People & Publishing Roundup, June 2020
BROOKE BOLANDER is now represented by DongWon Song of Howard Morhaim Literary Agency.
J.K. ROWLING‘s Harry Potter character Salazar Slytherin (who could speak to snakes) provided the name for a new species of pit viper, Trimeresurus salazar, discovered by researchers in India.
Locus assistant editor JOSH PEARCE & EMILY DOAN are the parents of LUCA DOAN PEARCE, born May 15, 2020.
NEIL GAIMAN left New Zealand to self-isolate in ”rural lockdown” at his home on the Isle of Skye in Scotland attracting the ire of the island’s MP, Ian Blackford, who criticized him for ”endangering local people from exposure to this infection” during ”a serious outbreak” on the island. Gaiman says the home is his primary residence and that he’s ”staying put” in self-quarantine. He offered an apology to everyone on the island.
COLSON WHITEHEAD won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction (his second) for The Nickel Boys (Doubleday).
NAMWALI SERPELL‘s ”Take It” was longlisted for the £30,000 Sunday Times Audible Short Story Award, given to a story of 6,000 words or less from a writer who has been published in the UK or Ireland. The shortlist will appear in June 2020, and the winner will be announced July 2, 2020.
‘PEMI AGUDA‘s The Suicide Mothers won the £10,000 Deborah Rogers Foundation Writers Award, given to ”an unpublished writer to enable them to complete a first book.” Judges were Sarah Perry, Max Porter, and Ian Rankin (chair).
FRANCES HARDINGE‘s Deeplight (Macmillan Children’s) is a finalist for the Indie Book Awards 2020 in the Children’s category. Winners will be chosen by a panel of indie booksellers, authors, and ”industry influencers,” and announced June 26, 2020, as part of Independent Bookshop Week.
REBECCA ROANHORSE sold historical mystery Tread of Angels to Joe Monti at Saga via Sara Megibow of kt literary.
M. RICKERT‘s The Shipbuilder of Bellfaire sold to Michael Kelly at Undertow.
STINA LEICHT‘s SF novel Loki’s Ring sold to Joe Monti at Saga via Hannah Bowman of Liza Dawson Associates.
LEE MANDELO‘s queer, speculative Southern Gothic novel Summer Sons and a second book sold to Carl Engle-Laird at Tor.com Publishing in a pre-empt via Tara Gilbert and Saritza Hernandez of Corvisiero Literary Agency.
BEN WINTERS sold collection Inside Jobs, ”a trio of crime stories set during the age of quarantine,” to Jo Ann Peritz and Steve Feldberg at Audible Originals via Joelle Delbourgo of Joelle Delbourgo Associates.
ADA HOFFMANN sold The Infinite, third in the series that began with The Outside, to Eleanor Teasdale at Angry Robot via Hannah Bowman of Liza Dawson Associates.
A.C. WISE sold Wendy, Darling, about the character from J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan series, and a second book to Sophie Robinson at Titan Books via Barry Goldblatt of Barry Goldblatt Literary.
DARIN BRADLEY, writing as D.B. COLBERT, sold Darkmetal to Mark Teppo at Underland Press via Kristopher O’Higgins of Scribe Agency.
JOHN APPEL sold Assassin’s Orbit, described as ”Battlestar Galactica meets Golden Girls,” to Kate Coe at Rebellion via Hannah Bowman of Liza Dawson Associates.
NATANIA BARRON sold Arthur-ian fantasy Queen of None to Eric Bosarge at Vernacular.
NEIL SHARPSON‘s When the Sparrow Falls, ”John Le Carre meets Philip K. Dick,” and a second title sold to Will Hinton at Tor via Jennie Goloboy of Donald Maass Literary Agency.
JAMES ISLINGTON‘s The Will of the Many, first in the Hierarchy trilogy, went to Joe Monti at Saga via Paul Lucas of Janklow & Nesbit.
ANDREW SHAFFER sold horror-comedy Secret Santa to Jhanteigh Kupihea at Quirk via Brandi Bowles of UTA.
TOM DOYLE‘s Border Crosser sold to Walter Boyes and Eric Flint at Ring of Fire Press in a pre-empt via Robert Thixton of Pinder Lane.
GRETCHEN FELKER-MARTIN‘s postapocalyptic horror Manhunt – ”a trans woman’s response to Y: The Last Man” – and another standalone novel to Kelly Lonesome at Nightfire via Connor Goldsmith of Fuse Literary.
C.J. COOKE‘s The Wildling sold to Danielle Perez at Berkley via Deborah Schneider at Gelfman Schneider/ICM on behalf of Alice Luytens at Curtis Brown.
THERESE BEHARRIE‘s magical romantic comedy And They Lived Happily Ever After and a second book went to Esi Sogah and Norma Perez-Hernandez at Kensington via Courtney Miller-Callihan of Handspun Literary.
MEGAN MILKS sold Margaret and the Mystery of the Missing Body and collection Slug and Other Stories to Lauren Rosemary Hook at Feminist Press via Rach Crawford of MacKenzie Wolf.
BARBARA PIETRON‘s Lost in Nowhere and two more books went to Scribe US via Jennifer Baum.
SONIA HARTL‘s vampire novel The Lost Girls went to Ashley Hearn at Page Street via Rebecca Podos of Rees Literary Agency.
NICOLE BROSS sold afterlife fantasy Moving On to Black Spot.
MARIE VIBBERT sold Galactic Hellcats to Eric Bosarge at Vernacular.
ALECHIA DOW sold The Kindred and a second book to Natashya Wilson at Inkyard via Natalie Lakosil of Bradford Literary Agency.
PAUL TWIVY‘s Hallowed Ground went to James Essinger at the Conrad Press with Fran Garratt to edit.
SHAYNE LEIGHTON‘s fantasy Of Blood and Magic, sequel to Of Light and Darkness, went to Amanda Wright at Parliament House, with Chantal Gadoury to edit.
CHUCK WENDIG’s middle-grade Dust & Grim sold to Deirdre Jones at Little, Brown Children’s via Stacia Decker of Dunow, Carlson & Lerner.
KELLEY ARMSTRONG sold books three and four in the Royal Guide to Monster Slaying series to Lynne Missen and Peter Phillips at Puffin Canada via Lucienne Diver of the Knight Agency.
DANIEL PINKWATER sold a middle-grade novel to Jacob Weisman at Tachyon via Jennifer Laughran at Andrea Brown Literary Agency.
NEAL SHUSTERMAN‘s YA Game Changer went to Denise Johnstone-Burt at Walker Children’s UK, with Frances Taffinder to edit, via Rachel Horowitz at Harper Children’s.
SHANNON MESSENGER sold Unlocked, volume ”8.5” in the YA Keeper of the Lost Cities series, with a guide to the world, illustrations, and ”other fan-requested elements,” plus setup for book nine, to Liesa Abrams at Aladdin via Laura Rennert of Andrea Brown Literary Agency.
DAVID VALDES sold YA timetravel novel Spin Me Right Round (”An Own Voices twist on Back to the Future”) and a second title to Allison Moore at Bloomsbury Children’s via Annie Bomke of Annie Bomke Literary Agency.
AKSHAYA RAMAN‘s fantasy The Ivory Key and another book in the duology sold to Nicole Sclama at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Children’s at auction via Hillary Jacobson of ICM. UK rights went to Emma Matthewson at Hot Key Books, with Carla Hutchinson to edit, by Felicity Blunt of Curtis Brown UK.
ADRIENNE YOUNG sold The Fallen City YA fantasy duology to Eileen Rothschild at Wednesday Books via Barbara Poelle of Irene Goodman Agency.
LORI LEE sold the third Shamanborn YA fantasy to Ashley Hearn at Page Street via Suzie Townsend and Devin Ross of New Leaf Literary & Media.
CRISTIN TERRILL‘s YA SF novel The Stars Between Us sold to Jennie Conway at Wednesday Books via Jim McCarthy of Dystel, Goderich & Bourret.
TIANA WARNER sold three books in YA fantasy series The Helheim Prophecy to Amarilys Acosta at Entangled Teen.
STEPHANIE HANSEN‘s YA SF Replaced Parts sold to Nancy Schumacher at Fire & Ice via Amy Brewer of Metamorphosis Literary Agency.
WILLIAM OSBORNE‘s YA historical fantasy Jupiter’s Fire went to James Essinger at the Conrad Press with Fran Garratt to edit.
FREYA MARSKE‘s debut A Marvellous Light and two more books sold to Ruoxi Chen at Tor. com Publishing via Diana Fox of Fox Literary.
First novelist ANDREW KELLY STEWART‘s We Shall Sing a Song into the Deep, described as ”A Canticle for Leibowitz meets The Hunt for Red October,” sold to Diana Pho at Tor.com Publishing via John Silbersack of the Bent Agency.
VANESSA LEN‘s debut YA fantasy Only a Monster and two more in the Monsters trilogy went to Kristen Pettit at Harper Children’s at auction via Tracey Adams of Adams Literary. Allen & Unwin will publish in Australia. Film rights were optioned by Tomorrow Studios via Stephen Moore of Paul Kohner on behalf of Adams Literary.
New writer ELIZABETH KILCOYNE‘s YA Wake the Bones sold to Vicki Lame at Wednesday Books via Erin Clyburn of Jennifer De Chiara Literary Agency.
EMILY THIEDE‘s debut fantasy The Last Finestra and a second book sold to Vicki Lame at Wednesday Books in a pre-empt via Chelsea Eberly of Greenhouse Literary Agency.
First novelist KASSANDRA TATE sold The Famoux – ”The Hunger Games meets Black Mirror” – to Deanna McFadden at Wattpad.
GRACE COLLINS sold first novel Creatures of the Night to Deanna McFadden at Wattpad.
REBECCA PHELPS sold debut Down World to Deanna McFadden at Wattpad.
CHARLIE JANE ANDERS sold Never Say You Can’t Survive: How to Get Through Hard Times By Making Up Stories, a collection of essays ”about the craft of writing, with digressions into memoir, selfcare, politics, society, and the present emergency,” to Patrick Nielsen Hayden at Tor.com Publishing via Russell Galen of Scovil Galen Ghosh. The book is first being serialized online at Tor.com.
FRAN WILDE sold an illustrated poetry collection, Clock Star Rose Spine, to Christine Neulieb at Lanternfish.
PATRICE CALDWELL will edit paranormal romance anthology Eternally Yours for Dana Leydig at Viking Children’s via Alexandra Machinist and Hillary Jacobson of ICM.
JAMES TIPTREE, JR.‘s estate sold ebook rights to Brightness Falls from the Air, Up the Walls of the World, and eight collections to Betsy Mitchell at Open Road via Vaughne Hansen of the Virginia Kidd Agency.
DAVID NICKLE resold Eutopia, Volk, Rasputin’s Bastards, The ‘Geisters, Knife Fight and Other Struggles, and Monstrous Affections to Betsy Mitchell at Open Road via Ron Eckel of CookeMcDermid.
BRUCE STERLING delivered collection Robot Artists and Black Swans to Rick Klaw at Tachyon.
ADA PALMER handed in Perhaps the Stars, the fourth and final volume in the Terra Ignota series, to Patrick Nielsen Hayden at Tor.
PATRICK O’LEARY turned in novel 51 to Jacob Weisman at Tachyon.
MEDIA
FRANK M. ROBINSON‘s 1951 time-travel story ”The Hunting Season” is being adapted as a feature by filmmaker James Wan and writer Derek Kolstad, produced by Wan and partner Michael Clear of Atomic Monster and Don Murphy and Susan Montford of Angry Films.
ELIZABETH BEAR‘s ”Covenant” (2014) was optioned by Spyglass Media via Sylvie Rabineau at WME in association with Jennifer Jackson of the Donald Maass Literary Agency. Screenwriters Josh Campbell and Matt Suecken will adapt for producers Arts District Entertainment and Spyglass VP Productions.
TV rights to HELEN MARSHALL‘s The Migration were optioned by Clerkenwell Films via Joseph Veltre of the Gersh Agency on behalf of Sally Harding of CookeMcDermid.
TV rights to JACKSON FORD (AKA ROB BOFFARD)’s The Girl Who Could Move Sh*t with Her Mind were optioned by Secret Hideout, the CBS Television Studios production company, via Emily Hayward Whitlock of the Artists Partnership in association with Ed Wilson of Johnson & Alcock.
This and more like it in the June 2020 issue of Locus.
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