[QCrit]: Adult Fantasy: ROOT AND STEM (151k)

Dear [agent],

In an isolated stretch of woods, on the eastern bank of a brook whose current gurgles with mirth, a hermit named Safa tends her garden with shining magic in her eyes. Within the leafy embrace of her natural surroundings, she freely lives in harmony with the flora and fauna and in service to their care. If she had it her way, she would stay forever within its verdant bounds.

But destiny has other plans for her, and the wheels of fate have already begun to spin. Before Safa knows it, vice sweeps her away from her home, forces her to commit an atrocity that wracks her soul with anguish, and places her under the care of her kind’s mortal enemy. There, atop a magical spire scratching the clouds, horrors besiege her, and she must fight with every scrap of mental strength to combat complete erasure. Safa’s foe in this war is a woman named El’Emi, an Eri ruler, whose song can completely change Safa with a hum. El’Emi believes Safa to be the figure of a prophecy and draws plans of world subjugation while reducing Safa’s psyche to frayed threads.

A single promise keeps her alive, a promise and a new friend who reminds her of home. Her name is Elta and the very same royal blood flows though her veins. Together, Safa and Elta must escape, and race across a continent before El’Emi’s destructive ambitions can come to fruition.

ROOT AND STEM is an adult fantasy book centered on Safa’s experience of loss and the conflict between her and the royal family that holds her captive. It is a book for anyone who loves to cry while reading or kiss a book after finishing it, and would appeal to anyone who wishes to feel the words on the page. The complete manuscript is 151,000 words and could be the first in a trilogy, though it is a complete story on its own.

I am a 23-year-old tattooed lesbian woman who does not fit neatly into the gender binary that can be caught at more than one goth night a month, or at the gym on any day of the week. This is my first novel, and I cannot wait to write many more. After graduating college with a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering, I would not have guessed that my life would be ensnared by the joy that comes from writing, nor did anyone else who told me to pursue that subject. But here we are, and the air has never tasted sweeter.

If you would like to read more, I would be delighted to send you more or the complete manuscript.

Thank you for your time,