ISBN: 1-59224-823-3

In the publishing industry I wear two hats:

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THE PUBLISHER . . .

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Note -- update (5-11-09) below in blue. For other project offerings, please scroll down.

As the publisher of Norilana Books I am happy to announce a plethora of exciting new releases such as Senrid by Sherwood Smith, Evermore, A Little Peace and Quiet, and The Covenant by multiple award-winning novelist Modean Moon, the apocalyptic stunner J. by award-winning author William Sanders, Marion Zimmer Bradley's Sword And Sorceress XXII, edited by Elisabeth Waters, Over the Sea: CJ'S First Notebook, a very special illustrated holiday chapbook by Sherwood Smith, the romantic fantasy anthology Lace and Blade edited by Deborah J. Ross, A Posse of Princesses by Sherwood Smith, A Guide to Folktales in Fragile Dialects by Catherynne M. Valente, The Journey to Kailash by Mike Allen, Warrior Wisewoman edited by Roby James, The Duke in His Castle by Vera Nazarian, Clockwork Phoenix edited by Mike Allen, A Stranger to Command by Sherwood Smith, East of the Sun and West of Fort Smith by William Sanders, Leaving Fortusa by John Grant, Marion Zimmer Bradley's Sword And Sorceress XXIII, edited by Elisabeth Waters, and many others...

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THE WRITER . . .

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NEWSFLASH!

I am happy to announce the definitive reissue of my debut collection Salt of the Air with an introduction by Gene Wolfe, newly revised and expanded.

I am interviewed at the Nebula Awards website.

Please take a look at this new offering in the project offerings section of Publishers Marketplace database.

Take the Lords of Rainbow Personality Quiz! This audacious quiz will not only tell you what color deity you serve but will be a good indicator of the possibility of a love match between you and this book.

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I am interviewed at the Bibliophile Stalker.

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I am a Nebula Award Finalist!

My work "The Story of Love" has been nominated in the short story category. See the 2007 Nebula Awards Final Ballot.

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"The world is shaped by two things -- stories told and the memories they leave behind." -- from DREAMS OF THE COMPASS ROSE

Listen to 5-minute audio-excerpt of the author reading from DREAMS OF THE COMPASS ROSE.

Vera Nazarian left the former Soviet Union at the height of the Cold War as a refugee at the age of eight and arrived in the United States a month before her 10th birthday by way of Lebanon, Greece, and Italy.

Native speaker of Russian and Armenian, fluent in English and Spanish and a student of Mandarin Chinese and German, she sold her first short story in the English language at the age of 17 and since then has published numerous works of speculative short fiction in anthologies and magazines such as the Sword and Sorceress and Darkover series edited by the late Marion Zimmer Bradley, MZBFM, Talebones, OUTSIDE THE BOX, On-Spec, THE AGE OF REASON, Fictionwise.com, BEYOND THE LAST STAR, Fantasy Magazine, Jabberwocky, BEST NEW ROMANTIC FANTASY #2, and has seen her work on Nebula Awards(R) Preliminary Ballots, honorably mentioned in Gardner Dozois' YEAR'S BEST SF and Datlow, Grant and Link's YEAR'S BEST FANTASY AND HORROR volumes, and translated into French, German, Spanish, Italian, Dutch, Czech, Hebrew, and Hungarian.

She is an active SFWA member, and made her novelist debut in 2002 with the critically acclaimed mythic fantasy DREAMS OF THE COMPASS ROSE (ISBN: 1-58715-584-2, Wildside Press, May 2002). Her second novel, epic fantasy LORDS OF RAINBOW (ISBN: 1-59224-823-3, Betancourt & Company, March 2003) about a world without color, is available now.

Her novella The Clock King And The Queen Of The Hourglass has been acquired by editor Nick Gevers for the PS Publishing novella specialty line, with an Introduction by Charles de Lint, appeared in a signed limited edition in October 2005 and was on the 2005 Locus Recommended Reading List.

A debut short fiction collection SALT OF THE AIR, with an introduction by Gene Wolfe, and edited by Sean Wallace, appeared from Prime Books / Wildside in September 2006. The collection, spanning 20 years of her writing career, from 1985 to 2005, contains 14 previously published stories and two originals.

Publishers Weekly says, about SALT OF THE AIR:

"Sixteen cautionary, sensual stories of love, reversal and revenge upend fairy tale conventions in Nazarian's lush collection.... Sumptuous detail, twisty plots and surprising endings lift these extravagant tales."

Locus says:

"These are beautiful, haunting confections, reminiscent of Tanith Lee's erotically charged tales in Red as Blood and elsewhere.... And while Nazarian thus strikes fresh notes off old vessels, she provides the template of sword-and-sorcery with new glitter, new power.... Fine shades of emotion, mythic grandeur, crystalline prose, sharp revisionist intelligence: these are Vera Nazarian's hallmarks, signs of a strong emerging talent. Salt of the Air is her best, most representative book so far."

SELECTED WORKS IN PRINT:

Hardcover and trade paperback edition of SALT OF THE AIR with an introduction by Gene Wolfe.

Trade paperback edition of LORDS OF RAINBOW. (See new offering above.)

Trade paperback edition of DREAMS OF THE COMPASS ROSE.

For the most recent updates (in blue and green) please scroll up to the top.

This writer is looking for an agent.

"...a clever concoction of vignettes and short stories knitted into a morality tale about the temptation of illusion and the price of truth.... an exotic setting reminiscent of Tanith Lee's Flat Earth series.... The author's sumptuous language will resonate with Lord Dunsany and Clark Ashton Smith fans.... Nazarian's vital themes and engaging characters are sure to entertain."
-- Publishers Weekly on DREAMS OF THE COMPASS ROSE

"Sixteen cautionary, sensual stories of love, reversal and revenge upend fairy tale conventions in Nazarian's lush collection.... Sumptuous detail, twisty plots and surprising endings lift these extravagant tales."
-- Publishers Weekly on SALT OF THE AIR

"Nazarian's story cycle treads the borderline between the episodic novel and the short-story collection, recalling the work of contemporary fantasist Charles de Lint, early-twentieth-century fantasist Lord Dunsany, and even, reaching way back, The Thousand and One Nights....her imagery is rich, vivid, and memorable, not to mention being remarkable because she realizes it not in her native language, Russian, but in English.... Indeed, this is a singularly appealing book by a new voice in fantasy."
-- Roland Green, ALA Booklist on DREAMS OF THE COMPASS ROSE

"In a world devoid of color, the woman warrior Rahne swears herself to a mysterious nobleman traveling to the exotic city of Tronaelend-Lis, the City of Dreams, where a decadent brother and sister rule as co-regents in the absence of the land's true ruler. When an evil being representing true Darkness threatens the safety of the colorless world, Rahne is drawn into a spiritual journey in search of a legendary phenomenon known as Rainbow in an attempt to find a way to defeat the dark. The author of Dreams of the Compass Rose brings to life a unique fantasy world in which lost colors hold the key to salvation. Nazarian's fluid storytelling and vividly drawn characters make this unusual fantasy a good choice for most libraries."
-- Library Journal on LORDS OF RAINBOW

"Nazarian creates a unique civilization and populates it with heroic archetypes who stand on their own. Extravagant language reminiscent of Dunsany and even Tolkien adds to the legendary feel.... an innovative premise, consistent world-building, and appealing heroes mark this as the work of an emerging talent... readers may find themselves heralding a new star of fantasy fiction."
-- Romantic Times Book Club on LORDS OF RAINBOW

THE CLOCK KING AND THE QUEEN OF THE HOURGLASS, limited edition novella from PS Publishing.

SALT OF THE AIR, first short fiction collection from Prime Books / Wildside Press. Newly revised and expanded definitive edition just reissued by Norilana Books.

THE DUKE IN HIS CASTLE, illustrated baroque fantasy fairytale novella from Norilana Books.

Novels DREAMS OF THE COMPASS ROSE and LORDS OF RAINBOW.

Eclectic high tech "day job" experience, award winning artist, Nebula Awards(R) Finalist, WSFA Small Press Award Finalist, National Best Books 2007 Awards Finalist.
Owner and Publisher of Norilana Books

AVAILABLE NOW: all rights for COBWEB BRIDE (see below). Also seeking representation for this project -- please inquire directly. (First three chapters available upon request.)

In the vein of "Patricia McKillip meets Anne Bishop," COBWEB BRIDE is a standalone lyrical dark fantasy novel with romantic elements of the Persephone myth, about Death's ultimatum to the world. In an alternate Renaissance world, Death, in the form of a grim Spaniard comes to claim his Bride, and until one such is found, in a single time-stopping moment all dying stops, and there is no relief for the mortally-wounded and the terminally-ill. While kings and emperors send their expeditions to search for a suitable Bride for Death, while armies of the undead wage an endless war and a black knight roams the forest at the command of his undead father, while spies and treacheries abound and murdered lovers find themselves locked in the realm of the living, one small village girl, Percy -- an unwanted, ungainly middle daughter -- is faced with the responsibility of granting her dying grandmother the desperate release she needs, and as a result becomes embroiled in a pivotal quest to Death's own holding in the deepest forests of the North.

Other project offered is a "hard" fantasy novel AIREALM, the first book of a planned trilogy:

In a world where there is no land, no day or night, no sun -- only golden mauve sky glowing with an unknown constant source of light -- humans live in clans, anchored by tethers to debris floating in the Boundlessness. Here, gravity is a subtle personal force akin to magic, and simply called the Power of Up and Down. It can be established by individuals for each chunk of floating matter and the claims are then contested by others more powerful. Teenage boy Tion (Fluctuation) Clo, son of a tethermaker from a tiny, worthless junk clan nest, follows a charismatic renegade claim breaker Diulan who is also known as "Ruin Anchor" for destroying every instance of gravity he comes upon, in his mysterious search for someone whose Power of Up and Down is greater than his own. Diulan is the eccentric wandering son of the elected king of Airealm, a great floating baroque "city" of debris that floats somewhere in the Boundlessness -- a conglomeration of matter so vast that it has to be anchored by the Power of Up and Down of not one man alone but a whole council. Together, Tion and Diulan travel on-board a floating airship The Sneeze, exploring the true nature of their world which is more than it seems. . . .

Additional projects to follow include a "kickass romance" aimed at a category fantasy-romance line, called MARGOT PHOENIX RISING, about a female superhero who can control the elements Air, Earth, Water and Fire (not to mention zinc, iron, copper, and everything else in the Periodic Table), a fantasy trilogy chronicling the magical adventures of the popular character Ruricca NoOnesDaughter, and a near-future SF trilogy about global politics and human evolution, PANTHEON, set in in the same universe as the acclaimed story "Rossia Moya."