SUSAN'S 2014 WISH LIST

I love Januarys – the year is wide-open before you and possibilities abound (it’s the kissing cousin to September, with school starting and the feeling of fresh start).  A perfect time let you know what kind of projects I’d love to find this year!

I took on a number of picture book writers and illustrators in 2013, so my focus this year is on middle-grade and young adult novels. 

Here’s what I look for in a book for any age reader:

-- Powerful, original voice
-- A great hook and strong plot
-- Real, textured, imperfect characters.  I love quirky, but not for its own sake; quirkiness that feels true and fully integrated to its character.
-- Writing with literary quality, that’s commercial too
-- Heart.  I want to be emotionally invested in a book
-- Humor is key; even if the book is dark or fairly serious, I want some humor.  Because life is like that.
-- Blow me away!  I want to read something that feels different.

More specifically, in both YA and MG, what I want most right now is a big, juicy fantasy, with gorgeous, complex world-building and high stakes, that’s not at the expense of your characters.  It’s cold and gray in Brooklyn!  Transport me to a world that feels really new.

I’d love to find a funny and layered Contemporary YA story.  Give me a great romance, but don’t stop there – add family dynamics, or a mother-daughter thread, shifting friendships, big stakes.  My client Rachael Allen’s book 17 FIRST KISSES is a great example of a book layered like this (and it’s coming out this June!).  THE SPECTACULAR NOW is another favorite contemporary YA, with very strong voice.

YA Historical Fiction that sweeps the reader up in the past, but feels immediate as well.  Something romantic please!  I’m interested in most periods, and especially like Elizabethan and Victorian England, as well as 20th century American.

YA with a unique story-telling device.  Think WHERE’D YOU GO, BERNADETTE? for teens – a story that incorporates  a mix of emails, letters, diary entries etc to form the narrative.  Or something like THE 19^TH WIFE, that combines a present-day story and mirrors that to a historical one.  I also like multiple points of view.

YA Sci-Fi.  I’m seeing quite a bit of sci-fi, but I’ve always been fascinated by the idea of machines becoming intelligent enough to outsmart their creators.  A fresh imagining of that concept please!  A recent favorite sci-fi novel is THE KNIFE OF NEVER LETTING GO, which I loved for its originality and heartbreaking characters, this is the kind of sci-fi I’m looking for.

A couple others I’d love to see: a YA story about cloning, a YA mystery with tons of creepy, claustrophobic atmosphere or a YA about boarding school secret societies.

In middle-grade, I’m drawn to literary, character-driven stories with a twist.  Think BREADCRUMBS or BECAUSE OF MR. TERUPT.  I’m a sucker for bittersweet.

A fantastical MG in the vein of Joan Aiken’s WOLVES OF WILLOUGHBY CHASE -- something gothic, Dickensian, historical or an alternate history.

I love MG time-travel stories, and would love to find something that re-invents that concept.

MG novel in verse.  Jackie Woodson’s LOCOMOTION is a favorite, and I’d love to find an emotional verse novel.

A favorite kind of MG historical fiction has the main character meeting up with a famous historical figure – a kid who spends time in the company of Susan B Anthony or Marco Polo, for instance. 

I’m a fan of fairy tale retellings, for both MG and YA, especially ones that use a lesser known tale, and make use of the darker threads in these stories.  Some favorite fairy tales are Tam Lin, the Six Swans, and Goose Girl, and my all time favorite example of this kind of book is THE PERILOUS GARD.

Thanks for reading this list, and not to worry if your book doesn’t neatly match something I’ve described here.  What I really want is great writing and a great read, and I’m open to possibilities.  It is January after all!

I can’t wait to read your projects, thank you for sending them my way!