A new book by Ray Kurzweil, called The Singularity Is Near, was sold for mid-six-figures to Viking's Rick Kot, North American rights, for publication in 2003; the book, sold by agent Loretta Barrett, will examine the point at which the author expects computers and the human mind to interconnect and become virtually indivisible.... Two YA titles have made good movie deals recently. Son of the Mob by Gordon Korman was optioned by Jane Startz Productions for production through Miramax; the deal for the Hyperion title was brokered by Bill Bratton at Curtis Brown, working with Startz's Gillian McKenzie. Warner Bros. paid a high six figures for The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants by Ann Brashares, a bestseller from Delacorte; the deal was brokered by WMA on behalf of 17th Street Productions, representing the author.... Nan A. Talese has bought North American rights in a new novel by critically acclaimed African-American author Lorene Cary (Black Ice; Pride). It's called Blackface and is about a black family's effort to get reparations for a 1938 lynching; the sale was made by agent Jane Dystel.