The third instalment in this enthralling epic fantasy series, from the author of the critically acclaimed Long Price Quartet.
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An explosive fantasy debut from a rising star in the genre.
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- - November 26th, 2012
RT Book Reviews has revealed the full set of nominees for the 2012 Reviewer’s Choice Awards, and a number of Orbit books are among them. Congratulations to all the nominees!
- - October 9th, 2012
Orbit is going to New York Comic Con! We’ll be in the Hachette booth, #1027, with giveaways, raffles, and several author events, so be sure to stop by if you’re in town. Here’s the schedule of events:
Friday, October 12
1 PM: Kate Locke signing GOD SAVE THE QUEEN @ booth 1027
4 PM: Nicole Peeler signing TEMPEST’S FURY and TEMPEST RISING @ booth 1027
4 PM: Senior editor Devi Pillai will be on the panel “Publisher’s Paradise: Adult Publisher Spotlight” in Rm. 1A06
Saturday, October 13
12:15 PM: Nicole Peeler will be on the panel “Myth Mixology: How Urban Fantasists Create the Perfect Cocktail” in Rm. 1A08
1:30 PM: Creative director Lauren Panepinto will be on the panel “Ladies Who Steam: The Publishing Industry on Women in Steampunk” in Rm. 1A01
Sunday, October 14
11 AM: Michael J. Sullivan will be signing THEFT OF SWORDS @ booth 1027
4 PM: Michael J. Sullivan will be on the panel “The Brave New World of E-Book Publishing” in Rm. 1A07
We’ll also be running raffles every day of the convention, with prizes including books by Gail Carriger, Joe Abercrombie, Iain M. Banks, and Rachel Aaron. See you there!
- - October 4th, 2012
October 4-7: Jaye Wells and Nicole Peeler at Bouchercon, Cleveland, OH
Friday, October 5: N.K. Jemisin at Parnassus Books, Nashville, TN, 6:30 PM
October 11-14: Kate Elliott at Sirens, Stevenson, WA
October 12-14: Rachel Neumeier at Archon, St. Louis, MO
October 19-20: Amanda Carlson at Florida Writers Association Annual Conference, Orlando, FL
Stay tuned for information about what Orbit will be up to at New York Comic Con this year!
- - August 3rd, 2012
Sunday, August 5
T.C. McCarthy and Michael J. Sullivan at Flyleaf Books, Chapel Hill, NC, 2 PM
August 8 – 12
Nicole Peeler, Kristen Painter, Jaye Wells, and Amanda Carlson at Authors After Dark, New Orleans, LA
August 17
The Orbit team will be attending Blackwells’ High Fantasy Night, and, because he’s in London on a rare visit from Australia, Ian Irvine will be signing books at the event!
August 24 – 27
Simon Morden at the Greenbelt Festival, Gloucestershire, UK
August 31 – September 2
A number of Orbit authors will be attending either Chicon and DragonCon over Labor Day weekend!
by - July 5th, 2012
UK & ANZ cover
Nicole Peeler‘s Tempest Fury (UK | US | ANZ) is out now. It’s book five in her Jane True series (which starts with Tempest Rising – UK | US | ANZ) and to celebrate, here’s a guest post from Nicole on the inspiration for the series . . .
For me, it was a no brainer to make my protagonist, Jane, a selkie. Although it’s a relatively obscure mythology to some, and I only learned of it as a teenager, it’s the perfect inspiration for fiction.
For those of you who don’t know the selkie mythos, I blogged about it ages ago, with the help of a story from the Heritage of Orkney site. Basically, all the stories of selkie maidens are similar: man finds (or steals) a random seal skin left on the beach, woman shows up that night and they marry, many babies are born. Years pass, until the day one of the children finds the skin, and gives it to mom. Despite her love for her human family, the lure of the sea and her sea husband are stronger, and off she goes.
US cover
Sometimes she takes her children with her, and sometimes she doesn’t.
As a teenager, so many aspects of this myth affected me: the idea of a woman who could be trapped so easily; the idea of a person torn between two worlds; the idea of having something so important that other loves are swept aside for that one thing. But it was the children that really struck my fancy. What about the ones taken to sea? Did they miss their human life? Even more intriguing, however, were the ones left behind. What happened to them, cut off as they were from the magic that was half their heritage?
The resonance of the selkie mythology stuck with me. So when it came to write my own story, and my first thought was to write an anti-heroine, my next thought was almost instantaneous – “and she can be half-selkie.” It was like my intellectual curiosity had come full circle – I’d always wondered what happened to those children, and now I got to explore the possibilities in my own writing. And that opportunity for exploration is what I try to bring to my fiction – I’m curious about the world I’ve created, and I try to convey that curiosity to my readers.
So if you’re an aspiring writer, try to do something similar. Write what you love, what you’re interested in, what’s always made you think. You’ll find so much passion for your subject, at the same time you get to scratch an intellectual itch. And everyone enjoys a good scratch.
- - June 28th, 2012
Orbit will be at San Diego Comic-Con this year! Watch this space for details.
July 7
Rachel Aaron at Barnes & Noble, Forest Drive, Columbia, SC, 7:00 PM
July 12-15
James S.A. Corey (Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck) at ReaderCon, Burlington, MA
July 13
Kate Locke (with Eli August) at the Way Station, Brooklyn, NY
July 25-28
Nicole Peeler at RWA Annual Conference, Anaheim, CA
July 27-29
Mira Grant (Seanan McGuire) will be Guest of Honor at Confluence, Pittsburgh, PA
Robert Jackson Bennett at ArmadilloCon, Austin, TX
July 28
Kate Elliott (with Lynn Flewelling) at Mysterious Galaxy, Redondo Beach, CA, 2:30 PM
- - June 18th, 2012
TEMPEST’S FURY (US | UK | AUS) is the perfect name for this awesome new novel by Nicole Peeler. Jane True comes into her own as the champion and it has the trademark quirkiness, humor and the zaniness that only Nicole can bring to urban fantasy. People have been comparing her for years to Charlaine Harris and with her newest covers, I think she’s too fabulous to miss.
Jane’s not happy. She’s been packed off to England to fight in a war when she’d much rather be snogging Anyan. Unfortunately, Jane’s enemies have been busy stirring up some major trouble — the kind that attracts a lot of attention. In other words, they’re not making it easy for Jane to get any alone time with the barghest, or to indulge in her penchant for stinky cheese.
Praying she can pull off a Joan of Arc without the whole martyrdom thing, Jane must lead Alfar and halflings alike in a desperate battle to combat an ancient evil. Catapulted into the role of Most Unlikely Hero Ever, Jane also has to fight her own insecurities as well as the doubts of those who don’t think she can live up to her new role as Champion.
Along the way, Jane learns that some heroes are born. Some are made. And some are bribed with promises of food and sex.
- - April 4th, 2012
Going to the RT Booklovers Convention? If so, you’ll run into some Orbit authors: Nicole Peeler, Kristen Painter, and Jaye Wells will be there, as well as new Orbit authors Amanda Carlson (whose Full Blooded [US | UK ] will be out in September) and Kate Locke (whose God Save the Queen [US | UK | ANZ] hits stores in August)! It runs April 11-15th in Rosemont, IL.
Speaking of conventions, you’ll find Nicole Peeler at Malice Domestic, and Jaye Wells at the North Texas Writers Conference. Both run April 27-29th.
Also, Gail Carriger will be touring across Europe this month! Her UK tour runs from April 8-14th, and then she’ll hit Stockholm, Budapest, and Barcelona. More details available at Gail’s website.
Sunday 8th April: EasterCon, Heathrow ~ panels: Meet the new king (same as the old king) ~ 11am, Room 12 | You got your robot elf sex in my SF ~ 3pm, Commonwealth | Multicultural steampunk ~ 9pm, Room 38
Monday 9th April: Foyles, Shaftesbury Avenue, London, 6.30pm ~ In association with Pornokitsch, a steampunk soirée with special guests at Foyles bookshop in Central London.
Friday 13th April: Steampunk Night at Waterstones, Nottingham ~ To commence at 6.30pm with Pimm’s & cake for a 7pm start. Special guest Jema Hewitt (author of Steampunk Emporium) and friends will be frequenting the event in full costume.
And finally, in the UK, EasterCon is this weekend, 6th to 9th April, at Heathrow, with Guest of Honour Tricia Sullivan; and Alt.Fiction is the following weekend, 14th and 15th April, in Leicester, with special guest Ken MacLeod.
- - August 17th, 2011
Released this month in the UK, Australia and NZ are Tempest Rising (UK│ANZ) and Tracking the Tempest (UK│ANZ) - with a spangly new cover style. They’re books one and two in Nicole Peeler‘s sexy storm of a series, the Jane True novels. Books three and four, Tempest’s Legacy (UK│ANZ) and Eye of the Tempest (UK│ANZ), will follow hot on their heels this September and October respectively. So not long to wait to get your urban-fantasy-grabbing mitts on them!
Two weeks ago we ran a Twitter competition for UK readers to vote for their favourite of the above four covers. The result was Tempest Rising - good news as it’s the perfect place to dive into the world of supernatural halfling Jane True. You’ll see her coming to grips with her new-found powers over water (not to mention coming to grips with the rather dashing members of the supernatural community she meets for the first time…). The winner of the competition was Julie Fallon - congrats! Copies of the first four books will be winging (or more appropriately: swimming?) their way to you soon.
- - July 5th, 2011
Here in the UK, Nicole Peeler’s Jane True series has got a brand new look – and I’m very excited to now be able to unveil it.
Presenting the first 4 covers for the series, designed by the talented illustrator Mark Swan:
Tempest Rising and Tracking the Tempest will be re-released in this brand new style this coming August. Then hot on their heels, Tempest’s Legacy will be released in September, followed by Eye of the Tempest in October. So Nicole Peeler will truly be making a splash in the UK this summer!
And if you haven’t discovered The Jane True series yet, here’s what people have been saying about it:
‘Peeler packs a hell of a punch with writing that is bold, bawdy, and bright, and breaks the usual paranormal boundaries with sensitivity and style to burn. I can’t wait for the next one!’ Kat Richardson
‘A new star is rising in the urban fantasy world. With her Jane True character, Peeler launches a first-person series that’s an exciting journey of self-discovery and murder mystery . . . A notable debut’ Romantic Times
‘A fascinating, fast-paced sexy storm of a book’ Rachel Caine
‘Peeler’s Jane True series is one that readers will want to see through to the end’ Impact
Look below for the covers in their full glory:
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