Query

Gerda and Kay is a 96,000 word fairytale retelling of the Snow Queen. It combines the magical heartbreak and grief that comes when a fairytale turns real and shatters a life, like in Ova Ceren’s The Book of Heartbreak and the transporting fantasy of Water Moon by Samantha Sotto Yamboa with a brave heroine that is reminiscent of those in Hayao Miyazaki’s Studio Ghibli films. Aesthetic and whimsical, Gerda and Kay follows fierce, loving Gerda on a cozy quest that spans the galaxy as she searches every planet and star for her stolen love. The romance is sweet and steadfast and the danger threatens to break their hearts into a thousand pieces.

Gerda and Kay is a dual timeline story, traveling between the blissful days of new love and the horror of life now that they have been ripped out of each other’s arms by a dark sorceress, the Snow Queen. Like in Gerda’s art, the past and the present are painted together and only through the finished layers can Gerda find her way through the vast universe and into her lover’s arms. Gerda and Kay’s love is written in the stars and inked on their skin.

Gerda may only have a satchel of art supplies and not even a pair of shoes to her name but that won’t stop her from boarding an ethereal starship and leaving her sleepy planet for the first time. She will find Kay, even if she has to cross the whole universe and carve him free from every planet she finds along the way. There is nowhere in the universe the Snow Queen can hide. Nothing can stop true love. 

This fresh take on the classic fairytale pays beautiful homage to the relentless courage of Gerda as she searches every land and every world for Kay. Kay once rescued her from her own inner darkness now it’s time for her to rescue him.