Shalini Abeysekara

Bio

Shalini Abeysekara (she/her/hers) is a lawyer-turned-author based in Ontario, Canada. Her dark romantasies explore monstrosity—perceived and real—and center neurodivergent women ​of colour reckoning with themselves and their place ​in a world that tells them they’re too much and not ​enough. She is passionate about demystifying traditional publishing for all writers and promoting marginalized authors of all identities. When not writing, she games her life away and tries to make the perfect entremet. Most days though, she can’t believe she's an adult, ​and hope you don’t either.

Shalini is open to mentoring in YA and Adult across most fiction genres, save women’s fiction and speculative fiction. You can find her on Twitter (@awayintheshire), Instagram + Tiktok (@shalini.writes) and at shaliniwrites.com

MSWL

What I’m Looking For

Fantasy: Give it all to me. Contemporary, high, low, grimdark, academia, send me right out of this world, I’m here for it. Cross-genre? Even better!

Romance: Give me your star-crossed lovers, your slow-burns, your absolute hate-to-loves, your second chances, time period doesn’t matter!

Contemporary: I’m here for the issue books, MCs who feel left behind or left out, growing pains, careers falling apart, families erupting, anything where the MC is in a better position than where they began.

Mystery, Thriller, Suspense: If it’s giving Agatha Christie or M. Night Shyamalan or True Detective: Night Country or has any form of plot twist, then I am your reader!

Horror: If you’re comping the Haunting of Hill House/Bly Manor or any of Mike Flanagan’s works, then I need yours! I’m more of a psychological horror/supernatural horror person so send those my way and ensure that I can’t sleep!

What I’d Love To See

 BIPOC, LGBTQ+, ND, disabled characters

 Lush worldbuilding

 Fantasies drawing from cultures that aren’t traditionally represented

 Side characters are crucial to the story and have their own lives outside of the MCs

 Found family

 Well-developed romances

 Inversion of popular tropes

 Reincarnation/multiple lives/timelines

 MCs who aren’t gifted or Chosen Ones

 Antihero characters who genuinely are that bad (I’ll love them forever)

 Antihero characters triumphing at the end

 Criticism of modern capitalism in veiled/allegorical ways

 Anything that is reminiscent of a K-drama

 Anything reminiscent of the following shows and video games:

o The Rings of Power/The Lord of the Rings/anything Tolkien

o Horizon Zero Dawn & Horizon Forbidden West

o God of War (2018) & God of War: Ragnarok

o The Wheel of Time

o The Acolyte

o Severance

o Silo

o Foundation

What I’m Not Looking For

I read widely, but as something with a very high anxiety threshold, there are a couple things that I can’t go near.

 Anything where the MC’s character arc is a downward spiral that will not go back up.

Bittersweet is fine but not full-out tragic. When I’m sucked into a book, I’m sucked in,

and this will leave me heartbroken for weeks (it has happened).

 Gratuitous sexual violence (be it to main or side characters) that has no bearing on the

plot

 Gratuitous torture of animals that has no relevance to the plot

 Dubious consent

 Any romance where the couple doesn’t end up together after all. I will not recover.

 Mary Sues or super sweet and kind MCs

Thank you and I’m so excited to see your submissions!