My bootcamp wishlist:
First and foremost: Make me laugh! I am a sucker for any story that can make me laugh out loud.
I love a good mystery, a spiritual mind-bender, a paranormal scare, great character-driven general fiction, historical fiction and more. Surprise me with your
literary fiction that has vivid, gorgeous descriptions or your adventure with super-quick pacing and a fantastic voice.
I'm happy to read middle grade, YA, or adult. As the mom of two kids who identify with the LGBTQ+ community, I say send me all your #ownvoices stories in that category (unless they fall into categories below).
That said, I generally say no to:
Romance - Give me a hot, romantic twist within an adventure or a mystery. I love it! But if the whole thing is all about the lovey dovey or the hot and heavy or... God forbid the dramatic "if only"... I'm not the right fit.
High fantasy - I'm totally fine with some dragons. I love a good vampire. Please, oh please send me all the demons and angels. But Lord of the Rings or Game of Thrones... I'll risk the wrath of the literary world by admitting I'd rather watch the movie.
Super gory horror - I'm a huge fan of a great scare, and sometimes that comes with some blood and guts, but I don't want to read about entrails on every second page.
Sad endings - I will angry-rant for years about a great story that I read all the way through only to find some kind of hopeless sadness at the end (I'm looking at, House of Sand and Fog! I'm looking at you after "The Dome," Stephen King. Really? THAT'S how it ends?!). It wounds my soul. Everything doesn't necessarily have to come up roses for every character, but there has to be some glimmer of light at the end, or I guarantee I'm going to hate it.
For comparison, authors I love include Charlaine Harris, Janet Evanovitch, Jan Karon, Barbara Kingsolver, Dean Koontz, Rick Riordan, Philip Pullman, Dan Brown, Ken Follet, James Michner.
Authors whose books I generally avoid include John Green, Nicholas Sparks, Debbie Maccomber, EL James, George RR Martin, Brandon Sanderson.
YOU ARE READING
Wattys 2022 Bootcamp Mentor
Non-FictionI am super excited to be mentoring for this community initiative to help hopeful writers spit-shine their Wattys submissions. If you're just learning about the program, the submission window will be open from May 6th to May 15th! You will find a lin...
