'Your' #mswl

-Unabashed YA horror for me, too!
-Historical, especially less popular time periods (okay, that's code for anything but 1485-1910 England). And historical fantasy.
-Something set in Southeast Asia, real or a fantasy counterpart.
-Boarding school stories. Boarding school horror stories. Historical boarding school horror stories! (Uh-oh, I'm starting to get ideas....)
-Something with a ton of POVs, like maybe a slice of life, or a Rashomon. (...at a boarding school?) This doesn't seem to be a viable thing in YA, but my client would be the trendsetter, of course.
-All the retellings you can throw my way.

Man, I'd make a horrible agent, but this is fun.

I'm not so bothered about genre, but I want writing that blows me out of the water. Something like Jellicoe Road would be cool.

-Diverse stories by diverse authors, especially those writing from personal experiences
-Magic realism with a strong plot / plot-driven literary spec-fic
-Magic realism utilizing sci-fi elements instead of fantasy elements
-Post-apocalyptic/dystopian slice-of-life - no survival or revolution (!!!), just everyday life, romance, and growing up after the end of the world
-Postcolonial novels, especially as speculative fiction and/or alternate history
-Mecha, sekaikei, and surrealist lesbian space penguins

lenore_x said:

-Historical, especially less popular time periods (okay, that's code for anything but 1485-1910 England). And historical fantasy.
-Something set in Southeast Asia, real or a fantasy counterpart.
-Boarding school stories.
-Something with a ton of POVs, like maybe a slice of life, or a Rashomon. (...at a boarding school?) This doesn't seem to be a viable thing in YA, but my client would be the trendsetter, of course.

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Also:
- Smart, witty, cynical, bittersweet romances like The Fault in Our Stars and Fangirl
- Realistic teenage characters
- Realistic sex
- Historical fiction with a man or woman (or men or women) who has to deal with fitting in in/rejecting their society (without being a kick-ass, impervious-to-self-doubt god/goddess)
- Charming and witty tricksters and thieves who don't seem like much but really control everything behind the scenes (a la Eugenides in the Queen's Thief series)
- Exotic and multilayered cultures and/or countries
- Life in a country in a time of colonialization--from either side's perspective, or preferably both
- Reevaluation of a time in history we think we know through the eyes of the "other" side, whether that be an army or a civilization
- Novelization of historical events which have NEVER been novelized before

My stuff

- Quirky, clever tech-savvy characters/storylines, and something that encompasses the plot, not just an aside.
- Large Mecha SFF ala' Gundam, Evangelion or Pacific Rim
- Fantasy with what can be a cliche royalty/Princess MC with a nice balance between realism of the internal politics while still running off to do their own thing and engage with the plot

Fun idea!

--Contemporary YA centred more on family than romance.
--Contemporary YA set in unexpected international settings, like Iceland or the Falkland Islands or the Seychelles.
--Magical realism that borders on horror, with a creepy-crawly, under-your-skin feel

But honestly, if I were an agent I'd want to represent other things besides just YA, including MG and gorgeous picture books and really funny books based on blogs, like Hyperbole and a Half.

#MSWL Give me your teenage con artists and criminal masterminds, please!

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#MSWL Can I have the story of the world-saving kid all grown up?

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#MSWL Environmental thrillers that aren't preachy.

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#MSWL Contemporary novels w/ unusual pairs. Nerd and A-student. Cheerleader and choir girl.

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Hahaha, I kinda got carried away with the format...

Great thread! Mine would be...

-YA in any genre and time period which takes place anywhere outside of the US and UK. Japan, Germany, Turkey, a fun adventure story that traipses across SE Asia...I wanna read more stories set in these places!

-A beautifully illustrated YA Fantasy/Horror. I fucking love illustrations in books and was very sad as a kid when I saw that anything older than MG was unlikely to have any illustrations. Why not, dammit!! I want me mah peekchurs!

-Something that focuses more on platonic friendship than romance. Could be any genre as long as the friendship takes center stage. There could also be betrayal in the friendship.

YES! I want that beautiful, illustrated fantasy. A picture book for young adults.

My wishlist is pretty simple, I just want gorgeous, immersive fantasy and scifi set in worlds I haven't seen before. I want to see the influence of other societies, not just those we're most familiar and comfortable with.

YAY - fun!


- YA contemp NOT taking place in a high school or summer camp environment.
- YA contemp about friendship
- YA contemp romance without the back-and-forth drama, but with lots of realistic sex talk and such between characters who don't doubt each other's feelings.
- YA that weaves a story in the past with one in the present.
- YA with flawed characters who make stupid mistakes, maybe evil ones, and learn that not everything can be fixed
- YA with multiple narrators, and romance not being central (Good example: The Truth About Alice)
- YA taking place outside of the US (says the non-US writer with non-US settings)
- YA with broad spectrum of diverse characters, without it feeling like a UN General Assembly meeting...

Roly said:

My stuff

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Right? I'd rep my stuff so freaking hard.

- Space opera/adventure that twists the standard tropes
- Cross-genre anything. Especially science fantasy.
--- secondary world post apocalyptic
--- cyberpunk epic fantasy
--- Lovecraftian in a Southern Gothic setting
- Near future SF NOT DYSTOPIAN where technology isn't an awful thing
--- exploration of ethics in science focused on individual scientists rather than science as a result whole
- Working class heroes in SFF

Great thread idea!

My top ten:

An epistolary novel in a genre other than contemporary - would love to see a fantasy novel told via diary entries or messages.

Something set in the Deep South with a strong sense of the location.

Fun comedy set in an English village, with lots of eccentric characters.

Something with an asexual lead.

Illustrated YA - definitely agree with Putputt here!

Novel set amongst different generations of one family, showing various people as teens.

Novel set in the early-mid 20th century but not in the 'usual' places. I loved Irfan Master's A Beautiful Lie, about India prior to partition. Would be intrigued to read more about Asia in this time period.

A fun mystery with a great pair of detectives. There are tons of brilliant MG mysteries out at the moment, let's see more YA ones!

Big action series focusing on different characters in each book. Maybe an X-Men/Avengers/Justice League type team of superheroes.

Sports-based novel around an unfamiliar sport. I read tons of soccer books growing up; how about something based around a Winter Olympic sport, maybe?

Oh, me like! Let's see....

— Gothic Fiction featuring LGBT protags.
——— Either set in an unusual setting or with a PoC protag, though as long as the above is fullfilled I would likely be perfectly happy.
— Dark/Gothic Fantasy.
——— Stories which are basically Gothic Fiction in a fantasy setting are extra awesome.
— YA that's clearly orientated towards Black or other PoC teens.
— YA Horror.
— YA Historicals of all sorts.
— YA in which the protag is religious and is successfully able to reconcile their faith with their orientation. There's this awesome documentary about a queer teen trying to start a GSA at her Jewish private school in Boston, I thought it was awesome she was proud of both her faith and orientation.

Sooo many great ideas! Bookmarking this for later writing inspiration. For me, my list is short:

I'd love some post-apoc or fantasy set in an unusual urban setting (not New York, London or LA...maybe places like Mumbai, Naples, Bruges or Athens), written by someone who knows and loves the place!

Historical set in Ancient Greece or Rome.

Fantasy or S/F featuring strong female friendships and/or sister relationships.

ANYTHING with a BSG vibe.

* secondary world fantasy with a POC protagonist

* stories that focus on friendship rather than romance

* asexual protagonists

* steampunk

Oooh! I forgot to add that I'd love to represent amazing historical, especially a really amazing Elizabethan or Tudor-era historical that plays with real historical people, like Katherine Longshore's books.

I'm working on setting the standard for this " Some contemporary boy-voice YA with more internal struggle and/or family drama than clique or HS drama". So glad it's on your list.

Lillith1991 said:

Oh, me like! Let's see....

— Gothic Fiction featuring LGBT protags.
——— Either set in an unusual setting or with a PoC protag, though as long as the above is fullfilled I would likely be perfectly happy.
— Dark/Gothic Fantasy.
——— Stories which are basically Gothic Fiction in a fantasy setting are extra awesome.
— YA that's clearly orientated towards Black or other PoC teens.
— YA Horror.
— YA Historicals of all sorts.
— YA in which the protag is religious and is successfully able to reconcile their faith with their orientation. There's this awesome documentary about a queer teen trying to start a GSA at her Jewish private school in Boston, I thought it was awesome she was proud of both her faith and orientation.

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You and I clearly need to start a lit agency together because I want all of this and more. For me:

• Sprawling space opera featuring a diverse cast and really creative otherworlds
• Non-ablebodied main characters in any genre of YA
• YA where the LGBT characters are happy instead of tragic
• Retellings of classic (non-Western) tales and myths with POC and/or LGBT and/or non-ablebodied protagonists
• YA Gone Girl -- I'm still waiting for this
• YA supernatural/paranormal featuring non-Western magical traditions and the people who practice them
• A modern YA adaptation of Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca
• YA fiction that embodies the sometimes fun absurdity of the 90's with the nostalgia of the 2010's.

IdrisG said:

You and I clearly need to start a lit agency together because I want all of this and more. For me:

• Sprawling space opera featuring a diverse cast and really creative otherworlds
• Non-ablebodied main characters in any genre of YA
• YA where the LGBT characters are happy instead of tragic
• Retellings of classic (non-Western) tales and myths with POC and/or LGBT and/or non-ablebodied protagonists
• YA Gone Girl -- I'm still waiting for this
• YA supernatural/paranormal featuring non-Western magical traditions and the people who practice them
• A modern YA adaptation of Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca
• YA fiction that embodies the sometimes fun absurdity of the 90's with the nostalgia of the 2010's.

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Obviously. Or we need to colaborate on a project, there's simply no other options. Well, no, I lied. We'd probably also make good book buddies with our tastes.

Great thread idea, as usual, Beth!

Mine:

- YA horror (psychological, supernatural or gothic. Can be gory, as long as it's not gratuitously so.)
- YA retellings of lesser known tales/folklore/mythology
- YA retellings of well-known classics, but from an unusual perspective. For example, the prince's POV in The Little Mermaid, Paris's POV in R&J, the wolf's POV in Little Red Riding Hood. Or, even better, the evil stepmother's POV in Snow White or Cinderella.
- YA ghost stories. ALL of them.
- YA psychological thrillers and/or Noir-ish pieces.
- YA historical set some time in antiquity a la NOBODY'S PRINCESS or CURSES AND SMOKE.

Man, now I want to read all of these!

-books with a writing style that's out of step with their genre, especially SF/F that reads like contemporary
-historic LGBT that isn't just "it pretty much sucked to be queer back in the day" -- something concerning a drag troupe like the Cockettes in 1970s San Francisco would thrill me to bits
-books that read like old black and white romantic comedies except they're set in like an alternate racially harmonious '50s where being queer is nbd
-accurate historical fiction about people of colour in Canada
-complex families: multi-faceted parent/child relationships! siblings! step-siblings (who don't make out with each other)! foster families!
-contemporary middle grade with smart kids making outrageous plans
-teenage parents *beyond* pregnancy itself -- protagonists who have to deal with either having a child to look after or the emotional ramifications of giving one up for adoption, whatever else their book is about
-stand-alone titles that show more than the beginning or the end of a romantic relationship. characters who are in committed relationships throughout a book -- especially queer relationships, because most kids get so few role models for what a long term queer relationship can be like, besides "happily ever after"
-really sparsely written SF/F, with very efficient worldbuilding
-queer kids who aren't isolated; queer friend groups doing kickbutt mischief fun.
-mythical creatures that haven't been done to death: selkies! nachzehrers! aswangs! kuchisake-onna! there are like endless possibilities & we keep seeing like, 3 of them.

Emmet Cameron said:

-teenage parents *beyond* pregnancy itself -- protagonists who have to deal with either having a child to look after or the emotional ramifications of giving one up for adoption, whatever else their book is about

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Yes! I've actually been thinking about writing something like this, but you see so much "I HATE teen pregnancy books! *scoff*" out there. Yet another example of a time when you should write whatever the hell you want to write and forget about the naysayers!