thea liu

BIO

RJ Hawthorne (she/her) is an asexual horror author with OCD and chronic pain. Her debut horror novel, WHAT WE FED IT, releases in Spring 2028 with Poisoned Pen Press (Sourcebooks). She has a love for deeply flawed relationship dynamics and main characters with hard-to-swallow expectations of the world and other people. When she isn’t writing (or reading), RJ is catching up on trashy reality shows, baking a different kind of dessert every week, maintaining her 1960 farmhouse, or co-hosting the With Series Potential podcast.

RJ is represented by Alex Land at Mad Woman Literary Agency.

 

 

MSWL

MSWL: I’m open to all kinds of speculative fiction but am primarily looking for an adult or young adult commercial horror or thriller with a strong emotional through line and devastating personal stakes. 

A non-exhaustive list of elements I enjoy:

  • messy group dynamics

  • black cat x golden retriever

  • millennial/life stage horror

  • meta horror vibes

  • tragic endings

  • slasher vibes

  • ESH (everyone sucks here)

  • comes back wrong

  • Women’s Rights & Women’s Wrongs / Good For Her

  • make each other worse

  • setting as a character

  • slasher vibes

Shows/Movies I Enjoy:

  • American Horror Story (specifically S1)

  • Ghost Files/Buzzfeed Unsolved (anything with Shane and Ryan)

  • The Walking Dead (specifically S1-S4)

  • Obsession

  • Talk to Me

  • Midsommar

  • Ready or Not

  • Scream (specifically 2)

Games I Enjoy:

  • Dead By Daylight

  • The Quarry/Dark Pictures Anthology

  • Phasmophobia

  • At Dead of Night

Books I Enjoy:

  • Trad Wife by Saratoga Schaeffer

  • Episode 13 by Craig DiLouie

  • The Caretaker by Marcus Kliewer

  • Breathe In, Bleed Out by Brian McAuley

  • Horrorstor by Grady Hendrix

  • Nothing But Blackened Teeth by Cassandra Khaw

  • Maeve Fly by CJ Leede

  • Feeders by Matt Serafini

  • The Handyman Method by Alex F. Sullivan and Nick Cutter

  • Cultish by Amanda Montell

  • You’re Not Supposed to Die Tonight by Kalynn Bayron

  • Incidents Around the House by Josh Malerman

  • The Writing Retreat by Julia Bartz

  • You by Caroline Kepnes

  • Breathless by Amy McCulloch

  • The Housewife by Natalie Barelli

  • Lisa Springer, CJ Leede, Grady Hendrix, Tanya Pell, EL Chen

While I love Black Mirror, I’m less likely to take on anything that relies more heavily on the technology side rather than the social commentary side of horror.

If romance is A plot or a competing B plot, I may not be the best mentor for the project. I much prefer tension between friends. 

Scare me if you can!