Success Story Interview - Mash Renatyev

An Interview with Mash Renatyev (m_writer on QT) upon receiving an offer of representation from agent Alex Land of Mad Woman Literary Agency.

02/03/2026

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

Mash Renatyev:
DEMON ON WHEELS is an adult horror-fantasy featuring a sentient train and a central queer romance that blurs the line between love and obsession. The story follows Yaromir, a working-class musician who struggles with severe anxiety and blames himself for his family’s debt. In a desperate effort to reverse their fortunes, he infiltrates a contest aboard a luxury train powered by the god of death, but soon realises talent won’t be enough to win the prize money—or survive the scorned, hungry god trapped in the smokebox.

As a history graduate (and lifelong history nerd), I wanted to build a fantasy world in the early stages of industrialisation, integrating themes of class struggle, imperialism, and propaganda. Yaromir is autistic like myself, and throughout DEMON ON WHEELS, music is used as a metaphor for unmasking as he embraces his rage against deeply interconnected systems of oppression.

QT: How long have you been writing?

Mash Renatyev:
I’ve been writing poetry and short fiction for as long as I can remember, plus a lot of essays during my time at uni! I sat down to write my first full-length novel about two and a half years ago.

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

Mash Renatyev:
From outline to querying, DEMON ON WHEELS took 7 months to complete.

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

Mash Renatyev:
If I’m being honest, I have lost count of the number of times I found myself in the pits of despair! My first time in the querying trenches was LONG (around 8 months), and although that book did much better than I expected in terms of request rate, the rejections felt like a sign that I’d never make it as a writer. Ultimately, what kept me going was pouring all of my energy into my next project, and, above all, the incredible friends I met when I joined the online writing community.

QT: Is this your first book?

Mash Renatyev:
DEMON ON WHEELS is the third book I wrote and the second one I queried.

QT: Do you have any formal writing training?

Mash Renatyev:
I don’t, but I think studying history at university helped a lot: while essays are very different to fiction, our tutors encouraged us to develop our writing on a sentence level and make the essays in question sound pretty! Plus, craft books are my best friend. I always keep them nearby whenever I’m outlining, drafting or editing.

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

Mash Renatyev:
For my second draft, I opened a blank document and essentially re-wrote the whole thing from scratch, which made the big developmental edits a lot easier and led to fewer continuity issues further down the line. Afterwards, I completed two more rounds of dev edits based on beta feedback, and three rounds focusing on line-level prose.

QT: Did you have beta readers for your book?

Mash Renatyev:
Yes, I had 5 amazing beta readers who helped make the book SO much stronger and caught things I’d never have noticed myself!

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

Mash Renatyev:
I’m definitely a plotter at heart because to me, getting started is much easier when I have a clear roadmap of where the story is going. I follow the Save the Cat beat sheet, then expand it into a chapter-by-chapter outline and adjust as needed if I find I want to take the plot in a different direction.

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

Mash Renatyev:
I queried DEMON ON WHEELS for two weeks before I received my first offer. My first querying project, however, was an eight-month-long journey with 80+ queries sent.

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

Mash Renatyev:
I sent 16 queries and received 3 offers of representation.

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

Mash Renatyev:
I included a line or two of personalisation for agents who’d expressed interest via pitch events or requested my previous manuscript.

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

Mash Renatyev:
I know it sounds cliché, but writing your next book is the best advice I can give. Once I immersed myself in the world of DEMON ON WHEELS, I was checking my emails for query replies a lot less frequently! Also, I can’t express how much community can help when it comes to the ups and downs of querying. I used to be terrified of putting myself out there, but making friends that understand the rollercoaster of pursuing traditional publishing is truly one of the best things I’ve done for my journey as an author.

Query Letter:

Dear [Agent],

I’m thrilled to present DEMON ON WHEELS (114,000 words), an adult dark fantasy novel with horror elements and a central queer romance. Featuring a sentient, man-eating train and a neurodivergent protagonist, it combines the gritty atmosphere and Slavic-inspired worldbuilding of Ava Reid’s Juniper and Thorn, the destructive romantic obsession of Alexis Henderson’s House of Hunger, and the dark cost of unchecked power found in M.L. Wang’s Blood Over Bright Haven.

Yaromir, a once-promising musician, is haunted by the panic attack that got him expelled from a prestigious conservatory. Now disgraced, he spends his days scrubbing a nobleman’s floors in the hopes of avoiding the brothels or factory work. But when a loan shark threatens his family with a firing squad unless they settle their debts, he refuses to be the reason they perish in the slums. Instead, Yaromir infiltrates a contest aboard the crown’s latest vanity project: Strelkin, a luxury train powered by the god of music and death.

Disguised as his brother, a balalaika prodigy whose career was ruined by a jealous saboteur, Yaromir must take part in six musical challenges—and he’s badly out of his depth. His aristocratic rivals are merciless, the passengers resent the labourer’s son in their midst, and the train’s eccentric creator is deliberately vague about how the winner will be chosen. But Yaromir soon discovers a secret weapon: rose-flavoured blood that seeps through the walls of his compartment. The more he consumes, the bolder his performances become, enthralling his audience and quickly catching the eye of Demyan—Strelkin’s alluring engineer.

Spurred by Demyan’s coaxing words, Yaromir embraces his newfound ambition, desperate to prove himself at any cost—even if it means losing his sanity. Everything changes, however, when he witnesses guards throw another working-class contestant into the train’s mouth, and a harrowing truth is brought to light: this is no simple audition. It is a fight to the death rigged in favour of the wealthy. Now, Yaromir must choose between fleeing back to a life of obscurity or paying for love and victory in blood. But as dangers mount and the final approaches, he knows only one thing for certain: the scorned god trapped in the smokebox should have stayed buried.

[Author bio]