Palgrave Gets Mr. Mummy-fied
Luba Ostashevsky at Palgrave Macmillan bought world rights to Dr. Bob Brier’s Egyptomania from Anna Olswanger at Liza Dawson Associates. Brier is an Egyptologist known as “Mr. Mummy”—in addition to teaching at Long Island’s C.W. Post University, he often appears on networks like Discovery and The Learning Channel. The book, Olswanger said, will explore people’s fascination with ancient Egypt and how that fascination runs “from the scholarly…to the kitsch.” The book is scheduled for fall 2013.

Pegasus Goes Jurassic With Martin
Paleontologist Anthony Martin has sold Dinosaurs Without Bones to Jessica Case at Pegasus Books. Laura Wood at Fine Print Literary Management brokered the world rights deal for Martin, who is credited with being half of the team that discovered the remains of the first burrowing dinosaur. The book, Case said, “reveals the lives of dinosaurs” and touches on things ranging from their land speed to their preference (or disdain) for activities like swimming.

Harris ‘Hams’ It Up for Gallery
Entertainer Sam Harris sold a humorous essay and story collection called Ham: Slices of Life to Mitchell Ivers at Simon & Schuster’s Gallery Books in a world English rights deal. Agent David Forrer at Inkwell Management represented Harris, who’s appeared on Broadway in musicals like The Producers and Grease—he’s been nominated for a Tony—and also has the odd honor of being the first winner of the original talent-hunt show, Star Search. In the book, which is scheduled for January 2014, Harris delivers a mixture of tales touching on everything from his childhood (growing up gay in a small Oklahoma town) to his celebrity life (helping Liza Minnelli plan her most recent wedding).

Brezenoff Explores ‘Real Life’ at Balzer + Bray
Agent Edward Necarsulmer IV at McIntosh and Otis closed a North American rights, two-book, deal for YA author Steve Brezenoff (Brooklyn, Burning) with Jordan Brown at HarperCollins’s Balzer + Bray imprint. The deal is for a love story called Guy In Real Life that follows, as Necarsulmer put it, “two teenage gamers who find each other just when the roles they play in their real lives threaten to break them.” The book is tentatively slated for summer 2014.

Greenwillow’s ‘Tree Magic’
In a six-figure deal, Martha Mihalick at HarperCollins’s Greenwillow Books nabbed world rights, at auction, to a picture book called Tree Magic, along with a second title, by Christie Matheson. Stacey Glick at Dystel & Goderich represented Matheson, who has written a number of lifestyle books and also edits the parenting Web site StrollerTraffic. Glick described the picture book, which is scheduled for fall 2013 and will be the author’s first picture book, as "innovative yet classic"; it follows a tree as it changes through the seasons.

Briefs
Bob DiForio at D4EO Literary Agency sold North American rights to Ph.D. Robert Leahy’s Keeping Your Head After Losing Your Job. Lynn Price, at Behler Publications, acquired the book. Leahy is a therapist and wrote the bestseller The Worry Cure. Keeping Your Head will be Behler’s lead title on its fall 2013 list.

Correction
In last week’s item about the book The App Generation, which Yale University Press acquired, one of the book’s authors was not included. Howard Gardner is writing the book with Katie Davis. Furthermore, Gardner is a Harvard professor and MacArthur grant recipient, not Davis. (Davis is a professor at the University of Washington Information School).