J.M. McDermott sold two novels to Publisher Jason Sizemore at Apex. Last Dragon, which was originally published in 2008 and was shortlisted for the William L. Crawford/IAFA Fantasy Award, will be reissued early next year. New novel Maze will also be released next Spring.
Sizemore offers this description of the dark fantasy Maze: “The labyrinth is full of wonders, both beautiful and frightening. Trolls, minotaurs, and other odd nasties (such as tiny dog-like beasts with the heads of babies) hunt a small band of human survivors as a group of wayward people try to scratch out a life among a literal maze of stone that has no beginning or end. One part Alice in Wonderland and two parts Pan’s Labryinth, you’re sure to be enthralled by J.M. McDermott’s vivid imagination.”
Last Dragon, on the other hand, is “an intricate web of stories [which] weave together to tell a tale of revenge, justice, ambition, and power. Zhan has been sent to find her grandfather, a man accused of killing not only Zhan’s family, but every man, woman, and child in their village. What she finds is a shell of a man, and a web of deceit that will test the very foundations of a world she thought she understood. A tale of revenge that grows into something more, Last Dragon is a literary fantasy novel in the tradition of Gene Wolfe and Gabriel Garcia Marquez.” Last Dragon was originally published by Wizards of the Coast’s defunct “Discovery” line.
In addition to having written two novels, McDermott spends his days as a game writer for an unannounced XBox 360 title from Xaviant Software, north of Atlanta.