Ernie Chiara

✨Aro-ace rep and meaningful platonic relationships
✨Fantasy or SF with non-western settings and cultures
✨Anti-colonialist, -caste, -patriarchy, -establishment, etc. with driving plots and strong characters
#MSWL

#MSWL for trans voices in speculative #A or #YA that comps @ryka_aoki's The Light from Uncommon Stars. I'm blown away not just by the voice, but by the originality of the story, the heart, the narrative scope. It's breathtaking. We need more trans joy in SFF. Send them my way.

Hey, everyone! I've gotten a lot of questions about opening to queries, so it seems a lot of you have things you'd like to send my way!

I'm open to queries from now through the end of November. Send me your #F and #SF in #A & #YA. and check my #MSWL at erniechiara.com/mswl.

One #MSWL item I really hope someone picks up on is a Black version of UTOPIA AVENUE feat. Magical Realism in Motown or the golden age of Rap. MR/Fabulist or Contemporary Fantasy stories based in historical music scenes like UTOPIA AVENUE shouldn't be limited to white writers.

⟡ #MSWL Contemporary fantasy or magical realism that comps ADDIE LARUE or THE MIDNIGHT LIBRARY from a BIPOC perspective

⟡ #MSWL Climate Fantasy that comps SWEETH TOOTH (Netflix)

⟡ Period Alt-London Fantasy that comps PEAKY BLINDERS or HARLOTS with magic, or THE NEVERS or CARNIVAL ROW

⟡ #MSWL Anything that blends the genres of Speculative Sci-Fi with Contemporary Fantasy/Magical Realism

⟡ Anything that comps THE MURDERBOT DIARIES by Martha Wells

#MSWL for #A or #YA #F fantasy for #BVM with BIPOC characters facing magic in contemporary settings like Lovecraft Country or The City We Became.

#MSWL for traditionally underrepresented voices in #A or #YA #F & #SF that center BIPOC w/ an emphasis on intersectionality, and stories rooted in culture & identity.

Just updated my #MSWL page to include everything I listed in this thread. You can check them all out in one place at ErnieChiara.com/MSWL

⟡ In Adult: Magical libraries, magical bookstores, magical book stalls w/ back alley portals to magical worlds. You get the picture.

⟡ #A Adult #F #SF #MR set in Boston or an alternate-Boston. Give me a Boston version of THE CITY WE BECAME, UN LUN DUN, or NEVERWHERE.

#MSWL

⟡ Urban Fantasy-Mystery like MAGIC FOR LOVERS or RIVERS OF LONDON, but not like THE DRESDEN FILES--no werewolves or vampires please.

#MSWL #A #F #SF #MR

⟡ Afrofuturist Fantasy, Africanfuturist SF, or any BIPOC SF/F story with BIPOC characters. Send me everything that comps Nnedi Okorafor or N.K. Jemisin.

⟡ Literary or Upmarket Magical Realism like Carlos Ruiz Zafón's THE SHADOW OF THE WIND.

#MSWL #A #F #SF #MR

⟡ Historical fantasy like JONATHAN STRANGE but from a different culture.

⟡ Anything that comps Claire North.

⟡ Fabulist Urban Spec Fic like China Miéville's PERDITO STREET STATION.

#MSWL #A #F #SF #MR

⟡ Fantasy that blows me away with a brand new, entirely unique magical system.

⟡ IP MAN meets THE MAGICIANS with magic martial arts schools or clans instead of a magic university.

⟡ Mars rovers meets Battlebots (thanks, @MichaelMammay).

#MSWL #A #F #SF #MR

⟡ Fantasy that comps Peaky Blinders or Harlots or both.

⟡ Fantasy with cultural roots like BLACK LEOPARD, RED WOLF by Marlon James.

⟡ Adult Asian-based or Asian-American fantasy.

#MSWL #A #F #SF #MR

⟡ Time travel stories with strong characters at their heart, think 11/22/63 by Stephen King or KINDRED by Octavia Butler.

⟡ Black version of UTOPIA AVENUE featuring Magical Realism in Motown or the golden age of Rap.

#MSWL #A #F #SF #MR

⟡ SF 'one room'–style mystery set in the future, where near-ageless conniving matriarch is the prime suspect in deaths of all her adult offspring. Like Speculative KNIVES OUT flipped on its head.

⟡ LGBTQIA+ Adult Fantasy or Sci-Fi.

#MSWL #A #F #SF #MR

⟡ Rescue mission from poor/dying Earth upward through each distinct orbiting level of society to the uppermost/richest hardest-to-penetrate level. Think race/gender-flipped SENLIN ASCENDS meets Altered Carbon S1.

#MSWL #A #F #SF #MR

⟡ Contemporary fantasy or magical realism like BIPOC ADDIE LARUE or THE MIDNIGHT LIBRARY.

⟡ Anything that comps SPACE SWEEPERS, THE UMBRELLA ACADEMY, Maniac (Netflix), or Warrior (HBO Max).

#MSWL #A #F #SF #MR