Twelve years in the making, Jennifer Mandula released her first novel in March 2026.
Six months later, The Geomagician is finding some success and Mandula, who describes herself as the writer of fun, romantic, cozy-ish fantasy that flirts with the dark, is anticipating the release of its sequel, The Paleomancer, in the spring of 2027.
Mandula will discuss her book inside Rodman Auditorium at 6 p.m. on Monday, September 28, when she kicks off the 2026 Fogle Author Series at Rodman Public Library. Following her remarks, whe will sign books, which will be available for sale that night.
Registration is required to attend Mandula’s talk.
Of course, Mandula didn’t just sit down and produce her first novel. Like most writers, the idea simmered in her thoughts for about a decade before she was able to finally sit down and pen The Geomagician, which reimagines the life of real-world 19th-century paleontologist Mary Anning in an alternate Victorian Britain where scholars use fossils to wield magic.
Anning (1799-1847) was an English fossil collector whose findings contributed to changes in scientific thinking about prehistoric life, but because she was a woman did not receive the recognition she deserved during her lifetime.
When Mandula, who holds a Bachelor's in English from Davidson College in North Carolina and a Master's in Education (Learning & Technology) from the University of Oxford, learned of Anning while living in the UK, the California native who now is based in Cleveland, started to formulate the idea of a story. Learning that Anning had been struck by lightning as a child created the spark for her fantasy story.
Mandula ruminated on the thought for about a decade. Meanwhile, she wrote other novels that she never sold before finally sitting down to author that breakthrough, The Geomagician.
A lover of creative worlds, witty banter, clever characters, and surprising magic, Mandula has packed it all into The Geomagician, in which Anning dreams of becoming a paleontologist who can wield magic, but a society that refuses to admit women forces her to sell her fossil discoveries to tourists. When she discovers a baby pterodactyl, her chance at recognition seems within reach until the society sends Henry Stanton, the man who once broke her heart, to claim it. As Mary uncovers secrets about the society and Henry, she must choose between her ambition, her conscience and her heart.
A mother of three tiny humans and a corgi named Sgt. Stubby, Mandula answered some questions via email ahead of her visit to Alliance.
Here’s what she had to say:
Q: Did you always want to be a writer?
A: Yes, I always wanted to be a writer!
I started writing stories as soon as I could write sentences. I knew that I also needed a “day job” though, so I originally planned to be a Medieval studies professor—I thought that would be a great day job for a fantasy author. But in college I was so awful at Latin that I had to pivot, and ended up going into educational technology for higher ed. Now I’m a part-time stay at home mom to three girls and a part-time novelist.
Q: You are finding some success with your first novel, The Geomagician. How did you come up with the idea for the book and can you discuss your process in writing it?
A: I came up with the idea for The Geomagician twelve years ago, while I was in graduate school at Oxford in the UK. I was visiting the Oxford Museum of Natural History and saw some fossils that she had collected. I learned that despite finding some of the most important fossils of all time she wasn’t allowed to join The Geomagcian Society of London because she was a woman. I felt outraged for her, but then I read that when she was fifteen months old, Mary was struck by lightning.
I immediately thought, if this were a fantasy novel, she would have gained magic powers. And that was the first notion of the book.
That idea stayed with me for more than a decade, as I tried to break into publishing as a novelist. I wrote several other books but never sold any to a publisher. I started writing this one in 2023, and in 2024 it sold in a whirlwind “pre-empt” to Del Rey at Penguin Random House. It’s been a true dream come true to see my work reaching readers, and to have the chance to share Mary’s stories with others.
Q: What do you like to read? Who are some of your favorite authors?
A: I mostly read fantasy but dabble occasionally in sci-fi. Some of my favorite authors are T. Kingfisher, Naomi Novik, and Alix E. Harrow. A couple recent releases that I’ve read and loved recently are This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me by Ilona Andrews, Burn the Sea by Mona Tewari, and City of Iron & Ivy by Thomas Kent West.
Q: What advice would you give to someone who wants to be a writer?
A: My evergreen advice is to “write the next thing.”
If you want to write a novel but haven’t, go write it. Don’t worry if it’s good, or if it will be published. Just finish it, then worry.
If you’ve written a book and are looking to get it published, great—while you work on that, write the next one.
That’s really the only way to get published in my opinion. You just keep writing books and hope one works eventually!
Q: What are you working on right now?
A: My next book is The Paleomancer, which is the sequel to The Geomagician and completes the duology. It is slotted to come out next spring, but that could always change.
After that, I don’t know what’s next, but I’m working on a few different pitches to bring to my editor.
Q: What can people expect when they come hear you speak at Rodman Public Library.
A: I’ll talk about the book itself and how I wrote it, but I also love to talk about the real history of 1820s-30s England, which was the early days of The Industrial Revolution and 30 years before Darwin published his theory of evolution. I did a lot of really interesting research from this time period that shaped the plot and characters of the book. I’ll also talk a bit about the parallels between our own time, in the age of AI, and those early days of the Industrial Revolution, when skilled artisans and laborers were replaced by machinery or forced to accept poverty wages.