New year, new opportunities! You may submit to these publishers even if you don’t have a literary agent if your manuscript falls under these categories: literary, romance, and speculative.

Would you change your race if you could? In Jess Row’s provocative novel, Martin Lipkin does just that. He undergoes a racial reassignment surgery, changing his looks from white to black. He assumes a new identity and culture as Martin Wilkinson, a successful businessman.  

In 1782, it was illegal for a woman to dress as a man in Massachusetts. Deborah Samson, the 22-year-old heroine of Alex Myers’s literary novel, not only dresses as a man but fights as a soldier during the American Revolutionary War.

When I was reading Melissa Bank's book, I felt like someone who was unfashionably late for a party. I've missed the early fun, but I can still catch up. Published in 1999, I've heard of this best-selling book, but didn't pick it up until this past September. During a nerve-wracking trip to New York City to attend a pitch conference, I found comfort in Bank's irresistible heroine, Jane Rosenthal.

James Salter's "A Sport and a Pastime" reminds me of a five-star resort. It’s luxurious, oftentimes impractical, but always pleasurable. Don't go looking for the basics. Everything is extra.

At first glance, 90-year-old Vivian has nothing in common with Molly, a troubled teen-ager. Vivian is well-off and white, originally from Ireland, while Molly is poor and half-Penobscot Indian. When Molly is caught stealing a copy of “Jayne Eyre” at the public library, she must either perform community service by helping Vivian clean her attic, or go to a juvenile center. She chooses the former, bringing the two together.