Two S&S Preempts
Marysue Rucci at S&S has preempted Oxygenby Carol Wiley Cassella in a two-book deal with Kim Witherspoon and David Forrer at Inkwell, who sold world English rights. Oxygen is a novel of psychological suspense about an anesthesiologist who must salvage her career and reputation when a child dies under her care; the second book will also have a medical theme, but no continuing characters. Cassella is a practicing anesthesiologist and former writer for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Likely pub for Oxygen is spring 2008.
Bob Bender preempted world rights to James Scott's Attack on the Liberty via agent Wendy Strothman. The son of a Liberty survivor, Scott will examine the deadly attack on the U.S. Navy ship by Israel during the Six-Day War, and reveal how the U.S. government chose to protect an ally rather than seek answers in an assault that left 34 American sailors dead. Possible pub in fall 2009.
More from Marchetto
Cancer Vixen author and New Yorker and Glamourcartoonist Marisa Acocella Marchetto has a new, untitled project in the works, and Robin Desser at Knopf has just bought U.S. rights from Elizabeth Sheinkman at Curtis Brown UK. This is to be a graphic novel about what happens when a powerful, high-profile New York woman is suddenly made all too "connected"—susceptible to what everyone around her is saying and thinking. No pub date yet. Cancer Vixen has been optioned by Working Title Films, with Cate Blanchett to star.
At Atlas
James Atlas has acquired the first book for his new Atlas Books. It is Frog in a Well by Lijia Zhang, a Beijing-based translator who will write a memoir of her life as a factory worker; Atlas bought world rights from Hong Kong agency Creative Work Ltd. Since its founding, Atlas has formed partnerships with other publishers, among them HarperCollins, Norton and Perseus. Pub date for the Zhang is spring 2008.
Mystery Winners
Hope Dellon at St. Martin's Press has acquired U.S. rights to three new titles in the Three Pines mystery series by Canadian writer Louise Penny from agent Patty Moosbrugger. Set in a deceptively quiet Quebeçois village just north of the U.S. border, the books feature the brilliant Chief Inspector Armand Gamache and a recurring cast of villagers whose lives are more complicated than they appear. Minotaur published the first book in the series, Still Life, last July, and SMP already has books two and three in the series—A Fatal Grace, to be published in May 2007, and The Cruelest Month, in winter 2008—in addition to the three new titles.
Otto Penzler has acquired world rights to three novels by the late Mickey Spillane for his eponymous imprint at Harcourt via agent Dominic Abel. The new novels, written with occasional Spillane collaborator and fellow mystery writer Max Allan Collins, feature private eye Mike Hammer and are titled The Goliath Bone, The Big Bang and King of Weeds. Bone will be out in spring 2008. Spillane died in 2006.
Standup Deals
Agent Laura Dail just sold comedian Bill Santiago's Pardon My Spanglish: Como que why? Porque Because! to Mindy Brown at Quirk Books, who acquired world "Spanglish" rights. This humor book takes on the unofficial, all-American language, beloved for having twice the vocabulary and half the grammar. Santiago has done two Comedy Central specials, appeared on Conan O'Brien and logged over 300 standup shows last year. Pub date is likely spring 2008.
Standup comedian Robert Schimmel has just sold I Licked the Big C, an inspirational tale of his cancer battle, to Marnie Cochran at Da Capo, via Kirby Kim and David Vigliano at Vigliano Associates, who sold world rights. Pub date is spring 2008.
