Author: Sharon Downing Jarvis
Alternate names: Sharon Jarvis; Johanna Hailey; Sharon, Downing Jarvis; Marcia Yvonne Howl
Born: 1940
Bio: Sharon Jarvis has worked in the print media for more than twenty-five years for newspaper, magazine and in publishing companies. She has built a reputation for her market-wise expertise in the cutthroat world of publishing.

Ms. Jarvis has been a sought-after editor from her days at Ballantine where she helped promote the billion-dollar science fiction boom. At Doubleday she was the acquisitions editor and worked with some of the biggest names in science fiction, including Isaac Asimov, Marion Zimmer Bradley and Harlan Ellison.

At Playboy Press, Ms. Jarvis developed, instituted and promoted the science fiction line which helped sustain the publisher through many a setback in other general lines.

In 1983 Ms. Jarvis left the field of publishing to start a literary agency. She is one of the few agents who has sought out new and untried authors. Her finds include may well known authors.

In her off hours, Ms. Jarvis teaches stage combat and choreographs fight sequences for regional theaters. She is expert in rapier and dagger, broadsword, quarterstaff, and hand-to-hand combat. She studied under weapons master Richard Rizk of the Chekov Studios in New York City and with T.J. Glenn, a professional stunt man.

Now Ms. Jarvis is embarking into the world of feature films. The key to making money in this business is to gauge the audience's tastes, to take advantage of what's in, what's out, and to predict, at least three years in advance, what the public will pay for. Ms. Jarvis has proven that she has these qualities time and time again.

Along with these endeavors Ms. Jarvis has started Toad Hall Press, a publishing company dedicated to publishing books "you can't find anywhere else." We leap to a different lily pad, she says of the companies plans to publish esoteric text books, how to books (with an emphasis on writing) and books of regional interest.