Introducing: The Wasting
An overview of my sapphic fantasy novel.
As I’ve mentioned throughout this month, I’m now querying a novel in the hopes of finding a literary agent. You may have seen the premise of the novel in my article on how to write query letters; I’m very excited to introduce the project here on Substack and Bluesky.
The Wasting is an 118,000 word sapphic adult fantasy novel that centers on a young woman whose sanity is threatened by a plague taking root on her back, and a sheltered princess whose blood holds the key to curing that plague. The capital city remains prosperous, safe, and vibrant, but the surrounding land is dying in increments, plagued by an illness that causes malevolent insanity. In a world of extreme disparity, the question looms: how far will one woman go to cure her nation?
The multi-POV story takes place in Eshara, a setting inspired by Louis XIV-era Versailles, Venice/Annecy (city of canals), and the Italian Renaissance culture of art patronage. I created an accompanying visual guide for my query:
I spent all of yesterday pitching this novel to agents at the Philadelphia Writer’s Workshop, and recently began batch querying. Keep an eye out for updates! Querying is a marathon, but this time around, I plan to be cautiously optimistic and doggedly persistent (I’ve already gotten partial manuscript requests! An improvement from last year’s querying :)).
What do you think of the visual guide and novel premise? Let me know your thoughts and questions in the comments! :)
See you next Sunday,
Allie
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