So excited to finally share this news with you all!

*PRESS RELEASE: 21 August 2013: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE*
Angry Robot Signs Marianne de Pierres in Two-Book Deal

Angry Robot is thrilled to announce the acquisition of two genre-busting books from Marianne de Pierres.

The World English and Translation rights deal was negotiated by Senior Editor Lee Harris and Curtis Brown’s Tara Wynne. The first of this two-book series, Peacemaker, will be released in May 2014, and the as-yet-untitled sequel will follow in 2015.

A true crossover, Peacemaker is a cracking combination scifi, fantasy, western, and crime.

Marianne de Pierres: “I’m thrilled to be joining the Angry Robot team with the Peacemaker series as I truly admire the kind of books they publish. Not to mention that Trent Jamieson, Kaaron Warren, Lee Battersby and Jo Anderton are some of my favourite Australian speculative fiction authors. It will also be great to work with Lee Harris again, who I first met as editor of Hub Magazine when he published one of my Glitter Rose stories. Angry Robot’s thinking is modern and explorative and a blast of pure oxygen in speculative fiction publishing.”

Peacemaker: In the future, a ranger protects the last remaining piece of parkland in the shadow of a sprawling mega-metropolis.

Lee Harris: “I’ve been a great admirer of Marianne’s work, ever since I started reading her brilliant Sentients of Orion series back in 2007. I’m absolutely thrilled to welcome her to the Angry Robot family and I can’t wait for you all to read Peacemaker.”

Tara Wynne: “Marianne’s Peacemaker series and Angry Robot seem a perfect match. I look forward to nurturing this new relationship and to the books’ success.”

About Marianne: Marianne de Pierres is the author of the acclaimed Parrish Plessis and award winning Sentients of Orion science fiction series. The Parrish Plessis series has been translated into eight languages and adapted into a roleplaying game. She’s also the author of a bestselling teen dark fantasy series entitled Night Creatures. She lives in Brisbane, Australia. Marianne writes award-winning crime under the pseudonym Marianne Delacourt.

www.mariannedepierres.com

www.tarasharp.com

www.burnbright.com.au

@mdepierres

About Angry Robot: Angry Robot is a genre publisher that brings readers the best in new SF, F and WTF?!
All titles are released as paperbacks and major eBook formats. Distribution is through Random House
(North America) and GBS (UK). Angry Robot Ltd is part of Osprey Group.
Contact:

Translation enquiries, contact Rights Executive Suzannah Brooksbank:

SB*********@**************ng.com

Publicity enquiries, contact Publicity Manager Caroline Lambe: ca************@*************ks.com

Among a plethora of great contemporary TV shows Scott and Bailey is one of the best. A brilliant, brilliant, BRILLIANT cop show about two female detectives and their female boss.

As I mentioned in a previous post, some criticism has been levelled at the show for portraying the male characters as either useless or devious. Although I can see why some viewers might react that way, it seems to me that all the characters are shown to be flawed and that female leads are no exception. We just sped more time getting to know them. Rachel (Suranne Jones) is prickly and defensive and inclined to be self-destructive with booze. Janet (Lesley Sharp) is compassionate and reasonable but bored with her husband who she takes for granted and ultimately cheats on. Jill (Amelia Bullemore) is a tough, unsympathetic, no-nonsense but brilliant detective. The three women experience their highs and lows together and have their true selves exposed in moments of great weakness. What makes them appealing and compelling is the strength of their friendships and their ability to forgive and support each other. In Scott and Bailey, a spade is most definitely called a spade.

The Daily Telegraph describes the show as “a beautifully engineered programme: it’s both pleasingly sudsy and deliciously grisly but manages to transcend both the soap and detective genres.”

I’ve found it so much more realistic, funny, interesting and engaging than many of the shallow, formulaic cop shows being churned out. We’re still waiting for series 3 here in Australia, and I’ve had to join the Scott and Bailey Twitter fans to keep up with the news – @S&BTV

The theme music is the bomb! Check it out below.

You have to work a little bit harder at Treme; the characters take time to get know, the story is kinda slow and the music is Southern jazz past and present – not to everyone’s taste. By the second season though, I’ve become rather enamoured with the rythm of the show and its insight into post-Katrina New Orleans.

Wiki says that the showrunners employed as much local talent as they could and it all goes towards a feeling of great authenticity. I can’t think of any other series I’ve seen, which has lingered so lovingly over music and tradition, devoting many precious minutes to exploring and savouring it. Time that would normally be spent on action, plot or character development.

In fact, sometimes it doesn’t seem that Treme really knows where it is going narratively at all. But as a snapshot, a peephole, and voyeur’s view of this great city, it is sublime. As a portrayal of the human need for sense of place and belonging, it is poignant.

 I’ve watched a lot of terrific TV series the last twelve months or so, but the echoes of Treme have been the most powerful. I think about the show when I go to sleep. I think about it when I wake up.

The acting is so good, I actually couldn’t watch most of John Goodman’s segments. His tortured soul is raw and exposed from the beginning and I found them too painful. On the other hand, I couldn’t get enough of Kim Dicken’s (Friday Night Lights) as Jeanne Desautel, the chef. Her rendition of Iko Iko (see below) being one of my most favourite scenes in a TV series ever. Why? It’s so honest and silly and a celebration of the place she loves. It is so real.

There are many other amazing performances though, not the least of those being Wendell Pierce (The Wire) as Antoine Batiste, Clarke Peters (The Wire) as Big Chief Lambreaux, and Steve Zahn (Sahara, Daddy Day Care) as Davis McAlary.

Treme is entertaining, thought provoking and educational – something few series can wrap into one package while still capturing an audience. And of course, all I want to do now is got to New Orleans.