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Hot Key Books is publishing a two-book YA series from Darcy Burdock author Laura Dockrill.
The deal was struck between Sarah Odedina, m.d. at Hot Key Books, and Cathryn Summerhayes from William Morris Entertainment. Unsold rights are being handled by Jodie Hodges at United Agents.
“It is so wonderful to be publishing Laura Dockrill,” said Odedina. “This new book is for older readers than those who are loving the adventures of Darcy Burdock and excitingly a whole new group of readers will be enchanted by Laura's effervescent imagination and extraordinary energy.”
Lorali is set in a fantasy world of pirates and mermaids and is described by Dockrill as “Peter Pan meets Splash meets Marilyn Manson music”. The first book, with a title to be announced at a later date, will be published in June 2015.
Dockrill is tracking her research and writing process on a dedicated Tumblr site writinglorali.tumblr.com. She said: “My heart has gone into this book and I'm taking this genre very seriously; building a world, creating new species, navigating my way around the politics of underwater life. A lot of work has gone into the research itself which is why I created the Tumblr page. I live it completely.”
Dockrill is the author and illustrator of the Darcy Burdock series (Random House), as well as Mistakes In The Background, Ugly Shy Girl and Echoes (HarperCollins). She has performed her work on CBeebies, Newsnight, BBC Breakfast and Woman's Hour and was last year’s writer in residence at Booktrust.