Manuscript
Wishlist
(MSWL)

We love reading and working on books that are high concept, swoony, and packed with emotion–make us laugh, make us cry, make us throw our Kindles across the room because your characters should just be together already! We were forged in the fires of the 2010s YA paranormal romance boom, so we’d love to see a paranormal or speculative twist, but there will always be a special place in our hearts for straight up contemporary. Mostly, we love things that surprise us, whether that’s in the premise (it’s what meets WHAT?) or the execution, but we’d especially love to see books that feature:

• Fandom/nerd culture – fanfiction and fanart, conventions, characters who definitely have a secret (or not so secret) Tumblr, tabletop or video games, etc

• Marginalized characters (especially those who identify as neurodivergent and/or on the asexual spectrum) from authors who share their marginalization

• New England settings (especially Boston where we went to college!)

• Men who YEARN

• Ambitious women who don’t sacrifice their dreams for their HEA

• Ensemble casts and found family

• In universe mixed media

• Adventure romance!

• Genre bends and cross-genre romance

• Humor and hijinks alongside strong character work and compelling plotting

• Setting as a character (bonus if it is spooky and/or creepy!)

• If you can comp any of the following, we want to see it!: National Treasure/Indiana Jones/The Mummy/Expedition Unknown, Uncharted (our kingdom for a Nathan Drake-coded hero), Baldur’s Gate III, the live-action Scooby Doo movies, Jurassic Park, Knives Out, Ready or Not, Scream, MTV’s Teen Wolf, The Vampire Diaries, Supernatural, Riverdale, Set It Up, Leap Year, The Mortal Instruments or Raven Cycle series (but for a new adult/adult audience), a Taylor Swift song or album

A selection of our favorite tropes:

• Only One Bed

• Hurt/Sick Comfort

• Annoyances and/or enemies to lovers

• Forced proximity

• Mutual pining

• Second chance (Maria’s personal brand of catnip)

• Opposites attract (but sell us on why these characters are made for each other despite their differences!)

We welcome darker themes/content and morally gray characters (especially in paranormal/fantasy), but think Kaz Brekker/Astarion or Bride/Phantasma instead of stalker or mafia romance.

We are not the best fit for: historical romance, hard sci-fi, accidental pregnancy or the secret baby trope, cop/military characters, dark romance (with the caveat above), significant power imbalances or dub/non-con.

Mentoring Style

Prepare for us to be your biggest fans!! As you can probably tell, we are avid supporters of the exclamation mark and we will never let you forget it. We recognize that revising and polishing a book for the querying trenches is stressful and sometimes scary, and we’re here to support you every step of the way. We’re big proponents of the “compliment sandwich” so expect lots of gushing about your manuscript’s strengths alongside constructive feedback to take what’s already great to spectacular.

Our mentee can expect a developmental edit pass with an edit letter, line edits, help with your query package, and us available to you while you edit (and query…and beyond!) through your preferred contact method (Discord, email, Zoom, etc.)

Applications
from Connections