Male Bonding
Viking publisher Paul Slovak won an auction for Lou Ureneck’s second book, Cabin: Two Brothers, a Dream and Five Acres in Maine; Jill Kneerim at Kneerim & Williams sold world rights. Ureneck is currently building a small post-and-beam cabin with his younger brother in the Maine woods, a process he’s been blogging about for the New York Times. The book will chronicle the building of the cabin over three seasons, in so doing telling a deeper story about home, family and brotherly bonds, the losses and disappointments middle age can bring and the healing power of nature. Ureneck’s first book, Backcast: Fatherhood, Fly-fishing and a River Journey Through the Heart of Alaska, published in 2007 by St. Martin’s, won the National Outdoor Book Award.
James Peltz at SUNY Press acquired North American rights to Truckin’ with Sam: A Father and Son, on the Road by Lee Gutkind with Sam Gutkind; Andrew Blauner made the sale. Inspired by the Grateful Dead song, the founding editor of Creative Nonfiction and his teenage son take off across the Alaska-Canadian Highway to experience some of the world spontaneously and come to better understand each other and their relationship in the process. The book will pub in time for Father’s Day next year.
Big Debuts
Hilary Teeman at St. Martin’s won an auction for Tatjana Soli’s debut, The Lotus Eaters, with Nat Sobel at Sobel Weber selling North American rights. This novel, described by Richard Russo as “beautiful and harrowing,” follows an American combat photographer covering the Vietnam War as she breaks into the man’s world of war photojournalism and finds herself torn between two men. Soli’s short fiction has been twice listed in the “100 Distinguished Stories” in Best American Short Stories and nominated for the Pushcart. SMP plans a summer 2010 publication.
At Doubleday, Allison Callahan pre-empted a first novel by Phillip Margulies titled Belle Cora; Dorian Karchmar at William Morris sold North American rights. Based loosely on the life of the 19th-century prostitute of the same name, the book is written in the form of a two-volume memoir by one of San Francisco’s richest and most revered dowagers. In it, the heroine tells the story of her moral fall and material rise over the course of the century, carrying her from the farms, mills, drawing rooms (and bedrooms) of New York to the California gold rush.
Leonard to Viking
Viking senior editor Josh Kendall has acquired the autobiography of “Sugar” Ray Leonard in a North American rights deal with Jay Mandel at William Morris. The untitled book, to be written with Michael Arkush (author of The Fight of the Century and, with Phil Jackson, The Last Season), will detail the boxer’s life in and out of the ring. Tentative pub date is summer 2011.
Workman Pre-empts Petrow
Workman editor-in-chief Susan Bolotin has pre-empted world English rights to Steven Petrow’sGay and Lesbian Manners: Advice for LGBT Folks* (*and Their Families and Friends) via Richard Pine at InkWell. Petrow, the “Queeries” columnist for the Huffington Post, will provide advice on coming out, the rules of courtship, sex etiquette, commitment ceremonies, bringing babies on board, confronting homophobia and more. Petrow, the author of five previous books, will be launching a fully interactive companion Web site in anticipation of Workman’s spring 2011 publication.
Inside Mexico’s Drug Wars
Nation Books editor Ruth Baldwin bought North American rights to Charles Bowden’s new book, Miss Sinaloa: Lessons of the Dead in Mexico via Kathleen Anderson at Anderson Literary Management. Exploring the idea that Mexico is collapsing into a permanent culture of violence, Bowden focuses on the border town of Ciudad Juarez, known as the place where women disappear, and where last year alone 1,607 people were murdered. Miss Sinaloa, a beauty queen who loses her mind after being raped, becomes a parable for the town itself, caught in the crosshairs of drug and immigration wars.
The Briefing
Bill Wolfsthal at Skyhorse pre-empted Phil Villarreal’sSecrets of a Stingy Scoundrel: 100 Dirty Little Money-Grubbing Secrets via Neil Salkind, who sold world rights. The Arizona Daily Star’s movie critic, Villarreal will provide 100 brief essays on humorous and outrageous ways to save money, from slashing engagement ring costs to getting cheap hospital care... Penguin Press’s Jane Fleming has acquired a new book by Novella Carpenter, author of the forthcoming memoir Farm City, due out from Penguin Press in June. Carpenter and Willow Rosenthal will write The Complete Urban Farmer, a hands-on guide to growing your own food in the city, from growing produce to raising animals to preserving what you reap. The book, to pub in spring 2010, will be a Penguin trade paperback; Michelle Brower at Wendy Sherman Associates sold world rights.