Currently Seeking (Updated February 2023)

 

In picture books (CURRENTLY NOT ACCEPTING UNSOLICITED PICTURE BOOKS):​

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In middle grade fiction:​

• Heists, mysteries, young detectives, young assassins. A blend of high stakes plot and humor with heart. I love ensemble casts of messy, stubborn, voice-y kids. The vibes of The Mummy, Uncharted, Indiana Jones, but make it BIPOC.

• Necromancers, ghosts, monsters, and kids who get revenge.

• Adventure stories with a lot of movement, exploration, but also have solid grounding in the heart and emotions of the kids within the story. I love novels rooted in epic adventures, cultural retellings, trickster gods, and mythology and lore brought into our time.

• Something spooky with a lot of fun twists. This includes stories where the paranormal and the supernatural are not the traditional villains and can be the protagonists or the everyday character. Books in this vein that I love are Ghost Squad by Claribel A. Ortega, Eva Evergreen series by Julie Abe, The Girl Who Drank The Moon by Kelly Barnhill.

• Action mysteries that combine the voice and storytelling of Enola Holmes with the heart and fun of Pixar's Onward.

• Fantasy stories in which the strange is "normal." Think The Addams Family. I want a supernatural or paranormal Gilmore Girls town with the humor and energy of Disney's The Owl House. I would love towns full of spooks and magic, tea shops and hotels that hum with energy of their own, and ghostly encounters on the regular. Think of me as a less artsy Tim Burton and more of his cozy, colorful counterpart.

• Genre fiction with MCs with disabilities, but their disability is NOT a twist, a fixation for someone abled, or in any way a "someone needs to learn to love someone else with. a disability" story.

• Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants-like stories about friendship. I would love to see contemporary stories with an ensemble cast in which we spend time with several characters and points of view. I'd love to see nostalgic stories that show off friendships and nuanced, diverse experiences of young people who believe their connection is a sacred bond. Think The Babysitter's Club or the Camp Confidential series.

• Coming of age contemporary stories with unconventional family dynamics in the realm of Disney's Andi Mack and Stuck in the Middle, Nickelodeon's The Loud House and The Casagrandes. Contemporary stories that explore culture through neighborhood love stories,

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In YA fiction:​

• Darker speculative work. I'm open to murder, magic, monsters, but I'm also interested in gothic, dark academia. Think tempestuous romances with morally grey characters in high stakes environments or a small bit of horror with fantastical elements. If there are races against the clock, occult conspiracies, or murderous competitions, the better.

• Thoughtful, multi-layered stories about love and loss and first experiences in the contemporary space that explores how teens build and shape their identities in isolated spaces. 

• High concept games, trials, competitions with life or death consequences. I also love stories with big bargains and family comeptitions. Think Caraval, The Inheritance Games, and Once Upon a Broken Heart. But I'm especially looking for writers who can take these big plots and craft well developed character arcs that don't sacrifice world building for quickened pacing.

• Anything that has to do with teen spies. I want Totally Spies, Alex Rider, Gallagher Girls, and anything with a heist. I am foaming at the mouth for more heist and spy stories. Put it in a mystery, an adventure, or competition. Competitions, heists involving trials, assassins given time sensitive missions, races against the clock.

• Have you seen the trailer for season 3 of Outerbanks? Because I have. And I love it.

• Swoon worthy retellings of classic stories, but make it BIPOC. I miss the late 90s/early 2000s trend of taking classics and making them angsty YA. Think 10 Things I Hate About You, She's The Man, Clueless, etc. I would love to see great new spins on tropes set in the backdrop of high school.

• Jenny Han remains, and always will be, my Queen of YA romance. There's a beauty in capturing the essence of being young, in love, and feeling warmth through small gestures and cozy moments. But she never does so in a plain, lagging way. I love stories where I stay up all night and squeal as I read about love and feel incredible notes of nostalgia, like a Taylor Swift song. But there is a line between cozy and romantic and cliche and over done. I need fresh takes.

• CW-like books. Think Reign, The Vampire Diaries, Gossip Girl. What all of these have in common are highly romantic, glamorized, and rich world building that feels so satisfyingly developed. Each has a unique aesthetic, high stakes stories, but the environment doesn't sacrifice character, rather only amplifies them. I also love the ensemble casts where I am deeply invested in characters outside of just our "main" protagonist. 

• Witches. Gay witches. Witches with historical-like backdrops. Witches with series potential within high fantasy with romance and grounded ensemble casts. Young witches in modern day, angsty witches in new worlds. 

• LGBTQIA+ stories that don't use identity as a plot twist. I do like explorations that are thoughtful, like Camp by L.C. Rosen. I'm especially interested in adventure, fantasy, or spy stories.

• I'm a fantasy fan of all kinds, but I'm especially interested in court and royal fantasy, fiction with ballroom scenes with tense almost touch dances. I need solid atmosphere that's rich and lush. I'm not so much interested in stories where someone is an orphan and happens to discover they have powers, or someone finding a magical cure for their family member, or elemental magic that doesn't have much of a wider magic system. The magic should already be a part of the story for me, and less a discovery in juxtaposition to the modern world. Think Red Queen, Legendborn, An Ember in the Ashes, and The Cruel Prince.

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In Crossover/Adult fiction:

• Romantic, steamy fantasy romances. I love fated mates, enemies to lovers, dueling kingdoms, deals of convenience, betrayal and political intrigue. I'm interested in complex fae stories with massively well done world building and intricate political systems. Witches who aren't our typical idea of a spell caster. I love immortals and decades long wars with deep histories. I want ballroom scenes that end with a dagger to the throat. Morally grey characters with the "touch them and you die" mentality. I'm thinking Kingdom of the Cursed, Serpent and the Wings of Night, and Zodiac Academy. I also love things that are just plain fun, campy, a bit over the top with a lot of romance like From Blood and Ash and Daughter of No Worlds.

• Adult fantasies with plenty of layers to it. Medici style families pulling power plays within their own family dynasties. 

• Beautiful, sweeping, maybe even tragic stories with intricate worlds that don't sacrifice plot for shock value, like Circe and The Dead Romantics.

• Dark academia with a strong romantic plot.

• Crossover aged Bridgerton with a speculative edge. In a dream scenario, I would love a Red, White, and Royal Blue story set in a beautifully aesthetic backdrop outside of the modern world.

• Rom-coms and young romances that are just plain fun and enjoyable and feel warm like Icebreaker bye Hannah Grace, It Happened One Summer by Tessa Bailey, and anything by Talia Hibbert. I'd love to celebrate love and meet cutes and the start of a relationship that's part of a "deal gone wrong" or a summer exile. I love isolated environments and books where readers, particularly romance readers, can just have a good time and enjoy themselves like in Love and Other Words by Christina Lauren and Book Lovers by Emily Henry.

• I'm not interested so much in stories where characters are married, have children, or really have their lives together, honestly. I'd love books set in college, early to late 20s, the messy stage of adulthood where not everything fits and there are too many forks in the road, like Honey and Spice by Bolu Babalola and Magnolia Parks by Jessa Hastings.

• Longer slice of life stories with layered storytelling with big reveals in smaller spaces. I'm especially interested in romances that also can feel like women's fiction that have cozy found family dynamics and also a bit of spice like most Emily Henry and Kennedy Ryan. One of my ultimate favorite reads is Things We Never Got Over by Lucy Score.

• I'd also love to find a world that can stand on its own, but has series potential, like what Ana Huang has done with the Kings of Sin and Twisted series or Elle Kennedy for the Off Campus series. 

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What I am not a good fit for:

• Memoir or non-fiction not geared toward young readers. I absolutely love it in the picture book space.

• I love spooky and creepy, but not gore or horror that has the vibes of a slasher movie or psychological thriller. 

• COVID or disease themed/inspired stories or YA stories about terminal illnesses.

• Talking animals. I'm sorry, but I love humans or mythological creatures. I do enjoy creatures or monsters, but not pets or woodland creatures just for the sake of an animal guide.

• Dreamscape fantasies. I really am not a huge fan of stories where characters enter into dream spaces. I like lush, real worlds.

• Christian based heaven and hell stories. This includes grim reaper stories. I receive quite a few queries where someone dies and either makes a deal with the grim reaper, becomes the grim reaper, or falls in love with the grim reaper. It's just not for me.

• Portal stories. I love magic that is already a part of the world and not necessarily ones we have to enter into. There is an exception with middle grade, but the magic systems need to be fully developed and I barely want to spend time in the "real world" then. I'm extremely selective in this area.

• Historical fiction in the WWI or WWII eras (honestly, not a lover American history unless there is a unique take in New Orleans for a Black gothic). I love history, but I don't care much for U.S. stories.

• War stories in which humanity fights technology, military-type groups charge an Other, or really anything that could be comped to modern military systems. I also won't take stories with a "terrorist" plot line.

• I am not currently taking science fiction unless in middle grade and even then, I'm pretty picky. I'm truthfully not the best sci-fi person unless there's whimsy and silliness, like Star Versus The Forces of Evil where the space feels more magical instead of scientific.

• Stories with too much heavy focus on trauma like sexual assault, domestic abuse, or suicide as a primary storyline. If this is a big element to your book, I am probably not the right fit.

• Books where the dog or cat dies. For real.