Debut author Anne Lyle sold the Night’s Masque trilogy of Elizabethan fantasies (including ebook and audio rights) to Publishing Director Marc Gascoigne Angry Robot Books, via agent John Berlyne of the Zeno Agency.
In the books, “Explorers have returned from the New World bearing strangely primitive natives—and their uncanny elders, regal beings straight out of the Norse legends who call themselves skraylings. Hired to protect these strangers, disreputable swordsman Mal Catlyn soon finds himself dragged into a world of conspiracy and dark magic. The first, The Alchemist of Souls, is an irresistible combination of dashing swordplay and cunning alternate history from a natural born storyteller. It will be published simultaneously in the US and UK in March 2012.”
Lyle said: “The Alchemist of Souls came out of my fascination with the early modern period of European history. This was an England of religious terrorism, state paranoia, surveillance and rising gun crime, and the emergence of new forms of mass entertainment. Sound familiar? I don’t seem to be very good at sticking to one genre within a book, so Angry Robot’s penchant for mash ups made them the perfect fit.”
Lyle talks about the sale in this post.