Drumroll, please

It's officially official, and I can announce the project that's been taking over my life for the last few months, and is likely to occupy it for a few months more. This from the publisher:

"Stargate Atlantis: Legacy is an exciting new book series from Fandemonium Books coming in 2010. As the fantastically successful New Jedi Order series did for Star Wars, Legacy takes Stargate Atlantis fans on to uncharted new ground, exploring what happens next after the end of season five. With no reset to zero, the jeopardy for our favorite characters has never been greater as they face entirely new challenges and dangers, as well as old foes revitalized. Sheppard, McKay, Teyla, Ronon and the rest must face Wraith, Genii, and their most dangerous foes yet in a galaxy-spanning adventure to uncover the true legacy of the Ancients -- a battle from which all may not return.

Book One, The Return, by Melissa Scott and Jo Graham, will be out in September, 2010. Melissa Scott is the author of more than twenty science fiction and fantasy books, including Trouble and Her Friends, Five Twelfths of Heaven, and, with Lisa A. Barnett, Point of Hopes and Point of Dreams. She has won numerous awards, including the Campbell Award in 1986. Jo Graham is the author of three historical fantasy novels, as well as the Stargate Atlantis novel Death Game. Book Two, The Missing, by Jo Graham and Amy Griswold, will follow in January, 2011."

I am unbelievably psyched to be working with these folks. You've heard me raving about Jo Graham already. Meg Burden is a talented YA author (Northlander and the forthcoming The King Commands). This is Amy Griswold's first professional sale, but I can almost guarantee it won't be her last.

And I'm looking forward to doing another series tie-in, particularly since the events of the novels take place after the end of the fifth season, and we're being allowed to move the story and the characters forward. It's always a privilege to work in other people's universes; to be able to do it with the brakes off.... It's going to be seriously fun!

FYI

If you're looking for a perfect stocking stuffer, Jo Graham's first novel, Black Ships, is out in paperback.

I've raved about Jo's books before, and will continue to do so - wait till you see Stealing Fire! Black Ships is a retelling of the Aeneid from the point of view of Gull, priestess to the Lady of the Dead, who becomes Aeneas's Sybil. It's an astonishing reimagining of Virgil - her version of Dido is both chilling and heartbreaking - and the characters are unforgettable. I actually got up at 7AM on the Sunday of a convention so I could sneak down to the hotel lobby and finish the book.

So if you have fans of historical fiction or the classics on your holiday list, or if you're just looking for a different kind of fantasy, this is the book for you. And it's in mass market paper!