Book Born in Blackout
by John F. Baker -- Publishers Weekly, 9/1/2003
We haven't heard yet of any sales of books about the recent blackout, but here's one about a deal interrupted by it. Executive editor Steve Geck at the Greenwillow imprint at Harper Children's was actually negotiating with agent Holly McGhee by phone over a debut book by Katherine Hannigan when the the lights went out and the phones crashed. Meanwhile the author, who had spent the day meeting with Harper editors, was on her way to the airport to return to her home in Iowa; in the end she spent the night with a relative in Brooklyn, paid an unexpected visit to her parents in Buffalo, and finally flew home Sunday. On Monday morning Geck and McGhee completed the deal, for an untitled novel about a girl called Ida B. Applewood, described as reminiscent of Opal in Because of Winn-Dixie. Publication date is tentatively set for fall 2004.
