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Jane Fletcher
Jane Fletcher
was born in Greenwich, London in 1956. She now lives alone in the
south-west of England, after the sudden, and untimely death of her
partner.
Her love of fantasy began at the age of seven
when she encountered Greek Mythology. This was compounded by a
childhood spent clambering over every example of ancient masonry she
could find (medieval castles, megalithic monuments, Roman villas) It
was her resolute ambition to become an archaeologist when she grew up,
so it was something of a surprise when she became a software engineer
instead.
Jane started writing when her partner refused
to listen to yet another lengthy account of 'a really good idea for a
story', and insisted that she wrote it down. After many years of
revision, the result, Lorimal's Chalice, was published.
This book was short-listed for the Gaylactic Spectrum award for that
year.
Awards
Book Reviews
BSB Interview
Coming Soon...
The High Priest and the Idol
(July 2009)
Excerpt
Jemeryl and Tevi's relationship is put to
the test when the Guardian sends Jemeryl on a mission that not only
puts her in harm's way, but back into the sites of a previous lover.
The
Protectorate
of Lyremouth promises liberty for all its citizens, but this does not
mean that everyone is equal. When Jemeryl is summoned alone to
Lyremouth, she suspects a ploy to separate her from her lover, Tevi.
After all, many disapprove of their relationship—not because they are
both women, but because Jemeryl is a sorcerer and Tevi is not. The
objections reflect the distrust, disdain, and outright hostility across
the social divide, between those who can work magic and the ungifted
majority. The task Jemeryl is given, to track down an ex-lover who has
turned renegade on the Coven, does nothing to assuage her doubts.
However, old bonds of affection are enough to make her accept the
assignment, even though she is sure that she has been told only half
the true story.
But Jemeryl is wrong—she has not been told even a tenth of it, and
whatever the Guardian's intentions, when Jemeryl does not return,
nobody can stop Tevi from going after her.
Book four in The Lyremouth Chronicles series.
Current Releases...
The Lyremouth Chronicles
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Excerpt |
The Exile
and The Sorcerer.
Two women, ensnared by the
conspiracies of their rulers, become reluctant allies in a dangerous
quest.
Monsters, sorcerers, and treacherous
journeys all await Tevi on her quest to find the stolen Chalice.
If this isn't enough, her search leads her to join forces with Jemeryl,
a tempestuous sorcerer who dreams only of the day when she will have
completed her studies and be able to return to the sanctuary of
Lyremouth, with her books and her research. It is all very
straightforward—until she meets Tevi. Romance, adventure, and
intrigue abound. New Revised edition.
(Previously issued as Parts One and Two of Lorimal's Chalice
- the Gaylactic Spectrum Award finalist for best novel of 2003.)
Book
One in The Lyremouth Chronicles.
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Excerpt |
The Traitor and The Chalice.
Tevi and Jemeryl, soldier and
sorcerer, are sworn to the service of the Protectorate of Lyremouth,
the greatest civilization the world has known, and will risk all to
ensure its survival. Yet a traitor is working to uncover a long
hidden secret that will destroy the Protectorate and threaten the lives
of its citizens. The two women are sent to hunt down the traitor
and retrieve the chalice that can bestow such dangerous powers.
Without allies to help them, Tevi and Jemeryl
will need to rely totally on each other; something made all the more
difficult when the rest of the world seems intent on pulling them
apart. Events will force them to re-evaluate their assumptions about
society and their places in it. Difficult choices wait them, even as
they battle for their lives. New revised edition.
(Previously issued as Parts Three and Four of Lorimal's Chalice
-the Gaylactic Spectrum Award finalist for best novel of 2003)
Book
Two in The Lyremouth Chronicles. |
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Excerpt |
The Empress and The Acolyte.
After three
years of studying with the Empress Bykoda, Jemeryl has learned all
that the elderly sorcerer can teach her and is ready to return to
Lyremouth. However, before she leaves, Bykoda reveals a grim secret—an oracle of death—and asks her to perform one final assignment. Jemeryl must take Bykoda's talisman to a place of safety. Failure
will mean complete destruction not only in the present, but also
the past.
While in Tirakhalod, Tevi has been working as an officer in
Bykoda's army. It has been a difficult time for her, living in a
land where those who cannot work magic are treated as
insignificant. Only Jemeryl's love has made life bearable. With the
return to the Protectorate drawing close, she hopes that the worst
is over. However, somebody is after the talisman, and that person
is willing to commit murder to get what they want.
Book
Three in The Lyremouth Chronicles.
2007
Lesbian Speculative Fiction GCLS Award Winner |
The Celaeno Series
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Excerpt |
The Walls of Westernfort.
All Natasha Ionadis
wants is to serve the Goddess, and she volunteers eagerly for a
near-impossible
mission to infiltrate a band of renegade warriors and imprinters. One of
three temple guards sent to infiltrate Westernfort and assassinate the
rebel leaders. Natasha accepts that she will likely die in the
process.
But, once away from the temple, the
issues are no longer so simple, and she must revaluate her allegiances and
her beliefs. Living undercover alongside women she has sworn to
kill, Natasha discovers friendship and, with one woman in particular,
something far more.
Is it already too late to discover what
she really wants from life?
2005 SCI-FI/FANTASY GCLSy Award Winner
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Excerpt |
The Temple at Landfall.
Lynn is an imprinter, one chosen by the
Goddess to receive her greatest gift, that of creating new life. So
why does she feel like a prisoner in the Temple?
When Lynn learns that she is to be
relocated to the temple at Landfall, the arduous journey seems more like a
gift—her last chance to see something of the outside world. She does
not anticipate the dangers and temptations she will encounter along the
way, nor does she expect Lieutenant Kim Ramon, an officer in the squadron
of Rangers assigned to protect her. Despite all prohibitions
forbidding it, attraction grows between the two women.
Against them stand the powerful
religious Sisterhood and their holy warriors—the Temple Guards. In a
world ruled by the Church, what chance is there that Lynn can escape?
(Previously released as
The World Celaeno Chose)
2005 Sci-Fi/Fantasy/Horror Lambda Award
Finalist
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Excerpt |
Rangers at
Roadsend.
A Celaeno world adventure fraught
with danger and romance.
Sergeant
Chip Coppelli escaped the manipulative plots of her powerful family by
becoming a soldier. After 9 years in the elite Rangers, dealing with thugs
and wild predators, she has learned to spot trouble coming—and that is
exactly what she sees in the mystery surrounding her new recruit, Katryn
Nagata. But even so, Chip was not expecting murder.
(Previously released as The Wrong
Trail Knife)
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Excerpt |
Dynasty of Rogues.
When you're
short on friends and long on enemies, things can't get much worse.
Until they do...
Ranger Riki Sadiq is known as a troublemaker, and in the close knit
heretic community, a bad name is hard to lose. Standing sentry
duty on a winter's day, all she can see lying ahead is an afternoon
of being cold, miserable, and bored. Her mood isn't helped by
deliberate goading from people who are supposed to be working with
her. Even so, retaliating in kind isn't one of Riki's better
ideas. When Riki is dispatched to Westernfort for one last chance
in the Rangers, the hostile reception means her list of enemies has
become still longer, and prime candidate to head the list is her
new patrol corporal, Tanya Coppelli. It is hate at first sight.
The way Riki sees it, Tanya may have good looks, talent and sharp
wits, but is that any reason to like her? However, if Riki but
knew it, trouble of a deadly kind is heading her way. With their
lives at stake, Riki and Tanya will have to overcome the mutual
antagonism and learn to work together.
2008
Lesbian
Speculative Fiction
GCLS
Award
Finalist
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Excerpt |
Shadow of the Knife.
Militia rookie Ellen Mittal is well aware that the world cannot be reduced
to simple questions of black and white, but she has no idea of just how
complex and dangerous her life is about to become. The most vicious gang in
the Homelands, led by the infamous Butcher, is extending its operations to
Roadsend. By her oath as a member of the Militia, Ellen is sworn to uphold
the rule of law, no matter what the cost to herself. But as the body count
starts to rise, Ellen finds her task made all the harder by a wall of
silence from ordinary citizens, a commanding officer with her head in the
sand, and the attentions of an attractive young farmer who is probably not
who she claims to be.
Ellen must work out who to trust, because if she gets it wrong she might
easily lose her heart, or her life.
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