John Jarrold

Author Dani Raanan has joined the John Jarrold Literary Agency.

Her debut adult fantasy novel is THE CRAFTER’S WIFE, which will appeal to fans of SPINNING SILVER by Naomi Novik and THE SNOW SONG by Sally Gardner. It is inspired by the rich mythology of her Jewish culture.

24-year-old Shosha is married off by her witch-hunter father and a magic-fearing king to a man she knows by reputation only: the mysterious, arrogant Crafter. Long suspected of conducting illicit magical arts, the Crafter has many secrets the king wishes to employ. Shosha is tasked with uncovering these secrets, for she has a talent of her own: the ability to ‘sense’ magic – its flavour, its scent, its essence. If she fails, her family will surely face the block – but her success will come at the cost of her husband, whose head will hang from the palace gates. She and the Crafter begin a life of deception, a game of cat-and-mouse, each fighting for survival at the expense of the other and – against their wills – gradually getting to know each other. All the while watched by the Crafter’s animated collection of humanoids: his living, breathing army of golems.
THE CRAFTER’S WIFE is a standalone manuscript that encompasses the author’s love of science with her fascination with magic and Jewish mythology – primarily, with golems. Dani works as an editorial assistant for a science journal and lives under the tyrannical rule of a large cat in Leeds with her husband and two children.

John Jarrold said: “The wit, imagination and wonderful characters drew me in immediately, as did the truly outstanding feel for setting. There’s peril, romance and dark dealings. And the use of magic fascinates me. Welcome, Dani!”

Don D’Auria of Flame Tree Press has acquired World English rights in THE INCUBATIONS, the new novel by doyen of horror writers, Ramsey Campbell. The book will be published in 2024. The agent was John Jarrold.

The English town of Settlesham was twinned with Alphafen in Germany after the Second World War. Leo Parker has corresponded with Hanna Weber since their teens but has never previously visited her. His stay in Alphafen seems idyllic, but after he leaves the town the nightmares begin—an airport turns into a labyrinth, his own words become treacherous if not lethal, a family meal grows unnaturally active, and what are those creatures in the photographs he took? Perhaps he’s roused the source of an ancient Alpine legend. Even once he understands what he brought back, worse is to come…

Flame Tree have published Ramsey’s most recent novels, THE LONELY LANDS, FELLSTONES, THE WISE FRIEND and SOMEBODY’S VOICE, as well as a number of his backlist titles.

Ramsey Campbell is the only living horror writer to appear in the Oxford Companion to English Literature. He was awarded an Honorary Fellowship of Liverpool John Moores University in 2015.

Film-maker, screenwriter, producer and novelist Guillermo del Toro has tweeted about Ramsey Campbell: “An absolute master of modern horror. And a damn fine writer at that.”

Dobrovsky publishers have acquired Czech rights to the first two volumes of The Bound and The Broken fantasy series, which has sold over 150,000 copies so far, by bestselling self-published author Ryan Cahill: OF BLOOD AND FIRE and OF DARKNESS AND LIGHT. The books will be published on their fantasy/SF imprint Fobos. Among their authors already published there are Dan Simmons, Mary Robinette Kowal, John Langan, Graham Masterton, Darcy Coates, J. S. Dewes, Gene Wolfe, Dean Koontz, Robert R. McCammon, Robert Bloch and many others. The agent was Laura Karayotov of the SAS Lester Literary Agency & Associates representing the John Jarrold Literary Agency.

Born in fire. Tempered in blood.

Epheria is a land divided by war and mistrust. The High Lords of the South squabble and fight, only kept in check by the Dragonguard, traitors of a time long past, who serve the empire of the North.

In the remote villages of southern Epheria, still reeling from the tragic loss of his brother, Calen Bryer prepares for The Proving – a test of courage and skill that not all survive.

But when three strangers arrive in the village of Milltown, with a secret they are willing to die for, Calen’s world is ripped from under him and he is thrust headfirst into a war that has been raging for centuries.

There is no prophecy. His coming was not foretold.

He bleeds like any man, and bleed he will.

“Might be the 21st Century’s own Tolkien or Robert Jordan” – Mike Shackle, author of the LAST WAR series

“A triumph of a debut” – FANFI ADDICT

“Impressive, enthralling and breathtaking” – LIBRARYOFAVIKING

“A truly stunning debut” – Zack Argyle, author of the THREADLIGHT series

I’m really delighted to share this:  The winner of the British Fantasy Award for Best Short Fiction is Morta by James Bennett (in The Book of Queer Saints, Medusa Publishing Haus).

I could not be happier for James, a wonderful writer – and this is an outstanding story!

Epic Publishing in the US has acquired English Language rights to RABBIT IN THE MOON, a previously unpublished 2018 science fiction novel by Fiona Moore. The agent was John Jarrold.

Ken Usagi, a young journalist from Nunavut, finds himself travelling south through a war-torn former United States after a terrifying encounter with a biotechnical machine that he remembers from his childhood, which might hold the key to ending the war. Meanwhile Totchli, a young biotechnician from a Mesoamerican society under threat from catastrophic climate change, is ordered to travel north to find out what happened to a colonial expedition on which everyone’s hopes for survival were pinned– but whose members have gone silent after an apparent descent into madness.  As the two journeys approach each other, realities merge and cracks appear in the logic of both worlds. When Usagi and Totchli meet, will they shape a new universe, or destroy civilization for all time?

Dr Fiona Moore is a Canadian academic, writer and critic based in London. A graduate of the University of Toronto and the University of Oxford, she is Chair of Business Anthropology at Royal Holloway, University of London. Her work has appeared in Clarkesworld, Asimov’s, Cossmass Infinities, and five consecutive editions of The Best of British SF. She has  been a BSFA Award finalist three times and has published one novel, Driving Ambition (with Bundoran Press), three stage plays, four audio plays, a number of guidebooks to cult television series, and the nonfiction crossover Management Lessons from Game of Thrones – which has been shortlisted for the World Fantasy Award  She is also a regular contributor to Galactic Journey, a multi-Hugo-nominated blog dedicated to the science fiction of the 1950s and 1960s.

Her new novel, Captain Artemis and the Martian Undead, will soon be submitted to major publishers on both sides of the Atlantic.