Two-time British Fantasy Award-winning author Mark Chadbourn has signed a six-book deal with US publisher Pyr. The SF and fantasy imprint from Prometheus Books will publish the first of Chadbourn's epic Elizabethan fantasy sequence, The Swords of Albion, in Fall 2009, with books two and three in subsequent years.

Pyr has also acquired the rights to Chadbourn's British Fantasy Award-nominated Age of Misrule sequence. The three books will be published in Spring/Summer 2009.

Chadbourn says:

I'm very excited to be working with Pyr on the launch of The Swords of Albion and the US debut of Age of Misrule. Pyr has a dynamic, cool and smart approach to the genre, which, of course, is an excellent fit for my writing!

The Swords of Albion, which will be published in the UK and Commonwealth by Transworld, follows Elizabethan England's greatest spy, Will Swyfte - adventurer, swordsman, rake, swashbuckler, wit and scholar.

Pyr Editorial Director, Lou Anders says of The Swords of Albion:

I first encountered Elizabethan Superspy Will Swyfte in the short story "Who Slays the Gyant, Wounds the Beast," originally published in The Solaris Book of New Fantasy (and subsequently selected for Hartwell and Cramer's Year's Best Fantasy), and fell in love at first read. I was weaned on Ian Fleming and Fritz Leiber, and this wonderfully fun character seemed to marry both these loves into one.

The deal was brokered by Ian Drury at Sheil Land in London and although Chadbourn can't talk cash, the deal will "keep me in curry and absinthe for a while."

You know, whenever I ask an author about their deal, it always comes down to being flush enough to buy beer and pizza for an indefinite amount of time, however in Chadbourn's case, you can tell he's British.