Margery Bayne is querying

@margerybayne

Queer sci-fi & fantasy romance author (Hades & Persephone retelling in the query trenches) • Librarian • Writing craft for emotionally powerful stories. she/her 🖤🩶🤍💜

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Margery Bayne is querying@margerybayne· 21d

Meet the antagonist. #WIPSnips #AmQuerying #Antagonist #CharacterDescription

Zeal was a man of average height, but he made up for it with broad shoulders, a square jaw with a perfectly trimmed beard, and an ego too big to fit inside even his execute-size office. When he smiled -- and he loved to pull off a dashing attempt at a smile -- his teeth were just a bit too shiny white.

Margery Bayne is querying@margerybayne· 22d

When Perry moves to the other side of the planet with all his idealism, he has fish out of water moments. #WIPSnips #AmQuerying #WritingPrompt

Nail meet coffin. Perry felt it, this final undercutting of his grand ideas. Could sense it in the room -- interest disappearing, askance whispering starting. He was supposed to prove himself in this meeting, but right now he was only proving how out of touch he wa

Margery Bayne is querying@margerybayne· 29d

Bliss and Bennie are one of those older married couples that are just a force of nature. #WIPSnips #AmQuerying

Before he could get out more of his apology, Bliss waved it off and bullied him into making himself comfortable. He ended up seated on the plump coach beside Bennie, a blanket thrown over his shoulders — “It gets chilly down here!” — and a mug of tea shoved into his hands.

Margery Bayne is querying@margerybayne· Jul 14

I made author business cards. Why? Quick way to exchange socials with other writers and professionals you meet at writing events and conferences. And a quick bookmark to stuff in any physical books you might sell or giveaway. #WritingCommunity #WriteSky #IndieAuthprs

Author business card for Margery Bayne, writer of sci‑fi and fantasy fiction, featuring a purple inkwell with a feather quill on a cream card that lists a website and social handles, placed on a red background.

Margery Bayne is querying@margerybayne· Jul 14

I love these two. #WIPSnips #AmQuerying #WriteSky

As his first month in Taros passed, their relationship shifted from honeymoon phase to settled domesticity. Nights falling asleep beside each other after a conversation or reading rather than being tangled together. Haven learned the language of Perry’s grunts before morning coffee, and Perry read every little shift of Haven’s expression when he went off on a long-winded tale.

Margery Bayne is querying@margerybayne· Jul 13

#WIPSnips #AmQuerying

It was a well-trod argument, almost performance, each of them hitting the cues of dialogue to what they had said dozens — hundreds?— of times before. Two people so familiar and comfortable with each other that an old fight was a game.

Margery Bayne is querying@margerybayne· Jul 2

#WIPSnips #AmWriting #WritingPrompts

In the afternoon before the full moon bloomed into the night sky, there came a knock on the door she had been dreading and yearning for. This was the first time Caleb had ever looked small to her, standing there on her door stoop, wringing his hands like a chastised child.
She had made him promise to come and say goodbye. Even as she had banished him from her yard, hoping and failing that having him out of her sight would make her heart hurt less, she had made him promise. Here he was, the day before his deadline.

Margery Bayne is querying@margerybayne· Jun 29

#WIPSnips #WriteSky

“If you won't eat, at least drink some water.”
She found herself following the order as if enchanted. No thought to it -- just a body trying to survive even as the soul inside twisted and raged. But even a little taste of water, it turned out, helped her find her voice.

Margery Bayne is querying@margerybayne· Jun 17

#WIPSnips #AmQuerying #WriteSky #BookSky

Perry sat with his legs dangling over the edge of the grate platform. Below him stretched the partial skeleton of the filtration system. Vibrant safety fencing marked off the area of the abandoned project on the floor two stories below. Pallets of half-unpacked supplies were left in limbo.

Margery Bayne is querying@margerybayne· Jun 16

Ah, yes, yearning. #WipSnips #AmWriting #RomanceTropes

“Good afternoon!” a voice called from a distance. Evelyn’s. But by the time he looked, her back was already turned to him as she hung clothes on a line strung between the cottage and a nearby oak. He had missed the moment of her coming out. Caleb couldn’t be sure when that became the favorite part of his day.

The Softness of Teeth by Margery Bayne

Margery Bayne is querying@margerybayne· Jun 15

A worldbuilding moment that I think is accomplished rather lyrically, if I do say so myself. #WIPSnips #Worldbuilding #AmQuerying #SciFi

Every settlement-born — Elios or otherwise — seemed awfully young to Haven. They were born not only into a different generation than himself but a different era of human civilization. After its metaphorical rebirth, where they lived and breathed idealism and hope rather than gritty desperation.

Safe Haven by Margery Bayne

Margery Bayne is querying@margerybayne· Jun 12

A werewolf book has to have some pointy objects in it. Anyway, this is the type of scene you'd fall foreshadowing. #WIPSnips #BookSky #WerewolfBooks #AmWriting

Caleb handled it like someone who knew what they were doing, feeling the weight and balance, and running a careful thumb along the blade. “Could be a bit sharper, but it should do its job.” He held the axe back out to her as if it were as light as a kitten. Although Evelyn had been holding it just moments ago, taking it back, the weight felt more than she was expecting.

Margery Bayne is querying@margerybayne· Jun 11

Gripe -> Complain From my queer witch collection (pinned on my profile). For those who want something a little magical for Pride Month. #WIPSnips #AmPublished #IndieAuthor #QueerBooks #LGBTBooks

They exaggerate it like bedtime stories, a fable to twist me into a malevolent force, a demon shadow in the forest, that will come for the kiddies who wander too far, who question too much, who want things they shouldn’t. They whisper it like rumors between old wives: in confidence, in shock, in need. They complain over it, bawdy and slurred, between men and their beers—the secret that everyone knows. All of it doing my work for me, letting everyone from cottage to castle-side know I’m here, and what I can do.

A Witch By Any Other Name by Margery Bayne

Margery Bayne is querying@margerybayne· Jun 10

#WIPSnips #AmWriting

Her next morning began early before dawn had clipped the sky. But wakefulness found her regardless of the location of the sun. So she got up, got dressed, climbed down from the loft, stepped over her father, and out the front door. The edge of the sky through the trees was beginning to purple with morning light.

The Softness of Teeth by Margery Bayne

Margery Bayne is querying@margerybayne· Jun 9

Just a little moment of caring, May seem small in the snip, but when you have a character like Evelyn who refuses to accept help or closeness, this is a progress. #WIPSnips #BookSky #AmWriting #CharacterDevelopment

He placed the mug on the edge of the porch beside her wordlessly, like an offering left on the shine of some ancient god. Her fingers came up to touch the warmth of the ceramic before picking it up to hold two-handed. She nodded at the spot she had vacated, and Caleb eased down into a seat a careful amount beside her. - The Softness of Teeth by Margery Bayne

Margery Bayne is querying@margerybayne· Jun 8

They say memories are linked to smells... it's just not always good ones. #WIPSNIPS #AmWriting

Standing before the entrance, she could smell it, the inside, like dank and mold and mossy dirt. Her memory drew up a child’s screams and wails. Pounding fists growing blistered on the inside of the door. The same door she reached out to lay a palm flat upon and push open against the squeaky hinges.

Margery Bayne is querying@margerybayne· Jun 5

Steer -> driven Caleb and Evelyn are another Sunshine & Grumpy duo of mine. I didn't realize I liked that trope that much until I started looking over my body of past work, lol. #WIPSnips #AmWriting

Caleb had been packed up and gone yesterday by the time Evelyn had returned from her covert cry. He had been kind enough to tarp up the roof, but she had carried a weight of worry in gut all afternoon into night into dawn that he couldn’t come back. That she had driven him away for good. A worry absolved by the approaching sound of Trotter’s hooves upon the path not long after dawn.

Margery Bayne is querying@margerybayne· Jun 2

Perry is a 'wears his heart on his sleeve' protagonist and I love that about him. #WIPSnips #AmQuerying #WriteSky

As the freight elevator lowered, the pounding beat of music grew louder. Perry couldn’t hide a single expression on his face, and he was cycling through at least five: confusion, intrigue, befuddlement, unease, excitement. As he looked about ready to give in to his painful curiosity and put words to those emotions, Haven squeezed his hand.

Margery Bayne is querying@margerybayne· Jun 1

Safe Haven features a lot of ethical debates. In that way it's more of a social sci-fi novel. #WIPSnips #AmQuerying #SocialSciFi

“I’m upset because the facts are upsetting,” Perry said. “To be in a lose-lose situation, where people get hurt either way. People now or people later. People here or people far away…”
“Now you’ll lose as much sleep as me at night.”

Margery Bayne is querying@margerybayne· May 29

Diginity, who the Demeter stand-in in my Hades & Persephone scifi retelling, was so fun write. As a conflict-avoidant people-pleaser, writing strong-willed women is my therapy. #WIPSnips #AmQuerying

The wiser knew that a silent Dignity Verdure was a dangerous Dignity Verdure. That silence only meant there was a storm brewing inside that would eventually, and most likely at an inconvenient moment, thunder out.

Margery Bayne is querying@margerybayne· May 28

Context: Perry and Haven are in the midst of a real cold shouler type fight here. When something is a Hades and Persephone retelling, you can't the relationship to be all smooth sailing. #WIPSnips #AmQuerying #Retelling

Perry set down one petri dish in exchange for another. And only in this movement, Haven’s attention shifted from Perry to it — and what was inside.
“Is that the —” He started forward a step, but Perry pinned him in place like a dead bug with a single sharp look.

Margery Bayne is querying@margerybayne· May 27

#WIPSnips #AmWriting

They rolled out of town on a Tuesday. Though, truly it wasn’t ‘out of town.’ Living on the outskirts already, their path took them away from town without having to pass through it one final time. Given all their affairs had been settled and there were very few goodbyes needed, it was with an anticlimactic lack of fanfare that they left. Evelyn wouldn’t ever say she wanted something more from the departure, but she would have preferred something more decisive.
Instead she had to wait for the trees along the roadside to grow unfamiliar until they took a final turn and she realized she was in territory as unknown as on the other side of the earth. How quickly then did the edges of her old life fade

Margery Bayne is querying@margerybayne· May 26

As I searched for this word, I realized how many business meetings are in Safe Haven. Lol, I guess that sort of makes it a scifi workplace romance. #WIPSnips #AmQuerying #WorkplaceRomance #ScifiRomance

Margery Bayne is querying@margerybayne· May 25

Sounds like a beautiful descriptive nature moment... until you remember it's a werewolf story and the full moon is a bad thing. #WIPSnips #Werewolf #AmWriting

Evelyn got out of bed and unlatched her window. With careful hands, she opened the shutters so they wouldn’t bang. Then, she hauled herself up on the windowsill to sit, top half of her body out in the rain.
She tilted her face upward, letting the cool drops pinprick down her, taking comfort in the night crying for her. Between the shifting rain clouds, was the hazy glow of a pregnant full moon.

Margery Bayne is querying@margerybayne· May 24

Something a little more worldbuilding focused today. Safe Haven is set in humanity's spacefaring future, and primarily takes place between two space colony's on the same planet... and the politics between the two is a source of drama. #WriteSky #WIPSnips #AmQuerying #Scifi #Worldbuilding

“The relations between Taros and Central have been strained for years,” Haven said. “Part of that’s my own fault. I’ve gone to Central less and less over the years. Haven’t kept my connections up. I don’t even know half the Council anymore. The old guard replaced by some new idealists like you.”

“Gee, thanks.” Perry was usually proud of the label, but recently it felt blinding.

Margery Bayne is querying@margerybayne· May 22

Who doesn't love a cute, romantic picnic moment?... To bad it's not gonna last. #WIPSnips #WritingPrompt

She unpacked a simple picnic she had carried all the way there in her satchel: Bread and apples and hard cheese by the slice. Caleb enjoyed the simple pleasure of their elbows bumping as they ate, of their fingers brushing as they reached for the same thing. On one such occasion, he took the opportunity to tangle their fingers together, and then got to enjoy the simple pleasure of trying to eat one-handed.

Margery Bayne is querying@margerybayne· May 21

#WIPSnips #WIP

This was what fog felt like. An obscuring, descending, ominous presence. Not even being able to see two feet in front of your own nose. The familiar world you thought you knew -- just down the street, just outside your front door -- turned foreign and cold.

Margery Bayne is querying@margerybayne· May 19

I have a curious lack of brothers in my fiction for someone who has two brothers. #WIPSnips #WritingPrompt

Liliana Delany, the merchant’s daughter, laid an unhidden glare on Evelyn as she passed by in her fresh-frocked dress, a basket of pears looped on elbow, in the careful escort of both mother and elder brother. And she was jealous of Evelyn.

Margery Bayne is querying@margerybayne· May 18

Decided to share from my newer #WIP because the forest is basically the whole setting. #WIPSnips #WritingPromot #Setting

You rarely leave a town without blood on your hands. Rarely leave without dirt under fingernails from digging secret graves in clandestine depths of whatever forest you found yourself. Always left before the locals could catch on. Could catch you.

Margery Bayne is querying@margerybayne· May 13

My book is a not slowburn. The main characters speedrun a romance and then have to live with the consequences, lol. #WIPSnips #WritingPrompts #RomanceTropes