Romance please 😊❤️

#MSWL
jdlit.com/colleen-oefele…

My #MSWL: ALL the romance. Give me love triangles and quadrilaterals. Give me hate to love and slow burn, and firsts. Contemporary & historical & dystopian & speculative. Stories from marginalized voices and new perspectives.

YOUNG ADULT:
- A fresh, self-aware diverse romance ala #JaneTheVirgin for teens
-A LGBTQIA+ story that doesn’t feature a coming out story
-A freshman year of college story!!
-A gritty, heart-pounding thriller rooted in character with a slow-burning romance

Oh, and always romance of course—all kinds! #MSWL

#mswl Still need in my life!

Still looking for!! #mswl 😄

I’d love to read your LGBTQ romance starring thoughtful humans who are great at their jobs, your rich & delicious historical fiction, and your epistolary novels anywhere along the literary/commercial spectrum. #MSWL

I want more Gothic books! All types! Southern, Horror, Modern, Romance, etc. #MSWL

I'd also love to see some #Caribbean/#Latinx post-Hurricane Irma/Maria stories, stories that tackle the issues head-on but in a hopeful way, with a romance or personal growth for the main characters. Also YA or Adult.

#MSWL

3. I am reopening to unsolicited queries on OCTOBER 1, 2019. All queries received before JUNE 1, 2019 have been responded to. If you didn't get a response or queried after June 1st, then you will need to requery.

4. If I have your submission, I'm still reading. I promise. #MSWL

I'm also really into YA stories that take a romance structure/trope and use it to construct a fantastic friendship story (a la FOOLISH HEARTS, an enemies-to-BFFs contemp). #mswl

My clients have pointed out that I've got a specific subset of YA Nerd Girl Romance, and I am always here for more! Queer & POC girls very welcome, and I'm more likely to be won over by the romance if it intersects with other themes - family, friendship, self-discovery. #mswl

I might just scream and never stop if this appeared in the @RootLiterary submission inbox. #MSWL

As a Texan, I would read the crap out of this, but I have to say: only TexMex would win. #MSWL

Though I do love CaliMex.

Also, TWEET CUTE is such a comp for this.

OMG. I LOVE this idea. I edited @elisalorello's PASTA WARS a few years back and adored working on a foodie book. As a Top Chef-fanatic and homesick Texan, I fully support this idea. But the TexMex chef wins. 😉 #MSWL

All right, all right, one last one. I don't know exactly how you could execute this and make it a romance, but I am VERY into Succession right now so I'm going to throw "rich and extremely dysfunctional family with twisted but loving sibling dynamics" out there. #MSWL

I'm also often drawn to books with strong water elements. Moody lighthouse keepers! Sleepy coastal towns! Ship captains! Merpeople! If there's lots of fog and salt air, I'm likely to be intrigued. (This goes for both romance and mystery.) #MSWL

For adult, I'd love a contemporary romance with humor. Maybe not full out Bridget Jones, but something that takes realistic elements and makes us giggle at them. #MSWL

#MSWL Looking for some sassy, sexy historical romances: ruined rogues making good...a Lady not afraid to go after her desires... Vikings and Medieval eras as well. #ownvoices welcome

Also, according to my high school writing journal, one of my long-standing favorite things in romance is an extremely, explosively hot person who's deeply into their more average-looking love interest. #MSWL