Hi all, I am mostly on BlueSky these days (bsky.app/profile/esckeyes.bsky.social ). But I attempted to update my #MSWL page today. manuscriptwishlist.com/mswl-post/emily-s-keyes/

#MSWL PLEASE

magical girls plz #mswl

#MSWL in the vein of Blink Twice

i think i'll wrap up here in terms of 'additions' to the #mswl !

as i said at the top of 🧵, this is not an exhaustive or exclusive wishlist, more a look into what's top of mind at this particular moment. if the vibes feel right, please reach out!! #amquerying

also, some honourable mentions from my 2024 reading year: THESE BURNING STARS by bethany jacobs, THE BONE SHARD DAUGHTER by andrea stewart, and NEVER BEEN BETTER by leanne toshiko simpson #mswl

before i wrap up, here are my top 10 reads of 2024 (minus books i've worked on 😔). these vibes are always welcome in my querybox!! #mswl

for romance in general, i love a genre blending moment, so send me your horroromance, mystery romance, etc

i tend to like my main characters & storylines with a bit of bite/kick, and i probably wouldn't be the best fit for things that are on the sweeter/wholesome side lol #mswl

on the romance side of things, i'm widening my #mswl to include historical romance, particularly from/about marginalized prespectives, especially if it's sapphic. think olivia waite, cat sebastian (i esp loved her bisexual disasters novel THE PERFECT CRIMES OF MARIAN HAYES), etc.

on the more serious side of things, i'm intrugued by stories where said sentient 'house' is connected to/reflecting on intergenerational trauma, anticolonial legacies, dark histories, etc.

for e.g. a darker, more f*cked up version of the ENCANTO house! #mswl

this has been on my #mswl for a couple of years: i want a sentient house!! 'house' in the loosest sense of the word. could be a forest, a lake, a shack, a room. a 'place' that f*cks with its inhabitants. doesn't need to be malicious, but i do love when it's a bit of an a**hole 😅

lovers-to-enemies where the tension, betrayal, mind games, and angst are off the charts, where they want nothing more than to go back to the way things were but it's impossible and goes against everything each person stands for but the ~feelings are still there! i hunger!!! #mswl

i know the girlies love a good enemies-to-lovers moment (i myself am often 'the girlies') but over the holidays i watched THE RINGS OF POWER and while the show has its fair share of flaws, it has awakened in me a hunger for a lovers-to-enemies situation (iykyk 👀) #mswl

i've been revisiting favourites that were precursors to romantasy as we know it today, like tasha suri's THE BOOKS OF AMBHA duology, jemisin's THE INHERITANCE trilogy, and other fantasy where romance is a strong subplot but a HEA is not guaranteed and the angst is elite 🤌 #mswl

while i'm def open to romantasy where the fantasy/worldbuilding and romance are given equal space/attention (esp from marginalized writers ft. marginalized perspectives/stories), i also want to see more romantic fantasy that might not necessarily fit the 'romantasy' label #mswl

instead, i'd love to see speculative YA set in our world, particularly stories that are or play with horror, and fabulist fiction. some books in those spaces that i've enjoyed recently are: DELICIOUS MONSTERS by liselle sambury and HOME IS NOT A COUNTRY by safia elhillo
#mswl

starting w the 1 exception (things i used to want that no longer fit my #mswl & what i'm looking for instead): i've been thinking a lot about what i'd like to see more of in YA, and while it saddens me a bit, i'm not the right person for YA sci fi + 2nd world fantasy anymore 😔

Happy to announce I’m reopened to queries! Check my #MSWL for what’s on my priority list but sneak peak: give me lots of romcom, steamy romance, psych thrillers, eerie horror, soft to medium fantasy, dark academia & space! 🫶🏻

#WritingCommunity #amquerying #amediting

first though: this is an update, not meant to completely replace prev #mswl asks (with one exception, which i'll flag). please don't self-disqualify if your project does not fit exactly into these asks! it's just a list of things i'm particularly keen on at this moment.

friends! next week is the last one of jan (finally . . . this month was a y e a r), which means my querybox will be open for the first time in 2025, and i figured it's a good time for a #mswl update in case folks in #amquerying are curious 🧵