Short Takes

Ballantine's Elizabeth Dyssegaard made a two-book deal for novels with Dan Chaon, whose story collection Among the Missing was nominated for a National Book Award in 2001. The world rights deal, signed with agent Noah Lukeman, calls for the first of the new books to be published in 2006. Meanwhile Chaon's first novel, You Remind Me of Me, is due in June.... A debut thriller by Cleveland forensic scientist Elizabeth Becka, was won at auction by Hyperion's Peternelle von Arsdale. It's about the hunt for a serial killer who is drowning young women in that city's Cuyahoga River and was signed, for North American rights, with agent Elaine Koster.... Nancy Mercado at Dial Books for Young Readers bought a YA novel about a schoolgirl's romance with a rock star from British publisher Macmillan for publication this fall. It's So Super Starry by 25-year-old Rose Wilkens, who bet friends she could write a book as good as those she was reading at a publishing house. Mercado preempted for U.S. and the Philippines for the book and a sequel.... Penguin's Jane von Mehren bought a romantic comedy about a single young assistant DA who plans her love life around techniques learned from Doris Day movies. It's The Thing About Jane Spring by New York–based Australian journalist Sharon Krum, and the North American rights deal was made with agent Barbara Zitwer .... Random's Jonathan Karp preempted an inspirational book about starting your own business, Lucky or Smart? by Bo Peabody, who made a fortune a dozen years ago in early Internet startups; Karp got world rights from Lydia Wills at Writers & Artists Group International; Random U.K. has already signed on.... After a bidding battle, the Gossip Girl series of YA novels published by Little, Brown has been optioned for a movie by Warner Bros. The studio did the deal for the books, by Cecily von Ziegesar, with president of 17th Street Productions Leslie Morgenstern, who will also produce the project. Lindsay Lohan will have the lead role.