Invoking Darkness

Jeanne Cavelos Biography

This biography is taken from the Invoking Darkness press release from The Ballantine Publishing Group.

JEANNE CAVELOS is a writer, editor, scientist, and teacher. She began her professional life as an astrophysicist and mathematician, teaching astronomy at Michigan State University and Cornell University, and working in the Astronaut Training Division at NASA's Johnson Space Center.

Her love of science fiction led her to earn her MFA in creative writing. She moved into a career in publishing, becoming a senior editor at Dell Publishing, where she created and launched the Abyss imprint of psychological horror, for which she won the World Fantasy Award, and the Cutting Edge imprint of literary fiction. She also ran the science fiction/fantasy publishing program. In addition, she edited a wide range of fiction and nonfiction. She worked with such authors as Patrick McCabe, Barry Gifford, Peter Dickinson, William F. Nolan, Joan Vinge, Robert Anton Wilson, Dennis Etchison, Tanith Lee, Kathe Koja, Poppy Z. Brite, and Jeanne Kalogridis. In her eight years in New York publishing, Jeanne edited numerous award-winning and best-selling authors and gained a reputation for discovering and nurturing new writers.

Six years ago, Jeanne left New York to pursue her own writing career. Her latest book is Invoking Darkness, the third volume in the best-selling The Passing of the Techno-Mages trilogy, set in the Babylon 5 universe (Del Rey, December 2001). The Sci-Fi Channel called the trilogy "A revelation for Babylon 5 fans. . . . Not 'television episodic' in look and feel. They are truly novels in their own right." The highly praised first volume, Casting Shadows, was called "The best Babylon 5 book to date" by About.com. Her book The Science of Star Wars (St. Martin's) is now available in trade paperback with a new "Afterword" discussing the possibilities and problems raised by the introduction of midi-chlorians as carriers of the Force. The book was chosen by the New York Public Library for its recommended reading list, and CNN said, "Cavelos manages to make some of the most mind-boggling notions of contemporary science understandable, interesting and even entertaining." The Science of The X-Files (Berkley/Boulevard) was nominated for the Bram Stoker Award. Publishers Weekly called it "Crisp, conversational, and intelligent." Jeanne has also written the Babylon 5 novel The Shadow Within (Dell), which has been called "one of the best TV tie-in novels ever written" (Dreamwatch magazine).

Jeanne runs Jeanne Cavelos Editorial Services, which provides editing, consulting, and critiquing services to publishers, book packagers, agents, and authors. Among its clients are major publishers and best-selling and award-winning writers.

Since she loves working with developing writers, Jeanne created and serves as director of Odyssey, an annual six-week summer writing workshop for writers of fantasy, science fiction, and horror held at Southern New Hampshire University in Manchester. Jeanne is also an English lecturer at Saint Anselm College in Manchester, New Hampshire, where she teaches writing.

Jeanne has spoken widely on writing, publishing, science, and science fiction at venues as varied as the Smithsonian Institute, the Intel International Science Fair, the American Chemical Society, Dartmouth College, the Discovery Channel, Turner Entertainment, the Art Bell radio program, and many science-fiction conventions.

More information about Jeanne is on her website, www.sff.net/people/jcavelos.