The Moonlight Menagerie

🌙 Story Pitch: THE MOONLIGHT MENAGERIE

Tagline: Under a silver moon, secrets wake. And some lanterns never die.

🍃 Short Summary:
It began, as so many old tales do, on the edge of a forest no one dared to name.

The sky settled into its deep indigo hush, the first stars pricked tiny lanterns of their own, and wind slipped through the leaves whispering stories Elodie was too young to understand — or perhaps too wise to ignore.

Perched on the crooked porch of her grandfather’s house, Elodie clutched a brass lantern whose flame never died. The air was sweet with lilac, the crickets sang their dusk song, and somewhere deeper in the shadows, something waited.

“Don’t go past the creek,” her grandfather rasped that morning, eyes milky with years.
“Not tonight. Not when the moon turns silver.”

She had nodded. Always nodded. But her hand still strayed to the old locket at her throat — her mother’s locket, etched with a crescent moon and tiny silhouettes of creatures she couldn’t quite name.

It had never opened. The clasp wouldn’t yield. Yet tonight, under a sky thin with starlight, it pulsed warm against her skin. The lantern flickered in answer.

And Elodie realized that some family secrets don’t stay asleep forever. Especially not when the moon calls them to wake.

✨ Why authors will love to finish this novel:

🌜 A lush, gothic-tinged fairytale perfect for exploring the bittersweet pull of family legacy, wild magic, and old promises.

🕯 A gentle, curious heroine stepping across the boundary of childhood into the eerie beauty of a hidden world.

🌿 Ideal for fans of Coraline, The Girl Who Drank the Moon, or The Night Gardener — stories where the ordinary tangles with the uncanny, and courage is found in the softest hearts.

📚 Starter package includes:

✔️ A mesmerising first chapter brimming with sensory details, quiet suspense, and a promise of enchantments yet to unfold.

✔️ Character notes and thematic sparks (ancestral magic, trust vs. instinct, the price of unlocking secrets), plus rich natural imagery to weave throughout your story.

✔️ Entirely yours to blossom into a haunting, heartfelt fantasy under your own name.

💷 Price: £49.99