About Cate
Cate represents young adult and middle-grade fiction, select commercial adult fiction, contemporary and historical romance, and nonfiction in the areas of history and pop culture.
Cate has been with the Corvisiero Literary Agency for four years. She works with clients to build their platform, works on PR projects to help promote clients’ books, and reads manuscripts with an editorial eye.
Cate seeks unique stories with well-crafted plots and unforgettable characters with a strong voice. She loves characters that surprise her and plots that keep her guessing until the very last page.
In adult fiction, she is actively looking for Romantic Suspense. She loves FBI agents, Special Law Divisions, Cyber Crime. She'd love a caper or heist romance, sexy and stylized like To Catch a Thief or fun and adventurous like Ocean's 11. She would love to find Historical Romance set in the Gilded Age, give her a swoon-worthy Fifth Avenue Tycoon or Knickerbocker. She is also looking for contemporary fantasy and especially magical realism.
She is looking for adult and children's nonfiction specifically in the areas of lesser known or quirky historical facts and forgotten people of importance. She prefers pop culture nonfiction centered around music and film, and Nashville and unique Southern culture.
In Middle Grade, she accepts all genres, but is drawn to stories of strong bonds of friendship, or mischief and adventure. Cate prefers more high-concept, commercial young adult, especially fantasy, fairy tale and classics retellings, mystery and thrillers, and historical fantasy.
As always, Cate welcomes all diverse stories and authors.
Query Instructions
I focus mainly on Young Adult and Middle Grade novel length commercial fiction. As well, I am always looking for standout Science Fiction and Fantasy, Contemporary and Historical Romance, Romantic Suspense. and Mysteries. I do prefer stories with strong romantic elements, or even better, a heart-pounding romance.
Currently, I am not representing.
- Picture Books or Early Readers
- New Adult
- Poetry
- Screenplays
- Anthologies
- Novellas
- BDSM
- Erotica
- Serial Killer Mysteries/Thrillers ***Unless Historical in the vein of the Alienist
- Political or Environmental Thrillers
- Hardboiled Detectives or Police Procedurals
- Dystopian
​What I'd love to find in the Querybox.
- Fantasy Romance, especially commercial and high-concept.
- RomCom in contemporary or women's fiction
- Time Slips or dual points of view connecting and converging over a single thread, event or object.
- Historical Fantasy in MG, YA or Romance
- Middle Grade Mystery like the old series The Three Investigators.
- Middle Grade, or even YA, adventure, something that reminds me of the Sandlot, Stand By Me, the Explorers or Goonies. Something that's not only the adventure of a life time but about the balance and dynamics of friendship and growing up. Give me girls gangs!
- Fantasy YA in the vein of Leigh Bardugo, Victoria Aveyard, CJ Redwine, Sarah J Maas or Julie Kagawa or give me Jon Snow's story without being too much like Game of Thrones. Even better I want Arya Stark's story.
- Elements of the Fantastic in YA or WF. I want Clueless meets Practical Magic. Or something as lovely as The Secret History of Witches that explores more the relationship between mothers and daughters wrapped in magic.
- In Historical Romance I am particularly drawn to Eighteenth Century Scotland and France. Victorian England and The Gilded Age of America. The American and French Revolutions. I'd love to find something along the lines of Downton Abbey meets Agatha Christie.
- I'd really love to find the next Historical equivalent to a Duke or a Lord, think the Gilded Age Knickerbocker or Magnate. Or the historical equivalent to a NAVY SEAL, think Peelers or the Pinkertons.
- I love classic retellings. Shakespeare, Poe, Austen, Dickens, Grimm. Something unique with a vibrant voice, think Marissa Meyer's Cinder or Bethany Griffin's Masque of the Red Death.
- Select LGBTQ works MG, YA, Adult Romance. Bonus points for historical fantasy or mystery.
- As always I welcome Diverse and #OwnVoices
To Submit your work:
Please upload your query, 1-2 page synopsis, and first 5 pages of your manuscript to our automated form by clicking the Query Agent button.
Cate responds to every query.
