Laura Godwin at Holt Books for Young Readers bought a second trilogy of children's books by British author Philip Ardagh before she has finished publishing his first, the Eddie Dickens Trilogy. The new one, which she bought direct from the author, is called Unlikely Exploits, the first book of which is The Fall of Fergal, already a bestseller in the U.K.....Harper's Dan Menaker bought a book of linked stories, Every Night Is Ladies' Night by Mexican-American author Michael Jaime-Becerra, for the house's Rayo imprint from Lisa Bankoff at ICM, world rights.... Agent Tom Colchie sold a new book by Puerto Rican novelist Mayra Santos-Febres to Riverhead's Julie Grau after the editor heard her read at SUNY; Grau preempted North American English-language rights in a title that translates as Any Wednesday I'm Yours, a noir study of the dark side of San Juan as seen by a night clerk at a seamy motel.... Jane Dystel sold a thriller series about a tough policewoman called, of all things, Jack Daniels, to Leslie Wells at Hyperion; it's by first-timer Joe Konrath. It was a six-figure deal for three books, world rights.... A book maintaining that Chinese-Americans were once subject to the same kind of "ethnic cleansing" as Native Americans and Japanese-Americans was sold by Coast agent Sandy Dijkstra to Random's Scott Moyers, who pre-empted for North American rights, forestalling an auction. It's called Driven Out by Jean Pfaelzer and claims that Chinese were often rounded up and driven out of town in California in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, but stoutly resisted.... Thriller author James Grippando has signed for two more with Harper's Carolyn Marino, in a world rights deal made with agent Richard Pine at Arthur Pine Associates; it was a mid-six-figures deal, and the author will bring back a series hero, Miami lawyer Jack Swytek, from his first book.... In last week's item about Jimmy Carter's Nobel speech book, we misunderstood the publisher's reference to an introduction by the president; it was Carter they meant, not George W.