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Jessica Fisher Riches - is Querying and Drafting

@prahajess.bsky.social

Author, teacher, quilter, Prague tram rider 🇨🇿 🌁 Only writing-related DMs. https://jessicafisherriches.com/

836 Posts1788 Follower 2698 Folgt

Jessica Fisher Riches - is Querying and Drafting @prahajess.bsky.social · 4d ago

It's here! I'm thrilled to be part of the two-volume Gorgon's Gaze Press anthology: Witches Save the World. (Note: I'm in Covens, Cauldrons and Curses)! Find all the links here: eternalhauntedsummer.com/gorgons-gaze... Direct Amazon link here: www.amazon.com/Witches-Save...

Covens and Curses, Hags and Harridans; two book covers called Witches Save the World (two editions); Witches who speak, who act, who do what must be done -- because someone has to save the world

Jessica Fisher Riches - is Querying and Drafting @prahajess.bsky.social · 4d ago

I'm attending this event. RT if you think others will find this helpful 🙌 worldshift2026.manyworldswriting.com

Worldshift 2026: The Speculative Fiction Writers' Conference

Speculative Fiction Writers' Summit

worldshift2026.manyworldswriting.com

Jessica Fisher Riches - is Querying and Drafting @prahajess.bsky.social · 6d ago

My first horror micro story has been published by Flash Phantoms! Check it out: www.flashphantoms.net/august-micro...

August Micro Fiction Horror | Flash Phantoms

For the month of August 2026, these are the stories of 100 words that intrigue us most.

flashphantoms.net

Gert Ramm 🦋@rammwriter.bsky.social · 3w ago

An intelligence agent from 2023 and a Russian spy from 1997 travel to 1972 to steal Britain's time travel secrets. When they collide with a sceptical but astute MI5 officer, the result is a temporal explosion that pushes The Cold War into new, lethally uncharted territory. #BluePit #Q #A #SF #📖

Raymond Currier @teaandcharcoal.bsky.social · 3w ago

The Archwitch Rises Living in a tyrannical theocracy, a stealth trans nobleman, Leon, his bounty-hunting alchemist boyfriend, Taerin, and the moon fight back, hoping to topple the empire for good. A MARVELLOUS LIGHT+FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST #bluepit #q #amquerying #📖 #a #f #r #OV #lgbt #nd #tr

A photo collage mood board. At the top is a black strip showing the phases of the moon and text "the archwitch rises" in a serif font. The left side shows a lush foresr with inset photos of an antique pistol sitting near a letter and quill, and a man sitting in a field moving clouds of vapor with his hands. On the right is a drawing of an 1840s city with inset images of an 1800s black suit, long brown trench coat, and a brownish green floor length dress with puffy sleeves

L.M. du Plessis 🇳🇦 🇺🇦📚💙 ‪✨drafting Scales of the Progenitor!✨@smoking-gnu.bsky.social · 3w ago

Good morning #BluePit! #📖 I present to you, for your consideration, an #AgentsGuide to: AFTER THE BITE (SOMEONE YOU CAN BUILD A NEST IN X LAND OF THE DEAD) #Bluepit #W #A #SF #H

Black background with a curvy blue and cream blob smush.
Presenting an agents guide to:
AFTER THE BITE
Genre: Horror, Post Apocalyptic, Sci-Fi, Romance
Status: Completed first draft at 82k words

Black background with a curvy blue and cream blob smush.
The pitch:
When Erika emerges from a nearly calcified cocoon in a zombie filled basement, they find themself in a world of horror and carnage, and find themself capable of shifting their shape, even making weapons from their body. What Erika is missing is their memory, which they must recover while avoiding the nightly pull of a strange light only they can see around the spire in the center of persistence, the last human city in North America.

Black background with blood splatters
Comp Titles: SOMEONE YOU CAN BUILD A NEST IN X LAND OF THE DEAD
Posters of both book and movie included.

Tropes and Themes:
MONSTER’S POV
ZOMBIE POST-APOCALYPSE
SURVIVING WALLED CITY
MAD SCIENTIST
HORRIBLE EXPERIMENTS
BODY HORROR
CHANCE ENCOUNTER TO ROMANCE
ROTTEN CRIMINAL UNDERWORLD

Pictures of some of the above.

Black background with a semi-transparent landscape picture of a city at night
Excerpt:
I push out against the hardness in front of me. It resists, but only for a few moments. Cracking and crunching noises fill my senses where only the beats were. I push harder. It fights me, but i cannot stop.
Cracks appear in front of me and… whatever it is i’m in is breached. Light and air flood over me and i gasp, drawing in lungfuls of air to sate the burning.
Thu-dump! Thu-dump!
My heart calms now that i have air, but it still beats rapidly. I still have to get out, i am in danger here! Get out and get up!
How do i know all this?
I push again, harder now that i’m breathing again. The cracks widen… and then i’m falling forward out of a large tear. My whole world tumbles, and then i’m half laying on a cold, rough, dirty floor, half hanging out of my vacated prison. I draw in another breath and start coughing, expelling dark liquid out of my lungs, but i am breathing fully and properly now.

L.M. du Plessis 🇳🇦 🇺🇦📚💙 ‪✨drafting Scales of the Progenitor!✨@smoking-gnu.bsky.social · 3w ago

Good morning #BluePit! #📖 I present to you, for your consideration, an #AgentsGuide to: CAVERN CLIPPER (TREASURE PLANET X A JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH X THE LAST EXILE) #Bluepit #W #SF #F

Background, Flying sail ships amids obscuring clouds.
presenting an Agents Guide to: Cavern Clipper.
Status: first draft being edited
Image Credit: “The Stormriders: Steampunk Pirates” by neko1206 on Deviantart.

Background, cavern lit up by bright orange-yellow light.
The Pitch:
A RECENTLY DECEASED HUMAN (SAM) AND A FORMERLY CAPTIVE CERUNAN (NYXEL) NEED TO DELIVER A MESSAGE CRITICAL TO HUMANITY’S SURVIVAL, ARE THROWN TOGETHER ON A PIRATE HUNTER SHIP AND ARE BEING PURSUED BY A RELENTLESS PIRATE FLEET - BUT THE LIVING MAZE OF CAVERNS THEY MUST TRAVERSE TO GET THERE MAY BE MORE DANGEROUS THAN THE PIRATES.

Background, massive square cavern in background with small forest and deer in foreground.
Comps: TREASURE PLANET X A JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH X THE LAST EXILE
Tropes and themes:
• TRANSMIGRATION (ISEKAI)
• AIRSHIPS
• PIRATES
• CAT AND MOUSE BATTLES
• A MESSAGE THAT MUST BE DELIVERED!

Background, Cavern with a skull face being watched by a woman.
Excerpt:
“CAPTAIN!” SAM SHOUTED AND POINTED TO THE SIGHT. HE SAW HER REACT, BUT DIDN’T WAIT TO SEE WHAT HER RESPONSE WOULD BE. INSTEAD HE SPUN AROUND TO TRY AND FIND NYXEL. HE SPOTTED HER ON THE MAINMAST, SCANNING THE DECK AND LOOKING FOR TARGETS OF OPPORTUNITY.
“NYXEL! THE CABLE!” SAM SHOUTED. HE SAW HER HEAD SNAP TOWARDS HIM AND HE POINTED TOWARDS WHERE THE LAST CABLE WAS EMBEDDED INTO THE DECK, THEN SWUNG HIS HAND AROUND TO THE SLOOP. SHE FOLLOWED HIS HAND, THEN NODDED AT HIM AND LAUNCHED BACK INTO THE AIR, GRACEFULLY CURVING TOWARDS THE SLOOP ONE FINAL TIME.

Sam Peil 🧟😈🤡@sampeil.bsky.social · 3w ago

ONE NIGHT AT THE BOTTOM OF THE LAKE When a perimenopausal single mom gets a second chance at love with her high school prom date, they have to fight off her demon ancestor, who is a sassy, lovesick, pain-in-the-ass, and everyone is a bi disaster. 😈💋🏳️‍🌈🌊 #bluepit #dis #nd #h #r #lgbt #q

One Night at the Bottom of the Lake
@sampeil

Fire water overlay on a collage of photos: man in front of lake with axe, blonde woman’s hair, campfire, kayak on water, blacksmith and tools, lake, forge

Jessica Fisher Riches - is Querying and Drafting @prahajess.bsky.social · 3w ago

🧹 EARLY MAGIC🧹 After a daemon steals her magic, a cocky teen witch reluctantly teams up with a grieving coven initiate she intends to double-cross, only to discover they're the only ones standing between a power-hungry druidess and the hidden birthplace of magic. #BluePit #📖 #YA #F #Q

A central pink circle labeled "early magic" surrounded by photos: a woman holding a glowing book, portraits of moody young women, apothecary jars, a barren shoreline and forest

B. R. Fontenot is querying 📚☀️🌷🦊@brfontenotwrites.bsky.social · 3w ago

WOLF WORM x DON'T LET THE FOREST IN THE TREES HAVE TEETH - An Appalachian Folkhorror "Olive is eight the first time Death comes for her." 🌲 Nature and rot 💀 Death as an entity 🍄 Botanical Horror ⛰️ Set in the mountains 🐇 Eerie folklore 🍂 Isolated setting #BluePit #📖 #A #H #W #DIS #OWN #ND

PITCH

Olive is eight the first time Death comes for her. She’s nineteen the second time. And Olive knows Death always comes in threes.

In the heart of the Appalachian mountains, something wicked lingers in the woods. Olive grew up running barefoot through the trees without fear of what might be lurking. But when the woods begin to devour anything that encroaches with ruthless hunger, and a mysterious man who claims to know both the cause and the cure appears at Olive’s door, she may have to face Death for the third (and final) time. If she doesn’t, the town and the boy she loves will be eaten whole.

Knock. Knock. Knock.

COMPS
Wolf Worm, Don't Let the Forest In, Hazelthorn, Morsel, Hollow

Botanical Horror, Appalachian Mountain Setting, Nature & Rot, Isolated Setting, Eerie Folklore

moodboard featuring mountains, eerie woods, and trees

K.A. Hela ✨ Starting a new WIP✨@jundlife.bsky.social · 3w ago

THE EXORCIST X DONNIE DARKO Chris is plagued with seeing shadow people, but an encounter with a powerful Eldritch being known as The Hatman, leaves him possessed and desperate to exorcise the entity attached to him before he loses control and becomes a demon himself. #BluePit #H #Q #📖

'Hat' - 81K, Cosmic Horror Querying Soon.
Pitch: Chris is obsessed with light and nature's patterns after a Shadow Person nearly killed him as a child. He tries to focus on important things, like finding a way to get his goth girl crush Mel to share a joint or two. Until the Hatman. He imbues Chris with his essence, bonding them. If Chris was haunted by Shadows before, now he is possessed.
Tropes: 2000's set
Spooky New ENgland
Amature Witchcraft
Nature, moon stuff, Stoner Goths
nu-Metal Playlist
Comps - The Possession of Alba Diaz. Slewfoot. Backrooms

Gert Ramm 🦋@rammwriter.bsky.social · 3w ago

A celebrity author teases his novel by building a replica of Stonehenge, raising ghosts of an English town’s Roman past. As pagan cults clash, a father races to save his estranged son, a victim of the madness, before the Winter Solstice unleashes mayhem and blood sacrifice. #BluePit #W #A #H #📖

Gert Ramm 🦋@rammwriter.bsky.social · 3w ago

Slow Horses x Life on Mars 🔫 High-stakes thriller 🔫 Time travel twist 🔫 Stale beer espionage 🔫 Weird Science 🔫 Cold War subterfuge 🔫 Working class hero 🔫 Hunter to hunted 🔫 Antagonist from the future 🔫 Enemy turned ally 🔫 Proles vs privilege #BluePit #Q #A #SF #📖 #agentguide #litagents

Jessica Fisher Riches - is Querying and Drafting @prahajess.bsky.social · 3w ago

🧹 EARLY MAGIC 🧹 Clueless meets Rachel Griffin #BluePit #📖 #YA #F #Q #WriteSky

Jessica Fisher Riches - is Querying and Drafting @prahajess.bsky.social · 3w ago

The night her mentor died, Gabina lost control. She reached something the world had buried...and it reached back. ❤️‍🔥 Slow Burn 👹 Daemons 🧹 Covens 🇨🇿 Prague ☁️ Dark #BluePit #📖 #A #R #D #W #WriteSky #AmWriting #Writers

The Vltava Pact; images: Charles Bridge Statue, young woman, ink well, gargoyle, young man

Jessica Fisher Riches - is Querying and Drafting @prahajess.bsky.social · 3w ago

The Vltava Pact; images: statue on Charles Bridge, ink well and pen, young man

Jessica Fisher Riches - is Querying and Drafting @prahajess.bsky.social · 3w ago

Four Keys First published in The Write Launch. 🇨🇿 👹 🗝️ 🌹 #shortstory #BluePit #📖 #A #R #P #Fairytale #WriteSky thewritelaunch.com/2026/06/four...

Four Keys, A Modern Fairytale; images: an old key, foggy Prague spires; a grotesque

Jessica Fisher Riches - is Querying and Drafting @prahajess.bsky.social · 3w ago

Four Keys A modern fairytale set in Prague. First published in The Write Launch. #shortstory #BluePit #📖 #A #R #P #Fairytale #WriteSky thewritelaunch.com/2026/06/four...

Four Keys | Short Story by Jessica Fisher Riches in the June issue of The Write Launch

“Welcome to the building. Save the boy.” Nikola heard the words distinctly, but there was no one around. She tightened her grip on her backpack strap and turned back to the message board in the dimly…

thewritelaunch.com

Jessica Fisher Riches - is Querying and Drafting @prahajess.bsky.social · 3w ago

The Best Kisser in Prague Amid the gritty optimism of 1990s Prague, a party girl determined to be emotionally unbreakable and a disillusioned artist share a single night of connection that derails their kiss-and-run game plans. #BluePit📖 #W #A #R #BluePit #WriteSky

polaroid pics: beer, casette, couple kissing, Prague; text: The Best Kisser in Prague

Jessica Fisher Riches - is Querying and Drafting @prahajess.bsky.social · 3w ago

The Best Kisser in Prague A love letter to Prague in the 1990s #BluePit📖 #W #A #R #BluePit #WriteSky

Drawing of a 60s style girl sitting ona cabinet drinking a shot. Text: Zelezne dvere (Iron Door); The Best Kisser in Prague

Jessica Fisher Riches - is Querying and Drafting @prahajess.bsky.social · 3w ago

500 Days of Summer meets Before Sunrise in post-Velvet Revolution Prague. 🇨🇿 📖 ❤️ 📼 💌 🎵 💔 🍜 #BluePit #📖 #A #R #W #WF #WriteSky

The Best Kisser in Prague; images of couple kissing, city of Prage

Jessica Fisher Riches - is Querying and Drafting @prahajess.bsky.social · 4w ago

Not FIFA ruining the World Cup with corruption. That call of foul is a joke. JOKE. They are bending over backwards to promote the big names. Pathetic. #Egypt #worldcup

Fay Irwin (pen name)@fantasyscience.bsky.social · last mo.

In CHEMICAL SOLUTIONS FOR LONELY HEARTS, two awkward scientists must overcome their mutual dislike to save the world. #QueerPit #A #RC #SF - Mistaken identities - Enemies to lovers - Fake dating - Black cat and porcupine - Explosive chemistry (both kinds)

Poster of a silhouetted man and woman facing away from each other, looking annoyed. Behind them is an Erlenmeyer flask leaking a pink liquid that turns into a heart. The background fades from blue through pink to orange. To the right, a wreath contains the words "2026 RevPit winner"

Title: Chemical Solutions for Lonely Hearts
Author: F. Irwin
Logline: a sci-fi rom-com with real chemistry

Catherine Winters @catherinewinters.com · last mo.

F/NB WAYFARERS x MURDERBOT Ship's cook Tai is horrified to discover their new crewmate is a terrifying alien: an ordinary human woman. Now Tai's stuck with bickering crewmates, sinister criminals, explosions, and worse, a human who wants to be friends. #QueerPit #A #SF #R #HA

Mood board/Agent's guide for my novel CARGO - a queer SF/heist/romance - 113,000 words

"Did you hear? There's a human on board."
A graphic of the wall of a spaceship with sticky notes and polaroid photos taped up. There are twinkle lights hanging from the ceiling.
alien ship's cook (fussy, anxious) + terrifying monster (ordinary human)

PITCH:
Tai’s terrified of humans. Everyone is. Violent pack hunters, humans are notorious for their strength, sharp teeth, and carnivorous appetites. But the ship’s cook is safe among the multispecies crew of the cargo hauler Coreward Baker: everyone knows the warrior species rarely leave their own space. Then Captain Raz hires Clarke, a human horticulturist.
Even after Tai overcomes their fear, they can’t stand Clarke. She’s bossy. Annoying. Useless in the galley, bad in a space suit. She might as well be cargo. Worse, she’s intent on befriending Tai—and why can’t they stop thinking about her, anyway?
That’s when things go wrong. As Tai starts to realize their feelings for Clarke, they’re horrified to learn that nobody on their crew of dropouts and runaways is quite who they seem, least of all Clarke. And it’s no coincidence. Raz reveals they’ve each been handpicked for a heist he’s spent years planning—and no one’s allowed to say no.

PRIORITIES:
make dinner
remain cozy
haul cargo
go for drinks
pull off one last score
try not to fall in love

FIRST PAGE:

“Did you hear? There’s a Human on board.”
I choked on my noodles and turned to stare at the diners at the next table. Like most of the restaurant’s patrons, the pair had hidden their profiles, a halfhearted attempt at anonymity.
“Gross,” the speaker’s crewmate said, oblivious to my alarm. “I hope it leaves soon.”
“Don’t let it hear you say that,” the first worker laughed. She made a show of looking for Humans, her eyes darting from table to table.
It. I frowned. I knew the workers’ language distinguished between people and things, and ‘it’ was an unkind choice of words at best.
The second worker shuddered. “I don’t know why we let them come here.”
The first laughed. “Are you going to stop them?”

COMPS:
Murderbot by Martha Wells
Someone You Can Build a Nest In by John Wiswell
The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers

TROPES:
Non-binary narrator masking anxiety with sarcasm
lying to themselves
non-human perspective (afraid of humans)
neurodivergent main characters
metaphorically disabled protagonist
slow-burn friends-to-lovers and enemies to lovers in the same relationship
disabilitynorm and queernorm setting
found family
loveable pet/terrifying monster

Noor is ✨️Querying & Drafting✨️@n-a-writes.bsky.social · last mo.

The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet x The Expanse The galaxy is being destroyed & everyone's is pretending it's just another day. A crew of chaos, trauma & outcasts decide to save the galaxy that rejected them, because they found each other in it. But they won't admit it. #QueerPit #A #SF #H

Victoria Jayne (they/them)@victoriajayneoh.bsky.social · last mo.

#QueerPit #A #F #R LEGENDS AND LATTES x THE SPELLSHOP x THE HONEY WITCH - witch x werewolf - femme x butch - ♿️ AuDHD MC - nb half-satyr bff - coworkers to lovers - instalike but slow burn - cozy mystery elements - sapphic main cast - swoonworthy romance - journey to self-acceptance (disabled)

Collage with apothecary flowers jars cottages hands

YOU BLOOM IN WINTER 78k

Facing eviction from her apothecary in two months, a disabled witch seeks help in a grocer to run her shop until she clears the blight killing the town’s crops. As they fall in love, the blight kills a regular, and she must push through her pain to fight it.

Ivy T. Woods @ivytwoods.bsky.social · last mo.

Just for fun, have the #editorsguide for SCULPTOR OF THE WINDS, pitched as: Pirates of the Caribbean but if Elizabeth was a bisexual mage caught in a love triangle between Will Turner and a murderous lesbian sea monster. #queerpit #A #F #R #FR #AG #OS soon 👀

On a background of a pink octopus underwater in a dark sea is the text:

Editor’s Guide To
Sculptor of the Winds
by Ivy T. Woods

Book 1 in the Sea of Sorrows Duology
Romantic Pirate Fantasy

On a background of a pink octopus underwater in a dark sea is the text:
Pitch

When Minna is offered a place weaving the winds—and protecting the ship from monsters—on one of the largest ships in the Fleet, it comes with a catch: her betrothal to the Deckmistress’ son. Bullied by her mother, Minna takes the deal, surprised to find that her betrothed and her new Deckmistress are actually quite tolerable.

But when they capture one of the monsters terrorizing the Sea of Sorrows, Minna is forced into the role of jailer while they interrogate the monster, trying to find a way to destroy them. But as Minna’s prisoner proves herself to be surprisingly human, Minna becomes intent on saving her from her inevitable execution, going against her Deckmistress, her betrothed, and the entire crew. But the other monsters are drawn to their own. And they are coming.

To the right is a picture of a sailboat in a circle, against a yellow orange sunset

On a background of a pink octopus underwater in a dark sea is the title comps and pictures of:

Pirates of the Caribbean: curse of the black pearl labeled: the seafaring setting of
The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi labeled the seafaring setting of
Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil labeled the toxic sapphic obsession of

On a background of a pink octopus underwater in a dark sea is the text:
First Lines

The body was bloated, thick veins of black running beneath the sun-dark skin, branching out from the missing chunk of flesh in the dead man’s shoulder. The corpse’s salt-stained trousers had caught on a twisted spike of driftwood, leaving the body to rise and settle with each rush of water up the golden sand.

“Fucking seas,” Minna muttered. “Is he washing in or out, do you figure?”

Her father grunted, squatting to pluck the torn and bloody pants off the broken branch anchoring the dead man to the shoreline. The next wave rushed in and claimed its prize, greedily sucking the body down the beach as it withdrew.

“I suppose we’ll see.” Her father shielded his eyes, silver hair shining in the rising sun as he squinted inland. “It can’t be too old.”

Jessica Fisher Riches - is Querying and Drafting @prahajess.bsky.social · last mo.

And the story won this week's competition! I'm thrilled! Check it out here: reedsy.com/short-story/... #WriteSky #WritingCommunity #AmWriting #Writers

Golden Hour – A Contemporary Short Story by Jessica Fisher – Reedsy Prompts

One more wedding. That’s what she’d told herself. Her portrait studio was already up and running, and she was done with the traveling and the fourt...

reedsy.com

Jessica Fisher Riches - is Querying and Drafting@prahajess.bsky.social · last mo.

"Golden Hour," another Reedsy--prompted flash story: Written in response to: "Write a story that has an unresolved or open ending:" reedsy.com/short-story/... #WriteSky #WritingCommunity #AmWriting #Writers

Sam Peil 🧟😈🤡@sampeil.bsky.social · last mo.

#unhingedpit #h #lgbt #r

Text at top: Accidentally waking your great-great grandfather at the bottom of the lake.

Text: Expectation (image-blacksmith working in smithy)

Text: Reality (image-demon in front of water holding balloons)