Bertinelli Gets in the Kitchen for Rodale
Actress and Jenny Craig spokesperson, Valerie Bertinelli, is taking to the kitchen for her first cookbook, One Dish at a Time. Pam Krauss, vice-president and publishing director of Rodale Books, bought world rights to the title from Dan Strone at Trident Media Group. Bertinelli chronicled, among other things, her lifelong battle with her weight in her bestselling 2008 memoir, Losing It (Free Press); the new cookbook offers family recipes that have helped her keep the pounds off. The book, Rodale said, will also be peppered with lifestyle tips; One Dish at a Time is scheduled for fall 2012.
Lowell, O'Connor Go Under Spotlight at HMH
Jenna Johnson, at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, pre-empted world English rights to the debut novel, Frances & Bernard, by Carlene Bauer. Agent P.J. Mark, at Janklow & Nesbit, brokered the deal, and HMH is planning a fall 2012 publication. The epistolary work explores an intense friendship—which evolves into romance—between two writers in New York during the 1950s and is inspired by the relationship between poet Robert Lowell and novelist Flannery O'Connor. (The two writers met in 1949 at Yaddo, the artists' retreat.)
Lippold Talks U.S.S. Cole
Former Navy commander Kirk S. Lippold sold world rights to his book, Front Burner: The Attack on the U.S.S. Cole, to Brandon Proia at Public Affairs. Lippold struck the deal without an agent; the book recounts the October 12, 2000, attack on the ship by al-Qaeda. The title is slated for 2012.
Briefs
Palgrave Macmillan's Luba Ostashevsky bought North American rights to a biography of Stephen Hawking by Kitty Ferguson. Agent Rita Rosenkranz brokered the deal, working with Brie Burkeman in the U.K. (where rights sold to Bantam), and Macmillan plans to publish the currently untitled work in January 2012 to coincide with Hawking's 70th birthday. Ferguson's first biography of Hawking came out in 1992 and the new book, Ostashevsky said, will be informed by the friendship (and working relationship) that has developed between author and subject .
