Rebecca Matte

The most important things I look for are:

1) Voice– I know this is a super vague concept so let me define what I mean. I want the POV narration to sound like the character – I want to get to know them without ever needing a description. This can be first, second or third person, but the pages should scream personality.

2) Point of View – I love reading books with an opinion, and which come from a particular POV. I want books that highlight and lean into your unique identity/disability/race/ethnicity. I want books that nerd out about your particular hobby or special interest. I want the book that only you can write.

3) Character & Relationships– More than anything else, I need to understand your character’s motivations, the stakes for them, and how they relate to the people around them. If I buy into character, you’ve sold me. This is why I love fanfic – it excels at digging deeply into character and selling me on the relationships.

I am happy to work with you on plot or world building, either after an offer or in an R&R. But I need to be sold on voice, point of view, and character first.

I enjoy all SFF & Romance, but right now, I am particularly excited about:

• A really good adventure novel with fantasy elements (think Indiana Jones/Clive Cussler)
• YA that uses magic as a proxy for BIG teenage emotions
• Dark settings/stories that are fundamentally hopeful
  • Especially if people band together to dismantle evil institutions and build something new
• Small stories with BIG personal stakes (think T.J. Klune)
• Gayer, swoonier romances
• Romance that features interesting gender expression or relationship types (esp. with trans, ace, and poly protagonists)
• Romance set in a very niche community or hobby, with nerdy specialist knowledge
• Books that take up space – something loud, flashy, with big colors and feelings, and which are unabashedly themselves
• Books about community, friendship, and self-discovery
• Regular people becoming heroes (no chosen ones right now)
• SFF or romance featuring chronically ill, disabled and neurodiverse people, where their disability

**I will not accept any stories that attempt to “cure” or “fix” a disability in an unrealistic way or through magical means

Super Specific Wishlist

• African and/or Caribbean inspired, anti-colonial fantasy, from authors with African or Caribbean ancestry
• Artemis Fowl, but for adults
• Female Dirk Pitt (by Clive Cussler): science/magic forward, death defying, taking on billionaires, incredible adventure.
• College books that feel like Check Please by Ngozi Ukazu
• Chronic illness/disabled romance, like It’s All In Your Head by Sabrina Nordqvist
• A book that feels like Hadestown – a reinterpretation of folklore/fairytales/mythology that has something new to say about our current world
• D&D second chance romance where what happens in the game shapes what happens out of it, and neither narrative makes sense without the other
• Queer BBC Merlin
• Claustrophobic SFF or romance, like The Pitt – set in a confined space or time, over an intense period of personal and professional/relationship/world change

Note: if your book is not precisely on this list, that is okay, please send it anyway if you think we’d be a fit.

Anti-MSWL (all categories)

• I tend not to connect particularly strongly to the following story elements. Stories that include them are not a definite no, but I may not be the right person for the work.
  • Aliens, fae, Christian-aligned angels/demons.
  • Kidnapping, cheating (by the protagonist), love triangles, or any sort of unbalanced power dynamic.
  • Protagonists who are aligned with American police or military.
  • Prominent focus on Christian themes
• Please do not query me with books that feature the following:
  • Magical disability cures/fixes
  • Nazi romances
  • Sexual assault/non consensual sexual contact by the protagonist
  • Grimdark
  • On page description of infestation and/or body horror. This is a strong trigger for me, and includes things like rats, bugs, and parasites (think the mind control slug from Wrath of Khan).

Guidelines & Details