I’m so excited to see what fresh #horror stories are out there, but honestly I’m especially eager to see manuscripts that blow away all my #mswl expectations! Cheers to 2020!

I desperately want a book about a cult or false prophet, but not one that uses rape and torture as its primary function. I demand more creative plot devices! I’m super intrigued by start-up messiahs, influencers, and company towns. #mswl

I am very interested in seeing something that poignantly captures and works off the abject horror of what we’re doing at the borders (literal children in CAGES), especially #ownvoices #mswl

My favorite themes & tropes: monsters (werewolves, sirens, witches, vampires), hauntings, cults, fairytales, toxic relationships turned fatal, family dynamics, class & power imbalances, revenge, meta horror, body horror, psychological terror... #mswl

I’ll Be Gone in the Dark (with @Billyjensen @PaulHoles), The Fact of a Body (@alexmlwrites): Nonfiction that captures the atrocities and fear of the subject matter, but is not voyeuristic, with stranger-than-fiction twists. #mswl

In the House in the Dark of the Woods (@LairdHunt), The Changeling (@victorlavalle), The Merry Spinster (@daniel_m_lavery): Creatively reinvented and nightmarish fairytales & folklore -- from all cultures please, not just Western! #mswl

Friday Black (@NK_Adjei), Her Body & Other Stories (@carmenmmachado), The Pisces (@melissabroder): Speculative fiction with a dark bent, surreal Twilight Zone-type stories gone malicious, literary fiction with subtle horror veins. #mswl

Mongrels (@SGJ72), A Head Full of Ghosts (@paulGtremblay), When We Were Animals (Joshua Gaylord): Coming of age stories with monsters as metaphors, monsters inside of us, cleverly subverted horror tropes with contemporary twists. #mswl

Beginning the new year by looking to the future and dreaming about the possibilities for my @TorNightfire list. So, here’s a quick 2020 #horror #mswl based on some of my favorite books of the last decade (THREAD!):

-My long shot: Still looking for a literary epic multigenerational family saga with magic realism set in the South. A Southern 100 Years of Solitude. Does it exist? Did you write it?!

-Nonfiction (kids/adult): Pop science projects, biographies about lesser-known figures

-Literary fiction (adult): I haven't stopped thinking about HISTORY OF WOLVES since I read it, so, lit fic about complex family relationships, growing up/aging, mental health, darker topics. Also, since it's election year & my anxiety will be running high, hopeful topics.

-Horror (YA/adult): Psychological horror, body horror, hauntings, & other weird/new/different horror. (Also, I am NOT looking for zombies/werewolves/vampires/other creatures at this time.)

-Domestic thrillers (adult): I love them, & I never get these! Please send me your domestic/psychological thrillers; I vastly prefer them over any other kind & would love to find one with an amazing hook. One of my recent favorites was JP Delaney's THE GIRL BEFORE.

👀 #MSWL. I grew up in Texas, but my family’s from Tulsa. Black cowboys were always around. 🤠 🐎

110% ditto #mswl

Happy 2020! I’m back open to queries!! Send me...

#MG:

LOL fantasy, contemporary tackling big topics, queer madcap ensemble adventures!

#YA:

Weird crimes/myths, underdog fantasy, dark paranormal, experimental shit!

#querytip #mswl #subtip #amquerying

I’m very excited to be reopening to submissions today! Send me quirky, magical middle-grade or YA novels to fall in love with. Send me adult fiction that I can’t put down. But more than anything, send me books that are filled with hope. Writers from all backgrounds welcome! #MSWL

I’d love some more contemporary romance for the new year that celebrates odd duck leads. Characters for whom the lid and the pot are unusual sizes and shapes— that it really took serendipity to match them up. #MSWL

Book about a sineater. #mswl