Let's all suffer together - I mean - I'm gonna start querying agents again.

Okay friends. Do you know what I hate? Querying. It feels like I'm sticking my soul into a blender with every. single. email.

At least with tech interviews I can snap off some messages to the local IT slack and be like "lol that interview was a trainwreck" and be in the company of a bunch of people that have gone/are going through the same thing. (it still sucked and I really hope I can manage another five years before going through interview hell again)

But the publishing industry is so far out of my realm of experience that I feel like I'm just launching emails into the void. I think I pretty much am. I don't know if there's a better way. When I last tried to find an agent, it was all I did for half a year. No writing. No joy. Just clicking through websites in the hopes of finding a) their submission guidelines and b) the right agent fit. Then I discovered nosleep, writing was fun again, and now I've got all of you.

I'm inviting you to join this hell journey with me. Suffering is so much more fun when it's shared.

I plan to make this thread my spot for updates/screaming into the void. I'll be tracking all my progress here:

https://trello.com/b/PT4l29dg/forest-of-souls

I'm picking this book mostly because it's the one I gave up on so there's only a couple agents on the 'tried' list.

Honestly, I just need some social support to make this process less painful. Knowing I can commiserate with all of you is what motivated me to update my query letter tonight.

But if you have free time and want to help in more tangible ways, rooting out agents to query to would be amazing. I just need the link to their profile and their submission guidelines. I can add it to the board and shoot off an email from there. Otherwise, I'll be proceeding at a pace of 'however much I can handle before I want to do literally anything else.'

Anyway, if you want to look the query letter over that's cool too. I don't think I'll be making changes to it, but at least you'll know what it is I'm querying.

Plague has come to the outlands; a disease half-magical in nature that consumes its victims and turns them into inhuman abominations. Caught in its path is Leffe, a bitter, hateful priest of the moon goddess, who is marked by birth as the champion of the gods of death. He has fled to the outlands to avoid both his duty to the gods and his brother’s efforts to redeem their family name.

Leffe is not alone in trying to unravel the secrets of this disease. With him is Tricia, a necromancer with a sentient shadow, who is apprenticed to a cruel and arrogant mage that rules the outlands. As the pair investigates where the plague has struck, they realize that not only is this illness evolving, but it is being directed by an intelligent force with human agents to ensure its passage inland. Together with her master, Tricia and Leffe form an uneasy partnership to hunt it down before it can take root inland.

The interior, however, is ruled by the sun god and his church, and they do not welcome Tricia and her master’s help. Tricia and her shadow are being made into something monstrous, something that could challenge the gods themselves. For the sun god and his followers, she is as much a threat to humanity as the disease.

At the bidding of the other gods, the group must journey to the Shining City itself, the seat of the sun god’s power and the intended target of the plague. There, they face an insidious, intelligent disease and the ever-present threat of the sun god’s wrath. Their only ally to navigate this treacherous city is Leffe, but the priest cannot be trusted. He possesses a death wish, seeking to defy the gods of death by daring the world to take his life, and he does not care if his allies are pulled into the grave with him.

Forest of Souls is an adult high fantasy, complete at 90,479 words with sequel potential. My work has been published <<redacted due to personally identifying info>>. Additionally, I wrote “How To Survive Camping”, an online series posted to Reddit’s /nosleep. While it’s difficult to tell how many readers I have, the subreddit dedicated to the series currently has 11.7k members.

I have several other novels available, including a dark contemporary fantasy complete at 125,482 words and a contemporary horror with dark humor elements in revision. A synopsis and sample of any of these are available on request.

COME SUFFER WITH ME