Bloomsbury Lands Mapson’s Latest
Nancy Miller, editorial director at Bloomsbury USA, took world English rights to Jo-Ann Mapson’s novel, Owen’s Daughter, in a deal brokered by agent Deborah Schneider. The book, which is scheduled for August 2013, features characters from the author’s previous Bloomsbury novel, Solomon’s Oak, as well as her forthcoming (due in October) Finding Casey. Bloomsbury is calling Daughter a “stand-alone sequel;” it follows two narratives, the first involving a mother who, after enduring rehab, tries to find the daughter she was forced to leave behind. The second plot follows a middle-aged single mom grappling with devastating medical news. Mapson has written 11 other novels.

Army Wife/Blogger Signs with Hyperion
Sarah Smiley, Army wife and blogger, has sold an inspirational book to Hyperion called Dinner with the Smileys. Kerri Kolen took North American rights from Cheryl Pientka at Jill Grinberg Literary Management. The book, which was nabbed in a pre-empt, is set for summer 2013 and will detail how Smiley and her three children planned dinners for a different guest—they ranged from local friends to celebrities—every week, for over a year, while her husband was deployed. Hyperion said the book will “give readers a powerful message about how we fill the gaps in our lives when loved ones are far away.” Smiley gained national attention for her blogging in 2005, after the New York Times ran a profile of her; she has written two books and is a syndicated columnist.

NBA Nominee Goes to Balzer + Bray
Alessandra Balzer, at her HarperCollins Balzer + Bray imprint, took North American rights to three new books by National Book Award finalist Patricia McCormick; ICM’s Heather Schroder brokered the deal. The first book, A Nice Girl Like You, which features second-person narration, follows a suburban teen who gets hooked on prescription drugs. McCormick has written five previous novels, and it was her 2006 YA book, Sold (Hyperion), about a 13-year-old Nepalese girl sold into prostitution, earned her an NBA nomination.

Norton Touts Fairer Sex with Konner
John Glusman, editor-in-chief at Norton, nabbed world English rights to Emory University professor Melvin Konner’s The First Sex: Women and the Twilight of Male Supremacy. Elaine Markson at Markson Thoma represented Konner in the deal, and the book, Norton said, offers “an argument for the natural superiority of women.” Konner teaches anthropology and behavioral biology and has written a number of books including, most recently, The Evolution of Childhood (Harvard Univ./Belknap Press); First Sex is on track for spring 2014.

Briefs
Elisabeth Schmitz at Grove/Atlantic took North American rights to journalist Joanna Connors’s investigation into her own rape, I Will Find You. Jane Dystel, of Dystel & Goderich, brokered the deal, calling the book a memoir that “could easily be a moving, well-crafted thriller.” Examining her own history, as well as how the police handled the crime, Connors winds up uncovering surprising truths about herself and striking some unexpected friendships.

R.J. Smith sold a biography of Aretha Franklin called R.E.S.P.E.C.T. to Da Capo’s Ben Schafer. Paul Bresnick at Paul Bresnick Literary did the world rights deal, and the book, slated for fall 2015, will be, per the Perseus imprint, “the first full-scale, authoritative, definitive” take on the singer. The book’s subtitle is The Life, Times, and Legacy of Aretha Franklin.