Dutton Wins Blum’s Followup
By Matthew Thornton -- Publishers Weekly, 3/11/2008 7:43:00 AM
Dutton editor-in-chief Trena Keating beat six other bidders for Jenna Blum’s second novel, titled The Stormchasers, in an auction conducted by Stephanie Abou at Foundry Literary + Media. Keating paid a “substantial six figure sum” for North American rights. Set against a lonely, majestic Midwestern backdrop, the book follows twins whose genetic double helix includes a love of big weather. As Charles, a professional stormchaser, and Katrina, a weathergirl, also struggle with a shared secret—a terrible event caused by Charles’s bipolarity—Blum explores the issue of how much we owe our siblings, and at what cost to ourselves.
Blum’s debut, Those Who Save Us, was published by Harcourt in 2004 and broke out three years later as a Harvest paperback, thanks largely to a Borders 2-for-1 promotion initiated in January 2007. The book is now on the New York Times trade paperback bestseller list. Pub date for The Stormchasers is yet to be decided.
