Very short, as there's a lot to get in: Jandy Nelson at Manus Associates found former policewoman Laurie Lynn Drummond a home with Marjorie Braman at Harper Collins for a book of stories about women in police work and a novel; it was a best-bid, six-figure deal for world rights.... A British journalist, George Pendle, tells the amazing story of an American rocket pioneer in 1930s Los Angeles who was also a confirmed occultist, dead at 37. He was John Whiteside Parsons, and Pendle's book, Strange Angel, was bought for six figures, U.S. rights, by Andrea Schulz at Harcourt from agent Jill Grinberg at Anderson Grinberg; there was also a London sale.... Crown's Pete Fornatale exercised his option to get another book (following Ice Time) from Jay Atkinson. It's tentatively titled Private Investigator: A Year on the Street and describes the author's initiation into the life of a private eye at Boston's McCain Investigations. Peter McGuigan at Sanford Greenburger made the U.S. rights sale.... Jodi Harris at Harper Children's Books has bought English and North American Spanish-language rights to a new series of 26 titles by author/illustrator Mercer Mayer. The books, bought from Mayer's Big Tuna Trading Co., will launch in spring 2004.... At Villard, Bruce Tracy bought a comic memoir by magazine editor David Itzkoff about how a young man tries to live up to the macho standards of Maxim magazine, where he used to work. The North American rights sale was made by Nina Collins at Collins McCormick.... Bloomsbury's Colin Dickerman bought a book by comedienne and Grace magazine humor columnist Wendy Shanker, called The Fat Girl's Guide to Life, which teaches the overweight how to gain empowerment; the North American deal was done with Peter Steinberg at JCA Literary.