A literary anniversary

Joshua Bilmes, president of the JABberwocky Literary Agency and agent to Charlaine Harris, Elizabeth Moon and Brandon Sanderson, among many other clients, is celebrating 25 years in the literary biz. Thursday night he hosted a party for a group of well-wishers who have been friends along the journey. Among the group of almost twenty who gathered at a New York restaurant were Del Rey editor in chief Betsy Mitchell and author Peter V. Brett, who is one of Joshua’s most recent successes. (Thanks for the great dinner, Joshua!)

Peter V. Brett, Betsy Mitchell, Joshua Bilmes

In the “I-knew-him-when” department, my history with Joshua goes back to when he was in high school and I was associate editor at Analog Magazine. Every month Joshua would send in a lengthy and reasoned letter of comment on the latest issue. His critiques were well thought out and it was obvious he read widely in the genre. When I moved to then start-up publisher Baen Books, I invited Joshua to serve a summer internship reading manuscripts. Seeing the glamour and wonder of the publishing business , Joshua joined the Scott Meredith Literary Agency after graduating college and the rest, as they say, is part of publishing history.

Here’s a photo of Peter Brett, on the left; me, and Joshua. Peter’s The Desert Spear goes on sale in Del Rey mass market next week.