'Until now, Fantasy has like been the maiden aunt of genre fiction - little respected and rarely invited to the big events. The Write Fantastic will change all that. We want the movers and shakers of the literary and popular press to know that Fantasy is a genre as hip and relevant as Crime. Fantasy knows how to partayyy!'

Jessica Rydill read English at King’s College, Cambridge before qualifying as a solicitor. Inspired by a David Gemmell course, she quit law and saw her first novel, Children of the Shaman, published in 2001.

Her stories can involve steam trains and dirigibles as easily as horses and knights. She has a fascination with mediaeval religion, heretical sects and goddesses. She is published in America and Germany and was shortlisted in 2001 for the Locus Best First Novel. She lives in the West Country with her elderly parents and a collection of unnerving dolls.

Jessica is published by Orbit in the UK