Scarlett St. Clair Launches New Dark Fantasy Series with Bloom Books
Bloom Books, Sourcebooks’ new imprint for entrepreneurial women authors, is launching a new dark fantasy series from author Scarlett St. Clair. The publisher will release St. Clair’s new novel King of Battle and Blood in November 2021. The story will follow a woman who is forced to marry a powerful vampire king. St. Clair’s previous series—which includes the novels A Touch of Darkness, A Touch of Ruin, A Touch of Malice, and A Game of Fate—were originally self-published, but these books will now be available from Sourcebooks as well. When asked how she feels about joining Bloom Books, St. Clair said she is “ecstatic,” adding, “Readers and fans always ask me, ‘How can I get your books?’ Joining Bloom means that all readers and booksellers will have access—something that is very important to me not only as a writer but as a former librarian.”
Amazon Orders Series Adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s Anansi Boys
Amazon has ordered a six-episode series adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s Anansi Boys. Gaiman himself will pen the script with the help of British actor, comedian, singer, television presenter and writer Sir Lenny Henry. Anansi Boys is the story of Charlie Nancy, who discovers a surprising secret about his family after the death of his father: his father was the trickster god Anansi, and Charlie has a brother named Spider. While Mr. Nancy does appear in American Gods, Gaiman’s Anansi Boys is a standalone story. Of the upcoming series, Gaiman said, “Anansi Boys as a TV series has been a long time coming…We needed Amazon Prime to come on board and embrace our vision, we needed a lead director with the craft and vision of Hanelle Culpepper, we needed the creative and technical wizardry of Douglas Mackinnon, who worked out how we could push the bounds of the possible to shoot a story set all over the world in a huge studio outside Edinburgh, and we needed the rest of the amazing talents that nobody knows about yet.”
Avon x Mushens Entertainment Prize Longlist Announced
Avon and Mushens Entertainment have have announced the 12 nominees who have made their longlist for inaugural Avon x Mushens Entertainment Prize. The prize is for writers from Black, Asian, and minority ethnic backgrounds who are writing commercial novels. Launched on January 11th of this year, the competition accepted submissions from unpublished writers of color in the UK. The winner will receive a two-book deal with HarperCollins, a grant to support their writing career, and representation from Mushens Entertainment. Included in the longlist are: Spaghetti by Tamara Bugembe, Little White Lies by Farah Faqir, The Radiant Dark by Cheyanne-Joni Morris, Just So You Know by Betty-Maxine Onwuteaka and The Element of Trouble by Ivy Ngeow. Also featured is Double Blind by Perween Richards, The Country Ain’t Built for Us by Ayo Okoya, Bully by Dee Spencer, House of Olympus by Ingrid Banerjee Marvin, alongside Almost Strangers by Farrah Yusuf, How to Divorce a Psychopath by Angelina Melwani, and Ben & Gia by Ipsita Deb. A winner will be announced this fall.
Pandemic Reading Habits Survey Results
Two weeks ago, we asked readers to answer questions about how the pandemic had (or had not) changed reading habits. Here are the results of that survey.