Laurie McLean
Fuse Literary
My Manuscript Wish List®
Laurie McLean spent 20 years as the CEO of a publicity agency, then 8 years as an agent and senior agent at Larsen Pomada Literary Agents in San Francisco before co-founding Fuse Literary in 2013. Following her stint as the CEO of a successful Silicon Valley public relations agency bearing her name, Laurie was able to switch gears in 2002 to immerse herself in writing. She penned three manuscripts before deciding that the life of a literary agent was her destiny. Laurie has been writing professionally since high school–first as a journalist, then as a public relations agent, finally as a novelist. She earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism from the State University of New York and a Master’s Degree at Syracuse University’s prestigious Newhouse School of Journalism.
At Fuse Lit, Laurie specializes in adult genre fiction (romance, fantasy, science fiction, mystery, thrillers, suspense, horror, etc.) plus all types of middle-grade and young adult children’s books. Prior to founding Fuse, Laurie was also the founder and Dean of San Francisco Writers University and on the management team of the San Francisco Writers Conference. In 2012 Laurie co-founded two ePublishing companies with two of her client partners: JoyrideBooks.com for vintage out-of-print romance books with Linda Wisdom; and AmbushBooks.com for out-of-print classic tween and teen books with Douglas Rees. Both were recently sold.
Fun facts about me:
I sang and played percussion in a bluegrass band called Foggy Mountain Jam for more than a decade. It’s where I met my husband. I love the outdoors and camping and hiking. I live on four acres in the coastal mountains south of San Francisco and my commute to work is 50 yards long!
Submission Guidelines
Submissions should be emailed to Laurie@fuseliterary.com
Laurie is closed to queries and only accepts referral inquiries and submissions requested at conferences or online events like #PitMad or #MSWL. Please query other Fuse Literary agents with unsolicited submissions. If she asks for your submission at a conference/online event, email the first 10 pages plus a 1-2 page synopsis in the body of your email to: laurie@fuseliterary.com. Put the name of the event in the email’s subject line or it will be auto-rejected.
Vital Info
Favorite sub-genres:
Diversity, Gothic Horror, Literary Noir, Magical Realism, Multicultural, Space Opera, Speculative Fiction, Steampunk, Suspense, Urban Fantasy
I’d like the next…
I’d like the next book version of these groundbreaking movies: Star Wars, Star Trek, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Lord of the Rings, The Matrix, Terminator, iRobot, The Fifth Element, Barbarella, etc.
I’d like something along the same vein as these books/authors: A Wrinkle in Time, The Left Hand of God, The Sparrow, anything by Tad Williams but most especially his Otherland series, and anything by Jonathan Maberry, Stephen King, JD Robb, Nora Roberts (I know it’s the same person), Jayne Anne Krentz, Sherilynn Kenyon, Dan Brown (hey, I like his books), John Le Carre, etc.
My favorites include…
See above.
