Graham Diamond [1] (born 18 August 1949, Manchester, England) [2] is an author who writes across multiple genres, including fantasy and science fiction. He has published twenty novels with more than a million copies of his books in print. [3]
Born in Manchester, England, his family moved to the United States when he was a young child. [3] He was raised in New York City, on the Upper West Side, and graduated from the High School of Music and Art. He attended CCNY in NY, the Art Students League of New York, and the State University of New York. [4]
During the early 70's he began working for the New York Times, becoming the weekend manager of the paper's editorial art department by the early 1980s. [3] Diamond later became production manager, then assistant director of operations in the Editorial Art Department at the paper until leaving to pursue a full-time career in writing. He has also taught and lectured on creative writing in both New York and California.
Diamond has two daughters, Rochelle and Leslie. [4] After spending more than a decade in California he returned to New York City.
Diamond began publishing novels in 1977, with the release of The Haven by Playboy Press. [3] The Haven is a "besieged-enclave science-fantasy" in the same manner as The House on the Borderland by William Hope Hodgson and The Last Castle by Jack Vance. [5] The book sold so well that his editors asked for a sequel, resulting in Lady of the Haven. [3] This sequel was then segued into being the first volume of the four-book series Adventures of the Empire Princess. [5]
In 1979, while the Haven-related books were still bring published, Diamond released The Thief of Kalimar, his first pure fantasy novel. [5] By 1984 Diamond had published twelve books with more than a million copies sold around the world. [3]
Diamond's other science fiction and fantasy works include Forest Wars, Marrakesh, Samarkand, and Samarkand Dawn. He also turned to other genres; including historical fiction, thrillers, and later a true story of a Holocaust survivor's family during World War II, Maybe You Will Survive. [2] Several of his early novels were published in the UK by Methuen and much of his work by Endeavour Press and Venture Press in UK.
Under the pen name Rochelle Leslie (the names of his two daughters), he authored Tears of Passion, Tears of Shame, a novel of South Africa set during the Zulu War of 1879 which was subsequently published in Italy, titled, Venuto De Lontano, (To Come From Far Away) by Mondadori. In 2018 it was released as 'Cry For Freedom' by Lime books in the UK. He also has had various short stories published in anthologies.
Diamond released Chocolate Lenin in 2012. A satire/fantasy of near-future Russia, the novel parodied contemporary science, technology, and politics.
In 2013 it was announced that his first novel, The Haven, would be re-released in a new oversize format. In 2015 Venture Press Ltd, UK, a division of Endeavour Press UK, released in e-book format seven of Graham Diamond's earlier titles including The Haven,Samarkand,Samarkand Dawn, and Lady of the Haven.
In 2016, Endeavour Press published Black Midnight, a terrorist novel set in New York City, and Cry For Freedom, a novel set during the Zulu War in Natal in 1879. In early 2018 Endeavour next released Maybe You Will Survive the true story of a Holocaust survivor. Venture Press also re-released six of Diamond's speculative fiction/fantasy novels including The Thief of Kalimar, and Captain Sinbad.
Lume Books, London, issued a new print version of Maybe You Will Survive in 2020 to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the ending of the Holocaust. The following year The Haven, The Thief of Kalimar, Black Midnight, Forest Wars, Tears of Passion, Tears of Shame, Captain Sinbad and Chocolate Lenin were re-released in softcover in the United Kingdom.
In 2022, Diamond released Diner of Lost Souls, a mystery/thriller written in conjunction with Hedy Campeas and published by Lion Press. In June 2023 a second volume, Diner of Lost Souls, Book 2, was released.
A Reader's Guide to Fantasy described Diamond's fiction as "adding a dash of imagination to subjects and themes common in fantasy and making them something unusual and original." [6] Library Journal called his 1981 novel The Beast of Hades a "second-rate fantasy" [7] but described Samarkand from the previous year as "an absorbing historical fantasy focusing on love and adventures. [8]
The St. James Guide to Fantasy Writers described Diamond as having written "several undeservedly neglected novels. Apart from the generous Andre Norton, few took him seriously as a fantasy author—yet he is better than, or no worse than, some writers who are now dragonhold names. The Haven and its sequels, and Captain Sinbad, provide more than enough justification for wider popularity." [5] 'The Haven' has remained in print for more than forty years.
Ursula Kroeber Le Guin was an American author best known for her works of speculative fiction, including science fiction works set in her Hainish universe, and the Earthsea fantasy series. She was first published in 1959, and her literary career spanned nearly sixty years, producing more than twenty novels and over a hundred short stories, in addition to poetry, literary criticism, translations, and children's books. Frequently described as an author of science fiction, Le Guin has also been called a "major voice in American Letters". Le Guin said she would prefer to be known as an "American novelist".
John Shirley is an American writer, primarily of horror, fantasy, science fiction, dark street fiction, westerns, and songwriting. He has also written one historical novel, a western about Wyatt Earp, Wyatt in Wichita, and one non-fiction book, Gurdjieff: An Introduction to His Life and Ideas. Shirley has written novels, short stories, TV scripts and screenplays—including The Crow—and has published over 84 books including 10 short-story collections. As a musician, Shirley has fronted his own bands and written lyrics for Blue Öyster Cult and others. His newest novels are Stormland and Axle Bust Creek.
Steven Barnes is an American science fiction, fantasy, and mystery writer. He has written novels, short fiction, screen plays for television, scripts for comic books, animation, newspaper copy, and magazine articles.
Sinbad the Sailor is a fictional mariner and the hero of a story-cycle. He is described as hailing from Baghdad during the early Abbasid Caliphate. In the course of seven voyages throughout the seas east of Africa and south of Asia, he has fantastic adventures in magical realms, encountering monsters and witnessing supernatural phenomena.
Tales from Earthsea is a collection of fantasy stories and essays by American author Ursula K. Le Guin, published by Harcourt in 2001. It serves as an accompaniment to the five novels of the Earthsea cycle, all set in the fictional archipelago Earthsea.
Ronald Joseph Goulart ( ) was an American popular culture historian and mystery, fantasy and science fiction author.
Gahan Allen Wilson was an American author, cartoonist and illustrator known for his cartoons depicting horror-fantasy situations.
Berkley Books is an imprint of the Penguin Group.
Nina Kiriki Hoffman is an American fantasy, science fiction and horror writer.
Irwin Shaw was an American playwright, screenwriter, novelist, and short-story author whose written works have sold more than 14 million copies. He is best known for two of his novels: The Young Lions (1948), about the fate of three soldiers during World War II, which was made into a film of the same name starring Marlon Brando and Montgomery Clift, and Rich Man, Poor Man (1970), about the fate of two brothers and a sister in the post-World War II decades, which in 1976 was made into a popular miniseries starring Peter Strauss, Nick Nolte, and Susan Blakely.
Jonathan Anthony Stroud is a British writer of fantasy fiction, best known for the Bartimaeus young adult sequence and Lockwood & Co. children's series. His books are typically set in an alternative history London with fantasy elements, and have received note for his satire, and use of magic to reflect themes of class struggle. The Bartimaeus sequence is the recipient of the Grand Prix de l'Imaginaire and Mythopoeic Fantasy Awards. Stroud's works have also been featured on ALA Notable lists of books for children and young adults. In 2020, Netflix announced a TV series based on Lockwood & Co., with filming initiated in July 2021.
Richard Carlton Meredith, was an American writer, illustrator and graphic designer, best known as the author of science fiction short stories and novels including We All Died at Breakaway Station and The Timeliner Trilogy.
Kelley Eskridge is an American writer of fiction, non-fiction and screenplays. Her work is generally regarded as speculative fiction and is associated with the more literary edge of the category, as well as with the category of slipstream fiction.
Janeen Webb is an Australian writer, critic and editor, working mainly in the field of science fiction and fantasy.
The Lightning Thief is a 2005 American fantasy-adventure novel based on Greek mythology, the first young adult novel written by Rick Riordan in the Percy Jackson & the Olympians series. It won the Adult Library Services Association Best Books for Young Adults, among other awards. The novel is followed by The Sea of Monsters and spawned two sequel series and the extended universe of the Camp Half-Blood Chronicles.
Percy Jackson & the Olympians is a series of six fantasy novels written by American author Rick Riordan. The first book series in his Camp Half-Blood Chronicles, the novels are set in a world with the Greek gods in the 21st century. The first five books of the series follow the protagonist Percy Jackson, a young demigod who must prevent the Titans, led by Kronos (Cronus), from destroying the world.
Camp Half-Blood Chronicles is a media franchise created by author Rick Riordan, encompassing three five-part novel series, two short-story collections, two myth anthology books, a stand-alone short story, three crossover short stories, an essay collection, multiple guides, seven graphic novels, two films, a video game, a musical, and other media. Set in the modern world, it focuses on groups of demigod teenagers, and features many characters from Greek and Roman mythology. The first series, Percy Jackson & the Olympians, follows the adventures of a teen named Percy Jackson at a summer camp for Greek demigods. The second series, The Heroes of Olympus, introduces several more lead characters and a second camp for Roman demigods named Camp Jupiter. The third series, The Trials of Apollo, follows the now-mortal god Apollo, with appearances by many characters from the first and second series.
Rachel Ruth Cosgrove Payes, also known as E.L. Arch and Joanne Kaye was an American genre novelist, and author of books on the Land of Oz.
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Endeavour Press was a British independent publishing company founded in 2011 by Matthew Lynn and Richard Foreman. Endeavour started as an e-book publisher of out of print books, but grew to sign up frontlist titles from new authors in seven different imprints, including a print arm. The company specialised in thrillers, historical fiction, romance and non-fiction, but their several imprints encompassed horror, fantasy, science-fiction, westerns and literary fiction as well.