AIR BORN

Air Born

Jessica Pawley
Published by Steam Press, RRP $19.99

Steam Press is delighted to publish Air Born, the first book in the action-packed four-part series, Generation Icarus. This series had over a million reads when it was published online. Worldwide Russian and Chinese rights of this revised edition have already been sold. Film/TV rights have also been sold to a UK producer, and is in development.

When 17-year-old Tyler Owen starts having back pain, he doesn’t think it’s a big deal. He’s wrong. During his first solo skydive, his wings emerge. Wings that will simultaneously save and destroy his life. 

Caught on camera, Tyler is an instant viral hit, attracting unwanted attention of the worst kind. Forced to go on the run, he’s pursued by the sinister Evolutionary Corporation and a dubious religious cult known as the Angelists. But the widespread media coverage also brings forward others like him from around the world.  Together they form the Flight – finding out the hard way what it means to be the first of a new species. 

Air Born will be first published in September 2017 in NZ, however worldwide Chinese and Russian language rights have already been sold and the series has also garnered attention in the US and Latin America. The author has a huge existing social media fanbase, both locally and internationally.

To celebrate the upcoming release of the novel, Steam Press launched a worldwide fan art/fanfic competition. Invitations to the competition were sent to intermediate and secondary schools throughout NZ. The winners (one from NZ and the other from the US) have recently been announced and the winning entries will be published in the book.

About the author:

Jessica Pawley, writing as J L Pawley, is a prolific author from Auckland. She completed her first Diploma in Creative Writing when she was just 17, and went on to earn a Bachelor of Arts in English and Media Studies by age 20, graduating in the top 5% of her class from Massey University. The following year, after working with reluctant readers in a local high school, she wrote the first draft of what was to become Air Born, the first in the YA urban fantasy series, Generation Icarus. Jessica is also the author of two standalone YA romances and The Knowledge Keeper, the first novel of a new YA SF series. She has also written five companion novellas to Generation Icarus.

An early self-published version of Air Born was chosen as a Featured Book on Wattpad in 2014, and won a Bronze award for Readers Favourite in 2015. In early 2016, the manuscript of The Knowledge Keeper was shortlisted for the national Tessa Duder Award.

Jessica has spent the last two years cultivating a strong relationship with a growing online fanbase. The four-book Generation Icarus series has earned over one million reads on Wattpad, and its legions of fans have written fan fiction, created fan art and fan social media accounts.

When she’s not writing or interacting with fans online, Jessica is employed by AUT University as a Teaching Assistant. She has also recently completed her MA (1st Class Hons). Her original research focuses on online interactive eBook platforms; how these digital communities have evolved their own reading and writing processes and how these might be adapted for educational and commercial purposes. Occasionally, Jessica runs creative writing workshops for local school children.