Success Story Interview - Brenna Rose

An Interview with Brenna Rose (Brenna_Rose on QT) upon receiving an offer of representation from agent Joanna Rasheed of Ultra Literary.

04/25/2024

QT: Can you tell us a little bit about the book for which you've found representation? What inspired you to write it?

Brenna Rose:
Holden’s Oddities and Magical Imports is a Sapphic Romantasy that blends the magic and romance of the Romantasy genre with elements of a Western novel. This is an OwnVoices novel featuring two lesbian main characters and their love. With family from Wyoming, I’ve always loved the frontier and mountains, and I’ve always had a fascination with my family’s history of cow poking and outlaws. I wanted to create a novel inspired by that, but one that also subverted traditional Western tropes and included magic and normalized queer love.

QT: How long have you been writing?

Brenna Rose:
I have been writing seriously since 2018 when I was actively and consistently studying writing for my undergrad degree, but I’m a lifelong storyteller. I wrote my first story in the 5th grade, and the love and passion for writing only continued from there.

QT: How long have you been working on this book?

Brenna Rose:
I’ve been working on this book on and off for about two years.

QT: Was there ever a time you felt like giving up, and what helped you to stay on course?

Brenna Rose:
Absolutely. This is the second manuscript I’ve queried, and after I shelved the first manuscript I was exhausted emotionally. Querying is so tough and frequently heartbreaking. You need good friends in your corner. My friends and community of writers on and offline helped me stay on course, and honestly, it’s repeated advice from the writing community, but writing the next thing also helped (as well as a few tubs of ice cream).

QT: Do you have any formal writing training?

Brenna Rose:
Yes, I have a bachelor’s degree. My degree was a self-designed concentration signed off by a board of my professors titled, “The Art of Storytelling; Narrative, Practice, and Performance”

QT: Do you follow a writing routine or schedule?

Brenna Rose:
Not as consistently as I’d like to, but I do go writing every Sunday at a café with my best friend.

QT: How many times did you re-write/edit your book?

Brenna Rose:
A lot. So many times I don’t have a set number to give. There have been so many different versions and tweaks (big and small) to this manuscript.

QT: Did you have beta readers for your book?

Brenna Rose:
Yes absolutely! This book wouldn’t be where it is today without my betas.

QT: Did you outline your book, or do you write from the hip?

Brenna Rose:
I have a pretty weird method (at least I haven’t had anyone tell me they do the same thing yet!) I start by totally pantsing. I have a character, a setting, and a general idea of the story I want to tell, and I just start writing. That steam can last me just about to the end of Act 1, and then it’s time to outline. Since I have a better idea of the story by that point, I go through and blurb each remaining chapter, and then I get back to writing.

QT: How long have you been querying for this book? Other books?

Brenna Rose:
I sent the first query for this book in September 2023, but my first query ever sent was in June 2022.

QT: About how many query letters did you send out for this book?

Brenna Rose:
Just shy of 100.

QT: Did you tailor each query to the specific agent, and if so, how?

Brenna Rose:
Not unless they specified in their notes to personalize, or if I had a connection to the agent (they liked my pitch on Twitter, they requested the full for my previous manuscript, etc). When agents required personalization, I would just add a simple one sentence to my query letter “since you like xyz,” (as found in their MSWL).

QT: What advice would you give other writers seeking agents?

Brenna Rose:
Take breaks, but never give up. Find the people who will support you through your highs and lows, and no matter what: keep writing!

QT: Would you be willing to share your query with us?

Brenna Rose:
Of course!

Query Letter:

Dear [Agent],

It’s my pleasure to introduce HOLDEN’S ODDITIES AND MAGICAL IMPORTS, a 93,000 word dual-POV romantasy. It combines the wild-west setting of Upright Women Wanted with the queer, found family posse of Outlawed, the magical creatures of Pokémon, and the slow burn, enemies-to-lovers sapphic romance of Legend of Korra.

Lystra Holden craves a world where magic is accessible to everyone, not only those born with it. Until then, she spends her days hocking magical oddities in her family’s shop, granting people a flash of power. As she studies and befriends creatures, they gift her new oddities to experiment with, bringing her one step closer to her dream. But when a bounty huntress arrives with a warrant for her arrest for her family’s poaching, Lystra must choose between complacency at the cost of her integrity, or justice at the cost of her family.

Ivy Rhodes didn’t know she had magic until the fateful night when the rug of her world was torn out from her, and she awoke with control over electricity. Since then, she’s honed her lightning, rising through the Huntress Guild and fighting towards the only thing driving her: revenge on the poachers responsible for her family’s death. With her promotion to Sorceress finally within reach, all that’s left is to retrieve Lystra Holden—a member of a known poaching ring.

When the two are captured by the Insurgence Outlaws—enemies of the Guild—Ivy and Lystra are forced to confront the intersection of their families’ pasts and the corruption of their world. If they want to save the creatures of their world from poacher-driven extinction and free magic from those who hoard it for themselves, they’ll have to learn to trust each other. If they don’t, they risk losing the family they forge amidst the ashes of their pasts, or worse, the love they come to share.

Born and raised in the Pacific Northwest, I have an interdisciplinary bachelor’s degree in storytelling from Western Washington University. As a genderqueer lesbian, it’s my passion to write queer joy into my adult novels. When I’m not writing, you can find me in the woods hunting for salamanders or sailing the Columbia River, dreaming of my own adventures.

CW: Themes of poaching
TW: Explicit Sexual Content, Firearms, Violence

Thank you for your consideration,
Brenna