[QCrit] Adult Cozy Fantasy UNTITLED (78,000/version 1 + first 300)

This is a not-quite-finished draft but I figured I might as well hear how it's working now. It's just the blurb, not the housekeeping or bio. And I'm stewing on comps. I've read a random smattering of cozy fantasy recently but this concept came together pretty quickly so I need to take some time to find and read some more pointed books to see exactly where it would fit.

And...I'm looking for the perfect name for the cat in the book, so she's currently just called Cat. Throw your best cat names in the comments!

I also included the first 300 because why not jump in with both feet...

Miriam Espar is enjoying her quiet, retired life. Although - and she wouldn’t dare say this out loud - she sometimes finds the peace and tranquility of the Here and Now are just a wee bit boring. Until a letter arrives from a man she adventured with in the Before Times, followed quickly by a knock on her door from his granddaughter, Vera.

Vera needs to rescue her boyfriend, an inventor whose prototype airship crashed in No-Man’s Land. But to pass through No-Man’s Land alive and retrieve him, she’ll need chainmail knit by a protection weaver. 

Miriam hasn’t knit chain since peace was won and it was deemed unnecessary by none other than Miriam's old adventure partner, Vera’s grandfather Jessem. They haven’t spoken since the day his leadership outlawed the magical arts and destroyed her heirloom needles. Miriam would die happy never uttering another word to him, until she's told that that her needles are not destroyed, but hidden in a vault of magical artifacts. If she helps him and Vera on their mission, she can have them back. 

To pull this off the trio will have to burgle a bureaucratic office, find the location of a legendary lost library, and perform outlawed magic, all before Vera’s boyfriend is lost from the land of the living for good. But with neither Miriam nor Jessem as young as they once were - not to mention she hates him - this could be a very long journey indeed. 

First 300:

The letter stared up at her from the table. “My dearest Miriam,” it started. Miriam snorted in disgust. 

“Can you believe the gall of that man, Cat? There’s been hide nor hair of him for over 40 years and he has the audacity to open with my dearest?” A stretch took over Cat as she dozed by the fire, but it may have been more due to the kettle whistling than her outrage at dearest. 

Mairam set her pipe down and placed her palms on the table, bracing herself as she slowly rose to her feet. Damn, this arthritis. She took a moment to steady herself before shuffling over to the kettle and the sweet rolls cooling on the counter. She filled a mug with strong black tea and plucked a roll from the pan, trails of sugary goodness stretching to the breaking point as she set it on a plate. She returned to the table and slowly lowered herself back down. Wisps of steam rose off the tea and sweet roll as she grabbed the letter yet again, waiting for her lunch to cool. 

Jessem Hills. How dare he. I mean, It’s really just too much to bear, honestly. She threw the letter down and immediately picked it back up again. In truth, she couldn’t read it without her spectacles but she’d read it enough times this morning to know its contents by heart. It contained the usual platitudes. 

“How are you keeping? Can you believe it’s been 40 years? Hope you’ve settled in well to the Here and Now.” Childish drivel. No mention of the Before Times. No mention of their last days together, nothing. Just grade-school pleasantries and the mention of a favour. 

“A favour, Cat! I mean, can you even imagine?”

ETA: Typo