Comments Off on I’m pleased to announce ENVY OF ANGELS coming October 20th, 2015 from Tor.com!

Big news today, folks. You might recall back in February I announced I’ve signed for two books in a new original urban fantasy series with Tor.com’s innovative novella project.

Well, today I am pleased to announce that the debut book in the series, ENVY OF ANGELS, will be released on October 20^th, 2015!

This is a big deal, folks. I have neither the time nor the inclination to be humble about it. This is a big new thing Tor.com is doing. They’re putting a LOT behind this project, giving authors a new and better deal and testing the limits of the digital market with the model they’re putting forth, and I’m being given a shot to run with it. I really need your help to make this thing a success. Because if it isn’t, that will probably be it for novellas on this scale and at this level of publishing for a long while.

That would really be a shame, especially for the other Tor.com novella authors like myself who have so, so many wonders to share with you.

I mean that.

ENVY OF ANGELS is the first entry in my A SIN DU JOUR AFFAIR series, and after months and months of hinting around about it on Twitter I’m jazzed to finally be able to tell you what I’ve cooked up here (no pun intended. I swear. Well. Maybe a small pun. Let me have it, I’m excited).

The series follows Lena Tarr and Darren Vargas, two young New York line cooks and best friends, who find themselves fired from a high-end Manhattan restaurant and blackballed from the industry after a scandal not of their making. On the brink of eviction and staring down the barrel of having to leave New York, they’re suddenly offered temporary positions at Sin du Jour, a small private catering company located in Long Island City that’s run by a notorious ex-celebrity chef.

Lena and Darren quickly realize Sin du Jour isn’t like any other kitchen in which they’ve worked, nor is it staffed by anything resembling typical culinary professionals. They soon discover the company has but a single client. That client is the branch of the government that deals with the world of the supernatural secretly co-existing with our own. Sin du Jour caters the highest level events of demons, goblins, and creatures that defy easy classification. It’s a world where talented chefs work alongside alchemists and magic-users to create amazing otherworldly dishes, where being a server or a bus boy is a mortal occupation undertaken by extreme sport adrenaline junkies and the terminally ill, where rather than hitting the local farmer’s market every morning for produce the steward leads a team of elite covert operatives who risk life and limb battling magic and monsters to obtain the rarest supernatural ingredients.

You should be able to read a little more about the series and characters next week on Tor.com when they’ll have a feature up about me and the series.

It’s a HELL of a ride, folks. Seriously. I am having more fun with this one than I think I’ve had writing anything. And in my career up to this point I have written just about everything. This series is funny and irreverent and dark and filled with action all at the same time. Whether you’re a lover of gritty fantasy or fantasy humor, a foodie or a thriller fan, you will find something to dig about these stories.

I have no less than seven books planned for the series, each based around a cardinal sin (or the “seven deadly sins” as they’ve come to be known). And although each book is its own standalone story, centered around an event catered by Sin du Jour, there is a continuous plot and an arc for all the major players that will play out over the course of the series. And it’s some epic good vs. evil shit. Trust.

As I’ve said, I’m signed with Tor.com for two books. Whether or not you read the rest of them is entirely up to you folks.

Entirely.

Up.

To.

You.

I cannot stress that enough.

I hit on this over on Tor.com, but I want to elaborate on something here. Most mainstream publishers and authors view novellas as ancillary content. A novella is something you set in the world of your traditionally published novels and then self-publish to grab some extra cash from your existing readership. And while that’s a great utilization and I say rock on to them, that’s just scraping the surface of what the form can be.

My novellas are NOT ancillary to anything. They are not little stories. They are books. And I want you to start thinking of novellas that way. As books. I designed and wrote this series specifically for this form and format. It’s not something I truncated or adapted to be shorter. It’s the full expression of an idea and a story, and it’s every bit as satisfying and full as any novel. This is a novella series I desperately wanted to create, and I am utterly fortunate and privileged to be doing it with Tor.com.

We want to offer you both a new reading experience and an introduction to a classic reading experience. There’s already a big audience hip to this, but the mass audience has yet to catch on. I’m counting on all of you to help alter the perception of what a novella is and what it can be in today’s market.

That’s it for now, folks. Thanks you so much for your time and attention. I hope the story’s pitch hooks you, and you’ll stay tuned for more.

Tor.com and I will be telling you more about ENVY OF ANGELS as we head towards fall. It’s an epic introduction to the world and the characters, and a great standalone story all its own.

The second A SIN DU JOUR AFFAIR book, LUSTLOCKED, is currently scheduled for release in January of 2016.

And remember: In 2015 novellas are the new novel.