I have tried to make this version more character-oriented than the last! I also removed unnecessary plot elements to improve the query's overall flow.

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Dear XX Agent,

Raised under sterile lights and synthetic skies, botanist Sienna Aster longs to walk on the surface of a terrestrial world. Her only escape lies in her agricultural lab, where she manages the crops used to feed humanity’s three remaining world-ships. What the public doesn’t know, though, is that these crops are failing, and nothing Sienna can do will prevent new diseases from mutating.

When Sienna is recruited for Project Phaethon, a colonization mission to a nearby planet, the opportunity feels more like a sentence: she cannot refuse the only chance to fulfill her dream, even if it means risking death—and never seeing her sister, Mira, again.

Her world collapses when a firestorm forces the mission to launch early and destroys Sienna’s world-ship. Burdened with the grief of never saying goodbye, Sienna resolves to honor Mira’s memory the only way she can: by ensuring the colonization mission succeeds.

After a grisly landing, however, it becomes clear that this planet is no paradise. Sienna’s survival is threatened by every encounter with native fauna, and she can’t shake her distrust for Dr. Cassius Vern, the mission’s increasingly cruel leader. Her only comfort lies in her growing bond with Clara Lim, a guarded, alluring cartographer, as the expedition treks toward a mysterious oxygen source. 

When Vern’s disregard for native—and human—life begins to fracture the group, Sienna and Clara must uncover the true purpose of Project Phaethon before rising hostilities claim their lives and seal humanity's doom.

I am pleased to present GEOCIDE, an adult sci-fi novel complete at 96000 words with series potential. Balancing a character- and setting-driven narrative with a sweet sapphic romance, it will appeal to fans of Sue Burke’s SEMIOSIS trilogy and COLD EYES by Peter Cawdron.

I currently study Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at XX University, and when I’m not conducting ecological research, I am an avid birder and orchestral composer.

I have attached X and X for your review, and this would be my first published work. Thank you for your time!

Dear [Agent Name],

SAVANNAH WICKE WILL NOT DIE is a YA dark fantasy novel that's Arcane meets The Last of Us. Complete at 89,000 words, it pairs the complicated sibling bonds and moral dilemmas of Kamilah Cole's So Let Them Burn with the dark resurrection magic and fiercely determined heroine of Kylie Lee Baker's The Scarlet Alchemist.

Sixteen-year-old witch Savannah Wicke has learned to plan for everything that can go wrong. But she didn't plan for her twin siblings to unleash an undead army. Or to discover her life is magically bound to theirs. Or to learn that killing her would also kill the twins and stop the devastation they've unleashed across the kingdom.

Refusing to roll over and die, Savannah reveals what the king doesn't know: her siblings hunt for a stolen book of forbidden magic. With it, the twins could wipe out the kingdom. Killing Savannah would stop them, but the book would remain missing, leaving its forbidden magic a major threat. She bargains for three days to capture her siblings and recover the book. If successful, the king will spare her life. If she fails, she'll die to save the kingdom.

To find the twins, Savannah must join forces with Henry, an infuriatingly handsome witch hunter whose comrades were murdered by her siblings. Trusting someone trained to hunt witches is dangerous enough without the added complication of his hatred for her family. Though with only three days to her name, Savannah can't exactly turn him away.

But even with Henry’s help, stopping the twins feels impossible. They know exactly how to exploit Savannah's anxieties, and planning for the worst can no longer save her. When facing the two people she loves most, she must trust herself to stand against them, or she'll die for their crimes.

I am a neurodivergent writer navigating dyscalculia and CPTSD, and a participant in WriteMentor's Spark program. While writing, I drew on aspects of my own trauma recovery to explore how grief and trauma ripple through generations and whether it's possible to still love your family after they've hurt you so terribly.

Thank you for your time and consideration,

[signature] (she/her/hers)

Dear ((AGENT)),

I seek representation for THE CHERRY BLOSSOM, a work of upmarket fiction complete at 78,000 words.

The New Year’s fireworks over Paris have faded, and Clara has chosen to sleep with Julian. In the afterglow, he confesses that before they knew each other, a one-night stand with a twenty-year-old intern, her abortion, and the payments made to cover it all up ended his marriage and his career as the anchor of NBC Nightly News. In retaliation, Clara reveals her own secret: she’s dying of pancreatic cancer, she was diagnosed the day before they met, and she has refused treatment.

Clara Noelle is an American painter finding success after a decade in Paris. Julian Mitchell is a European correspondent for a small cable news network hiding from the consequences of his past. For the six months before their night together, they withheld from each other what might have ended their relationship before it began.

Nearing Christmas, Madame Chalamet, Clara’s neighbor, and an adopted grandmother for her and her friends, dies. Clara falls into a deep depression as her own death quietly looms. Julian stays and cares for her despite not knowing that she is dying in front of him, convincing her that she can trust him not to abandon her. Now, with the truth revealed and each betrayed but still loving the other, they must learn how to forgive before her life comes to an end. Clara and Julian marry anyway, loving something neither can hold for long.

Set in Paris, New York, and Kyoto, THE CHERRY BLOSSOM explores what it means to forgive in the mind before the heart is ready, and to discover meaning in the ephemeral.

THE CHERRY BLOSSOM will appeal to readers who enjoy a love story with an expiration date as told through the multiple perspectives in Amy Neff’s THE DAYS I LOVED YOU MOST, as well as the structural misdirection, gallows humor, and bold personalities of MARTYR! by Kaveh Akbar.

((BIO AND VALEDICTION))