Putnam Lands Guardsman

Neil Nyren, at Putnam, took North American rights at auction to two novels by National Guardsman flight engineer Thomas W. Young. The first book, currently untitled, is slated for fall 2010 and is a survival story about passengers on an army plane, carrying a Muslim person of interest, shot down over Afghanistan. Young wrote the 2008 nonfiction book The Speed of Heat (McFarland & Co.). Michael Carlisle at InkWell Management brokered the deal.

Hyperion Gets on Smile Train

Leslie Wells at Hyperion took world rights to a currently untitled book by philanthropist Brian Mullaney. Mullaney founded the nonprofit Smile Train, which has fixed the cleft palates of over half a million children; in the book he’ll offer stories about those who’ve been helped by the organization as well as details on how the outfit maintains its operating bottom line. Agent Carol Mann brokered the deal; Hyperion is planning to publish in winter 2011.

Andrews to SMP

Bestseller Mary Kay Andrews (The Fixer Upper) is moving to St. Martin’s for her next two novels, signing a deal for world rights with Jennifer Enderlin. Andrews, a former journalist known for her female-friendly mysteries, was at Harper. The first book in the new deal, brokered by Stuart Krichevsky, will be set on North Carolina’s Outer Banks and follow three women who share a summer house; SMP is planning a summer 2011 pub date.

Gotham Gets 'Beautiful’

Miriam Rich at Gotham pre-empted North American rights to Caitlin Boyle’s Operation Beautiful. Boyle, an urban planner who also blogs about healthy living and body image, decided, on a whim, to leave a Post-it with the phrase “You are Beautiful!”—along with her URL—in a public bathroom. That act led to operationbeautiful.com, which culls similar anonymous good-vibe notes. The book, sold by Chris Park at Foundry, will include these notes, as well as tips for developing self-confidence. Gotham is planning to publish as a trade paperback original in August 2010.

Ashe Book to S&S

Free Press’s Martin Beiser won, at auction, world rights to Ray Arsenault’s Arthur Ashe biography. Arsenault (Freedom Riders), who teaches Southern history at the University of South Florida, will discuss the tennis great’s life as well as his contributions to civil, and overall human, rights. The S&S imprint is planning a 2012 publication, timed to that year’s U.S. Open. Agent Wendy Strothman did the deal.

Holt Plays Head Games

In her first acquisition as executive editor at Henry Holt, Gillian Blake pre-empted North American rights from James Levine of Levine Greenberg to neuroscientists Stephen Macknik and Susana Martinez-Conde’s Sleights of Mind: Surprising Insights from the New Science of NeuroMagic, which the duo is authoring with Times science correspondent Sandra Blakeslee. The book delves into this new science, described as a blend of neuroscience and stage magic.

Viking’s Witch-y Woman

Carol DeSanti at Viking pre-empted world rights, in a sizable deal, to Deborah Harkness’s A Discovery of Witches. The book, slated for winter 2011, follows the love affair between a 1,500-year-old vampire and a witch, sparked by the discovery of, per the house, a “long-lost alchemical manuscript” found at Oxford’s Bodleian Library. Sam Stoloff, of the Frances Goldin Agency, brokered the deal.

Pets in 'Manual’ Form

In an auction, Bill Stankey of Westport Entertainment sold world rights to Grand Central’s Karen Murgolo to two books by vet Marty Becker—Your Dog: The Owner’s Manual and Your Cat: The Owner’s Manual. Dr. Becker is a Parade contributor, regular on Good Morning America and, more recently, a fixture on Dr. Oz (the TV show hosted by YOU: The Owner’s Manual coauthor Mehmet Oz); the books are slated, respectively, for winter 2010 and winter 2011.

Briefs

Ben Schafer at Da Capo took North American rights, at auction, to Corey Taylor’s memoir, Seven Deadly Sins. Marc Gerald, of The Agency Group, did the deal. Taylor, the lead singer of the band Slipknot, ruminates, per the publisher, on “sin and the nature of it” in this examination of his drug-addled rock and roll past. The title’s slated for 2011, and Da Capo is likening the book to rock memoirs like Anthony Keidis’s Scar Tissue and Nikki Six’s The Heroin Diaries.... Another celebrity memoir deal closed for Guiding Light star Tina Sloan, who sold Changing Shoes to Lauren Marino at Gotham via agent Wendy Sherman. Sloan played Lillian Raines on the recently axed soap for nearly 26 years. Sherman, who sold North American rights at auction, said the book’s title refers to the way “the shoes women wear reflect the constantly changing roles they play.” Pub is set for fall 2010.