Introducing The Seventh Miss Hatfield

Gollancz Editor, Marcus Gipps, introduces us to Anna Caltabiano’s The Seventh Miss Hatfield.

When her agent first told me about Anna Caltabiano, I was a little sceptical. A 17-year-old who’d written her second novel? Her second? I’m a firm believer that anyone has the potential to write a good novel, but generally it takes a lot of practice and experience to make it work. However I had worked with Anna’s agent before, and knew that she was taking this very seriously. Which meant that I had to as well.

So I opened up the synopsis, and found it intriguing. There was a fully defined plot there, with a couple of nice twists and a very interesting premise. Well, I thought, that’s a start, but the proof comes in the writing.

So I started reading.

And then I spoke to my colleagues at Gollancz, and they read it as well.

And then I called up Anna’s agent and said yes, I could see what she meant, and yes, Anna really could write, and yes, we’d be delighted to make an offer and publish the book and yes, I had a few thoughts and tweaks but yes, it really was a remarkable achievement, and yes, I shouldn’t have doubted her and yes, I’d love to talk to Anna but, most of all, yes, I was really excited about publishing what was to eventually be called THE SEVENTH MISS HATFIELD.

I envy you, gentle reader, as you start the extract below. You’re probably a little bit sceptical, as I was, and that’s fine. Authors aren’t normally seventeen. But you’re about to find yourself immersed in a world of time travel, and turn-of-the-century New York, and the pain of knowing that sometimes you can’t stay somewhere you love, with the people you love, even if it’s all you really want. You’re about to find out the secret of immortality, and how dangerous it is. You’re about to find out who else is looking for the secret…

You’re about to meet Miss Hatfield, and Anna Caltabiano, and I envy you the chance to do both for the first time.

You can find Anna on twitter at @caltabiano_anna, me at @marcusgipps and Gollancz at @gollancz (unsurprisingly). You can read an extract of The Seventh Miss Hatfield below. The Seventh Miss Hatfield is one of our Gollancz debuts and you can pre-order your ebook copy now for just £1.99.