Deidre Knight

Dear Deidre,

Thank you for reading this.

Twenty-five years ago, I lost everything. My family, my home, my dreams. But across what feels like lifetimes, I found it all again. Most miraculously, I found myself. And that’s why I’m writing this book.

This is my heart and soul on paper — my story told through portals and beings from distant worlds.

While the story stretches across space and time, it’s for right now. There’s so much that divides us these days, and I tried to write something that helped us feel the effects of that division while drawing a roadmap to something different: a world that feels like home for everyone.

This book is a coming-of-age story about the inevitable collapse of the entire multiverse — and the quest to find meaning anyway.

Infinity Hotel: The Awakening is a YA crossover novel (92k words). It’s the first of a four-book speculative fantasy series that asks questions like: What if we aren’t the only ones here? What if knowing is dangerous? What if everything is being destroyed by a secret enemy nobody knows how to defeat? What if the solution is way closer than we think?

Jeff lives in The Pearl — a hotel, the family business, and Earth’s only portal to the multiverse. He’s raised by his grandmother, Edith, the portal keeper and one of the founders of the Women’s Municipal Union (WMU). Everything, including reality itself, is threatened by The Chaos, a force that’s destroying worlds across the multiverse.

For as long as anyone can remember, Portal Keepers have been fortifying worlds against The Chaos. But still it’s undefeated. Jeff is beginning to realize that things are more than they seem. By the end of the series, he — along with Elle, Bernice, Yvette, Joann, Ms. Deb, Katherine, Ken, and Mr. Dennis — figures out that The Chaos is not a personified enemy. It can’t be killed with guns or swords. Not even a magic spell will do. In short, connection is the only cure.

This book was born from a real loss — and a real return. When I came out, I lost my family. My queerness catapulted me into a world where I had to fight for my survival. I was mad at everything. Fighting the things that kept me apart from the rest of the world only further entrenched me in isolation. I struggled to find my purpose, my people, and my place. But queerness also taught me that there’s magic in shared humanity. After my mom’s terminal cancer diagnosis, I brought myself — and the self-love I’d fought hard to claim — back to Alabama. I reconnected with my family. It wasn’t easy, but we did it. And in returning, I remembered who my people were. I made space to live my purpose. I realized that place isn’t something you find — it’s something you carry. By finding myself, I finally opened the door to the most important connections in the multiverse — community. That journey is, in every way, the story of Infinity Hotel.

Now, I want to tell a story about what’s truly at stake in our world: our connections.

Infinity Hotel is a love letter to queers, to chosen family, and to anyone who’s ever felt like they don’t belong. But the truth is universal: connection is the cure.

I’m looking to build a team around a big vision for Infinity Hotel. So far, Evan Tuohey, Director of Scripted Programming at Fremantle, has been enthusiastic about exploring the potential of a screen adaptation. I have no doubt that Infinity Hotel is the seed of a multiversal franchise. This is only the beginning of something culture-shifting.

Now, I need an experienced agent that can guide me through this process. I’d love to work with an agent who sees the world-changing potential for Infinity Hotel and who can help build the team to make it all that it needs to be in the world. I want to work with an agent who sees this as a legacy worth building — together. With Evan. And with the other creators of this vision, whoever they might be.

There’s more about book one below, and I believe Evan sent you a PDF of the entire manuscript.

I hope you’ll join us, Deidre. At this point, I’ve read a million profiles. You’re the very first agent I’m reaching out to because it just feels like you’re the right person. It’s so comforting to know that you’ve championed authors like me. When so many try to deny our voices, you’ve championed them. (I just finished reading The House in the Cerulean Sea, and I’m so excited about what’s next. TJ Klune is such an inspiration.)

I know you’re currently closed to submissions, and I will absolutely respect that boundary. But I also wanted to ask whether you'd be open to reading this. Thank you so much for considering. I deeply admire your work, and it would mean the world to know Infinity Hotel has reached your desk.

Warmly,
Jordan Reeves

Overview

We are living in a time of collapse — environmentally, politically, spiritually. It’s surreal, isn’t it? And yet, even in the unraveling, stories can stitch us back together.

Infinity Hotel explores what’s happening in the real world and offers something healing: connection.

The first book in the series, Infinity Hotel: The Awakening, meets this cultural moment. It tells the truth without preaching or politicizing. It’s not about what’s right or wrong. It’s not about good versus evil. It’s about holding each other close — and remembering that the only way to face The Chaos is together — even if we have to cross the lines of difference that have long kept us apart.

Readers of The House in the Cerulean Sea, The Midnight Library, This Is How You Lose the Time War, and His Dark Materials will find a new home here — as will fans of Everything Everywhere All At Once, Steven Universe, Foundation, and The OA. Think Star Trek meets queer-affirming Harry Potter!

More and more, it feels like queer speculative fiction isn’t just being published — it’s leading the way. As Vogue asked: “Is This the Golden Era of Queer Literature?” I hope so. But even more than that, I hope it’s a moment of long-overdue recognition. And from what I’m seeing, the world is ready for Infinity Hotel.

As Vogue put it, “I wouldn’t call it the ‘golden age’—I’d call it the age where book publishing is catching up to queer life and queer stories.” I’ve shaped Infinity Hotel so that queerness isn’t a subplot, but a regular part of life for the main characters. I hope to create, as The Guardian notes of this new wave, “a world where homophobia does not exist.” Where there has so often been erasure, Infinity Hotel invites us to look into the multiverse with wonder.

I think it’s speculative storytelling because it imagines the radical possibility that we are all in this together.

Infinity Hotel explores queerness and the themes that are commonly associated with it — intergenerational relationships, belonging, chosen family, and love. It also explores finding oneself in a fractured world, grief, bullying, the difference in surviving and thriving, heartbreak, and loss. But it never dwells in despair. Instead, it’s an invitation: What if we could live in a world that feels more like home for everybody?

That’s why the book is already generating excitement beyond the page. I’ve hosted a dozen live readings, with responses ranging from standing ovations to in-depth Q&As about world building and lore. And while they are not officially attached, there’s early support from Evan Tuohey at Fremantle (TV/film). My hope is that Infinity Hotel will be developed as franchise for screen adaptation.

It’s sure to go far as it’s a narrative engine powered by something special: emotional truth.

Its audience, which spans from Gen X to Gen Z, includes people like my dad, who is squarely a Baby Boomer — and a conservative, religious type. He’s a big fan! But so are people my age — the grown-up Harry Potter kids, desperate for more epic stories — especially ones filled with queers.

But more than strategy, this is soul work. Infinity Hotel is a roadmap to a world that is better for all of us. It walks straight into the future, hand in hand with the power of shared humanity.

Whether or not this is the golden era of queer speculative fiction — I believe Infinity Hotel is exactly on time.

The Awakening: Synopsis

Jeff lives in Rosebeach, a beautifully quaint, fading seaside town nestled between the tree-covered mountains, Mount East and Mount West. He helps run The Pearl alongside his grandmother Edith and her older sister Bernice, unaware that the WMU is actually safeguarding Earth’s only portal to the multiverse.

When Jeff dreams of glowing murals, talking animals, and a floating chandelier inside The Great Hall — the room where the WMU meets — he feels in the deepest parts of himself that it’s more than a dream. Echoes of the dream start appearing in his waking life and he knows there’s more to The Pearl than folding towels and cleaning guest rooms.

Rosebeach could be any town. But it happens to be where Jeff lives. It’s where he fell in love with Elle, one of his best friends since kindergarten. It’s where Mr. Dennis still teaches history, long after his partner Joel died of complications from AIDS. It’s where Ms. Deb moved after losing her entire family in the tornado that tore through southern Rosebeach. Joann and Ken run K&J Davis Booksellers — the latest in a long line of booksellers that stretch back generations. Katherine is working with Joann to write a comprehensive multiversal history. Yvette quietly funds WMU operations from her family’s estate. And Jeff? He thinks of the mountains as his playground and The Pearl as just a job. He doesn’t yet know that Rosebeach, and all the magic he’s overlooked, is part of something much bigger. When Edith is hospitalized, everything begins to shift. For the first time, Jeff questions his role — not just in The Pearl, but in the multiverse.

While Jeff doesn’t yet know his role in the multiverse, he is not alone. Elle, newly inducted into the WMU, finds herself thrust into a role she barely understands. With the help of Edith, Bernice, Joann, Ms. Deb, Yvette — the founders of the WMU — and Katherine, Elle helps confront The Chaos

Meanwhile, Jeff begins to piece together his family’s secrets — the stories Edith wouldn’t tell, the rooms he’s never entered, and the meaning of the murals that seem to come alive in his dreams.

As The Pearl hosts the last WMU meeting of the year, The Confluence, a wave of ancient beings arrive —the fairy-like Pipleep, the empathetic Brauntorn, the wind-chimed Belltrop, and even the elusive Slaggnat. Then there’s the telepathic Mkrall. With their help, Jeff receives a message from Edith, comatose in the hospital, who shares her final gift: a heart-based knowledge of the multiverse.

In the wake of Edith’s fading life, Jeff finds the strength to step into his purpose. Using a secret key and the portal hidden within The Pearl’s elevator, he begins his journey into other worlds. Each world holds answers — not just for Jeff, but for the entire multiverse. These answers will eventually help mend a fraying reality.

Book One lays the foundation. As the book ends, Jeff enters the portal alone — ready to do whatever must be done — even if he doesn’t yet know what that is.

Infinity Hotel is the story of how how saving the world starts with holding each other close. And The Awakening, book one, is just the beginning. It’s the quiet before the storm — the heartbeat of this series. It establishes the hidden truths, ancient forces, and sacred relationships that Jeff, Elle, and the others must carry across worlds as they step into a journey that spans galaxies, timelines — and the fate of humanity itself.

Series Arc

Infinity Hotel: The Series

Infinity Hotel tells the story of how everything is unraveling. The only cure? Connection. What follows is a look at that journey across the three remaining books in the series.

Book Two: The Crossing
In Book Two, Jeff travels. We learn how to better use the portal as Jeff travels farther and farther away from home. Each world different. Some worlds are thriving. Some are dying. And some are dead — already destroyed by the power of The Chaos.

Every world hold pieces of the truth. These are not just fantastical worlds. They are metaphors. Even in the bleakest places, Jeff finds life — and another lesson for how to deal with The Choas back on Earth.

Elle finds her voice within the WMU, pushing for greater openness and access. Katherine and Joann race against time to finish their book. Bernice, with the help of the Mkrall, begins sending Jeff messages in his dreams.

The Crossing invites readers into the farthest corners of the multiverse — and yet, somehow, brings us closer and closer to home.

Book Three: The Mirror
Book Three brings us to a world eerily similar to Earth. Jeff must confront the uncomfortable parallels: fear-mongering media, rising authoritarianism, and a painfully noticeable state of unabashed disconnection. This world is a mirror.

Jeff begins to understand: collapse follows disconnection. On his way home from this Earth-like planet, Jeff accidentally travels to a dead world where the Portal Keeper Key is stolen. He’s stuck, subject to the worst the multiverse has to offer. He meets an unlikely ally who turns out to be none other than Jeff’s father, Jesse.

Back home, tensions rise. The WMU’s secrecy begins to break down, and Katherine, now a co-leader of the movement, publishes the multiversal history book. Elle faces hard choices about loyalty and truth. Ms. Deb struggles to hold it all together. Yvette is perfectly poised on the outside, but something is churning in her heart. Joann’s memory slips.

Jeff has been gone so long that the entire town begins to worry. Elle, Katherine, and some of his friends from school work with the Slagnatt to travel across space and time to rescue Jeff. This is an unprecedented act — on that exposes the WMU and defies convention — only one other person has ever been known to travel with the Slagnatt.

Jeff makes it back to Earth, but is it too late?

Book Three is the reckoning. It’s where Jeff realizes the real battle is not out there. It’s within us. It’s cultural, environmental, political, and spiritual.

Book Four: The Return
The final book is about connection. Connecting to what’s real.

Jeff and his friends have changed. Each one now knows the role they have to play.

They understand what The Chaos fears most: connection. Together, Jeff, Elle, Katherine, Bernice, Joann, Ms. Deb, Yvette, Ken, Mr. Dennis, Prairie Sunshine and the Brauntorn, Avery Wendell Westchester and the Mkrall, the Pipleep, the Belltrop, and the Slagnatt co-create a new way forward.

By connecting with each other, they form a field. Not a force-field, but a connective tissue that does more than protect them. It amplifies their humanity.

Portals across the multiverse begin to reopen. Memory is restored. Brauntorn stop dying.

Jeff no longer asks, “Am I the right one?” He knows he is one of many. He figures out that portals aren’t places, they are people. He figures out that keys aren’t necessary to travel throughout the multiverse — only intention.

Infinity Hotel ends with a beginning. Jeff’s new found purpose is to spread the message of connection across the multiverse. Elle joins him, using fashion as a teacher. Katherine becomes Earth’s Portal Keeper and the new historian at the WMU. Joann, Yvette, Ms. Deb, Bernice, Ken, and Mr. Dennis retire as much as they know how to.

The series ends with a roadmap toward a world that feels more like home for all of us. One where The Chaos has lost it’s power. It isn’t defeated, but it’s dormant. And the only way to keep it that way is to stay connected.

That’s the message. That’s the legacy. That’s the return.