A recent novel called The Muse Asylum by David Czuchlewski has been getting favorable attention, and now his Putnam editor, Aimee Taub, has signed him for a second, as-yet-untitled novel on the basis of that strong showing; she made the North American hard/soft deal with Elie Sidel at the John Hawkins agency.... Alicia Brooks at Picador bought world rights at auction to a book called The Other Axis: Ford, Lindbergh and the Rise of the Reich by Max Wallace, pinpointing Henry's and Charles's longstanding Nazi sympathies and support; agent was Noah Lukeman at AMG.... Harcourt's Michael Stearns paid a significant six figures for a first YA novel by Jennifer Donnelly, A Northern Light, bought from Steve Malk at Writers House.... Also in the junior arena was a series of strong foreign sales, some in six figures, for a children's fantasy series, The Abarat Quartet, by Clive Barker, which Harper is launching in the fall; sales of the series, with paintings by the author, have been made so far by HC's sub rights director Pat Buckley to Germany, Japan, Brazil, Holland and Spain.... A first novel called Househusband by Ad Hudler, a former journalist who is now living that life, was won at auction by Ballantine editorial director Maureen O'Neal for six figures; the North American deal was handled by agent Wendy Sherman .... A Norton first novel, The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint by Brady Udall, the story of a plucky half-Apache orphan, has been optioned for the movies by Single Cell Pictures in a deal arranged by William Morris's Bill Contardi on behalf of agent Nicole Aragi at Watkins Loomis.