Darian Rudderham

@darianrudderham

we are stardust and stories 💜✨🏳️‍🌈🇨🇦 I write books sometimes MFA, UKC '27 Intern at The Booker Albert Literary Agency Free Palestine 🍉 Opinions are my own (she/they) header: nikespera.png on Instagram

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Darian Rudderham@darianrudderham· 28d

WILD REVERENCE x THE KNIGHT AND THE MOTH 💀 An incorruptible corpse 🩸 A city rotting from its own magic ⛪️ A pristine church in the city centre 🙏 A caretaker seeking the chance to escape 🗡️ A traitor god hoping to die #questpit #f #a #w

Art by nanna.arts on Instagram. A woman in a simple dress with dark curly hair, turning away from the viewer. A woman in blue and red robes with brown curly hair. A man with dark curly hair in a simple white shirt holding a dagger.

"She worries that she can feel it some nights, moving like bugs that push and writhe against her flesh, a punishment for magic she never wanted to wield in the first place." -- What Lingers Between, Darian Rudderham

Darian Rudderham@darianrudderham· 28d

A group of university students find themselves entangled with an experiment that demands their blood and a creature that will give them power in exchange for pieces of their humanity. #q #a #sff

A stack of books, a postage stamp, and wax seal. "An Agent's Guide to A Consideration of Death"

Book One: The Pitch
Hozier's First Light meets Leigh Bardugo's NINTH HOUSE
A group of university students find themselves entangled with an experiment that demands their blood and a creture that will give them power in exchange for pieces of their humanity.
Comp titles include VICIOUS by V.E. SChwab, NINTH HOUSE by Leigh Bardugo, and THE ATLAS SIX by Olivie Blake

An image of the university students: Dodie, a short brunette in a black dress and red cardigan; Alek, a tall man with dark hair in a brown sweater and ripped jeans; Beatrice, a tall blonde woman in a white dress and black jacket; Kyu, a short, mid-sized woman with a pink pixie cut in a yellow sweater and jeans; Damion, an Indigenous Hawaiian man in a rumpled white shirt and black pants; and Shahid, a Pakistani man with curly hair and a beard in a brightly patterned suit jacket, white shirt, red tie, and red pants.
THe tropes read: childhood friends to almost lovers, complicated family dynamics, ensemble cast, ancient monsters, neuroscience based magic system, aspec rep, dark academia, near death experiences.

Darian Rudderham@darianrudderham· 28d

Desperate to save a rotting city, the caretaker of an incorruptible corpse and the traitor god of an ancient pantheon must find what is causing the destruction. #questpit #W #A #F

A stained glass window. RIpped paper that reads "an agents guide to what lingers between"

The pitch. Rachel Gillig's The Knight and The Moth, Caitlin Starling's The Starving Saints, Rebecca Ross' WIld Reverance. Desperate to save a rotting city, the only god remaining of an ancient pantheon and the caretaker of a sacred, incorruptible corpse must find what is causing the destruction.

A woman with dark curly hair in a simple dress turned away. A woman with brown curly hair in blue and red robes holding a book. A man with dark curly hair in a simple white shirt holding a dagger. The tropes list reads, "yearning, annoyance to lovers, magic as corruption, three POVs, death incarnate, gothic fantasy, rotting city, pristine church, incorruptible corpse, necromantic religion."

Darian Rudderham@darianrudderham· Oct 28

Life update! I'm now interning with Haley Warrington at The Booker Albert Literary Agency! I'm so so excited to start learning more about the agenting process and supporting the authors.

Darian Rudderham@darianrudderham· Jun 30

Books I bought during my summer residency for my MFA ✨

Darian Rudderham@darianrudderham· Jun 20

🪦 You’re a feral, vicious little creature, aren’t you? 🪦 Introducing my MFA Fiction thesis. SALVATION is a standalone gothic fantasy following a young woman who has cared for a corpse that does not rot her entire life and a lonely god searching for a way to die. #writingcommunity #fantasy #wip

Michelangelo's Pieta and a piece of ripped paper reading AN AGENT'S GUIDE TO SALVATION BY DARIAN RUDDERHAM

The covers of GIDEON THE NINTH by Tamsyn Muir, THE KNIGHT AND THE MOTH by Rachel GILLIG, and A DARKER SHADE OF MAGIC by V.E. Schwab. The text reads: THE PITCH. DESPERATE TO SAVE A ROTTING CITY, THE CARETAKER OF A CORPSE THAT WILL NOT DECOMPOSE AND THE ONLY GOD REMAINING OF AN ANCIENT PANTHEON MUST FIND WHAT IS CAUSING THE ROT.

The Accolade by Edmund Leighton. The tropes surrounding it read: magic as corruption, death incarnate, gothic fantasy, dual POV, enemies to reluctant allies, an ancient pantheon.

A collage of images.
Row one, left to right: a close up of The Accolade, Jane and Guildford's hands holding a dagger from MY LADY JANE, Mary Queen of Scots from REIGN screaming.
Row two, left to right: a girl kissing a skull, St. Patrick's Cathedral in NYC, hands touching.
Row three, left to right: The Fallen Angel by Alexandre Cabanel, a girl buried in the dirt, a hand scraping down a throat.

Darian Rudderham@darianrudderham· Apr 10

introducing one of my MFA projects: WHAT LINGERS BETWEEN 🪦 “You’re a feral, vicious little creature, aren’t you?” 🪦 In a rotting city, a young woman cares for a corpse in the crypt of a church and a seemingly young man searches for a force that has been swallowing magic whole.

The background is Michelangelo’s the Pietà and a piece of torn paper that reads “AN AGENT’S GUIDE TO WHAT LINGERS BETWEEN”

The Pitch:
GIDEON THE NINTH meets A DARKER SHADE OF MAGIC

Desperate to save a rotting city, the caretaker of a corpse that will not decompose and the only god remaining of an ancient pantheon must find what is causing the destruction.

An excerpt from the prologue:
The earth withers beneath her feet as she steps out onto the streets that have succumb to rot and ruin.
Once, this city had been a haven, a new region open to growth and untapped magic. But as time went on, that growth turned to greed and that magic grew unyielding.
Magic, it seems, carries a price for even the world it moves within.
It had started simply enough. Some people who used magic grew in strength, unknowing of the torture their soul faced until it had rotted them from the inside out. Their greed was a poison, reaching deep inside of them and decaying their insides.
Some hardly touched it, but their inside rotted as they merely craved more. Their mere proximity to power was poisonous enough.
Others are not faced with such afflictions. Others temper their magic as if carefully stoking a flame, mindful not to let it grow out of control. Feeding it only often enough to maintain it.
For some, it is a wildfire.
Edin has stoked that flame carefully.

A skeleton looking up to the sky with arrows coming off of him pointing to tropes and information: magic as corruption, enemies to reluctant allies, dual POV, an ancient pantheon, death incarnate

Darian Rudderham@darianrudderham· Apr 1

The time to be vague is OVER!! We are thriving!!!

A publishers marketplace deal report for a digital: fiction: sci-fi/fantasy novel, dated April 1, 2025, reading: Darian Rudderham’s A CONSIDERATION OF DEATH, when a group of university students find themselves involved in an experiment about death that demands their blood to feed an ancient beast, to April Fools at Fake Publisher, in a significant deal, in a three-book deal, for publication in 2026, by Jane Realagent at Realagent Literary.

Darian Rudderham@darianrudderham· Feb 12

VICIOUS meets NINTH HOUSE Unknowingly entangled in an experiment that demands their blood, a group of university students find themselves on the verge of discovering what exists beyond the boundaries of death. #q #f #a #questpit #agentsguide

The background is Camille Corot’s printing of Orpheus and Eurydice leaving the underworld. Over it is a piece of ripped paper that says “an agents guide to A CONSIDERATION OF DEATH by Darian Rudderham”

With the same painting as the background, the title of this slide is labelled “the pitch.” Below are the covers of three books: VICIOUS by V.E. Schwab, NINTH HOUSE by Leigh Bardugo, and THE ATLAS SIX by Olivie Blake. The pitch reads “a group of university students find themselves entangled in an experiment that demands their blood.”

A collection of character images: a short brown haired woman, a taller brown haired man, a relatively tall blonde woman, a shorter pink haired woman, a tall indigenous man with dark hair, and a tall Pakistani man with dark hair. The trope tags list: friends to almost lovers, ancient monsters, neuroscience based magic system, aspec rep, unapologetically queer, mythology and ethics, complicated family dynamics, dark academia, ensemble cast, near death experiences

Darian Rudderham@darianrudderham· Feb 2

I hope the person who commented this on my TikTok knows they have all my love. The best thing to see as a querying author 🥹 (seriously, knowing I have a potential audience is incredible!)

Darian Rudderham@darianrudderham· Jan 22

I commissioned art of Dodie and Alek from my book, A CONSIDERATION OF DEATH, and I’m chewing rocks over how good this is (by sam.rosariio on 📸)

Darian Rudderham@darianrudderham· Jan 19

💀🫶🏻

Darian Rudderham@darianrudderham· Jan 18

The Book / The Pitch / The Quote #p2ppit #UW #A

With the same painting as the background, the title of this slide is labelled “the quote.” The attached quote reads: Alek stands, moves to lay beside her on the bed. She nudges him jokingly as she shifts to make room, head tilting toward him. When he looks over her their eyes meet, and for a brief moment his entire chest warms. It's all consuming, how much he adores her. He remembers this exact moment with such clarity, with how often it's happened. The exact shade of her eyes. The crinkles at the corner. The dimples. He'll log this one too. With the mascara smudged under her left eye and the tired dark circles beginning to grow.
And he'll love her more each time. There is no realization there. He just does it. It just happens.
He wonders how anyone could find it so hard to love her.

Darian Rudderham@darianrudderham· Dec 14

ADSOM meets LOCKED TOMB 💀 a city rotting 💀 a pristine church 💀 a woman who cares for a corpse 💀 a man who is death incarnate 💀 an unknown force swallowing magic whole #WIPPIT #A #gothicfantasy

Darian Rudderham@darianrudderham· Dec 11

In a city decaying from its own greed sits a pristine church. And inside that pristine church rests a corpse that will not rot. Introducing WHAT LINGERS BETWEEN, a dark and moody adult fantasy for my fellowship applications! #writingcommunity #amdrafting