Vibe: eternally looking for the movie of The Prestige in book form (but like, not the actual book The Prestige which is too weird)

Vibe: But also possibly even more, Scriberia, the grumpy overlooked cult of investigative journalists at the back of the office, last chance to find a story, office politics, bitchy but committed

Vibe: OK, Inventing Anna, everyone is incredibly rich and horrible, someone's a scammer, but aren't they all actually scammers? you know you shouldn't but you want to be them.

Vibe: "I'll always remember that summer" (summer in question is the late 60s, everyone is beautiful, lots of making out)

Vibe: It's christmas eve, the fire is lit, I'm wrapped in a quilt and drinking a manhattan, and I want to read some really quite unseasonably dark shit

Vibe: just this level of pure joy

Vibe: an obscene amount of food porn, in a way that almost spoils the plot but not quite?

Vibe: Ok, someone got murdered but let's not get too serious about it? how hard can solving crimes even be?

Vibe: Kate Winslet in Mare of Easttown. Misanthrope with a cause, solving crimes, f@cking shit up but not in a cool way, just in a "wow you need therapy" way.

Vibe: "Do You Think That There Is A Corner Of This Earth That You Could Travel To Far Away Enough To Free Me From This Torment?”

Vibe: MUMS. Motherland energy. But also like, having a mum, being a mum, we can relate.

Vibe: Evil gays??? (but make it sexy)

Vibe: 90s nostalgia but, like, dark. Bootleg jeans. Buffy but without the vampires. Yellowjackets?? I wasn't a teenager in the 90s but I wish I'd been a teenager in the 90s.

Vibe: This Is Us episode where they do family therapy. Huge family saga, lots of drama, but emotionally intelligent and everyone loves each other. I cry the whole time.

Vibe: Cell Block Tango, but like a book?

Vibe: I'm on holiday, I'm on a sun lounger by the pool, I have a cocktail, later I will go to a fancy dinner, I want a book to read that is just holiday joy.

Going through my submissions for the first time since my wedding and really ITCHING to sign some new novelists. So I thought it was time for a new #mswl. This time it's not genres, just ✨vibes✨

“Send me your commercial/upmarket romcoms with exes who cohabitate/co-parent--but where it’s not the exes who get together.” @readbystephanie #MSWL psliterary.com/submissions/

And more! Send me your lyrical, off-kilter, boundary-exploring books.

As a note, @HowlandLit is now fully moving to QueryManager, and you can find my link on our website!

Bonus round for favorites: Patti Smith, Girls Can Kiss Now, Lot: Stories, Heavy, Swamplandia!, Sadness is a White Bird, Kevin Wilson’s “A Room at Madame Terreur’s,” Pam Houston, Binchtopia podcast, Troop Zero, Empire Records, 1970s rock, Jacqueline Woodson, Ali Smith.