Maxine Shen

(Updated March 17, 2026!)

For Alcove Press, I’m on the hunt for characters and voices to fall in love with in the adult contemporary, sports, and paranormal romance space, especially if there’s series potential. I’m also interested in urban fantasy-themed stories (for fans of Kate Daniels, The Dresden Files, Rivers of London) and humor-driven fantasy (The Lies of Locke Lamora, Assistant to the Villain).

For Romance, particularly keen on:

• Sports romance: Ice hockey and football (NFL/college-style)
• Paranormal/fantasy romance: Edgier/darker wolf shifter stories and first-person POV romantasy (oddly specific, I know)
• Contemporary romance: Please (please) send me dark romcoms; enemies/rivals-to-lovers relationships; small town settings with a romcom feel (cowboys/girls and ranchers are a plus); dark(er) romance, and motorcycle club-meets-TBD genre blending…

Note: For planned series, strong preference for Book 1 being able to stand fully alone (ie with a HEA or HFN). Dark romance submissions cannot feature non/dubcon acts or relationships between leads, due to content policy. Omegaverse submissions should only involve leads that can shift into animals, due to content policy.

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For Crooked Lane Books, I’d love to see:

• Mystery/crime/thrillers with leads like Jack Reacher, Nick Ryan, Nadia Stafford, Rizzoli and Isles, Jonathan Quinn, Walt Longmire, and Elvis Cole and Joe Pike
• Sci-fi or cyberpunk detective stories (Altered Carbon-style, sadly no space operas at this time)
• Historical mysteries for fans of C.S. Harris, Deanna Raybourn, Alison Goodman, and Jennifer Ashley
• Cozy mysteries of all type
• Military/techno-thrillers (a “new” twist on these is very helpful)

Manuscript word count guidelines: Ideally between 60,000 and 90,000 words.

Looking forward to reading your submissions! 🙂

Submission Guidelines

Agented authors: Please submit to me directly…

Unagented authors: Please follow the appropriate submissions guidelines below…

• Alcove Press: https://alcovepress.com/submissions/
• Crooked Lane Books: https://crookedlanebooks.com/submissions/