Dorian Maffei
Kimberley Cameron & Associates
My Manuscript Wish List®
Dorian Maffei is actively building her list in a variety of genres in both YA and adult. While she appreciates most fiction that blends genre lines, she is especially interested in speculative fiction, literary science fiction, upmarket book club fiction, thrillers, reimagined fairy tales, magical realism, unique voices, contemporary novels with a dash of mystery, horror and suspense, and innovative storytelling that sometimes veers on the weird. She values work that provokes a deep-rooted connection after the last page and explores the peculiar within the mundane. She is always open to submissions with diverse experiences and characters, and welcomes underrepresented and marginalized voices. She hopes to find work that features these experiences as the norm.
She currently has her eye out for more genre-bending projects within the horror (especially horror romance!), thriller, fantasy, and science fiction spaces, and the majority of her list has a thread of genre, whether it dips its toe or takes the full plunge. She’s a sucker for anything that can be described as both haunting and beautiful, and would love to find something in these genres that has twists and turns, lyrical writing, and keeps her up past her bedtime. Atmosphere and mood are important, and she is always pulled into stories with rich world building. Give her spooky and spellbinding!
While she enjoys reading quieter books for pleasure, her heart lies in representing books with propulsive plots that are simultaneously character-driven. Her taste in writing style runs the gamut from commercial to literary, as long as the concept and plot has mainstream appeal.
Also at the top of her list right now includes book club fiction with a speculative twist and a unique, interesting concept along the lines of The Measure, The Other Valley, or Never Let Me Go. She’s also interested in books in the upmarket space that have something to say and are full of suspense like the works of Angie Kim.
On the opposite end, she is also looking for fun, light reads, especially if they have a touch of magic or a wonderful voice. It’s easy for her to fall in love with a project if it has a great high-concept hook whether it’s upmarket, YA rom-com, or a page-turning thriller.
Check out the “I’d like the next” sidebar to get a feel for books she’s particularly loved recently!
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Authors she adores (in no particular order) include Toni Morrison, Peng Shepherd, Aimee Bender, Kazuo Ishiguro, Nova Ren Suma, Kelly Link, Charles Yu, Samantha Hunt, Manuel Gonzales, Amber Sparks, Isabel Allende, Karen Russell, Lucia Berlin, Ray Bradbury, Lydia Davis, Octavia Butler, Ben Marcus, Eowyn Ivey, Colson Whitehead, Miranda July, Neil Gaiman, Helen Oyeyemi , Amelia Gray, Roselle Lim, Gabriel GarcÃa Márquez, Alissa Nutting, Tupelo Hassman, Adiga Aravind, George Saunders, Sarah Addison Allen, Karen Joy Fowler, Ludmilla Petrushevskaya, Shirley Jackson, and Tiffany D. Jackson.
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Please do NOT send her books with school or mass shootings.Â
Submission Guidelines
Please submit through my online submission form:
https://QueryMe.Online/dorianmaffei
Vital Info
Favorite sub-genres:
BIPOC, Fabulism, Folklore, Gothic, LGBTQ+, Literary Horror, Literary Science Fiction, Magical Realism, Multicultural, Psychological Thrillers, Soft Fantasy, Speculative, Suspense, Upmarket Commercial Fiction, horror, science fantasy
I’d like the next…
YA: The Dark We Know, Ace of Spades, Bone Gap, The Walls Around Us, The Dead and the Dark, The Keeper of Night, Sadie, We Were Liars, Undead Girl Gang, A Cuban Girl’s Guide to Tea and Tomorrow, Monday’s Not Coming, Hot Dog Girl, Me (Moth), Rules for Vanishing, Bone Weaver, Firekeeper’s Daughter, Where Darkness Blooms, The Getaway, Pride or Die, She Is a Haunting, Delicious Monsters, and Old Wounds.
Adult: The Only Good Indians, I Was a Teenage Slasher, The Winter People, The Hunger, Riley Sager, Mexican Gothic, Grady Hendrix, Natalie Tan’s Book of Luck and Fortune, The Lost Apothecary, An Unkindness of Ghosts, Folklorn, The Scent Keeper, The Silent Companions, The Other Black Girl, The Ten Thousand Doors of January, These Silent Woods, Summer Sons, The Push, A History of Wild Places, The Plot, Jackal, Daisy Darker, The Hacienda, The Cartographers, Dead Silence, Wrong Place Wrong Time, You’re Invited, The Return, Sacrificial Animals, The Devil Takes You Home, Sisters of the Lost Nation, Leech, The Husbands, The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, Heads Will Roll, Water Moon, The Fox Wife, The Other Valley, The Poet Empress, and How to Kill a Guy in Ten Dates.Â
My favorites include…
Books: The Cartographers by Peng Shepard, Firekeeper’s Daughter by Angeline Boulley, Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro, Cruddy by Lynda Barry, Get in Trouble by Kelly Link, Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey, What is Not Yours is Not Yours by Helen Oyeyemi, The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman, The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead, The Girls by Emma Cline, The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga, The Giver by Lois Lowry, Holes by Louis Sachar, Ana and the Swallow Man by Gavriel Savit, Girlchild by Tupelo Hassman, The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh, Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen, and We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson.
Film/TV: 1899, His House, Dark City, Mr. Nobody, Sunshine, Snowpiercer, The Lodge, Beasts of the Southern Wild, Arrival, Big Fish, Amélie, The Truman Show, Pan’s Labyrinth, Twin Peaks, Ozark, Ari Aster, Jordan Peele, The Sinner (seasons 1 & 4), School Spirits, Archive 81, Pluribus, and From.
