novels with contemporary settings need to contain at least one of the following elements: mystery, suspense, thriller, horror, or any kind of speculative something

I really, really want to see more nonfiction!
twitter.com/kim_lindman/st…

Okay, I'm still working on responding to submissions from 2021, but I'm on track to reopen to queries on February 1! A reminder of and some updates to my #MSWL ⬇️

Getting my first of what I'm hoping will be many neurodivergent projects out on submission this week.

Reminder! Joyful, celebratory neurodivergent stories, both fiction + non-fiction, are priorities on my #MSWL.

And please, if you have questions, don't be afraid to DM me.

"Crime fiction like Louise Penny, Sue Grafton and Janet Evanovich." @CurtisPSLA #MSWL psliterary.com/submissions/

For more MSWL details and submission guidelines, you can find me at:
📚manuscriptwishlist.com/mswl-post/em-l…
🖊️emlysaght.com

I love characters who are:
🗨️Earnestly enthusiastic about their one weird thing
💪Locked in a cant-trust-you-cant-trust-anyone-else relationship
👨‍👩‍👦‍👦Found family
🗝️Motivated not by youthful exuberance but by an old and hard-won sense of fury and spite
🐍Evil & sexy about it

In MG in particular, I’m looking for:

🔭Adventure and puzzle stories set outside America

🧜‍♀️Diana Wynne Jones-esque grammatical magic

📏Novellas! Some of my favorites are The Monster of Elendhaven, A Dead Djinn in Cairo, Sorcerer of the Wildeeps

✨Hope as a prerequisite

🐉Monsters, ghosts, cryptids. To kiss? To kill? To make friends with? To become? All of the above.

🧛Funny fantasy, à la What We Do In the Shadows

🕴️The bizarre treated banally, like Control or Magnus Archives

In YA/Adult/Graphic Novel, I love:

🕵️A locked room mystery or a closed set thriller, like Detention (2021)

🏺Dark academia that really grapples with what it means to be a person of color in academia and the complicity it begs of you in its racist and classist structures

New year, new #MSWL!

I represent BIPOC, Queer, and marginalized creators writing commercial genre fiction across MG, YA, Adult, and Graphic Novel. My particular weaknesses are genre-blending SFF, horror, and anything with murder or making out (ideally both)

I'M ALSO SEEKING

🖋️ Dark academia that takes place in unusual contexts, like community colleges or immersion programs
🖋️Historical romance centering working class people and marginalized groups
🖋️Stories that mix magic, pop culture, and rock & roll like THE WICKED + THE DIVINE

IN HORROR
👻 Religious horror from any and all traditions
👻 Queer and feminist horror
👻 Psychological terror
👻 Genre-bending heartrenders like IN THE DREAM HOUSE
👻 HORROR ROMANCE

Please do not send horror set in psychiatric wards or centering suicide.

IN SCIENCE FICTION:

🛸Philosophical and character-centered stories that ask the big questions of existence
🛸 Stories that engage with religion, spirituality, and the ephemeral
🛸 Cosmic horror
🛸 Science fantasy

I'm not a good fit for hard sci-fi, dystopia, or space operas.

I love a good haunting and a good heist, always, and the shadowy place where horror, fantasy, and romance kiss. I’m not big on chosen ones, magical rebellions, elemental magic, or stories centering warriors, but I'm open to being surprised by the right manuscript.

IN FANTASY

✨ Atmospheric, character-driven contemporary fantasy like THE RAVEN CYCLE
✨ High fantasy with intricate religious, magical, and sexual worldbuilding like KUSHIEL'S DART
✨ Fantasy romance in the vein of Grace Draven and Naomi Novik
✨ Gothics of all subgenres

Some of my favorite romantic tropes include second chance romance, forbidden love, marriage in trouble, exes to lovers, rivals to loves, and villain and monster romances. Please don't send me romances featuring members of the law enforcement or military, or secret babies.

IN ROMANCE

❤️‍🔥Queer and polyamorous love stories of all kinds
❤️‍🔥Inclusive historicals that feel like KJ Charles or Cat Sebastian
❤️‍🔥Witty contemporary romances in the vein of Talia Hibbert
❤️‍🔥Moody erotic romances a la Sierra Simone or Tiffany Reisz

New year, new Manuscript Wishlist thread! 📚

I'm seeking romance, sci-fi, fantasy, and horror novels and graphic novels across a variety of subgenres, and I'm going to thread some of the tropes and stories I'm particularly hungry for!

Full #MSWL: stgibson.com/manuscript-wis…