MENTOR:
Emery Lee (e/em)
CATEGORY:
Young Adult, New Adult
SUB GENRES:
Rom Com, Historical, Paranormal, Dark Romance, Science Fiction/Fantasy
SOCIAL MEDIA:
BIO:
Emery Lee is the award-winning author of MEET CUTE DIARY and CAFÉ CON LYCHEE from Quill Tree Books/HarperTeen. E’s the founder of #Transbooks365, a community hashtag made to celebrate books by and about trans people, and is a founding member of #QPOCFest, a virtual book festival celebrating books by and about QTBIPOC. Coming from a university background of creative writing, e’s gone on to write entertainment news, edit literary magazines, and work as a trade book reviewer. Outside of novels, e’s written interactive fiction, short stories, and webcomics. Eir books have received starred reviews, been featured in ALA’s rainbow booklist, and been translated into multiple languages. Drawing inspiration from anime, punk pop music, and eir own cultures and identities, e seeks to tell multi-layered stories about complex characters that challenge conventional power structures and make room for marginalized readers across fandom spaces.
MSWL:
I’m a huge fan of stories that really utilize culture, history, themes, etc. to make a story feel one of kind.
I tend to prefer character-driven stories, but more than anything, I just need a story to make me feel something strongly, whether that be love or hate for the main character.
I’m very interested in queer stories, especially queer stories where queerness is vitally important to the storytelling even if queerphobia is not, stories like Ryan La Sala’s Reverie or the anime Sarazanmai where queerness is an intricate part of the world building.
I like my romcoms to be comedy first, romance second, so the tone of the story should be humorous throughout, regardless of the themes.
I tend to lean toward voice-y narration, be it third or first person. Think The Lesbiana’s Guide to Catholic School by Sonora Reyes or This is Why They Hate Us by Aaron Aceves.
Messy main characters are my jam, and I’d love to see stories starring people like Xiran Jay Zhao’s rendition of Wu Zetian or Benji from Andrew Joseph White’s Hell Followed With Us, where the characters are at war with themselves and find themselves torn on moral decisions.
Above all, I’ll be prioritizing marginalized stories that paint a rendition of the world where white allocishet abled people are not the default or the presumed audience. I want authentically diverse stories where the diversity feels like an organic and integral part of the storytelling.
My no-gos are:
-Gender stories that boil gender down to men and women with nothing in between and no nuanced understanding of transness
-“Issue books”, meaning books where the main plot is educating the reader on political issues
-Anything that is not first and foremost a romance (so anything without a HEA or HFN)
-Adult/minor age gaps
-Stories where a disability is “magically cured”
-Slave/slave owner romances
MENTORING STYLE
I'm pretty adaptable, and my preferred way to operate is to just start out the relationship with finding out what you're looking for, what your schedule looks like, and what your goals are. I'm open to more formal setups (bi-weekly check ins through video call or something else on the schedule) or more casual setups (text me if you need anything or have any questions). My goal is just to help you make the most of your story and figure out what you want for your career so you can get working toward your success. I believe in open, honest communication and if you're the type of mentee who needs someone to keep them on track and focused, I can help with that, but otherwise, I tend to approach mentorship similar to how I approach working with my own critique partners—I'm here to offer advice, bounce ideas, help you figure out what you don't know, but at the end of the day, it's your project and your career, and my job is just to help you make the most of those, not dictate what I think they should look like.