Here's a fun #MSWL visual

Top themes: historical fantasy, queer, anticolonial, badass women, adventure, dark speculative, social horror, atmospheric

As always, I am only open to agented submissions and my DMs are open but only to agents who don’t already have my email. Send me stuff!!

All of this is in addition to seeing anything that’s fantasy romance and fantasy horror, of course, but I wanted to dedicate a special thread to the above topics since I’m not seeing as much love in my subs list for them right now.

I’d especially like to see something that takes inspiration from concepts like the Backrooms, or Severance - I love that creepy liminal space genre.

For sci-fi horror, I love it all. Creepy sentient alien spaceships, Event Horizon vibes, The Luminous Dead, The Last Astronaut,The Thing, The Descent, Underwater - give it to me…

When it comes to near future, I want to see books that remind me of Arrival: first contact through a new lens. I also LOVED Ascension, and anything with that sci-fi thriller feel, with the caveat that if you would comp it to Black Mirror, it’s not for me.

I’d give my soul to find something that made me feel like I felt reading The Fifth Season for the first time, or This is How you Lose the Time War. Gideon the Ninth is god tier to me.

For sci-fi give me space opera, political intrigue, terraforming, alien species and first contact. I loved A Memory Called Empire, Some Desperate Glory, Murderbot, Becky Chambers (Psalm for the Wild Built is the perfect solarpunk sf)…

I love seeing djinn on the page, Muslim characters as heroes. I love settings that feel like feudal Japan, or that have that Blue Eyed Samurai vibe. And anything that feels like epic fantasy x horror. And DRAGONS, always dragons.

I would love to see novels that explore Jewish mysticism - I'm hoping that Swordcatcher and the new Leigh Bardugo will bring about more Jewish epic fantasy!

I have a major soft spot (and this goes for both fantasy and sf) for nuns, monks, convents, religious orders, clerics and leviathan gods. I’m also a sucker for anything Arthurian, Middle Eastern & North African, anti-colonial…

I love all the classic quest tropes, intricate magic systems, assassins, courtesans, courtly intrigue (special mention to my all time fave The Goblin Emperor for mastering bureaucratic fantasy)…

More recently The City of Brass and The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi, Bone Shard Daughter, Priory of the Orange Tree, The Will of the Many, anything by Melissa Caruso, The Lost War, The Thief and anything that has a D&D vibe…

I’m a HUGE Robin Hobb fan, so anything reminiscent of the Realm of the Elderlings, count me in. I love classics like Lies of Locke Lamora, Trudi Canavan, Kushiel’s Dart (yes this is erotic epic fantasy), Red Sister…

Something I’m keen to see more of in my submissions inbox this year is epic fantasy and sci-fi, MSWL thread, 1/?

OK here's a free idea from my personal wishlist: a middle grade or YA graphic novel about drama and infighting in a school choir. Doesn't that sound delicious?

Brought to you by someone who got kicked out of sixth grade choir for having an "attitude problem"

#MSWL

Been watching Reacher, wouldn't mind seeing more queries in my inbox with military personnel. #mswl

We'd love to see a fun YA adventure with unique & memorable characters. Send us your query if that's your book! brandyvallance.com / sara-kornienko.com / barbarabovaliteraryagency.com #amquerying #mswl #amwriting #WritingCommmunity

#MSWL I'd love a non-Western✨ vampire ✨book.

MG, YA, & Adult all welcome.

For MG: likely adventure/fantasy based w/magic and/or non-Western mythology.

For the rest: fantasy set in a non-Western world w/sharp stakes & a romance.

Could be 1st or 2nd world fantasy.

YES PLEASE #MSWL