[QCrit] Adult Sapphic Romantasy THE WITCH AND THE GROCER (75k/4th attempt)

Hey I'm back! New title, though I kept the post title the same for consistency. Started the query from scratch. I followed your directions of pitch to plot, which has been refined and expanded now that I've written more of the book and fleshed out the outline totally. I've answered the main query questions and feel like they come through clearly in this draft.

A BASKET OF UNCERTAIN FRUIT is a 75,000-word Sapphic Romantasy featuring #ownvoices disability representation. This novel combines the stuck-together romance of LATE BLOOMER by Mazey Eddings with the witchy, cozy landscape of THE HONEY WITCH by Sydney J. Shields.

Local witch Alarra Thorne seeks companionship. She’s made it to twenty-eight with barely a first kiss, and with her mysterious widespread pain and severely misguided attraction, her marriage prospects don’t look great. What’s more, her once-thriving apothecary is going under because of her inability to consistently work, and she’s about to be evicted from her house. All attempts at mitigating the damage have led to disaster, with temp workers running for the hills and down-on-their-own-luck neighbors offering meager condolences for her “situation.” 

When Alarra first meets Mulerre, a fruit seller with a dream of running a fruit farm, she thinks the beautiful butch woman is the answer to her prayers. Mulerre is looking for a second job, and comes with glowing recommendations. Alarra’s best friend, however, is not so sure. They claim that they sense bad intentions from Mulerre. Desperate for a miracle, Alarra doesn’t listen to her trusted friend, and hires Mulerre to work in the shop with her.

Alarra is keenly attracted to Mulerre’s hard-working persona and bleeding heart. Likewise, Mulerre finds Alarra to be a magnetic specimen, with a brain full of bees and the sort of quirky charm so rarely seen in their small town. As the relationship between Alarra and Mulerre grows from passing fascination to full-blown first love though, ill omens spread in the apothecary: burned spell books, missing funds, and strewn totems of hellish origin. Determining that the place is in fact haunted, Alarra devotes her minimal energy to uncovering the source of the haunting, thinking it will solve her unluck in life. The deadline for eviction creeps closer as Alarra must figure out where the missing funds went and why the specter is disparaging her new girlfriend.

As a freelance editor and fanfiction writer with over 100k readers, I’ve learned to improve my craft while taking care of my body. Getting diagnosed with Fibromyalgia was both a blessing and a curse. I had a name for my pain, but no solution or reason. With this novel, I aim to capture that sense of mixed hope and despair, while still providing a cozy, queer happy ending.  Disabled lesbians like me deserve stories we can see ourselves in.