Creative Writing student secures international book deal

School of Arts research student Liesel Schwarz has been offered a spectacular three-book international publishing contract by Random House.
 
The contract, for Liesel's belle époque steampunk trilogy The Chronicles of Light and Shadow, is one of the most impressive in British publishing this year. The deal is the first international signing for a Brunel student and includes publication in the UK, USA and Germany.

“I am absolutely delighted,” said Liesel. “As an author one hopes against all hope to be published one day and I am humbled by the amazing feedback I've had so far. It has exceeded my wildest expectations.”

Opening with A Conspiracy of Alchemists, The Chronicles of Light and Shadow is a series of fantasy novels set in an alternative Europe in 1903 and focusing on the adventures of airship pilot Eleanor Chance. The series has been described as a fast-paced romantic adventure within a richly textured and complex world, where the forces of Shadow and Light battle for power.
 
Liesel began writing the first book during her MA in Creative Writing at Brunel, and is currently working on the second book for her PhD. “I am a lifelong fan of 19th Century Gothic fiction and steampunk," she said. “One day I was travelling home on the tube past Baker street when the characters in the book suddenly appeared inside my head. They were having an almighty row and I just had to write it down. The scene I wrote was part of my MA Elements of Fiction coursework and following the feedback I had from that, I developed the novel. The first draft of the book was also my MA dissertation”.
 
Random House will publish A Conspiracy of Alchemists in November 2012.