Strange Chemistry, the YA imprint of Angry Robot Books, is delighted to announce the signing of Danielle Jensen, in a three-book World English Rights deal concluded by Strange Chemistry’s editor Amanda Rutter and Tamar Rydzinski of the Laura Dail Literary Agency.

The first of the three books is called Stolen Songbird and will be published by Strange Chemistry in early 2014.

Trolls are said to love gold. They are said to live underground and hate humans, perhaps even eat them. They are said to be evil.  When Cécile de Troyes is kidnapped and sold to the trolls, she finds out that there is truth in the rumours, but there is also so much more to trolls than she could have imagined.

Cécile has only one thing on her mind after she is brought to Trollus, the city she hadn’t even known existed under Forsaken Mountain: escape. But the trolls are inhumanly strong. And fast. She will have to bide her time, wait for the perfect opportunity.

But something strange happens while she’s waiting – she begins to fall in love with the handsome, thoughtful troll prince that she has been bonded and married to. She begins to make friends. And she begins to see that she may be the only hope for the half-bloods – part troll/part human creatures who are slaves to the full-blooded trolls. There is a rebellion brewing. And her prince, Tristan, the future king, is its secret leader.

As Cécile becomes involved in the intricate political games of Trollus, she becomes more than a farmer’s daughter from Goshawk’s Hollow. She becomes a princess, the hope of a people, and a witch.

Danielle Jensen said: “I am beyond excited to begin work on the trilogy with Amanda and everyone else at Strange Chemistry. It is a dream come true to see my novels on their way to publication.”

Danielle was born and raised in Calgary, Canada. At the insistence of the left side of her brain, she graduated in 2003 from the University of Calgary with a bachelor’s degree in finance.

But the right side of her brain has ever been mutinous; and in 2010, it sent her back to school to complete an entirely impractical English literature degree at Mount Royal University and to pursue publication. Much to her satisfaction, the right side shows no sign of relinquishing its domination.

Danielle can be found on her website danielleljensen.com as well as on Twitter @dljensen_.

Alexandra Arlango, Commissioning Editor – Original Content at AudioGO Ltd in London, has acquired world rights to an original SciFi/Horror novella from award-winning author Sam Stone.

The novella, entitled The Darkness Within, is an exciting and pervasive story set on a spaceship in the far-distant future, and what happens when an alien infection takes hold …

Arlango says about the project: ‘How exciting! I am very pleased to be working with Sam Stone again. Last year AudioGO published her collection of short stories, Zombies In New York And Other Bloody Jottings, and since I came across her work I’ve been a great fan. Not only does she come up with deliciously sinister tales, but the worlds she creates are atmospheric and her characters memorable. They are perfect for audio.

‘I was thrilled to meet Sam earlier this year, and we started talking about other ideas and things that we could work on together. The result? The Darkness Within, an exclusive new novella commissioned by AudioGO. It might well be set in space. And it might well feature new, malevolent life-forms … You’ll have to find out more for yourself. What I can tell you is that I had to stop reading, and look away from the page several times because it was so creepy. This Halloween, things will definitely go bump in the dark!’

AudioGO is the home of BBC Audiobooks and manages all the Doctor Who audio releases among their 10,000 catalogue items. Their clients include books by P D James, J K Rowling, Ruth Rendell and Bernard Cornwall. Their horror catalogue includes work by Bram Stoker, Rachel Caine, M R James, Stephanie Meyer, James Herbert and Fangoria’s Dreadtime Stories. For more information, visit www.audiogo.com/uk/.

Sam Stone’s first novel, Killing Kiss, won the silver award for Best Horror Novel in ForeWord Magazine’s Book of the Year competition, and her subsequent novels and short stories have gained her much acclaim, including winning the British Fantasy Award. Recent works include the novella Zombies at Tiffany’s and the vampire novel Silent Sand, and Killing Kiss was recently sold to Germany. She holds an MA in Creative Writing and is a noted public speaker and lecturer. Sam’s website is at www.sam-stone.com.

Strange Chemistry, the YA imprint of Angry Robot Books, is delighted to announce the signing of M. G. Buehrlen, in a two-book World English Rights deal concluded by Strange Chemistry’s editor Amanda Rutter and Holly Root of the Waxman Leavell Literary Agency.

The first of these two books - The Fifty-Seven Lives of Alex Wayfare - will be published in March 2014, with a second to follow early in 2015.

For as long as 17-year-old Alex Wayfare can remember, she has had visions of the past. Visions that make her feel like she’s really on a ship bound for America, living in Jamestown during the Starving Time, or riding the original Ferris wheel at the World’s Fair.

But these brushes with history pull her from her daily life without warning, sometimes leaving her with strange lasting effects and wounds she can’t explain. Trying to excuse away the after effects has booked her more time in the principal’s office than in any of her classes and a permanent place at the bottom of the social hierarchy. Alex is desperate to find out what her visions mean and get rid of them.

It isn’t until she meets Porter, a stranger who knows more than should be possible about her, that she learns the truth: Her visions aren’t really visions. Alex is a Descender – capable of travelling back in time by accessing Limbo, the space between Life and Afterlife. Alex is one soul with fifty-six past lives, fifty-six histories.

Fifty-six lifetimes to explore: the prospect is irresistible to Alex, especially when the same mysterious boy keeps showing up in each of them. But the more she descends, the more it becomes apparent that someone doesn’t want Alex to travel again. Ever.

And will stop at nothing to make this life her last.

M. G. Buehrlen said: “First off, I want to say thankyouthankyouthankyou to Strange Chemistry and Angry Robot for taking a chance on my risky, twisty book. This team doesn’t shy away from the unknown and unproven, and because of that, they’re breaking molds and boundaries in the YA industry. I’m stoked to take part in some of that rule breaking, because I’ve never been too good at colouring inside the lines. Each Strange Chemistry book I’ve read stretches the limits of speculative fiction in bold ways, and I’m proud to join such a formidable group of authors.”

When she’s not writing about teens who save the world, M. G. moonlights as a web designer and social media marketing buff, and she’s the current mastermind lurking behind the hugely popular website YABooksCentral.com, a social network for YA (and kids!) book lovers.

Places you might find M. G. hiding: in her creaky old house nestled in Michigan pines, sipping coffee on her porch, playing in leaf piles, cooking over camp-fires, and dipping her toes in creek beds.

Feel free to say hello on Twitter and Tumblr.

Strange Chemistry, the YA imprint of Angry Robot Books, is delighted to announce the signing of debut author Sarah Raughley, in a one-book World English Rights deal concluded by Strange Chemistry’s editor Amanda Rutter and Natalie Fischer Lakosil, of the Bradford Literary Agency.

Sarah’s novel, a YA Dark Fantasy tale called Feather Bound, will be published in the Spring of 2014.

When Deanna’s missing friend Hyde turns up at his father’s funeral to claim his corporate empire and inheritance, she is swept into his glittering world of paparazzi and wealth.

But re-kindling her friendship and the dizzying new emotions along for the ride are the least of her concerns. Because Deanna has a secret – and somebody knows. Someone who is out to get Hyde. And if she doesn’t play along, and help the enemy destroy him…she will be sold to the highest bidder in the black market for human swans.

Now Deanna is struggling to break free from the gilded cage that would trap her forever…

Feather Bound is a dark debut reminiscent of Gabriel García Márquez’s A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings, and the twisted truth behind the fairy tale of Cinderella.

Strange Chemistry Editor Amanda Rutter said: “Feather Bound is an incredibly special book – one that has more and more layers the further you read into it. I loved the magical realism, and the folktale elements that Sarah brought to the novel, while the bitchy high society element of the story was utterly authentic. Sarah is a massive talent and I’m delighted that she chose to sign with Strange Chemistry.”

Sarah grew up in Southern Ontario writing stories about freakish little girls with powers because she secretly wanted to be one.

She is a huge fangirl of anything from manga to science fiction/fantasy lit to Japanese Role Playing Games… but if she has to, she will swear up and down that she was inspired by Jane Austen at book signings. She imagines it sounds better than Chrono Trigger.

On top of being a YA writer, she is currently completing a PhD in English, because she communicates via literary narratives, and also the sight of blood makes her queasy (which crossed medical school off the list).

Visit Sarah’s website at sarahraughley.wordpress.com or follow her updates on Twitter (@s_raughley).

Various sources are reporting that Basil Copper, author of horror and mystery fiction, died yesterday aged 89.

His first short story, The Curse, was published when he was just 14 but his first professionally published story was The Spider in the fifth Pan Book of Horror Stories in 1964 when Copper was 40. He went on to publish many more short stories and books including over fifty novels featuring private detective Mike Faraday.

In 2008, Stephen Jones compiled and edited a biographical bibliography titled Basil Copper: A Life in Books which won the British Fantasy Award for Non-Fiction in 2009.

Obituaries from Locus and SF Site can be seen HERE and HERE

Always wanted to keep up to date on Neil Gaiman related news, events, treats and other general shenanigans? Well now you can with the Gaiman Almanac!

Tracking all of Gaiman’s activities in 2013, it also includes the option to load the almanac directly into your Google Calendar so you need never miss another Gaiman related thing!

Angry Robot is delighted to announce the acquisition of the worldwide rights to two epic fantasy novels by James A. Moore, the first of which, Seven Forges, will be published in October.

The deal for Worldwide English rights in books, ebooks and audiobooks was concluded by Angry Robot Managing Director Marc Gascoigne and Donald Morhaim in New York.

The Seven Forges are a range of impassable mountains, far to the north of the settled lands of Fellein. From time to time explorers venture up beyond the Blasted Lands in search of a way over them and the promise of legendary riches, but without success.

Now Captain Merros Dulver has found a path, and encountered, at last, the half-forgotten people who dwell there. And it would appear they were expecting him.

James A. Moore cut his teeth in the industry writing for Marvel Comics and authoring over twenty role-playing supplements for White Wolf Games. He also penned the White Wolf novels Vampire: House of Secrets and Werewolf: Hellstorm. Moore’s first short story collection,Slices, sold out before ever seeing print.

He is currently working on three new novels: Congregations of the Dead, the as-yet unnamed sequel to Seven Forges, and Boom Town, and he recently completed his latest Jonathan Crowley novel, Cherry Hill.  He lives in the suburbs of Atlanta, Georgia.

James said: “I’m absolutely delighted to be working with Angry Robot Books and the amazing team they’ve assembled. They’ve been enthusiastic, caring and attentive, and now that the contracts have been signed I’m happy to report to the entire team that their loved ones will be returned home safely in the very near future, most of them no worse for the wear.”

You can find James online at genrefied.blogspot.com as well as on Twitter @JamesAMoore and Facebook.

Gunter Olschowsky, Commissioning Editor for Verlag Bucheinband lnes Neumann, based in Heidenau in Saxony, has acquired German rights to Sam Stone’s award-winning vampire novel Killing Kiss.

The book was published in the UK by the House of Murky Depths in 2008, and is the first in a series of acclaimed novels collectively known as The Vampire Gene. 

Olschowsky said of this deal: ‘In Germany, vampires are very popular. Customers, and especially young readers, can’t get enough books about them. Sam Stone has specialized very successfully in vampires and has yet to be discovered in Germany. Bucheinband are proud to introduce Sam Stone to the German book market and to offer German fans another “black pearl” author in this genre. Bucheinband believe that Ms Stone will become a valuable asset to every German fantasy book collection.’

‘I’m looking forward immensely to working with Gunter and Bucheinband,’ said Stone. ‘I love Germany, and can’t wait to visit to help promote the title to German readers and fans.’

Bucheinband intend to launch Killing Kiss (German title: KillerKuss) at the Frankfurt Book Fair in the autumn.

Killing Kiss won the silver award for Best Horror Novel in ForeWord Magazine’s Book of the Year competition, and Stone’s subsequent novels and short stories have gained her much acclaim, including winning the British Fantasy Award. She holds an MA in Creative Writing and is a noted public speaker and lecturer. Stone’s website is at www.sam-stone.com.

Author Iain Banks has just released a statement revealing he has late stage gall bladder cancer.

The statement can be seen HERE but is reprinted in full below.

I am officially Very Poorly.

After a couple of surgical procedures, I am gradually recovering from jaundice caused by a blocked bile duct, but that – it turns out – is the least of my problems.

I first thought something might be wrong when I developed a sore back in late January, but put this down to the fact I’d started writing at the beginning of the month and so was crouched over a keyboard all day.  When it hadn’t gone away by mid-February, I went to my GP, who spotted that I had jaundice.  Blood tests, an ultrasound scan and then a CT scan revealed the full extent of the grisly truth by the start of March.

I have cancer.  It started in my gall bladder, has infected both lobes of my liver and probably also my pancreas and some lymph nodes, plus one tumour is massed around a group of major blood vessels in the same volume, effectively ruling out any chance of surgery to remove the tumours either in the short or long term.

The bottom line, now, I’m afraid, is that as a late stage gall bladder cancer patient, I’m expected to live for ‘several months’ and it’s extremely unlikely I’ll live beyond a year.  So it looks like my latest novel, The Quarry, will be my last.

As a result, I’ve withdrawn from all planned public engagements and I’ve asked my partner Adele if she will do me the honour of becoming my widow (sorry – but we find ghoulish humour helps).  By the time this goes out we’ll be married and on a short honeymoon.  We intend to spend however much quality time I have left seeing friends and relations and visiting places that have meant a lot to us.  Meanwhile my heroic publishers are doing all they can to bring the publication date of my new novel forward by as much as four months, to give me a better chance of being around when it hits the shelves.

There is a possibility that it might be worth undergoing a course of chemotherapy to extend the amount of time available.  However that is still something we’re balancing the pros and cons of, and anyway it is out of the question until my jaundice has further and significantly, reduced.

Lastly, I’d like to add that from my GP onwards, the professionalism of the medics involved – and the speed with which the resources of the NHS in Scotland have been deployed – has been exemplary, and the standard of care deeply impressive.   We’re all just sorry the outcome hasn’t been more cheerful.

A website is being set up where friends, family and fans can leave messages for me and check on my progress.  It should be up and running during this week and a link to it will be on my official website at www.iain-banks.net as soon as it’s ready.

Iain Banks

Our thoughts go out to Iain and his family.

AN INTERVIEW WITH PETER V. BRETT

by Elloise Hopkins

Peter V. Brett is the bestselling author of the hugely popular Demon Cycle series. His latest book The Daylight War was released in February by HarperVoyager in the UK and Del Rey in the US. I caught up with him on his UK tour to find out a bit more about the man behind the demons.

You’re on a bit of a whistle stop tour of the UK at the moment. How’s it going so far?

Professionally and personally, the tour has been fantastic. The Daylight War hit #3 on the London Times list, and every stop has had a bookstore filled with readers excited to chat about the books. I love the sight of a full bookstore, and it’s been fantastic to meet many of the people I interact with on social media in the flesh. It’s an odd phenomenon to have so many people I talk to all the time but only know as some avatar and not a person. It’s great to match names and faces to the icons and cybersnark.

Logisitcally, the tour has been more of a challenge. We’ve squeezed in two stops a day, but British Rail seems to have it in for me, leaving us running from place to place, arriving breathless and sweeping out right after the last book is signed. Exciting, but exhausting, too. I was three hours late to my signing in Milton Keynes, though I was able to get the word out about the delay quickly thanks to twitter, and almost all the readers simply went to lunch and came back. I was expecting a crowd with torches and pitchforks when I finally arrived, and was incredibly touched instead to find a cheery crowd happy to see me instead.

Fans have been showing you pictures of their Demon Cycle tattoos, artwork and so on. How does it feel to be confronted with fandom like that?

Amazing, gratifying, and a little frightening. I put a lot of pressure on myself to be worthy of my readers, but they are a pretty incredible bunch, and it ent easy.

The Daylight War is out and doing well having hit number three on the Sunday Times Bestsellers list at the weekend. For those who haven’t read it can you tell us a little bit about book three’s focus.

The Demon Cycle is essentially a series of character studies during a pivotal time for the human race, when it will be decided if humanity will rise again in strength or be driven into extinction by demons that rise each night to ravage the land. There will be five books in the cycle.

The first book, The Painted Man, focuses primarily on the character of Arlen Bales, a young man scarred by a demon attack in his childhood who learns how to fight back against the powerful creatures. Arlen may be destined to Deliver humanity from the demons, or to lead it to its destruction. More than this, the book is about fear, and how it can be both crippling and a real driver for change.

The second book, The Desert Spear, focuses on Ahmann Jardir, who seemed an antagonist in the first book. Having claimed the title of Deliverer of the tribes of the Krasian Desert, Jardir invades Arlen’s homeland to conquer its people and levy them into all-out war against demonkind. Going back in time to Jardir’s childhood, the book tells the story of his rise to power by dint of his own courage and strength, but also the machinations of his wife, Inevera, a mysterious woman part seer and part Lady Macbeth. The book as a whole is an exploration of the other, and how when put in perspective, Jardir believes himself to be—and perhaps is—every much a hero and savior as Arlen.

The third book, The Daylight War, introduces the point of view of Inevera, showing how the foretellings of the alagai hora, dice carved from demon bones with the power of prophecy, have shaped her own life, even as she uses them to shape her husband’s future and that of her dying people. The book focuses on relationships and how people rely on one another for strength in difficult times. It is also about how military invasion forces change on both the invaded and invaded alike, often in unexpected ways.

How does the series so far compare to what you originally envisaged?

In terms of plot, things are right on target, as the individual character arcs drive the larger meta-story of the series forward at the pace I planned. But I have grown and changed as a person and as a writer in the fifteen years since I first started work on it, and that has been reflected in the story in ways I had not anticipated. The series and characters have grown in complexity as my own experiences have broadened.

What’s next for the Demon Cycle?

Book four, The Skull Throne, is plotted in full. I have about 150 pages of stepsheet to begin layering prose over, which will be my primary focus once the tour is over. I hope to finish this book quicker than the last, but am reluctant to give a date for it until I get close to an endpoint.

How do you balance writing with social networking and the other aspects of your life? Any set routine?

As an active parent of a four year old and full time writer, ever day is a little different. Balancing parenting, writing, social media, and the vast clerical, production, and marketing aspects of my career remains something of a work in progress. Early in my career I set a high bar for social interaction with readers online, but as the books grow in popularity, I am being forced to scale back on that, lest it take up my every waking moment. Still, I try to be as accessible as I can, particularly on twitter, where interaction is truncated by design. I steal quiet time to write when I can, sometimes during the day while my daughter is at preschool, but mostly at night, when the dinging of my inbox slows and the house is quiet.

How much has your success changed your life and your outlook?

The day to day of my life has changed drastically since I became self-employed, but I don’t know that my outlook is all that different. My priorities are the same as they’ve always been, And the success of the series has only increased the pressure to continue delivering my very best work to the readers who have made it possible.

There was a great little book trailer produced for The Daylight War. How much input do you have into things like that?

Quite a lot, actually. This time around, at least. With each successive book my input has increased with marketing elements, which is great. I have a background in PR, marketing, and print production, and these are all elements I like to work with my publishers on to help ensure that things stay on brand and that we deliver the highest quality materials possible to our audiences.

Also out at the moment is Red Sonja. Can you tell us a bit about that project and how you got involved in it?

Red Sonja was created as a spin-off book from The Chronicles of Conan, a Marvel comic book series produced primarily in the 70’s and 80’s. I was a big comics fan back then, and read both books, along with dozens if not hundreds of others. But while most of the other books I read were about superheroes, Conan and Sonja were fantasy, which was ever where my heart lay.

Sonja is best known as the quintessential warrior woman in a chainmail bikini, which is how she got her start, but in the 80′s, the creative team of Louise Simonson and Mary Wilshire reimagined the character, placing her in a blue fur tunic more reminiscent of the fur loincloth often associated with Conan. That was the series that first introduced me to the character, and I was a big fan up until the book was cancelled due around issue 13. The property then languished for over a decade before Dynamite Comics picked it up and with writer Michael Avon Oeming and artist Mel Rubi, breathed new life into the character, returning her to her iconic metal swimwear and producing a high quality book.

I met the team from Dynamite Comics at Book Expo America, and while discussing graphic novels and comics in general with President Nick Barrucci, I apparently really impressed him with my knowledge of Sonja and her history. A week later he quite unexpectedly offered me the chance to write a short run on the series. I agreed, but proposed doing something a little different, having a wardrobe malfunction force Sonja to doff her steel bikini and don the skin of a blue-furred demon, recreating the character as I most fondly remembered her.

This story was released as the 36 page one-shot Red Sonja: Blue, illustrated by the amazing Walter Geovani. After the success of that book, Dynamite allowed me to continue the story. Red Sonja: Unchained is a four issue limited series that picks up where Blue left off (though they can be read independently). It is illustrated by the great Jack Jadson, with covers by Walter Geovani and Mel Rubi. The first issue is on sale now.

Any plans for a Demon Cycle graphic novel, and if so how much creative input would you retain?

There have been talks about it. I retain the rights at the moment, so I can license the project if I choose, but I don’t know that I trust anyone other than me to write it, and I don’t want to take my focus off the novels for too long until the series is done. Comics are near and dear to me, so I don’t think I would license the work for graphic novels unless I retained some control, or had a creative team I really trusted.

Going back to The Painted Man, some of the characters, Rojer particularly, were very young at the beginning. How much consideration did you give to the fact you were writing from children’s’ points of view and that you would then need to grow those children into adults? How difficult was that to manage?

I gave it a great deal of consideration. Rojer begins at three years old, and fortunately, I knew a few children that age and could study a bit what they were and weren’t capable. Rojer was not able to be a very active participant at that age, but three year olds see everything, and understand more than we give them credit for, so he was perfect as a witness. Each of the characters in the first book is scarred, either physically or emotionally (in Rojer’s case, both) by a demon encounter in their childhood. These encounters drive the protagonists’ lives onto new paths that lead them to challenge the status quo of their world.

Have any of your characters been particularly challenging or awkward to write?

All of them, at some point or other.

Have you given any thought to the future beyond the Demon Cycle and what else you may want to work on?

The beauty of the world I’ve created is that there is considerable room to continue telling stories there even after I bring the main series to a close. I have one standalone book planned already, using the characters from Arlen’s home town, Tibbet’s Brook. I have notes for some others as well, but it may be that after I finish out my contract I’ll want to do something totally new. We’ll see when the time comes.

Thank you for taking the time to talk to us and we hope to see you back in the UK sometime. Enjoy the rest of the tour.

Thank you so much! It was great talking to you.