Blackstaff Press has just signed a deal to publish a thrilling new fantasy trilogy by West Belfast writer Laurence Donaghy.
Managing Editor Patsy Horton acquired UK and Ireland English language rights from Joanne Sayer at Last Passage. As we previously reported, the first two books of the Folk’d trilogy were published in ebook in 2012 and quickly attracted fans and praise from all over the world.
"As a fantasy nut and every inch a Belfast boy it's always frustrated me that most of the heroes and villains in the books I loved to read sounded nothing like me,” said Laurence. “I set out to fix that with Folk'd, which has one foot in the fantastical and another firmly planted up to its size nines in the seemingly mundane, often hilarious world of modern-day Belfast.
“I'm absolutely thrilled that Blackstaff have shown such faith and such enthusiasm for putting the trilogy into print.”
Blackstaff say they are delighted to have Laurence on their books.
“We all fell in love with these books as soon as we read them and we can’t wait to make them available to a wider audience,” said Patsy. “Laurence has come up with an original and darkly comic story that brings together Irish mythology, fantasy and the city of Belfast to create something surprising and special. We’re really excited.”
Joanne Sayer of Last Passage said Laurence is consistently gathering fans due to his unique storytelling talent.
"Following on from the great success of Folk'd in ebook format, it naturally followed that Blackstaff Press, as a Belfast-based publisher, was best placed to take the Folk'd trilogy to the next level and we are looking forward to seeing the books in print,” she said. “Laurence's fan base is increasing all the time and people can look forward to much more from this uniquely talented author."
Laurence has also been invited to speak at sci-fi and fantasy convention TitanCon next month. The not-for-profit science fiction and fantasy literature, media and gaming convention – with a focus on Game of Thrones – takes place from September 6-8 at the Wellington Park Hotel.
Folk’d will be published in print and ebook in October this year, with the remaining two books in the trilogy to be published in Spring 2014.
