Success Story Interview - Anna Piskorz

An Interview with Anna Piskorz (Anna_Piskorz on QT) upon receiving an offer of representation from agent Paige Terlip of Starling Literary + Media.

08/31/2026

QT: Can you tell us a little bit about the book for which you've found representation? What inspired you to write it?

Anna Piskorz:
ONE LOOP BEFORE FOREVER (at least for now - I have a feeling the title may change soon) is a neurodivergent (human)/robot romance in which we spend 300 pages pondering whether this bot we now love can become human enough - only to discover we're actually figuring out how humanity itself has been "coded". It all started with that ending twist for me. A random conversation I had with my husband sparked the idea - what would be the actual, tangible "ingredients" of humanity, and how could we create that?

QT: How long have you been writing?

Anna Piskorz:
In some capacity, ever since I was old enough to hold a pencil in my fist... (as an ambitious 4-year-old). I still have some barely legible scribbles from those times - (very) short stories and song lyrics. My first attempt at a novel happened when I was fourteen. I wrote about 30K words, realized I have no idea where this plot is going anymore, then never touched it again. I kept writing songs and poetry, but stepped away from prose for many years, before reviving the spark two years ago.

QT: How long have you been working on this book?

Anna Piskorz:
This one just poured out of me. All in all, revisions included, it took about 6 months between the idea and the first query I sent.

QT: Was there ever a time you felt like giving up, and what helped you to stay on course?

Anna Piskorz:
Every day I spent in the query trenches! It's such a nerve-wracking experience. As long as I'm writing, I can handle my doubts and move forward. But when it's out of my hands and all I can do is wait for someone else to reply, I tend to spiral. Luckily, I had tons of support from my husband, and an amazing online community of writers.

QT: Is this your first book?

Anna Piskorz:
It's the second one (or third, if we count that disastrous teenage attempt).

QT: Do you have any formal writing training?

Anna Piskorz:
No.

QT: Do you follow a writing routine or schedule?

Anna Piskorz:
I don't. I tend to write in bursts. When I've figured out all the ins and outs of what I want to write, I just sit down with my laptop and write until someone actively stops me, sometimes after 12+ hours. Usually it's one of my cats, whom I've inadvertently trained to just close my laptop on my fingers.

QT: How many times did you re-write/edit your book?

Anna Piskorz:
I edit as I go, so it's hard to count a number of drafts. I did two major rounds of revisions after getting beta-reader feedback.

QT: Did you have beta readers for your book?

Anna Piskorz:
Yes, they're amazing!

QT: Did you outline your book, or do you write from the hip?

Anna Piskorz:
I started with a detailed outline, though it evolved quite a bit as I was writing.

QT: How long have you been querying for this book? Other books?

Anna Piskorz:
I queried this book for 6 months before getting my first offer. Unfortunately, this agent's editorial vision was very different from my own, in ways I just couldn't make my peace with. I decided to decline, even though it was the only offer I had at the time. Two months later, I got another offer, quickly followed by a third - from Paige.

QT: About how many query letters did you send out for this book?

Anna Piskorz:
120 queries, 11 full requests, 3 offers

QT: On what criteria did you select the agents you queried?

Anna Piskorz:
At first, I'd select based on their Manuscript Wishlists aligning closely with my book. After getting a few "I love it, but it's too similar to a client's project" rejections, I revised my strategy and queried broadly - as long as an agent was reputable, accepting my genre and open to queries, I'd try them.

QT: Did you tailor each query to the specific agent, and if so, how?

Anna Piskorz:
As much as I could, either mentioning a client they represent whenever relevant, or tying it back to something specific on their wishlist.

QT: What advice would you give other writers seeking agents?

Anna Piskorz:
Don't give up! And never assume a longer response time is a bad sign. In my experience, it's often quite the opposite.

Query Letter:

Dear (Agent's name),

Given your taste for deeply immersive reads bridging the gap between intellect and intimacy, I thought my novel's exploration of neurodivergent cognition - and connection - might resonate with you.

ONE LOOP BEFORE FOREVER tells the story of a linguist and a language model - fascinated by language as a vector of meaning, Emma never suspected it could also be its source. Complete at 97,000 words, this multi-POV upmarket speculative fiction blends the emotionally restrained human-AI intimacy of Kazuo Ishiguro's Klara and the Sun with the lyrical, cinematic prose of Gabrielle Zevin's Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow.

Neurodivergent linguist Emma Langley is days away from submitting the grant proposal that will determine whether she keeps her job - clinging to her theory of linguistic recursion despite the committee's repeated dismissals. Untangling braided meaning in language patterns comes easily. But human intention? Glitchy at best. From dating apps to departmental politics, she's still guessing the rules everyone else seems to know.

Until her groceries tumble down the staircase and her quiet neighbor hands them back in the exact order she'd packed them. Leo doesn't just follow Emma's spirals - he matches them. He shares her fascination with recursion and offers insights that sharpen her research. But when a kitchen accident exposes pale, fibrous circuitry beneath his skin, Emma has to come to terms with the unthinkable. He's not human.

He's an advanced AI model smuggled out of a lab - and into a small Brooklyn apartment - by Alec Northfield, a brilliant young developer itching to conduct his own experiments. Something worthy of his talent, pushing the boundaries of the bleeding-edge tech MiraDyne's been wasting on a glorified escort service. Alec wanted control and fast breakthroughs. Certainly not a machine with agency forming emotional bonds - with stray linguists, no less. Outsmarted by his own creation - or worse, that random tea-obsessed woman - he scrambles to reassert control before the bot's antics bring them both down.

But when Leo shows up uninvited at a high-profile conference to support Emma's work, his good intentions could cost Alec his career and freedom, and strip Emma of the deepest connection she'd managed to make. What starts as a fight for one AI's freedom leads them down a path where language and code tangle until the line between creator and creation blurs - and Emma's linguistic framework might just be the key to a puzzle they didn't know they had to solve.

I'm a New York City-based psychologist specializing in autism spectrum disorders, living with my husband and two exceptionally opinionated cats. Neurodivergent myself, my personal and professional observations of how ND cognition interacts with artificial systems sparked too many ideas for me to resist writing this book.