Historical Novel Society Conference: Speakers

S P E C I A L G U E S T S

NATALIA APONTE is a senior editor at Tor Books, where she has worked since 1990. She edits mainstream fiction, thrillers and women's fiction. She has had the pleasure of editing seven Ann Chamberlin novels, as well as novels by Lewis Perdue, Gary Braver, Wendy French, April Christofferson, Jon Land, Dan Kalla, as well as many others. Before joining Tor, Natalia worked at several book distributors and at a Manhattan bookstore. She graduated from Rutgers University with a degree in English Literature. She lives on Long Island with her family.

IRENE GOODMAN has been a successful agent for over 20 years, representing authors at every level--from New York Times best sellers to promising newcomers. She is very interested in historical fiction, but also represents thrillers, romance novels, mysteries, and suspense. The agency prides itself on career planning. It's not just about selling your next book, it's about creating an aggressive and intelligent plan with the publisher to move the author to the next level. Irene has a graduate degree from the University of Michigan, and lives in New York with her husband and two children. Her clients include New York Times best sellers Debbie Macomber, Linda Lael Miller, and Katherine Stone. Her historical fiction authors include Diane Haeger, Leslie Carroll, and John Cooney.

RACHEL KAHAN has been acquiring and editing books for Crown Publishers, a division of Random House, since 1997. A native of Virginia, she graduated from the College of William and Mary and the Radcliffe Publishing Course and began her career at Scribner, a division of Simon & Schuster. The daughter of a passionate reader and a devoted history buff, Rachel was hooked on historical fiction from a very early age. As an editor at Crown books, she runs Crown's historical fiction program, which publishes a long list of both rookie and seasoned historical authors, including Rosalind Miles, Colin Falconer, Pamela Kaufman, Diane Haeger, Elsa Watson and John Faunce. Rachel also acquired the rights to reissue the classic novels by legendary English historical author Jean Plaidy, which are now back in print for the first time in 20 years. In addition to her historical fiction list, she also acquires other fiction and non-fiction for Crown, including such best-selling authors as Jill Conner Browne, Mike Dash and Trisha Thomas.

JUDITH MERKLE RILEY was born in Brunswick, Maine, and raised in California. She holds a B.A. from U.C. Berkeley, an M.A. from Harvard University, and a Ph.D from U.C. Berkeley. She is currently an Associate Professor of Government at Claremont McKenna College, with a background in university teaching and government administration. She is the author of various non-fiction articles and a non-fiction book, Management and Ideology; The Legacy of the International Scientific Management Movement (1980).

Judith began writing fiction in the late 1980s, with A Vision of Light (1989), the adventures of a midwife in 14th century England, and continued with In Pursuit of the Green Lion (1990), a sequel derived from medieval pilgrimage documents. Both received major publicity, were chosen as Book-of-the Month Club select featured alternates, appeared also in paperback, were translated into over half a dozen languages, and were European bestsellers.

In 1994, The Oracle Glass, a novel of 17th century Paris, derived from police records of the period, was published in hardcover with Viking Press. It, too, was a Book-of-the-Month Club election, and has be translated into a number of languages, receiving wide circulation in Europe and Latin America as well as the U. S. This novel has also been optioned for a movie.

More recent works include The Serpent Garden (Viking, 1996, paperback, Penguin 1997), a novel about an English woman portrait painter at the French court in the early 16th century; The Waterdevil, a sequel to the Green Lion; and The Master of All Desires (Viking 1999, Penguin 2000), set in the Renaissance court of Catherine de Medici (best of the year, Library Times). She received the Romantic Times Career Achievement Award for historical novels in 1999.

Press comments:

"Judith Merkle Riley's novels are small jewels, smooth and polished, glowing with a light all their own. . ."
Detroit Free Press

"Fast paced. . .arresting and absorbing."
New York Times Book Review

"Intelligent, witty, and elegantly written. . ." (The Oracle Glass)
The San Francisco Chronicle

"An engrossing read. . ."
The New Woman

"Chilly, witty, and completely engrossing. With a cheerful skewering (historically grounded) of the sheer, cretinous awfulness of the Sun King's satellites, plenty of skittery action, and a wisp of the supernatural (the heroine does 'see' the future). Great, good fun."
Kirkus Reviews