Holly Riddle
Bio
Holly Riddle (she/her) is a freelance travel, food, and lifestyle journalist and content marketer by day, author of historical fantasy and horror by night. Represented by Laura Crockett at Triada US Literary Agency, she is currently on submission with two books, one a historical fantasy set in 1920s rural Kentucky and with a religious trauma theme, the other a historical horror set in 1950s rural Pennsylvania and dealing with toxic family relationships and class divisions. She has a BA in English Literature and Creative Writing from the University of Kentucky.
With experience managing internship programs in both publishing and marketing agency settings, Holly is excited to help authors further their careers and navigate the (often stressful) world of traditional publishing, with a focus on helping authors reach their long-term goals. She is open to mentoring authors with manuscripts categorized as adult historical, fantasy, gothic, and/or horror.
MSWL
My favorite books are those that are delightfully atmospheric, with a heavy dose of unsettling spookiness, but that also feature characters tackling issues or experiences that are not often shown on the mainstream page, or that are shown with a degree of judgement. I would love to see characters living with issues that I often feature in my own work, such as depression, anxiety, addiction, religious trauma, abuse, or chronic illness, but would prefer the narrative to not hinge on the character being “fixed” or “cured.”
Favorite reads from the past year have included…
- How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix
- The Writing Retreat by Julia Bartz
- A House with Good Bones by T. Kingfisher
- What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher
- Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn
- The Burning Girls by CJ Tudor
- The Widow of Rose House by Diana Biller
- The Inheritance of Orquídea Divina by Zoraida Córdova
- Spells for Forgetting by Adrienne Young
- Babel by R.F. Kuang
- The Book Eaters by Sunyi Dean
- The Daughter of Doctor Moreau by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
- In the Garden of Spite by Camilla Bruce
Favorite themes/elements/etc. include…
- Feminist narratives
- Anti-capitalism and class disparity
- Remote, small-town settings including in the South, mountains, or seaside
- Cozy, spooky season vibes (especially Halloween settings!)
- Wuthering Heights retellings (and similar classic gothic retellings)
- Dark and complicated relationships
- Revenge stories
- Romance of all types
- Morally gray protagonists
- Unreliable narrators
- Academic settings (but with MCs who are not students)
- Uncomplicated, easy-to-grasp magic systems
- Fantasy that incorporates actual historic events
- Killers that you can kind of agree with
- Hauntings
- Cryptids
- Religious elements
I am not looking for…
- Anything that could be considered “high” fantasy
- Angels/demons
- Vampires
- Talking animals
- Body horror