It all started as a joke. Zilla posted a reverse Manuscript Wishlist tweet, inviting agents to query her instead of the reverse.

The Night Beats community piled in on the joke, and pretty soon we’d invented our own (fictional) Twitter Pitch Party, #FlipPit. We wrote some copy, Madame made a graphic, and Rohan tweeted out the event.

The only problem was…everyone loved the idea. Writers thought it was a great way to find new agents and presses to query. An agent said they’d love an event to get their manuscript wishlist seen by authors. We had somehow accidentally stumbled on a winner.

Back to the drawing board (writing board?) and we turned the rules for #FlipPit into something a bit less absurd. Though hopefully still with a taste of the original fun!

See our next post for the real rules for #FlipPit. We hope that the writing community enjoys this version of #FlipPit as much as we loved making it!

What does magic want?

When Vasai Singh resurrected drowned Mumbai and raised it into the clouds, the world reacted with awe and wonder – and no small amount of fear. As with the climate crisis believed to have caused the Cascade, resurgent magic proved lucky for some, a disaster for many others, and a source of hope and dread for everyone else.

A generation has passed since the Cascade transformed the world, smashing the tectonic plates of the political landscape and infesting the wilderness with demons and shriekgrass.

In Ottawa, a scandal-plagued government clings to power, kept afloat by the manipulations of its precognitive political rainman, Ian Mallory. But when his predictions signal only catastrophe ahead, the magic-loathing photojournalist Tobias Fletcher, land rights activist Jonah Augustine, his ex-wife, climate scientist Blythe Augustine, and emoji-spell wielding intern Sujay Krishnamurthy must overcome ideology and bureaucracy to save a future from a present whose agenda spells only doom.

Rachel A. Rosen’s debut novel, Cascade, has been variously described as magic realism, climate fantasy and, as its publisher prefers, fantasy that feels like science fiction.

Set in a terrifying but all-too believable near future and leavened with a dry wit, Cascade features a cast of fully-realized characters drawn into conflict with each other as they each strive to do the right thing.

But who can know what the right thing is, when every choice leads to catastrophe?

The Cascade Kickstarter is now fully funded, but you can still back it, receive a copy in the format of your choice, and get rewards, including postcards, limited edition chapbooks, and resin koi. Cascade has been named as a Project We Love by Kickstarter. Get in while supplies last!

We’ve gone truly cross-media, with two TTRPG games inspired by Night Beats lore and works. We can’t wait to play them.

Check out Headcanon and Disaster Wizards, both by the amazing Julian Gunn, available for download at itch.io, along with his many other delightful, humorous, and startlingly poignant games.

Headcanon:

All the apocalypses have begun to blur together, but this one could be something special.

In Headcanon, the two of you – friends, enemies, allies, all of the above – play out the final episode of the Eternal Show, a nearly infinite low-budget horror-speculative-fiction-suspense-medical-drama-police-procedural-apocalyptic TV series.

In this low-prep ttrpg, players create collaborative poker hands to determine their characters’ actions and the success or failure of the scene.

Disaster Wizards

You, a wizard, are competing in the most prestigious magical tournament in the multiverse.

Two things.

One: this is an elite contest of skill, wits, and laser-like focus.

Two: you are a f*cking disaster.

This game is a Honey Heist hack.