FSG Gets 'Crewel' ...for the Kids
Mollie Glick at Foundry sold North American rights at auction to Gen Albin's debut YA novel, Crewel. Farrar, Straus and Giroux Books for Young Readers senior editor Janine O'Malley bought the book last Friday, June 3, after four other pre-empts came in earlier in the week. Albin, who founded the parenting blog theconnectedmom.com and edited the Missouri Review while getting her M.A. at the University of Missouri, blends science fiction, suspense, and romance in the story, which is set in a world where women designated as "Spinsters" can control time. The novel follows a 16-year-old set to become a Spinster—Glick said the special designation comes at a price as these women must "enter a world of secrets and lethal intrigue"—who has a special power that will play a key role in the destiny of the world.

Judith Weber Closes Triplet
Agent Judith Weber, at Sobel Weber Associates, closed three separate deals this week. In the first deal, Weber sold North American rights to two financial thrillers by first-time author Michael Sears. Neil Nyren at Putnam bought the books, which both feature a protagonist named Jason Stafford who lost it all on Wall Street and resurrects his career as a financial investigator. The first Stafford book, Blue Mondays, is scheduled for fall 2012, with book two to follow in 2013. Sears is a former Wall Street man himself, having worked for Paine Webber.

In the second deal, which Weber closed with her agency's cofounder Nat Sobel, David Highfill at William Morrow acquired North American rights to the debut novel A Land More Kind Than Home. Author Wiley Cash, who plays off the closing lines of Thomas Wolfe's You Can't Go Home Again with his title, delivers a literary thriller set in a small Southern town about a young boy who, along with his brother, witnesses something that alters the fate of the town and its citizens. Cash teaches English at Bethany College, and the book has already sold in France, Germany, and the U.K.

In the third sale, Weber sold Laura Lee Smith's debut novel, Hearts of Palm, to Amy Hundley at Grove Atlantic. The work is tentatively scheduled for summer 2012. In the novel, the Bravo family, who live in the Florida town of Utina, buckles under various internal and external pressures as they struggle to keep their restaurant afloat and face offers of a buyout from local real estate developers. Smith, who lives in St. Augustine, Fla., has written for, among other publications, the Florida Review, and one of her short stories appeared in the 2010 edition of New Stories from the South: The Year's Best (Algonquin).

Briefs
Juliet Grames at Soho Press bought world English rights to a time travel novel called The Man in the Empty Suit by Sean Ferrell. Janet Reid at FinePrint handled the deal for Ferrell. The novel, scheduled for fall 2012, is about a time traveler who stumbles upon details about his impending death. With this knowledge, the main character then attempts to alter the future and prevent his demise.