Wednesday 19 January 2011

Author Spotlight - Jaine Fenn

Since Jaine Fenn has literally JUST revealed the beautiful artwork for her latest novel Bringer of Light, I felt it would be good for her to kick off my new series of articles: Author Spotlight.

It will aim to bring you up-to-date with an author you might have missed out on - in most cases, they will be authors that I am yet to read but very fervently want to!

So, first of all feast your eyes on this glorious colour for Bringer of Light (artist: Nik Keevil):


That deep red is simply gorgeous and I'm pleased to see the cover graced by Jaine's full name rather than the initials she was saddled with when it was (briefly) believed her sales would be affected by the fact she was a woman writing science fiction.

Jaine has been on the writing scene since 2008, when the first novel in her Hidden Empire series Principles of Angels was published by Gollancz.


The second novel is Consorts of Heaven:


The third novel is Guardians of Paradise (note this cover shows J.N.Fenn):


In Jaine's own words:

I wrote my first 'novel' at seven, typing it on my father's typewriter and illustrating it in felt tip pen. It wasn't SF, but it did feature characters having an improbably difficult time. Aged nine I found a copy of 'A Wizard of Earthsea' in a gift shop, and discovered the world of fantastical literature. When, aged eleven, I realised I really wasn't going to be a ballerina, I decided to be a writer of unlikely stories instead.

As is often the case, this proved easier said than done. I've let myself get distracted by the irritating need to earn a living and other, less arduous, paths to fulfilment. Over the years I have supported my writing habit through various means, including life modelling, running a charity shop and computer consultancy; this latter has given me a distrust of technology rare in an SF writer.

I met and married the love of my life at college. We remain stubbornly in love and have forgone having children in favour of not growing up ourselves. Though everything in the world is secondary to stories and love, other things that ease the trials of everyday life for me include: wild, green places; dancing like nobody's watching; serious chocolate; fortean phenomena; living like a medieval peasant on summer weekends; friendship; Portmeirion; live music and good books.

Fenn's first novel was received warmly, with positive reviews for Consorts of Heaven and Guardians of Paradise. Books, of course, can't please everyone! However, general consensus is that Fenn started on a strong note and has only improved since then.

Fenn mentions that Bringer of Light has been delayed until September 15th 2011, but I do believe that just gives all of us a few more months to get caught up on a science fiction author with a great deal of promise.

Jaine can be found on Twitter and at her own blog.

Please let me know if you have read the work of Jaine Fenn, and what you thought of it!

N.B. Since this was my first Author Spotlight, I would welcome feedback! Is there anything else you'd like to see? Any authors you would like featured?

3 comments:

  1. Never read her, or heard of her. I'll have to go have a bit of a look. Nice post!

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  2. Cool new feature Amanda! And those are some stunning covers :) I'd never heard of Ms Fenn before, but her work looks interesting!

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  3. I really like the bold use of a single colour on those covers. So it a shame that Guardians Of Paradise (which I'm reading now) has a much blander, generic cover. Presumably this was part of the "JN Fenn" re-branding and although they saw sense on Jaine's name they weren't about to shell out for another cover. Glad to see Gollacz returned to the previous concept with Bringer Of Light though.

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