THE PROTECTOR AND THE ANNIHILATION GOODREADS GIVEAWAY. Alongside: COWBOYS AND DJINN WIP + YA MAGICAL MECHS SAPPHICS WIP (SOLUMU WIP), both of which I will go back to querying for.

08/12/26:

The Protector and the Annihilation Goodreads Giveaway has begun…!

Very curious to see how it’ll turn out after 15 days. The books will be sent out, and of course I’ll hope for people’s opinions on GR, but what will be will be.

I’m very excited about it. I hope for at least a few more ratings and reviews within the next 3 months.

SO. Awkward only on the Blue Horizon-focused site, but I’ve decided to talk about my newest WIPs with y’all.

The one that has the most progress—35k words, with my writing 2k almost every day thus-far—is “Cowboys and Djinn” WIP. I’ve figured out a title for it, though I don’t feel the need to reveal it, unlike with the earlier sapphic WIP where I entered a pitch event showcasing novels like they’re movie posters.

It was inspired by a dream I had! Blue Horizon/The Protector and the Annihilation had a focal aspect of a family's backstory inspired by a dream, too, though I've daydreamed a vast majority of Blue Horizon.

Cowboys and Djinn WIP is an adult fantasy set in a slightly fantastical 1920's. The reason for this is because the golden age of cowboys died off by the early 1910's due to rapid industrialization. There's a magical explanation for why they're still more prominent in the 1920's, though--dragons.

Despite some whimsy due to dragons, since I'm the type who likes writing sociopolitical settings and this book will feature diverse BIPOC cowboys, flappers, and non-binary folk, AND is set in 1920's United States...

It will have serious topics involving racism, segregation, et cetera. Due to how the book’s plot works, however, as far as I have written right now, it will not be gone into with intensity. (This may change because of how character relationships are written.)

While people on Bluesky know that in the beginning I was pretty focused on the realistic side of this fantasy story, it turns out a large swathe of the story will take place in the “Realm of Djinn,” a mysterious and liminal place. Despite the “imaginal realm” being a separate concept in real life, it’s often termed such in the book.

Focal are a gay couple, the gentle (troublesome) Rehan Nahar and the sharp Rafael Ramos-Gutiérrez, as well as a sapphic character with a bit of love drama, the crazy gal Saber Nahar. She’s in love with someone, but I digress for now. (Key characters in her story arc are the sportsy Teresa Soleil, the intense Deepika, and the enigmatic Claudette.) The Nahar family deals with a lot of trouble within the Realm of Djinn…!

There's also a murder mystery, so an aspect is (a bit) gritty, and an aspect is adventurous a la most of my work thus-far.

The main protags are Bengali and I realized I already got the perfect history book to read for it a while back--Bengali Harlem and the Lost Histories of South Asian America by Vivek Bald.

This is the first WIP I will attempt to query after several years of focusing on getting The Protector and the Annihilation out as a self-published debut novel (around 5 years of hard work!)—

I plan on going back to my goal of getting traditionally published! It’s been a dream of mine since childhood, and since Cowboys and Djinn WIP is a historical fantasy, I wouldn’t know how else I could get historical facts checked over, as well as potentially linguistics and other such checks. While The Protector and the Annihilation can arguably be considered to have “historical” reflections, for me it’s something I created with the memory of the 1990’s to 2010’s in me, with a focus on particularly the 2000’s and 2010’s era. So it’s something I feel more versed in and capable of handling as a topic, as it were.

Next, I’ll briefly go into magical mech sapphics WIP, also known by its title, “Sisters of the Light upon the Moon, Unsung”, but mostly known as “SoLuMU WIP” online. I’ve been clacking away at SoLuMU WIP slowly out of order. After plotting out Cowboys and Djinn WIP intensively, I realized…

I’m seriously shocked I managed to write 6k words of SoLuMU WIP out of order at all! I only have the first one and a half chapters of it written in order. I like the WIP like crazy, but I need to plot the baby out more intensively. “The Middle” has become my main fight!

SoLuMU WIP focuses on a cast of sapphic characters—every main is sapphic, but not every main is binary in gender. The main character Nadiya Bristi is he/she/they, for example. Mains are their nemesis and twin sister, Soniya Bristi, as well as several friends with some mystery surrounding at least half—the cheery Amalea, the haughty Florina, the punk forgotten god Iastra, and the reliable Rinaya (whose name may change, as the name is overlapping with Cowboy and Djinn’s “Inaya” too much, and I’d rather prioritize the IRL name Inaya has… ^^”).

I’m pretty excited to go back to it after I start querying Cowboys and Djinn WIP.

As people on Bluesky know, there’s one more WIP in my mind right now, “animal shifter” younger YA WIP. But that one I don’t plan on working on for a long while—or at least until I know how querying worked out!

Here are the moodboards!

For Cowboys and Djinn WIP:

Main logline: In a fantastical alternate 1920's where cowboys still reign and deal with dragons, the world populace obsesses over and fears the Realm of Djinn. Two cowboys in love must journey into the eerie, mythical realm to save a child, but one soon worries that his brother is after them from within.

And for “Magical Mech Sapphic YA WIP”/“SoLuMU WIP”:

Main loglines:

In a world where major temple priestesses dance in pairs to unlock the powers of a mech, rival Nadiya is confused over why Amalea, who can dance with many, wants her. Worse, Nadiya becomes ostracized right as they notice Amalea's trouble…

+

Twin sister foes. Nadiya sides with the blessed Lady Unsung and Soniya with the "cursed" Changeable Lady. When Soniya reappears in Nadiya's life, everything falls apart. Nadiya's crush Amalea winds up causing her great anguish. Will Nadiya lose Soniya, too?

It’s interesting learning about agent’s guides being the primary way people showcase their completed books during pitch events in this modern day (unlike the last time I pitched a few years ago)! I’ll be creating mine for Cowboys and Djinn WIP as soon as I get to 40k or 50k. I feel like I’ll be comfortable enough try my first go at it by then. Once I complete the current WIP, I’ll revise the agent’s guide. I don’t plan on debuting the agent’s guide till I’m query-ready, though!