valentina spooknato 👻🎃 (open to queries!)

Forty hours left until this giveaway closes! We're giving away ten ARCs of @victormanibo.com 's THE VILLA, ONCE BELOVED on Goodreads and it will, err, haunt you if you don't get in on that . . .

A PW article by Elyse Martin titled Moor or Less, with the subtitle reading "New Novels Unearth Ghotic Horrors in an Arizona Mine, Rural Japan, and Beyond". The first few paragraphs read as follows: "Since 1764, when Horace Walpole captivated readers with The Castle of Otranto, gothic novels have been shaped by, and have sometimes been synonymous with, their locales. “With all genres, setting matters,” says Yah Yah Scholfield, debut author of the Southern gothic On Sundays She Picked Flowers (Saga, Jan. 2026). “But with gothic fiction in particular, the setting is a character all its own. You can’t have Wuthering Heights without the moors, and you can’t have Rebecca without Manderley.” PW spoke with Scholfield and other authors about the importance of place in their forthcoming gothic horror novels. As in real estate, it’s all about location, location, location. Scholfield’s gothic references include Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House and We Have Always Lived in the Castle, and Toni Morrison’s Beloved, particularly “the concept of this place that is so sick and heavy with human living,” they say. Their debut follows Judith Rice, who as an adult in 1965 flees her abusive mother abusive to a run-down house in the forests of southern Georgia, where she contends with the ghosts of the house’s violent past as well as her own." The rest of the article continues on with non-JAB clients.

Debut author Yah Yah Scholfield also made their PW debut in an interview about global Gothic fiction! ON SUNDAYS SHE PICKED FLOWERS is set in southern Georgia and is forthcoming 1/27/25 🥀

www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/...

Word of mouth is important to a book's success. So, if you'd like to see the authors who wrote your favourite stories commissioned to write more, please keep talking about all the #books you love.

It’s been a whirlwind time at New York Comic Con so far — here are some client highlights we’ve seen! 🧵

@mauricebroaddus.bsky.social was on the fantastic Young, Gifted & Whack panel, covering the intersections of creativity and nerdom among Black communities, moderated by Wayne Brady! #nycc

Humor, hijinks, and whodunit coming next year to a bookstore near you!!

Friendly reminder that I will be closing to queries on August 31 (a week from today). The next time I will be open to queries will likely be next summer, so last call to get in your submissions! #amquerying #amagenting

Congrats to our very own @rebeccafraimow.bsky.social on winning, along with Emily Tesh, the Hugo Award for Best Fancast for Eighty Days of Diana Wynne Jones

All of this is to say, that I know QueryManager gives a lot of stats and data to querying authors now and while it's useful information, don't spend too much time trying to decipher the data. Each agent tackles their query inbox differently.

We have more clients attending @seattlein2025.org than any other WorldCon in the history of WorldCon, too many to list. We hope everyone has a great time, and you can buy their great books any day, any time, at WorldCon and away.

a cartoon penguin is ringing a bell with a rope attached to it . ALT: a cartoon penguin is ringing a bell with a rope attached to it .

Now that it's August 1st, friendly reminder that I will be closing to queries at the end of the month and I will remain CLOSED until next somewhere. So last call! Here's a quick #MSWL about some things I'd love to see more of this month #amquerying #amagenting

Author Silvia Moreno-Garcia stands behind a table at the Strand, ready to sign a fan's books

A hand with a small moon tattoo holding up THE BEWITCHING by Silvia Moreno-Garcia against a backdrop of chairs from the signing and bookshelves at The Strand

NYT bestselling author Silvia Moreno-Garcia pointing to a copy of THE BEWITCHING displayed on the front window of The Strand

A stack of copies of THE BEWITCHING by Silvia Moreno-Garcia with one displayed copy in front on a shelf; a stack of MEXICAN GOTHIC paperbacks are next to it

Congratulations to @silviamg.bsky.social for an excellent event at The Strand last night! The JAB team had a blast celebrating the launch of THE BEWITCHING ✨

Be sure to catch Silvia live on her book tour: silviamoreno-garcia.com/events/

I can’t believe I’m holding the trade paperback for Barstow! It’s been a dream come true working with @darkhorse.com The book comes out in September and is available for pre-order on Amazon and Barnes & Noble now. 🖤🏜️💀🌵

Feast your eyes on the gorgeous cover for Yah Yah Scholfield's ON SUNDAYS SHE PICKED FLOWERS, a sinister and surreal Southern Gothic debut for fans of Lone Women, Sorrowland, and The Reformatory! Out in hardcover January '26; preorder your copy now!

Cover design: Beth Steidle (@beth.steidle on IG)

A Best-Selling Horror Writer’s Biggest Fear? Being Recognized.

Alec-Nevala Lee interviewed me for NYT! The story mentions Lovecraft (my thesis was on women, eugenics & HPL), how weird it was when they optioned Mexican Gothic, & that I don't watch superhero flicks (sorry! I gorge on Sinners & Nosferatu, not Marvel. mmm... Horror)
www.nytimes.com/2025/07/11/b...

As someone who mostly reads horror, I'll never understand the vitriol towards "cozy" books. People say they are escapist, unserious, allowing readers to avoid big issues. And I'm like, girl, WHEN did your dark romance book fix society? Did I BLINK and miss your detective thriller solving crime?

illegal war started by a man constitutionally ineligible to be president

2025 Locus Awards Winners The Locus Science Fiction Foundation announced the winners in each category of the 2025 Locus Awards on June 21, 2025, during the Locus Awards Weekend. Authors Sarah Gailey and Tochi Onyebuchi were…

Congratulations to all the winners and the finalists!

The 2025 Locus Awards Winners!

locusmag.com/2025/06...

As promised, here are the slides I shared with students to convince them to NOT use chatGPT and other artificial stupidity.

TL;DR? AI is evil, unsustainable and stupid, and I'd much rather they use their own brains, make their own mistakes, and actually learn something. 🪄

The Country Under Heaven by Frederic S. Durbin: Review by Paul Di Filippo The Country Under Heaven, Frederic S. Durbin (Melville House 978-1685891695, trade paperback, 336pp, $19.99) May 2025. Surely the gold standard for supernatural tales involving a picaresque wandere…

The Country Under Heaven by Frederic S. Durbin: Review by Paul Di Filippo locusmag.com/2025/06...

A thread on our response to AI 🧵

✅ We will never knowingly prioritize, publicize, nor market AI-narrated/generated audiobooks.
✅ Recommendations on Libro are from real, live booksellers and our team, not algorithms.
✅ Our customer support team is made of real people, not bots.

Pride Month Book Recommendations from LGBTQReads Celebrate Pride Month with LGBTQReads’ curated recommendations. Use code Pride25 at checkout to receive 20% OFF* these select titles.

Bookshop is hosting a Pride Month sale with some excellent titles!

Among them are @dirtbagqueer.rocks's NYT bestselling debut ONE OF THE BOYS, as well as ATHLETE IS AGENDER, a Junior Library Guild Selection, featuring essays by Isaac Fitzsimons and @sassinsf.com 🏈 🏳️‍🌈 💜

bookshop.org/lists/pride-...

I’m officially open to queries today! My full MSWL and QueryManager link can be found on our agency website. Can’t wait to see you in the query box! 📚

awfulagent.com/agents/chris...

Susan Velazquez Colmant

Hello! I am now officially open to queries again on QueryManager. I have my very detailed MSWL for fic and non fic here susanvcolmant.com

I'm so excited to be working with Jess on her excellent hijinks mystery. It's always a real joy to find one of those special projects that feels like the perfect fit, and I cannot wait for the world to get to meet our heroes(?) Grace and Jo 🕵️‍♀️

Welcome to JABberwocky!!

Every Harry Potter book or shirt you buy directly funds the persecution of trans people.

There's absolutely no excuse to support anything Harry Potter anymore unless you hate trans people.

I saw someone say AI is useful because it generates ideas. My dude, I'm full of ideas. I have docs and docs marked under 'ideas.' I have outlines and fragments of stuff I might work on. Trunked stories galore. Even if I continue to write a novel a year for the next 40 years I won't run out of ideas.

the kid looks fucking terrified, knows the university will probably punitively hold the diploma they've worked three or four years to get, and also knows people have been disappeared recently by fascists for doing way, way less. still says it! just an incredibly fucking brave person

go query susan and christina, they’re both cool as hell!!!

late to this post but temporary by hilary leichter is a great read if you don’t mind of a bit of absurdity ☺️

Independent Bookstore Day 2025 is on Saturday, April 26th! Indie bookstores are vastly important to local communities — be sure to support them on this weekend and beyond!

Here's are some of our agents' fave NYC indies 📚 Please comment your local recommendations, we'd love to know them!

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