a head for numbers 🎼 a former musical prodigy dealing w/disability 📚 small-town troubles & big-city ghosts #LuckyPit #PopUpPit #PopUpPitA

Pitch card for HOW TO COME HOME, pitched as PEAKY BLINDERS X WE COULD BE SO GOOD.
Ten years ago, Nathan Gilliard stole $100,000 from his family’s safe and turned informant on his family’s Prohibition contraband empire, damning his brothers to life in prison in exchange for a ten-year sentence of his own. Stepping out as a free man in 1937, he’s set on spending his life alone and penitent, never forgetting what he did to his family—or why.
Taking a job in a small-town general store is the perfect stopgap, even if Nathan uses a false name to hide his identity...and even if his new boss, handsome, bespectacled single father Lawrence Freburg, is as earnest and kindhearted as Nathan’s upbringing and time in prison weren’t.
Pitch text is set against an image of a cornfield and full moon at dusk, with gold decorative borders in the top left and bottom right corners

Trope/theme map for HOW TO COME HOME, with a digital painting of Nathan and Lawrence at the center. Lawrence, sitting to the left, is a white blond man playing piano and smiling, with glasses hanging from his neck. Nathan, right, is a dark-haired white man watching him play.

Tropes/themes read:
Upmarket historical romance
107,000 words
Dual POV with flashbacks
Running from the past, returning to the past
Crime family/criminal brothers
Unconventional family structures
Queerness & homemaking
Disability =/= disabling

Sophie Cass (is agented)@scasswriting.bsky.social · 2y ago

OUR WIVES UNDER THE SEA x THE WITCHER 🌿 Dual POV mother/daughter 🌿 Reluctant allies to lovers 🌿 Coming-of-age queer romance 🌿 Instalove vs slow-burn lust 🌿 Everyone is morally grey 🌿 Eco-horror fantasy 🌿 Elemental secondary world #PopUpPit #PopUpPitE #LuckyPit #A #F

Rowan Brighton Brown @rowanbrightonbrown.bsky.social · 2y ago

Courtney Reece @courtneywrites.bsky.social · 2y ago

NONE OF THIS IS TRUE x WHAT LIES BENEATH When Sophie is brutally dumped, she can’t help but wonder: Is she possessed or just pissed? 🥀1950s flashbacks 🌊a coastal town with secrets 🔪female rage & revenge 🌊second-chance love 🥀a twist that will 👀 #PopUpPitE #LuckyPit

Rhian Parry 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿📚@dearrhian.bsky.social · 2y ago

Introducing A MORTAL DROWNING, an academic rivals to lovers romantasy that uses altered mythology as an allegory for stifling oppressed voices, and explores how the alienation of autistic people perpetuates their inherent feelings of wrongness 🥀✨ #PopUpPit #LuckyPit #PopUpPitE

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.

Comp titles: Addie LaRue, Divine Rivals, Emily Wilde, Modern Divination, A Study in Drowning and Tales of a Monstrous Heart

Aesthetic graphic featuring the ocean, a castle, poetic prose, hand holding, white flowers and a woman in 1910s/20s style clothing

Olwen, a solar goddess, needs magic to escape an ex lover with murderous intent while Arthur, a mortal man, needs it to recover his memory as the sole survivor in a string of men found drowned with magic in their lungs. But with rumours of stirring deities intent on desolation haunting crumbling shores, and the magic that once saved a nation from falling to the bottom of an ocean on the brink of extinction, time is running out.

Olwen and Arthur’s academic rivalry intensifies alongside an unlikely romance, and when the two students join forces to make sense of the chaos, each new discovery leads to one damning conclusion: uncovering the truth of Arthur’s missing past might be the mistake that kills them both.

Michelle Sanchez @sanchezmm.bsky.social · 2y ago

#LuckyPit #PopUpPit I'm an unlucky girl trapped in Grandfather's cliffhouse, caretaker of his magic box with 3 human hearts I must feed blood. They die? I die. Handsome Duke Lugo offers a blood bargain, but he's hungry to expose the secrets of Casa del Demonio...and me. #PopUpPitE #YA #Gothic #H

Annie Morgan 🏳️‍🌈📚@anniemmorgan.bsky.social · 2y ago

SLIDING DOORS x MAYBE IN ANOTHER LIFE When Lucy is blindsided by a proposal, her answer fractures her future in two. 📱internet villain of the week vs 👰‍♀️ reluctant bride 🫂 female friendships 💕found family 🕑 second chances 💜 make it sapphic #PopUpPitE #LuckyPit #WF

A. K. Lim @authoraklim.bsky.social · 2y ago

POWERLESSxSEVEN FACELESS SAINTS She was a priestess, he was a prince, can I make it any more obvious... 🥀Chosen one who chose herself 👑Golden retriever prince 🗡Bloody war w/ no hope for peace (unless?) 🤫Mysterious blackmailers 👀Mistaken Identity 💞Enemies-Lovers-??? #LuckyPit #PopUpPitE #YA #R #F