For as long as she can remember, Agnir has lived among the enemy…
Tordotcom Publishing is delighted to announce the acquisition of two novellas by C.L. Clark, author of The Unbroken, the first of which is titled Fate’s Bane. The first novella is tentatively scheduled for early 2025. The agent is Mary C. Moore at Kimberly Cameron & Associates Literary Agency.
The clans of the fens enjoy a tenuous peace, and it is all thanks to Agnir, ward and hostage. For as long as she can remember she has lived among the enemy, learning their ways, growing strong alongside their children. When a burgeoning love for the chieftain’s daughter lures them both to a hidden spring, a magic awakens in them that could settle the feuds once and for all—or destroy any hope of peace. If Romeo and Juliet were cursed sapphic artificers living in the wild fens, surrounded by clan warfare and mysterious gods in a world that feels like The Northman, that would be Fate’s Bane.
From author C.L. Clark:
I’ve been dying to stretch my writing muscles in a new way, and the novella length offers the flexibility to play with the structure and language in a way that revitalizes me. I’m especially inspired by the work of my favorite mythmakers, like Nicola Griffith’s Spear and Sofia Samatar’s The Winged Histories.
I find myself coming often to themes of love across borders and boundaries and this story is no exception. For this story, I kept seeing images like Hellelil and Hildebrand meeting on the turret stairs, or two girls holding hands through a wall. There’s something so rich in the question of loyalty to love or family and I haven’t come near to tapping it yet. Fate’s Bane is an ode to being young and falling in love while trying to figure out who you are and how you want to move in the world.
From editor Carl Engle-Laird:
Since her debut with The Unbroken, I’ve been watching C.L. Clark’s career with interest, and I’m thrilled to work with her on these novellas. Fate’s Bane has the driving poetic pressure of my favorite Old English classics. I can’t wait to share it with you, and to see what wonders Clark can work at the novella length!
C. L. Clark is an award-winning author and editor, and the author of Nebula-nominated novel The Unbroken, the first book in the Magic of the Lost trilogy. She graduated from Indiana University’s creative writing MFA and was a 2012 Lambda Literary Fellow. She’s been a personal trainer, an English teacher, and an editor, and is some combination thereof as she travels the world. When she’s not writing or working, she’s learning languages, swinging swords, or reading about war and [post-]colonial history. Her work has appeared in various SFF venues, including Tor.com, Uncanny Magazine, Best American, and Beneath Ceaseless Skies.
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