darelle cowley

BIO

Darelle Cowley (she/her) is an author of adult and NA fantasy, often with a dystopian edge to them and always with someone getting romanced by the end. She holds a B.S. in Psychology with a History minor from Georgia Tech and an MSW from the University of Pittsburgh where she was an Integrated Healthcare Fellow. She’s always been fascinated and driven by human connection, believing the act of storytelling is at its core about connection. A Western PA transplant, she was born and raised in Toronto, ON before moving south for school. She hasn’t quite migrated all the way back north yet (and is enjoying less snow than she was raised with). When she’s not writing, you can catch her running (and dancing) on the treadmill, crossing National Parks off her bucket list, dodging longswords at HEMA practice, and always getting sassed by her golden retriever.

She is represented by Alex Land at Mad Woman Literary Agency. You can find her on Instagram @writerdcowley and on Twitter and BlueSky @darellecowley.

Darelle is open to YA, New Adult, and Adult novels in Fantasy (any subgenre, with or without romance), Romance, Science Fiction, and anything that could be considered a speculative genre blend. She is comfortable with horror elements as part of a manuscript but is not a great fit for the Horror genre on its own.

MSWL

General preference for upmarket stories (aka stories with literary writing and thoughtful critique that also have a genre hook and don't lose sight of pacing).

Age Groups:

  • Young Adult

  • New Adult

  • Adult

Genres:

  • Fantasy 

  • Romance

  • Sci-Fi

  • Speculative Genre Blends

Fantasy is and always will be my first love, but I especially love it when combined with a dash of romance and sprinkling of dark/gritty/twistedness to it. That said, I do prefer Fantasy first, Romance second in a manuscript, by which I mean I would prefer for there to be some objective, goal, or quest that takes precedence to the romance. Give me knights falling in love with each other as they retrieve the prince from the evil sorcerer, but please give me all the fun, gallivanting shenanigans that go along with that quest. I do not require romance to be an element to my fantasy but I will never say no to it!

What I’m Looking for:

  • Character-driven stories

  • Smart, strong female characters (if the MS doesn’t pass the Bechdel test on submission, it will by the end of RTM)

  • Characters with dimension (protagonists, antagonists, side characters)

  • Villains that make me reconsider rooting for the hero (corruption arcs, 

  • Immersive settings that I can escape into

  • Interesting word building and magic systems

  • Age-appropriate romance/spice (five-pepper, open-door spice is totally fine in new adult/adult, in YA, fade to black/closed door/thoughtful + intentional intimacy)

  • Genre blends! Horromantasy, dystomance, science fantasy, etc. Please send me your speculative genre mash-ups!

Trigger/Content Warnings:

I am pretty okay with most things, that said, I very much appreciate trigger/content warnings and ask that they’re included. No CW/TW will auto-disqualify a submission.

Not For Me:

  • Indigenous stories written by non-Indigenous writers

  • Dark academia

  • Straight-up Horror as a genre (horror-adjacent/horror elements in a genre blend are totally fine!)

  • Gore/violence for the sake of gore/violence: if it’s on page, it needs to have a purpose aside from pure shock factor

  • Zombies/undead beings in romance

  • Abusive relationships as the “end game” romance

  • Child-adult romantic relationships and age-gap romance (i.e. age-gap power imbalances, teacher-student, May-December, etc.)

  • Fae/Faeries (Throne of Glass, ACOTAR, etc.)

  • Retellings without a new twist or spin to them (fairytales, myth retellings, folklore, etc., if it doesn’t have a fresh edge to it, it’s not for me)

Ultimately, as long as something does not fall under the “Not For Me” category and is within the bounds of the above genres in some capacity, I am open to it! 

Books to Get to Know Me By (and that I’d love to see comped!):

Fantasy

  • Tamora Pierce (I have read Pierce’s full catalogue multiple times, anything remotely comped to her please send it to me!)

  • THIS MONSTER OF MINE (Shalini Abeysekara)

  • THE SECOND DEATH OF LOCKE (V.L. Bovalino)

  • THRONE OF KHETARA trilogy by Michelle Jabés Corpora

  • LEGENDBORN trilogy by Tracey Deonn

  • HELLBOUND (Stephanie Binx)

  • OUR INFINITE FATES (Laura Stevens)

  • GODKILLER trilogy by Hannah Kaner

  • SIX OF CROWS (Leigh Bardugo)

  • THE KNIGHT AND THE MOTH (Rachel Gillig)

  • SIX WILD CROWNS (Holly Race)

Sci-Fi

  • HONOR AMONG THIEVES/Honor Lost series by Rachel Caine

  • Brandon Sanderson’s SKYWARD quartet

  • Anything by Andy Weir

  • Amie Kaufman’s THE AURORA CYCLE series

  • THE HOST (Stephanie Meyer)

  • SCION (James Islington)

  • THE FINAL SIX (Alexandra Monir)

  • THIS IS HOW YOU LOSE THE TIME WAR (Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone)

  • HEIR APPARENT (Vivian Vande Velde)

  • SCION (James Islington)

  • READY PLAYER ONE (Ernest Cline)

Romance

  • Anything by Emily Henry, Ashley Poston, and Casey McQuiston

  • MATE (Ali Hazelwood)

  • SEVEN YEAR SLIP (Ashley Poston)

  • TOURIST SEASON (Brynne Weaver)

  • GREAT BIG BEAUTIFUL LIFE (Emily Henry)

  • THE EX HEX (Erin Sterling)

  • TERROR AT THE GATES (Scarlett St. Clair)

  • THE PAIRING (Casey McQuiston)

Young Adult

  • THE HUNGER GAMES (Suzanne Collins)

  • GRACELING (Kristen Cashore)

  • UGLIES (Scott Westerfeld)

  • LORE (Alexandra Bracken)

  • THE SUMMER I TURNED PRETTY (Jenny Han)

  • THE CITY OF EMBER (Jeanne DuPrau)

  • THE SELECTION (Kiera Cass)

  • FABLE (Adrienne Young)

  • THE SUNBEARER TRIALS (Aiden Thomas)

  • THORN SEASON (Kiera Azar)

  • THE 100 (Kass Morgan)