Mother and Child Reunion
In a unique deal inspired by the father-son addiction memoirs separately written (and published) by David Sheff (Beautiful Boy) and his son Nic (Tweak), Adam Chromy of Artists and Artisans closed a two-book deal with HarperCollins's It Books imprint for a mother-son perspective on addiction, selling a pair of memoirs by Steven Adler and his mother, Deanna Adler. Adler, the former drummer for Guns N' Roses who has made headlines more recently for his often jarringly unsuccessful attempts to fight his longtime heroin habit on the VH-1 reality show Celebrity Rehab, has signed to write My Appetite for Destruction for Mauro DiPreta. DiPreta acquired world rights to that title along with Sweet Child of Mine, which will be written by Deanna Adler. The books are slated to drop at the same time, in 2010, and will be coauthored by Lawrence J. Spagnola.
Wiley Takes 'Big Daddy' & 'Dani'
Two deals from Wiley this week—one for a Food Network newbie and the other for resilient parents. Justin Schwartz has taken world rights (excluding audio) to Aaron McCargo Jr.'s cookbook, Simply to Well Done. McCargo won last year's season of the reality show The Next Food Network Star and has since been hosting his own show, Big Daddy's House. His cookbook will feature recipes in line with his reliance on “big, bold flavors”; it's slated to pub in spring 2011. Jane Dystel brokered the deal.
Wiley's Stephen Power bought North American rights, from agent Sarah Lazin, to the memoir Dani's Story by Diane and Bernie Lierow. The book is a nonfiction account, to be written with Kay West, of the Lierows' difficult experience helping their adopted daughter recover from years of neglect she suffered at the hands of her biological mother. (The neglect was so severe that, at one point, doctors predicted the girl might not speak.)
Da Capo Licks 'Chops'
Reneé Sedliar, senior editor at Da Capo's Lifelong Books, took world rights to Kim O'Donnel's Licking Your Chops. The deal was closed by agents Sally Ekus and Lisa Ekus-Saffer. O'Donnel, a food blogger who oversaw the long-running weekly live chat “What's Cooking” for washingtonpost.com, offers 52 recipes for meals without meat, creating a companion for the “Meatless Mondays” initiative launched by Johns Hopkins's Bloomberg School of Public Health.
