Rebecca Matte

In all categories:

• Stories of self-discovery & reinvention (particularly those that center gender and sexuality)

• Strong, realistic friendships that are valued as much as any romantic relationship

• Queer characters, particularly those with underrepresented identities (such as bi, pan, trans, ace)

• Jewish characters

• Diverse, complex characters (race, religion, ethnicity, background, sexuality, gender, etc)

• Stories from Deaf, chronically ill, or disabled authors

**I will not accept any stories that attempt to “cure” or “fix” a disability in an unrealistic way or through magical means

Romance

• Queer romance (particularly f/f, or featuring ace, bi, pan, or trans characters)

• All the tropes: friends to lovers, there was only one bed, grumpy/sunshine, coffee shop/library/bookstore, rivals to lovers, fake dating, marriage of convenience, slow burn, forced proximity. Basically, make me feel like I’m reading the most highly rated fanfic in a fandom.

• PINING. I love pining, particularly mutual pining. Slow burn & pining are my bread & butter, as someone on the ace-spectrum.

• Partners of protagonists with chronic illness or disability doing small things to make their lives easier without being asked (in a sweet, not patronizing way)

• Sub-genres:

  • contemporary

  • historical

  • rom-com

  • millennial/borderline New Adult

  • Fantasy

• Stories that combine wonderful friendships with romance, e.g the wholesome group dynamic from Check Please by Ngozi Ukazu, or the close friendships & assorted romances of Fences: Striking Distance by Sara Rees Brennan.

**Note: for a book to be romance, it must have a Happily Ever After or a Happily For Now.

Science Fiction/Fantasy

• I definitely lean more towards fantasy than sci-fi, but I am open to both.

• Fantasy/Romance — books like A Marvelous Light by Freya Marske, Winter’s Orbit by Evelina Maxwell, and A Strange & Stubborn Endurance by Foz Meadows

• Stories that cleverly add magic to the real world, shedding light upon and capitalizing on existing inequalities and important issues

• Stories that ultimately believe that people are good — I don’t need anything saccharine or overly optimstic, darkness is okay and real. But I read for escapism, and I want to believe that evil does not exist for the sake of evil. (See, e.g. Game of Thrones Circe, who was bad but always understandable in acting for her children vs. Ramsay Bolton, who seemed to revel in random cruelty.)

• Books that feature a fully original world, or a world inspired by something other than medieval Europe

• Stories that subvert reader expectations by juxtaposing tropes or worlds with something seemingly incompatible, like T.J. Klune’s wholesome post-apocalyptic In the Lives of Puppets, or the emotional family story set in the sci fi/superhero world of Big Hero 6

• Grounded characters & relationships; people who make me love them and want to follow them into the unknown.

  • Among my favorite all time book characters are Royce & Hadrian from Michael Sullivan’s Riyria Revelations, Rin & Kitay from R. F. Kuang’s The Poppy Wars, and Inda/Jeje/Taumad/Evred from Sherwood Smith’s Inda.

  • Stories that feel like BBC Merlin, but without the queer-baiting

• Pretty much any sub-genre, but NOT grimdark, horror, and paranormal.

Anti-MSWL (all categories)

• I tend not to connect particularly strongly to the following story elements. Stories that include them are not a definite no, but I may not be the right person for the work.

  • shapeshifters (e.g. werewolves, dragonkind, etc), vampires, fae, Christian-aligned angels/demons.

  • Kidnapping, cheating (by the protagonist), love triangles, or any sort of unbalanced power dynamic.

  • Protagonists who are aligned with American police or military.

  • Prominent focus on Christian themes

• Please do not query me with books that feature the following:

  • Magical disability cures/fixes

  • Nazi romances

  • Sexual assault/non consensual sexual contact by the protagonist

  • Grimdark or horror

  • On page description of infestation and/or body horror. This is a strong trigger for me, and includes things like rats, bugs, and parasites (think the mind control slug from Wrath of Khan).

Guidelines & Details