Orbit is thrilled to announce that we have pre-empted a three-book urban fantasy series by debut author Jaye Wells in a six-figure deal with agent Jonathan Lyons of Lyons Literary LLC. The first volume, RED-HEADED STEPCHILD will be published in 2009.

Editor Devi Pillai says: “We’ve been looking for a new urban fantasy author who really stands out, and in Jaye Wells we know we’ve found one! Jaye Wells is a fabulous writer whose characters just pop off the page. Sabina Kane is sure to be a character that readers will come back to again and again.”

Jaye Wells comments: “The challenge of writing a new urban fantasy series is to create something that hasn’t been seen before. To that end, I focused on creating a world that takes vampire mythology in a whole new direction.”

Half-mage and half-vampire, Sabina Kane’s mixed blood has made her the red-headed stepchild of the vampire race. Despite this, she is loyal to the Dominae, the vampire rulers who raised her to be an assassin. But when Sabina discovers the Dominae’s secret plans to wage war against the mage race, she must choose between the only family she’s ever known and the one that disowned her at birth.

Jaye Wells has worked for a large credit card company, a motivational speaker, a museum, and a magazine publishing company. Since 2002 she has been a freelance writer, with dozens of articles published in regional publications, and has done several copy editing projects for major retail web sites. She lives in Texas with her husband and five-year-old son. You can find her online at www.jayewells.com.