The Book The Authors The Book Launch Party
JJ Barnes
Lead author JJ Barnes is best known as the author of Lilly Prospero Series and What Ivy Wants, and as the editor of The Table Read Magazine.
When Cliff Thomas of Artisan Films approached her in 2017 about writing the script for a short film, JJ came up with the concept for Gracemarch. Originally, the film was a 15 minute short about two sisters who hear strange noises in their family home. However, when that script was so well received, she was asked if it was possible to develop it into a TV series or a feature film.
When JJ began working on the script development with her writing partner, Jonathan McKinney, they created a complete story of Gracemarch, which then went into production with Cliff Thomas as producer in 2018. This story focused on the characters originally created by JJ, combined with the work of Jonathan and ideas and concepts put forward by Cliff.
When production became stalled due to the pandemic, JJ took that script and turned to novelising it. As writing books was JJ’s original passion, this was something she not only enjoyed doing, but felt confident enough to do with success.
Taking the original script, she first transcribed them with prose instead of the stage directions, before adding interiority for Protagonist Jane Waters and filling in the blanks for what would be shown on screen through direction, stage dressing, or acting choices. Once the original script was novelised, JJ was able to develop the world further, adding more scenes and growing the original content to explore the world and the story in more depth, in a way that couldn’t be accomplished in the length of a film.
This book is now Gracemarch The Novel, written by JJ Barnes but with ideas, characters and concepts from Jonathan McKinney and Cliff Thomas.
Jonathan McKinney
Jonathan McKinney is best known as the author of The Schildmaids Saga and Unholy Water, and co-wrote the Gracemarch film script with JJ Barnes.
Cliff Thomas
Producer and founder of Artisan Films, Cliff Thomas has years of experience in the film industry and is excited to create original stories