Tor.com Publishing is proud to announce that we have acquired two novels from debut author C. L. Polk, Witchmark and an as-yet-untitled sequel. Witchmark is a fantasy novel about Miles Singer, a war doctor who fakes his death to work at a cash-strapped veteran’s hospital. When a fatally poisoned patient exposes the doctor’s secret healing powers, he must put his anonymity and freedom at risk to investigate his patient’s murder.
Witchmark and its sequel were acquired by consulting editor Justin Landon, in a deal with Caitlin McDonald at Donald Maass Literary Agency.
C. L. Polk wrote her first story in grade school and still hasn’t learned any better. After spending years in strange occupations and wandering western Canada, she settled in southern Alberta with her rescue dog Otis. She has a fondness for knitting, bicycles, and single estate coffee. C. L. has had short stories published in Baen’s UNIVERSE and Gothic.net, and contributed to the web serial Shadow Unit (http://shadowunit.org/), and spends too much time on twitter at @clpolk. She had this to say about the sale:
I am elated to be working with Justin and Tor.com Publishing. Tor has long been the publishing house of my dreams, and I’m honored to work with them to share Miles and Tristan’s story with fantasy readers. Witchmark came to me in intriguing little glimpses while I was trying to write other stories. Eventually they became too insistent to ignore, and I honed in on the vision of a long parade of returning soldiers marching amid celebration and music, witnessed by a man who was horrified by something no one else could see.
Justin Landon had this to say about the sale:
C. L. Polk’s Witchmark is the story of a man coming home from war to discover he hasn’t left it behind at all. It has everything you love about fantasy and everything you love about romance and everything you love about a good mystery. I’m thankful to Tor.com reviewer Liz Bourke, whose tweets turned me on to Polk’s manuscript, and totally stoked to be working with such a talented writer.
Witchmark is expected to publish in early 2018.
