John Jarrold

SF/F writer Jonny Nexus has joined the John Jarrold Literary Agency. He was born and raised in London but now finds himself exiled by way of marriage to a small town on the outskirts of Greater Manchester. Several years in he’s starting to feel at home, but that might just be delayed Stockholm Syndrome.

He first came to non-quite-prominence in the late 90s with the cult pen-and-paper RPG Webzine Critical Miss, following that up in the early 00s with a monthly RPG humour magazine column in Mongoose Publishing’s house magazine, Signs & Portents. Having written the parody Slayers Guide to Games Masters for them, he followed that up by self-publishing Game Night, a novel of six very dysfunctional Greek-style gods playing a roleplaying game, very badly, with the mortal realm below.

In the years since, he’s self-published three further novels. If Pigs Could Fly and Sticks and Stones tell the story of Rav Shah, a moonlighting social worker turned paranormal detective. In The Sleeping Dragon, five misfits are tasked with saving a fantasy world transformed by the invention of mass-produced magic.

He also had a short story, On Her Majesty’s Deep Space Service, published by Stone Skin Press in their anthology, the New Hero.

 
John Jarrold said: “Jonny is both prolific and fascinating. We are discussing several varied projects and I’ll be talking to major publishers on both sides of the Atlantic soon.”

Andrey V Chernikov at Eksmo has acquired Russian rights to fantasy novels GRIM SOLACE and BREAKING CHAOS by award-winning self-published author Ben Galley, after their rights deal for the first book in the series, CHASING GRAVES, in 2022. The agent was Laura Karayotov of the SAS Lester Literary Agency & Associates representing the John Jarrold Literary Agency.

This bestselling series is set in an Egyptian-themed fantasy world where ghosts are bound as slaves for the rich, and being murdered is just the start of your problems. Chasing Graves is perfect for fans of grimdark, and dark fantasy mixed with razor wit.

PRAISE FOR THE CHASING GRAVES SERIES:

“The world building is fantastic and reminiscent of Michael Moorcock’s Elric series.”
– Grimdark Magazine

“Chasing Graves might well be one of the best releases not only for December but for the entirety of 2018.”
– BookNest

“Unique, fantastic worldbuilding, interesting characters, and much more.”
– The Fantasy Inn

“Dark, tense and surprisingly hilarious.”
– Laura M. Hughes, Author of Danse Macabre

“Grim Solace is a wonderfully realized story dominated by impeccable and deepening character development.”
– Justine Bergman

“This book swings for the fences with a potent mix of political backstabbing, religious symbology, and tense action.”
– Fantasy Book Review

“Galley’s descriptive prose is simplistically beautiful.”
– Fantasy Faction

“There’s serious grounds here for building something spectacular.”
– Emma Davis, Fantasy Book Review

“Dark, gory and enthralling.”
– Cultured Vultures

“The writing was smooth, fluid and beautiful at times. It never failed to create an awesome atmosphere.”
– The Weatherwax Report

 
“An excellent first book in a series that I will absolutely keep on reading. Exceptional writing, great characters.”
– Nicholas Eames, author of Kings of the Wyld

George Sandison of Titan Books has acquired World English Rights for two new works from Dr. Cyberpunk himself, Australian author T. R. Napper. His second novel, The Escher Man, and a new (untitled) novella. The agent was John Jarrold.

In The Escher Man, one man peels back the layers of implanted memories to save his family in this taut, explosive and thrilling high-concept SF novel. Perfect for fans of William Gibson’s The Peripheral, the classic film Total Recall, Ursula Le Guin’s The Lathe of Heaven, and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Endel ‘Endgame’ Ebbinghaus is a violent man, a street-level enforcer for a drug cartel. Or is he? In The Escher Man, nothing is as it seems. Friends, enemies, the past and the present, all become blurred in a world where memory manipulation has become the weapon of choice for powerful corporations.

From the gaudy, glittering demimonde of Macau, to the war-torn, steaming streets of northern Vietnam, Endel must fight to save his family, his life, and the fading memory of the man he once was.

Set five years after the events of T. R. Napper’s debut, 36 Streets, this stand-alone novel offers new readers a thrilling ride, while giving returning fans some familiar faces and an expanded universe. A reader can absolutely come to this without having read 36 Streets, but someone who has read it and wants more will also get their wish.

Praise for 36 Streets:

“Raw and raging and passionate. This is cyberpunk literature with a capital fucken L. Get it while it’s hot.” – Richard Morgan, author of Altered Carbon

“Quintessential cyberpunk, hard-nosed, sharp edged and gleaming.”—Adrian Tchaikovsky, award-winning author of ‘Children of Time’

“[36 Streets] has things both novel and serious to say about the psychological effects of intrusive media. This is a kick-the-door-down account of how past traumas — personal and national — may one day be weaponised for social control.”—The Sunday Times

“Brutal, brooding, brilliant . . . an angry vision of violence wrapped around a complex meditation of memory, trauma and hegemony. This is cyberpunk with soul.” Yudhanjaya Wijeratne, author of The Salvage Crew

“Not since Bacigalupi’s The Windup Girl have I been so utterly enthralled by a science fiction novel. 36 Streets is a cyberpunk tour de force – richly textured, nuanced, and shot-through with emotional depth. I could practically feel the sweaty, grimy, bloody, tropical heat oozing from the pages. One of the standouts of the year.”—Richard Swan, author of The Justice of Kings

“High-octane, immersive SF at its best. 36 Streets is sure become a classic in the field.” Kaaron Warren, Shirley Jackson Award-Winner

“Napper has made a remarkable character in the form of his protagonist Lin Thi Vu, subverting to some degree the conventions of the world of male power and violence. It’s a great achievement. The set pieces, the interludes, of performed mastery with weapons and skill, are well poised and set the scene with ritualised violence.” Stephen Teo, author of Chinese Martial Arts Cinema: The Wuxia Tradition

“An engrossing, intriguing action-packed duty tour of a tech-thick, violence-infused, neon-scorched near future gangland Vietnam, where unwinnable games run hot and wild. Highly recommended.” Cat Sparks, author of Lotus Blue

“Beautiful, shimmering, ghostly science fiction.” Anna Smith-Spark, author of Empires of Dust

T R Napper’s new (untitled) novella is a thrilling, propulsive story of escape as two small-time crooks go on the run to save an AI in its infancy. Johnny Mnemonic meets Mad Max in this fast-paced, gritty, and deeply human story that spans the breadth of the Australian continent, and explores the depths of its dark heart.

T. R. Napper is a multi-award-winning science fiction author. His short fiction has appeared in Asimov’s, Interzone, the Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, and numerous others, and been translated into Hebrew, German, French, and Vietnamese.

Before turning to writing, T. R. Napper was a diplomat and aid worker, delivering humanitarian programs in Southeast Asia for a decade. During this period, he received a commendation from the Government of Laos for his work with the poor. He also was a resident of the Old Quarter in Ha Noi for several years, the setting for his debut novel, 36 Streets.

 
These days he has returned to his home country of Australia, where he works as a Dungeon Master, running campaigns for young people with autism for a local charity.

 
In 2020 he won the Aurealis Award for Best Science Fiction Novella. “The Weight of the Air, the Weight of the World,” and the ACT Notable Awards Fiction Category for “Neon Leviathan.” In 2017 he won the Aurealis Award for Best Short Story for “Flame Trees”, (Asimov’s Science Fiction, April/May 2016; and another of his stories “A Strange Loop” (Interzone, January/February 2016) was included in Neil Clarke’s Best Science Fiction of the Year.

Napper was awarded a creative writing doctorate in 2019 for his thesis The Dark Century: 1946 – 2046. Noir, Cyberpunk, and Asian Modernity.

Bestselling novelist Richard Morgan has been fulsome in his praise of Napper’s debut short fiction collection, Neon Leviathan (2020):

“Haunting and iridescent – combines the paranoid weirdness of the best Philip K Dick, the chilly but cool-as-fuck future gleam of cyberpunk, and an achingly beautiful literary inflection reminiscent of mainstream heavyweights like Murakami or Ishiguro. T. R. Napper’s futures feel at once gritty and vertiginous and close-focus human in the way only the best SF can manage. Whatever roadmap he’s working from, I can’t wait to see where he’s taking us next.”

Steve Berman at acclaimed gay publisher Lethe Press has acquired World English rights in a new collection by UK fantasy author James Bennett, PREACHING TO THE PERVERTED.  The agent was John Jarrold.

The collection features thirteen weird, thrilling and fantastical stories, each one drawn from gay lived experience. Within these pages you’ll find a range of scenarios both romantic and grotesque, from the coming out of a ravenous inter-dimensional alien to meddling fairies to a gruesome fairy tale retelling to demonically possessed witch-hunters to queer folk horror to Lovecraftian transgender adventure to an ageing queen in a Satanic pact to fallen angels in love at the end of the world and other erotically charged and haunted tales in-between.

Each story comes from the heart, throbbing with the darkest, most visceral and juicy gay energy.

Reviews:

‘Bennett’s story is a Kafkaesque coming-of-age, the mood of which vacillates between predatory and paranoid, and its conclusion is simply delicious.’

Ginger Nuts of Horror on ‘Morta’ – The Book of Queer Saints

‘There is a touch of humour and humanity in the story… Smart, funny and human – Lovecraft would have hated it and that’s even better!’

Run Along the Shelves on ‘Morta’ – The Book of Queer Saints

‘Brutal and striking… and sported hands-down the greatest opening line I’ve ever read in my life.’

Bloody Bedroom on ‘Morta’ – The Book of Queer Saints

‘Bennett’s prose is gripping and the story wonderfully dark and unsavoury in the best of ways.’

Looking for a Rabbit Hole on ‘In Hades, He Lifted Up His Eyes’ – The Dark Magazine

‘A great mix of emotional exploration… it descends quickly into some Iberian folk horror for a powerful finale.’

Run Along the Shelves on ‘Ídolo’ – The Dark Magazine

‘‘End Times in Paris’… has got Bennett’s typically sharp eye, an absolutely killer ending and a heart of gold.’

The Full Lid on ‘End Times in Paris’ – The Fox Spirit Book of Love

‘My favourite tale in the collection… Beautiful romantic imagery in a landscape we are familiar with. The catastrophe and emotional punches really well delivered.’

Run Along the Shelves on ‘End Times in Paris’ – The Fox Spirit Book of Love

‘Changeling’ came third in the British Fantasy Society’s short story competition 2021 and appeared in BFS Horizons magazine in August 2022.

‘Ídolo’ was shortlisted for a Brave New Weird Award 2022

James Bennett is a British writer raised in Sussex and South Africa. His travels have furnished him with an abiding love of diverse cultures, history and mythology. His short fiction has appeared internationally and his debut novel ‘Chasing Embers’ was shortlisted for Best Newcomer at the British Fantasy Awards 2017 – it is the first book in the Ben Garston Fantasy series, published in the UK and US by Orbit Books. His latest fiction can be found in the well-received ‘The Book of Queer Saints’, BFS Horizons and The Dark magazine.

James lives in Spain where he’s currently working on a new Fantasy novel.

Founded in 2001 Lethe Press is one of the oldest gay publishers in America and specializes in queer speculative fiction. Numerous Lethe Press titles have been finalists for, or won, such awards as the Bram Stoker, Golden Crown, Lambda Literary, and Shirley Jackson awards.

Ian Whates, publisher of NewCon Press, has acquired World English Rights in ROWANY DE VERE AND A FAIR DEGREE OF FROST, a novella by Chaz Brenchley set in his long-running Mars Imperial series.  The agent was John Jarrold.

Rowany de Vere: late of the Crater School, where she was a legendary Head Girl; recently graduated both from Oxford and from several unpublicised and unexpected schools across two worlds; home on Mars, working for an unnamed department of the Colonial Service. Some people call her a spy, or a spy-hunter, though she prefers “political agent”. None of those labels is sufficient to contain her, for she is sui generis.

This is the tale of her first independent mission, where she is tasked to extract a Russian defector from a disreputable hotel in Marsport. He is almost certainly under surveillance by the Okhrana, the Tsar’s infamous secret service; nevertheless, Rowany is tolerably confident that she can manage this. As, clearly, are her masters; why else would they have sent her in alone…?

Chaz Brenchley has been making a living as a writer since he was eighteen. He is the author of over five hundred short stories in various genres, nine thrillers, three fantasy series, and two urban fantasy series.

A British Fantasy Award winner, he has also published books for children. His time as crimewriter-in-residence on a sculpture project in Sunderland resulted in the collection BLOOD WATERS. His first play, A Cold Coming, was performed and then toured in 2007. He is a prizewinning ex-poet, and has been writer in residence at the University of Northumbria. He was Northern Writer of the Year 2000.

Chaz spent his childhood in Oxford, his adulthood in Newcastle, and now lives in California with his wife Karen, one troublesome cat, a turtle and a famous teddy bear.