Adult Newsletter: May 2020

Up And Coming For Submission

FICTION

During the tumultuous ‘60s, forty-eight Americans follow self-proclaimed apostle Aaron Piper into the Canadian Rockies to prepare for what they believe is an imminent apocalypse. They live and work together in peaceful harmony, dedicated to their mission and refusing to leave their isolated settlement, Zion, even when warned it will be destroyed by the damming of the nearby Peace River. The apostle’s seventeen-year-old daughter, Micah, knows little of the outside world. She enjoys working in the fields and caring for the infant daughter of a troubled recent arrival. When U.S. Naval Academy dropout and novice detective Sam Dare infiltrates the group to investigate whether the troubled woman was kidnapped, his influence and that of Micah’s beloved friend, a mute trapper who has been slipping her forbidden novels, cause her to begin questioning her beliefs. Jealous, Micah’s arranged fiancé Levi conducts increasingly dangerous nighttime trials during which his teenage followers—including Micah and Sam—must defy death in order to prove their faith. When Micah’s father, Aaron, is arrested and charged with kidnapping, she learns that Sam is not who she thought he was. At Aaron’s trial, she struggles with whether to testify and risk incriminating her father and destroying the only community she’s ever known. BENEATH THE PEACE by Liz Stroud is a powerful debut, part love story, part mystery and impossible to put down. Drawing on her own experience of growing up in a similar religious community whose leader was tried for kidnapping, Stroud invites readers to consider the continuum of belief that is at one extreme empowering, and the other, deadly. 

When former LAPD detective Rick Evans moves to Prague, he hopes to leave his old life behind. Still haunted by his failure to stop the murder of his wife and young son, Rick tries to heal as he explores his mother’s city, takes up painting, and slowly makes new friends, among them his eight-year-old-neighbor Sam. But Rick’s quiet life rips apart when a series of child kidnappings terrifies the city. A masked predator calling himself Priapus leaves no evidence except for Polaroid selfies above the empty beds of his victims. Four boys are abducted in a week, including Sam. Rick is devastated by the crime and afflicted by the echoes of his own son’s death. He offers to help the Czech police search for Sam, but when they learn about Rick’s history of psychological problems—the reason he lost his job and fled the States—they begin to investigate him instead. Forced into hiding and taunted by further demands from Priapus, Rick conducts a parallel hunt for the kidnapper, racing the clock to save Sam’s life. Set against the haunting beauty of Prague, THE BIRD PAINTER by debut author Jeremy Miller is a vivid, startling thriller that accelerates in breathtaking fashion until the final page. More than a page-turner, the story explores themes of loss and grief and the struggle to heal.

Maud doesn’t want a girlfriend. Or another romantic partner. Or a nanny. What Maud wants is a wife. Someone to cook and clean and watch her two children and fill out all the forms. Inspired in part by the writings of her Mormon great-grandmother who argued polygamy was a feminist act, she decides she will find one. When Maud takes Sophie’s memoir writing class, she doesn’t exactly select her for the role of second wife, but their lives just line up so nicely. Sophie is sick of her sister June’s overinvolvement in her life and wants to have a baby on her own. So when Maud and her distracted doctor husband Theo offer Sophie the garden apartment in their Park Slope brownstone, Sophie jumps at the chance. But soon after Sophie moves in, Maud takes off on a "business trip" that lasts weeks, leaving Sophie to wife, to mom, to do everything. Now Sophie questions whether this is what she ever really wanted. As she uncovers the real reason Maud left and comes to understand her friend in new ways, she realizes motherhood is messy and no one has the answers, and her baby is coming no matter what. But if Maud returns, can they all try to live the life Maud's great-grandmother only wishes she could have had? THE WORD OF MAUD by debut novelist (and literary agent) Kate McKean is upmarket women's fiction for fans of Rufi Thorpe, Emily Gould, Lydia Kiesling, and Rumaan Alam. (Please note, Michael Bourret is the agent on this project.)

Nearing thirty and going nowhere in Appalachian Tennessee, Callie Myles lives for weekly tabletop roleplaying at Critical Hit, the gaming store where, under the watchful eye of her gamemaster brother LB, she and her friends harness magic and defeat villains in the world of Winterwind. But the fun stops the night LB storms out of the game in a rage, and later that night burns to death in a bizarre fire. Grieving the loss of both her brother and the game he ran, Callie discovers that the monocle LB wore during sessions opens a portal into Winterwind, letting her visit the game’s world as her character, the marksman Arabeth. This dream turns into a nightmare when she realizes that Winterwind is a real place, that LB lived there as a vengeful god—and that the nameless NPCs she and her friends have been killing are real people. Callie begins to suspect that someone inside the game killed LB, and isn’t done seeking revenge. To save herself, to save her friends, Callie Myles must immerse herself in the game and find a way to beat it in both worlds at once. Sharp, wry, and fast-paced, CRITICAL HIT by W.M. Akers will score high with fans of READY PLAYER ONE and THE MAGICIANS. Akers’ 2019 debut WESTSIDE was named one of the New York Times’ 100 Most Notable Books and has been optioned for television. (Please note, Sharon Pelletier is the agent on this project.)

 Annie McIntyre has a love/hate relationship with her sleepy hometown of Garnett, Texas. Recently graduated from college, lacking not ambition but direction, Annie finds herself waitressing at the diner and partying with folks she thought she left behind after high school. But Garnett has started to change, slowly but surely, with the arrival of Artemis Oil eager to offer local landowners a payout for the dirt that has always been their pride. And Annie’s world gets another shake-up when her fellow waitress Victoria goes missing after a bonfire where tensions ran high. Several days later, Victoria’s body turns up in a shallow grave near Annie’s own family land, and the police arrest the cook at the diner, a man Annie’s known for years. Annie and her grandfather, a retired sheriff, begin their own investigation, one that leads them down rural routes and haunted byways, to noxious-smelling oil fields and glowing neon honky-tonks. As Annie works to uncover the truth she finds herself identifying with the victim in increasing, unsettling ways, and realizes she must confront her own past—a disturbing experience she’d rather forget, the trick mirror of nostalgia itself—if she wants to survive this homecoming. Bookseller Samantha Allen’s PAY DIRT ROAD burns onto the literary crime scene with a deep-rooted sense of place, poised to thrill and move readers at a storytelling sweet spot where Attica Locke meets Friday Night Lights. Allen’s work has been published in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, The Common, and Electric Literature. (Please note, Sharon Pelletier is the agent on this project.)

It’s been quite a week for John Smith, Hollywood’s preeminent background actor. Just after learning  he has only months left to live, he crosses paths with the avant-garde filmmaker Gordon von Reillech who, in keeping with his reputation for eccentricity, offers John both a life-saving operation and the coveted starring role in his buzzy new film. When he awakes after the procedure, John finds himself in an indestructible body mimicking the Cold War-era nuclear robot whose surprise discovery made headlines just before his diagnosis, inflaming decades’ old tensions to bring the U.S. and the Russians back to the brink of war. And von Reillech insists that filming must go on, with John playing the robot in a ripped-from-the-headlines script. Completely bewildered by the turns his life has taken—not the least of which is the presence of a vicious woman named Ali who insists she is his bodyguard—John cooperates with the filming schedule, only to be interrupted by shooting of a very different sort as the US military tracks the second deadly robot they’ve heard is somewhere in Los Angeles awaiting deployment. Desperate to prove his humanity, and still clinging to his ambitions of stardom, John Smith must uncover exactly what has been done to him, who he can trust, and how he can save the world from himself. Full of adrenaline and absurdity in equal measure, TJ Martinson’s EXTRA explores the tensions of truth, leadership, and human nature that haunt our own headlines today, offering an unsettling thrill ride for fans of Rob Hart, Justin Cronin, and Chuck Wendig. (Please note, Sharon Pelletier is the agent on this project.)

NON-FICTION

In December, it was a vague, distant menace. By April, it had woven itself into every facet of our lives — how we eat, how we work, how we communicate, even how we love. From the price of gasoline and the absence of toilet paper to mass graves and canceled careers, CORONAVIRUS: JOURNAL OF A PANDEMIC, 2019-2020 captures America’s lived experience amidst this overwhelming catastrophe. Award-winning historians Margaret Peacock and Erik L. Peterson trace the medical, political, economic, social, cultural, and technological impact of the coronavirus on the United States during this unforgettable year. Their extensive narrative intersperses intimate stories of life and death with a bird’s-eye-view of epidemiological data, sweeping demographic shifts, profound economic turns, political scandals, and the changing winds of social media. They document the pandemic unfolding in the urban hotspots, like New York and Seattle. They also record its indelible imprint on the places that lie outside the headlines—in Albany, Georgia where two funerals turned the little town into America’s fourth largest hotspot or in the Navajo Nation where a foreign disease has, once again, ravaged the community. CORONAVIRUS: JOURNAL OF A PANDEMIC 2019-2020 moves beyond the headlines to witness how daily events interconnected in unexpected ways. From failures in state and federal leadership to the emptying of universities, warehouse walkouts at Amazon, and handmade surgical masks, this book captures the tectonic fracturing of our society under the weight of this invisible threat.  

When Laura Bernstein-Machlay sets out to explore her mostly forgotten youth, she comes face to face with her adolescent self, a wild-haired girl who dives into newspapers in a quest to one-up her schoolyard bullies, and in the process, discovers a wider world both terrifying and thrilling. This voice driven memoir—a little true-crime, a lot coming-of-age tale—features an overweight, benignly neglected narrator who comes into cultural awareness just as the Oakland County Child Killer begins abducting and murdering kids from suburban Detroit communities—including her own. By turns poignant and whimsical, somber and humorous, Bernstein-Machlay brings the mid-1970s alive in MISSING CHILDREN. Using a month-by-month, episodic structure, with news events of the day peppered throughout, the memoir follows its charming-in-spite-of-herself protagonist as she navigates relationships with her divorced mother, critical father, nearly housebound Bubby and Zaidy, and her friendship with Kati, a Mexican-American girl new to town. Her story culminates when she and Kati, both 13, embark on an unsupervised cross-country Greyhound bus trip, learning lessons along the way about friendship, love, and the sometimes-perilous journey to adulthood. Ultimately, both Bernstein-Machlay’s past and present converge at the end of the book, bringing full circle the main idea: that the pieces of ourselves we’re trying hardest to escape are the very ones we must embrace in order to feel grounded and comfortable in our skin.

The glow of excitement from the previous night's nomination of Barack Obama had barely begun to dim when the phone rang in a Denver hotel room on a Friday morning in August 2008. Political commentator Keith Boykin was shocked when he learned that John McCain was about to announce Sarah Palin—a little-known and self-described "hockey mom"—to be his vice-presidential running mate. It was a move designed to steal the spotlight from the Democratic Party's first ever African-American nominee and to counter the excitement generated by an epic Democratic primary battle in which Hillary Clinton had won 18 million votes. In RACE AGAINST TIME: THE POLITICS OF A DARKENING AMERICA, Boykin explains how the nomination and election of Barack Obama as the nation's first black president triggered a sense of desperation among some conservative, mostly white voters that propelled Sarah Palin, the Tea Party movement, the Freedom Caucus, and, ultimately, Donald Trump to political relevance. Drawing on his impressive experience in politics and media, Boykin will trace the demographic trends that indicate the U.S. is becoming a nation made up of a minority majority and explains how this has led us to a new Cold Civil War.  The book will be required reading for those who care about our future as a nation.

Ullas Karanth catches tigers for a living…literally. One might find him in an Indian jungle, precariously poised on a tree perch just fifteen feet off the ground, with an air-rifle, loaded with a sedative filled plastic syringe that offers no defense if the giant beast walking below chooses to look up and attack. AMONG TIGERS covers Karanth’s three decades of research penetrating the secret life of tigers: how the cats hunt, live, raise cubs, acquire territories, fight and kill each other. Understanding tigers is critical to Karanth’s passion for saving them, which has sucked him into the vortex of conflicts raging between conservationists and poachers, loggers and local villagers—with dire consequences. Karanth’s research has been sabotaged repeatedly, slandered in the press, and, his field camp has even been burned down by an enraged mob. However, Karanth also tells a tale of moral and physical courage, of fighting back against corruption and violence through informed advocacy and how a handful of conservationists succeeded against all odds in saving the big cats. Wide ranging and compelling, AMONG TIGERS is ultimately an upbeat adventure story, laced with ecology, local color, humor, and a surpassing love for tigers.

In Patricia Bosworth’s progression from young California girl to New York stage and screen ingenue, then on to magazine journalism at Harper’s Bazaar, Mirabella, Vanity Fair, and even greater literary acclaim, she created and completed a triple-act: a multi-disciplinary career that puts even overachievers to shame. When she died from coronavirus earlier this year, the American publishing, theater, film and journalism worlds shook in grief. Two of her former Columbia University students—journalist, memoirist, and screenwriter Kim M. Rich and playwright/producer Jerome Joseph Gentes—capture Bosworth’s remarkable life story in PATRICIA BOSWORTH: A LIFE. Renowned and respected for her own bestselling biographies of famous 20th-century celebrities including screen stars Montgomery Clift, Marlon Brando, and Jane Fonda as well as photographer Diane Arbus—Bosworth was equally well-known for her two searing memoirs. She experienced elopement, estrangement, annulment, and aborted pregnancy. And despite her own literary accomplishments, her father’s and brother’s suicides shadowed her steadily down the decades. She married three times but had no children of her own. Instead, she nurtured a revolving roster of friends and students, sustaining an astonishing network of the famous and the aspirational. That she did so in hothouse professional fields like acting and writing while achieving her own fame makes for a long, event-filled life well lived.

Today, the most exciting research in neuroscience is focused on the brain’s most remarkable offering – intelligence. New findings about how the brain is organized and how it gives rise to the core components of intellectual ability have launched groundbreaking efforts to modify healthy brains to improve cognitive performance. Neuroscientist Aron Barbey, head of the Decision Neuroscience Laboratory at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology at the University of Illinois, is at the forefront of the emerging discipline. Barbey’s research has revolutionized our understanding of what might be called the architecture of intelligence, the networks of brain cells that underlie cognition. He has mapped and measured these neural networks and the structures they connect and developed tools and strategies to help them function faster and more efficiently. Barbey has pioneered the use of a suite of interventions to improve the quality of human judgment and reasoning in complex, real-world environments. His dynamic cognitive cross training method  features combinations of diet (including special supplements), high-intensity interval fitness training, mindfulness meditation, computer-based cognitive training and low-voltage doses of electricity  straight into the brain. Now, Barbey has teamed up with science writer David Noonan, a regular contributor to Scientific American and former Newsweek senior editor, for ENHANCED: COGNITIVE CROSS TRAINING AND THE FUTURE OF HUMAN INTELLIGENCE. The definitive guide to a powerful new science, ENHANCED takes readers deep inside their own brains, shows them how they work – and how they can work even better. m

Consider planning to build a house and purchasing all the materials without any intention of assembling them into anything coherently resembling a home. What’s the point of the entire ordeal? That is exactly how Elaine Katz’s cells feel about collagen. In her sophomore year at Harvard, she discovered she suffered from Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, a heritable connective tissue disease. Elaine has a mutation in TNXB, the gene that provides the rubric for organizing collagen, a key structural element that comprises the connective tissue throughout the body. When doctors characterized her disease as incurable, Elaine became her own experiment. As an honors genetics student at Harvard, the scientist within her emerged with a newfound vigor to craft a blueprint for her body that modern medicine failed to offer. In GENE EDIT ME, PLEASE, Elaine tells her story—one that is by turns, frightening, humorous, and inspiring, and explores the obstacles we all face—physical, psychological, or philosophical.  At age sixteen, she thought she would never walk again, at nineteen, her mother was convinced Elaine was dying as a tumor ravaged her ovary, and, at twenty-four, she survived a near-lethal rupture in the sheath surrounding her brain. In this extraordinary narrative, Elaine wrestles with what she has lost to her disease—from her ability to give birth naturally to her future as a research scientist—and what she’s gained in return—a passion for mathematics and physics, an unbreakable bond with her mother, and a profound sense of resilience and gratitude for every painless step forward.

The Iditarod Sled Dog Race is arguably the most difficult of all endurance events. Every March, roughly 60 mushers and 1,200 huskies take off from Anchorage, Alaska and endure 1,000 miles of snow bound wilderness to finish in Nome. It is heralded as the “Last Great Race,” an epic quest pitting man and dog as a team against freezing temperatures, blizzard winds across arctic tundra, through towering mountain ranges and passes, and over a frozen Bering Sea. It is a trial of brutal hardships and disappointment, inner strength and unparalleled beauty. CARING FOR THE DOGS OF THE IDITAROD by Lee Morgan, DVM, is the first-person account of one of sixty Tail Veterinarians who volunteer their time each year to ensure that the dogs come through safely. Dr. Morgan chronicles the adventures he shares with the huskies as he travels from checkpoint to checkpoint, up and down the course of the Iditarod, as they navigate the vast Alaskan wilderness, endure sleep deprivation and bad coffee, treat the dogs in difficult conditions, and bond with the best canine athletes in the world. The book chronicles Morgan’s love for all the dogs he treats, their own set of personalities, their sense of adventure, and the devotion the mushers and dog teammates have for one another. Ultimately, CARING FOR THE DOGS OF THE IDITAROD is an epic tale of the strong bond between man and dog.

He was one of the youngest Founding Fathers. A slaveowner and a smuggler. While many Founders were wealthy, he was one of the richest, though he hadn’t earned the money he enjoyed spending. Frequently maligned for his vanity, he became heavily involved in politics, but rarely felt deeply about any particular cause and often flip flopped on issues. And yet, John Hancock was the man selected to be the first to sign the Declaration of Independence. The most important moment of his political life—putting quill to parchment—was a fluke. He wasn’t a committed or lifelong rebel; he was simply in the right place at the right time. A signature is permanent and binding, but Hancock repeatedly favored his own profits and interests over lofty ideas of liberty and freedom. Endorsing colonial independence represented one of the only times when he showed conviction. THE SIGNATURE: JOHN HANCOCK, RELUCTANT REVOLUTIONARY by historian Brooke Barbier, Ph.D. examines the life of John Hancock, and in doing so, invites readers to rethink the history of American leadership. Stories from the founders and their contemporaries will expose the decidedly unheroic humanness of many men who dominate the country’s pantheon, including Hancock rivals George Washington and John Adams. At a time when the nation frequently turns to the eighteenth century for political guidance, THE SIGNATURE provides needed context by demonstrating that the Founding Fathers were not as prescient or strategic as they’re often given credit for.

Nikkya Hargrove grew up watching her mother Valerie go through the painful cycles of drug addiction and the criminal justice system and swore that she would make different choices in her own life. When Valerie lost her life-long battle with crack cocaine, Nikkya fought for custody of her baby brother Jonathan and became a single mother at the age of 25. MAMA: A BLACK, QUEER WOMAN’S JOURNEY TO MOTHERHOOD tells the inspiring story of a young woman determined to give her son the kind of family she never had. With over 2.7 million children currently dealing with the effects of an incarcerated parent, MAMA picks up where Bryan Stevenson’s Just Mercy left off, following the impact of incarceration on a family, and pulling back the curtain on the foster care system. In a rare and timely parenting memoir by a writer of color, Nikkya takes readers on an emotional journey from the first moments of her son’s life, through online dating as a single mom, ultimately finding her wife, and battling Jonathan’s biological father for custody. Nikkya is a graduate of Bard College, one of the leading institutions offering a college education to incarcerated men and women, and a LAMBDA Literary Non-Fiction Fellow. She has written about adoption, motherhood and prison for The Washington Post, Cosmopolitan, Elle, and Shondaland. (Please note, Stacey Glick is the agent on this project.)

Kim Foster was a James Beard-nominated food writer living in Manhattan focused on hot restaurants, celebrity chefs, and perfectly-Instagrammed dinner parties and dishes. Then she moved to Las Vegas and discovered a different food world -- one of addiction, abandoned children and grinding poverty. To her surprise, food still provided a lens, a way in, a shared experience crossing race, class, and place. In THE METH LUNCHES: STORIES FROM THE DYSFUNCTION OF FOOD, based on a James Beard-nominated article, the very act of eating, cooking, shopping, or even a fast food restaurant visit, was a bridge to compelling stories most of us are never able to hear. Kim discovered the joy and safety in the sameness offered by McDonalds for a kid from a chaotic, unstable home. She discovered food as a weapon for a mentally ill parent. A power play for a foster kid trying to control a new family. Or as an addiction, hoarded under beds, devoured constantly by a child who spent his first years food insecure and hungry.  She saw that even the fabled family table could be a battleground, in her own home, as her vegan teenager waged war against Kim's omnivore philosophies and their tiny urban chicken farm. Told with deeply personal insight, lyrical prose, and with moments of real-human light and humor, THE METH LUNCHES is about how cooking, eating, shopping and feeding people can be a symptom and solution, war and weaponry, and often a source of love and much-needed hope. (Please note, Stacey Glick is the agent on this project.)

Adam Schlesinger was one of the brightest and wittiest songwriters of his generation. So, when friends learned that that he’s come down with COVID-19, they assumed he would pull through then write a funny song about it, perhaps a parody of “My Sharona” called “My Corona.” Tragically, on April Fool’s Day, Schlesinger died from coronavirus complications at the age of 52. Schlesinger was renowned for his pop-perfect compositions, including the Oscar-nominated theme song for the film, That Thing You Do!, the Fountains of Wayne hit beloved by young boys “Stacy’s Mom,” and over 100 Emmy-Award winning tunes for the TV show, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. Countless tributes appeared in magazines like The New Yorker and Rolling Stone, while fans and celebrities mourned his passing and praised his brilliance. Part biography, part tribute, part memoir, That Thing He Did is the story of Adam Schlesinger as seen through the eyes of his oldest childhood friend, journalist and podcaster Jonathan Small, who has known Schlesinger since the day he was born. Small calls on a myriad of funny and touching memories, as well as in-depth interviews with Schlesinger’s friends, family, and colleagues—including Sarah Silverman, with whom he was working on an adaptation of her memoir, Rachel Bloom, Tom Hanks, Mickey Dolenz, Jason Schwarzman, Stephen Colbert, Neal Patrick Harris, and Schlesinger’s cousin John Bernthal— to provide an insider’s view of the pivotal chapters of Schlesinger’s eventful life. From Schlesinger’s rise and fall as a pop star to his successful second act as a composer for TV, movies, and Broadway, Small paints an intimate portrait of an artist—and of a deep friendship that profoundly shaped both of their lives. (Please note, Stacey Glick is the agent on this project.)

MISEDUCATED is the riveting story of one man’s journey—in life and language—from a delinquent, drug-dealing dropout to an award-winning Harvard educator – all by the age of 27. Brandon Fleming grew up in an abusive home, subject to the rage of a brutal cocaine-addicted Baptist preacher. Spirit broken, Fleming became a threat to everyone around him. He was shuffled through school, his passing grades a nod to his skill on the basketball court, not his presence in the classroom. He turned to the streets, to a life of drug deals and violence, a life saved only by the dream of basketball stardom. Fleming earned a chance to play for a Division I School. But when he suffered a career-ending injury during his first semester, he dropped out.  He spent the next years toiling on an assembly line, until the depression that stalked him drove him to attempt suicide. Miraculously, his life was spared.  He returned to college, determined to reinvent himself as a scholar—to replace illiteracy with mastery over language, to go from being ignored and unseen to commanding attention. He found debate, and debate became the means by which he transformed his life, and the tool he would use to transform the lives of others – to teach disadvantaged kids to “be intrusive in places that are not inclusive,” eventually at Harvard University, where he would make champions and make history.  Fleming, recently named to Forbes 30 Under 30 list, has been featured in Ebony, CBS Evening News, CNN among others. (Please note, Jessica Papin is the agent on this project.)

 From psychologist, researcher, and horror film enthusiast Brian A. Sharpless comes A (DIAGNOSTIC) INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE, an exploration into the real-life psychological disorders behind famous horror movies.  Accounts of clinical syndromes every bit as dramatic as those on the silver screen are juxtaposed with fascinating forays into the science and folklore behind our favorite movie monsters.  For instance, horror fans may be obsessed with vampires, werewolves, zombies, and the human replacements from Invasion of the Body Snatchers, but even many medical professions may not know about the corresponding conditions of Renfield’s syndrome, clinical lycanthropy, Cotard’s syndrome, and the misidentification delusions.  Some of these disorders are shockingly common in the general population (e.g., isolated sleep paralysis – a disorder implicated in ghost and alien abduction beliefs).  As the tales unfold, readers not only learn state-of-the-art psychological science but also gain a better understanding of  relevant history (e.g., French werewolf trials), folklore (e.g., how do you really kill a vampire) and how Hollywood often – but not always – gets it wrong when tackling these complex topics.  They will also learn why monsters make us afraid, why we enjoy being afraid, and what this might tell us about ourselves.  This book effectively blends horror, science, and the cultural studies with a good dose of humor at our all-too-human condition.  Brian A. Sharpless, PhD is an American clinical psychologist, author, educator, and international lecturer on unusual and rare psychological disorders.  Along with his current appointment as visiting research fellow at Goldsmiths, University of London, he maintains a private practice. (Please note, Jessica Papin is the agent on this project.)

 Naval historian Joseph A. Williams’s previous nautical histories The Sunken Gold and Seventeen Fathoms Deep have been justly praised as “well told tales” by Kirkus Reviews. In his fourth book, THE RUM RUNNER: A TURE TALE OF THE ROARING TWENTIES’ BOLDEST BOOTLEGGER, Williams plumbs untouched archives to explore how Canadian antihero Jack Randell helped America get its booze during the dry years of Prohibition. A veteran of the First World War and bon vivant who loved to spin a good yarn as much as to sip a scotch and soda, Captain Jack commanded I’m Alone, the era’s most notorious rum runner.  Using high seas chicanery worthy of Jack Aubrey, Captain Jack eluded law enforcement for years until March 1929, when the Coast Guard finally caught up to and sank I’m Alone, leaving one of the smugglers drowned.  But even as Randell was hauled into a New Orleans jail cell, the matter erupted into an international fiasco, with the governments of Canada and Great Britain declaring it act of war on par with the Lusitania while the State Department frantically employed groundbreaking cryptologist Elizabeth Friedman and a turncoat gangster to prove that I’m Alone was actually an American ship. With a deep dive into the economics and politics of Prohibition and the role of the Coast Guard as both hero and villain, THE RUM RUNNER speaks to all angles of this most peculiar time in American history, wrapping it in a fast-paced narrative as exciting and pulse-pounding as any novel. (Please note, John Rudolph is the agent on this project.)

 THE CONFIDANTE: ANNA ROSENBERG, THE ROOSEVELT INTIMATE WHO HELPED WIN WORLD WAR II AND SHAPE MODERN AMERICA tells the remarkable story of Anna Rosenberg, who rose from childhood as an immigrant girl in the Bronx to become one of the most influential women in American public life during World War II and for a decade afterward. Combining her many talents with an extraordinary position of access as an advisor to President Franklin Roosevelt, she was the real power behind several national policies that were vital to America winning the war and prospering afterwards, including the Manhattan Project and the G.I. Bill. During the Korean War, she was entrusted with the greatest public responsibility ever conferred on an American woman. Anna's story takes us from Imperial Budapest to New York City; from French palaces to secret laboratories developing the atomic bomb; and from the Oval Office to Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest. The list of figures who trusted her, admired her, and relied on her reads like a roll call of history: FDR, Truman, Churchill, General George Marshall, Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Lyndon Johnson. Historian and writer for the on-line magazine WE’RE HISTORY, Christopher C. Gorham received unprecedented access to Rosenberg’s papers at Harvard University, making THE CONFIDANTE the first major biography of Rosenberg. It will return this extraordinary woman to a place commensurate with her influence on American history. (Please note, John Rudolph is the agent on this project.)

 What are you going to do with the rest of your life? In these long days of quarantine and social distancing, a vast majority of people between the ages of 35 and 65 are wondering exactly that. Some decide to pivot for happy occasions, like a profitable liquidity event.  Some change their lives for less pleasant reasons – maybe their doctor shared ominous test results, or they declared bankruptcy, or maybe lost their spouse.  Some are simply tired of doing what they’ve been doing all along. After a long career in advertising, well-known branding expert and CNN and Fox Business contributor Bruce Turkel (author of All About Them: Grow Your Business by Focusing on Others) sold his award-winning agency and wondered that exact question. Over the next three years Bruce interviewed a brain-trust of successful people – authors Chris Crowley (Younger Next Year) and Susan Ford Collins (The Joy of Success); entrepreneurs Seth Werner (Mortgage.com) and Robert Mazzucchelli (SportsEdTV); as well championship athletes, a Green Beret with a Harvard MBA, and a Columbia law school grad who went to prison for fraud, among others – to discover just how they created their new lives and to catalog their best practices. Practical, humorous, and insightful, IS THAT ALL THERE IS? WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE? will be the definitive guide for anyone thinking about creating their own new life. (Please note, John Rudolph is the agent on this project.)

Far more alarming than the “sex recession,” the phenomenon of young people having less sex than generations before them, is that we are in the middle of a bad sex epidemic that all generations are suffering from, and no one is talking about it. In the age of swiping apps and sliding into DMs, there’s still so much bad sex. Even for Maria Yagoda, a professional sex writer who gives well-researched advice on maximizing pleasure, communicating with partners, and feeling sexually confident, most sex lands somewhere between passable and “huh.” In LESS SEX: HOW TO FIND BETTER SEX BY NOT HAVING IT, Yagoda proposes that the way out of this pickle is to embrace less sex, because less sex leads to better sex. Saying no to unsatisfying sex allows us to say yes to ourselves, to make space to discover what we truly want and what actually satisfies us. And therein lies the magic. With the blend of wit, vulnerability, and expertise that has built her an avid following with readers of VICE, Buzzfeed, the New York Times, and the Atlantic, Yagoda sketches a better path forward, offering research-based insights to empower readers to say yes to less sex, reconnect with themselves, and, ultimately, craft the deeply pleasurable sex lives they deserve. (Please note, Sharon Pelletier is the agent on this project.)

As vital infrastructure across America continues to crumble—from roadways, railways, and bridges to the slow death of the rural hospitals that are the last lifelines for countless impoverished communities, the moral deprivation of recent policies on immigration, and the unforgivable inadequacies of disaster response systems as seen during the COVID-19 pandemic—the story of the Waverly Train Disaster of 1978 has never been more relevant. Recent years have seen an epidemic of train explosions and derailments, but before any of those, there was Waverly. It was the worst train explosion of its time, and most tragically, it was one that never had to happen. Now, for the first time, in WALK THROUGH FIRE: THE WAVERLY TRAIN DISASTER OF 1978, physician and medical writer Yasmine Ali, a native of Waverly, Tennessee, tells the story of the explosion that ravaged the heart of a small Southern town and made headlines around the world, eventually leading to much-needed changes in rail and train safety regulations as well as medical emergency-response protocols. Ali draws upon years of oral history and primary-source research to describe the disaster and the response efforts through the eyes of those who were on the ground at the time, culminating in an unlikely group of small-town heroes rallying around two immigrant physicians–her parents—in the tiny emergency department of a rural Southern hospital in a desperate race to save lives. WALK THROUGH FIRE is a gripping story of a twentieth-century catastrophe with powerful lessons for a twenty-first century audience. (Please note Amy Elizabeth Bishop is the agent on this project.)

In the most dangerous days of the French Revolution, when rebels called for Marie Antoinette’s head, friends and strangers risked their lives to save this notorious princess from the guillotine. SAVING MARIE ANTOINETTE reconstructs the little discussed, earnest, madcap, and ultimately doomed attempts to save Marie Antoinette’s life in a book that’s part adventure, part biography and part cultural history. From a nighttime flight to France’s border complete with disguises and intel run by the royal hairdresser, to ransom offers, double games with revolutionaries and even a knight tucking secret notes into carnation petals. As legends have it, a mansion even waited for the royal family in the wilds of Pennsylvania. Her would-be heroes ranged from a rogue, to a ship captain, to a Swedish count, to Germaine De Stael, one of the most famous female political minds of the day. Marie Antoinette herself took quill to paper to save her small family by writing foreign allies and conspirators using codenames, encryption and invisible ink. Journalist Linda Lacina leverages historical research, analysis, and pop culture commentary to bring these forgotten stories to light and put the queen’s pressures into perspective. Ultimately, SAVING MARIE ANTOINETTE reveals a timely lesson to modern readers about how public opinion shifts for everyone, from Anne Boleyn to Kim Kardashian, and how Marie Antoinettes are made in every era. In the process, readers will find lessons in strength and courage from history’s most unlikely role model. (Please note Amy Elizabeth Bishop is the agent on this project.)

In 1999, twelve-year-old Iranian-American Holly is uprooted from Los Angeles to Iran, after her mother marries a wealthy Iranian with ties to the deposed shah. As frightening as Tehran is to Holly—with its ominous Evin Prison and ever-present “morality police”—moving there signals potential respite from Maman’s emotional dependence and volatility. Holly hopes her new stepfather, Ahmad Safavi, will give them some much-needed stability in a country that feels dangerous and outlandish. But they’ve barely unpacked when Holly realizes Ahmad is a controlling and abusive opium addict. Maman becomes more erratic as she attempts to break free of her husband and when she finally achieves her independence, things go from bad to worse. Holly spends the next seven years of her adolescence as Maman’s confidant, reluctant collaborator, and erstwhile caretaker. With alarming regularity, Maman’s relationships with men and family implode, leading time and again to rushed, poorly considered decisions and even threats of murder-suicide. Despite the bleakness of Holly’s family life, she begins to blossom in Iran, even as the world around her reels from 9/11 and wars in neighboring Afghanistan and Iraq. No one is more surprised than Holly when the country she once feared begins to feel like home. An entertaining and at times, heartbreaking memoir, HOW TO TELL A LIE IN IRAN by Holly Dagres is the story of a difficult mother-daughter relationship centered around a vibrant depiction of Iran beyond the headlines. Dagres is an Iran expert at the Atlantic Council, a think tank. (Please note Amy Elizabeth Bishop is the agent on this project.) 

Rights Round Up

Audible acquired audio rights to TALL, DARK & FURIOUS, DEVASTATED, and IRRESTIBLE by RL Mathewson, CREDENCE by Penelope Douglas, FEELS LIKE HOME and LUCKY IN LOVE by Kelly Elliott, and FINDING PERFECT by Colleen Hoover. Audio rights to POSTCARDS FROM COOKIE by Caroline Clarke went to Blackstone Publishing. Scholastic audio has rights to FLYING OVER WATER by Shannon Hitchock and N.H. Senzai. Tantor acquired audio rights to CONCLAVE by Penelope Douglas.

Suretone Entertainment optioned film rights to David Morrell’s CREEPERS. NGC Films/Lionsgate optioned film rights to ME VS. THE MULTIVERSE #1: PLEASED TO MEET ME by S.G. Wilson, with Temple Hill/Jonathan Levine & Gillian Bohrer producing. Bound Entertainment optioned film rights to THE SILENCE OF BONES by June Hur. Tarryn Fisher’s THE WIVES was optioned for film by Amazon with Patrick Moran producing.

Euromedia acquired Czech rights to GIRL, 11 by A. Suiter Clarke, Newton Compton acquired Italian rights, Penn Publishing acquired Hebrew rights, and Text Publishing acquired Australian/New Zealand rights. Ridna Mova acquired Ukrainian rights to Colleen Hoover’s VERITY, Storyside acquired Bulgarian audio rights, and Euromedia acquired Czech audio rights, as well as audio rights to HOPELESS. Konyvmolykepzo acquired Hungarian rights to her MAYBE NOW and dtv acquired German rights to FINDING PERFECT.  Alaúde acquired Brazilian rights to HOW TO EAT by Mark Bittman and David L. Katz, MD, Portal Publishing acquired Russian rights, while Cúpula/Planeta acquired Spanish rights. Konyvmolykepzo acquired Hungarian rights to OUTMATCHED by Kristen Callihan and Samantha Young, Naklada Neptun acquired Croatian rights, and Laguna acquired Serbian rights, while Newton Compton acquired Italian rights to VILLAIN and Kinneret acquired Hebrew rights to THINGS WE NEVER SAID. Italian rights to SAVE THE CAT! WRITES A NOVEL by Jessica Brody were sold to Omero Srl, while Eksmo acquired Russian rights. Italian rights for WHITE FRAGILITY by Robin DiAngelo went to Chiarelettere, and Korean rights went to Cum Libro. A.S. King’s DIG was sold for Slovakian publication to Albatros and for German publication to Festa Verlag. CONCLAVE by Penelope Douglas will be published in Brazil by The Gift Box; BIRTHDAY GIRL will be published in Croatian by 24 SATA; and CREDENCE will be published in Russian by AST.  Profil acquired Croatian rights to 13 THINGS MENTALLY STRONG PARENTS DON’T DO by Amy Morin, while Albatros acquired Czech rights to 13 THINGS MENTALLY STRONG PEOPLE DON’T DO. Kendall Ryan’s TRYING TO SCORE and JUNK MAIL will be published in Croatian by 24 SATA, while XO, ZACH will be published in Portuguese by Topseller. ACROSS THE BAY by Carlos Aponte went to Penguin Random House Miami for Spanish publication. THE POWER OF EMPATHY by Arthur Ciaramicoli and Katherine Ketcham went to Wisdomhouse for Korean publication. MY LADY JANE by Brodi Ashton was sold for Italian publication to Piemme. JUST ONE NIGHT by Gayle Forman went to Sextante for Brazilian publication. Relacja acquired Polish audio rights to Beth Gardiner’s CHOKED. Russian rights for Amy Gentry’s GOOD AS GONE went to Arkadia Publishing. EXISTENCE, PREDESTINED, CEASELESS and LEIF by Abbi Glines were sold for Italian publication to Hope Edizioni. INFERNO by Angela Graham went to Fanucci for Italian publication. UK audio rights for Tayari Jones’s SILVER SPARROW went to WF Howes. Russian rights for HIGH RISK by Chavi Karkowsky went to Progress Kniga Publishers. THE 7 POWERS OF QUESTIONS by Dorothy Leeds was sold for Korean publication to Deo-Nan. RL Mathewson’s DELECTABLE was sold for Italian publication to Newton Compton. IRENA’S CHILDREN by Tilar Mazzeo was sold for Brazilian publication to Globo. Poznanskie acquired Polish rights to Emily X.R. Pan’s THE ASTONISHING COLOR OF AFTER. Hara Shobo acquired Japanese rights to LORD OF CHANCE by Erica Ridley. FINDING STORM by Samantha Towle went to Sieben for German publication. Czech rights to ALL YOUR TWISTED SECRETS by Diana Urban were sold to Dobrovsky. Tammara Webber’s EASY went to Gyldendal for Danish publication. Editora Charme acquired Brazilian rights to FROM LUKOV WITH LOVE by Mariana Zapata.

RECENT SALES

Russell King’s RAJNEESHPURAM: THE SECRET HISTORY OF BHAGWAN SHREE RAJNEESH’S FAILED AMERICAN UTOPIA went to Chicago Review Press in a World rights deal by Jim McCarthy.

World rights to NEW HOUSE by Dave Wheeler went to Penguin Workshop in a deal by John Rudolph.

Stacey Glick sold North American rights for IMPERVIOUS by AJ Hartley to Falstaff Books.

Clarkson Potter bought World rights to UNTITLED KOSHER COOKBOOK by Chanie Apfelbaum in a deal by Stacey Glick.

World rights to Rachel Tomlinson’s A BLUE KIND OF DAY were sold to Kokila in a deal by Stacey Glick.

Colleen Hoover’s next two UNTTLED books went to Montlake/Amazon in a World English rights deal.

Ann Leslie Tuttle sold three UNTITLED romantic suspense novels by Tara Taylor Quinn to Harlequin in a World rights deal.

North American rights to Stephanie Foo’s THE UNMAKING were sold to Ballantine Bantam Dell.

LOSERVILLE by Clayton Trutor was sold to University of Nebraska Press in a North American rights deal by John Rudolph.

W.M. Akers’s WESTSIDE LIGHTS went to Harper Voyager in a World English rights deal by Sharon Pelletier.

North American rights to THE SPACE BETWEEN US by Cristin Terrill sold to Wednesday Books in a deal by Jim McCarthy.

Jessica Papin sold World rights to NATURE’S POISONS by Justin Brower to W.W. Norton.

THE WAKING by Todd Harra went to Sounds True in a World rights deal by Kemi Faderin.

Bill Lascher’s BORDER WAR was sold to Chicago Review Press in a World rights deal by Jessica Papin.

World rights to three UNTITLED graphic novels by Remy Lai went to Henry Holt Books for Young Readers in a deal by Jim McCarthy.

HEALTHY HEART, HEALTHY BRAIN by Bradley Bale and Amy Doneen with Lisa Collier Cool went to Little, Brown Spark in a World rights deal by Jessica Papin.

Joy McCullough’s HARRIET’S RUFFLED FEATHERS was sold to Atheneum Books for Young Readers for World rights by Jim McCarthy.

World rights to two more LIFE COACH mysteries by Victoria Laurie were sold to Kensington in a deal by Jim McCarthy.

SOFI AND THE BONE SONG by Adrienne Tooley was sold to Simon Pulse in a World rights deal Jim McCarthy.

Abbe Greenberg and Maggie Sarachek's ANXIOUSY HAPPY: AN ANXIETY SISTERS’ GUIDE was sold to Tarcher Perigee in a North American rights deal by Stacey Glick.

ALL SIGNS POINT TO YES edited by Cara Davis-Araux, Candice Montgomery, Adrianne Russell went Inkyard in a World rights deal by Jim McCarthy.

World rights to ONE MINUTE THERE by Anna Priemaza went to Amulet/Abrams in a deal by Lauren Abramo.

Sharon Pelletier sold World rights to Megan Collins’s THE FAMILY PLOT to Atria.

Laura Ljungkvist’s FOLLOW THE LINE was sold to powerhouse Packaging and Supply, Inc. in a World English rights deal by John Rudolph.

ALL THAT’S LEFT IN THE WORLD and an UNTITLED second book by Erik Brown was sold to Balzer + Bray in a North American rights deal.

Sharon Pelletier sold World English rights to Sara Walters’s THE NOVEMBER SICKNESS and an UNTITLED second book to Sourcebooks Fire.

Cynthia R. Green and Joan Beloff’s THROUGH THE YEARS was sold to John Hopkins University Press in a World rights deal by Lauren Abramo.

Flatiron bought World rights to CREATURES, ALL by Charlotte McConaghy in a deal by Sharon Pelletier.

World English rights to THE FACILITATOR’S HANDBOOK FOR LEADING WHITE RACIAL AFFINITY GROUPS by Robin DiAngelo and Amy Burtaine went to Beacon Press in a deal by Lauren Abramo.

Jim McCarthy sold GREAT OR NOTHING by Joy McCullough, Caroline Tung Richmond, Tess Sharpe, and Jessica Spotswood to Delacorte for World English rights.

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Children’s Books bought World rights to EASTER EGG PICTURE BOOK by Cynthia Platt in a deal by Jim McCarthy.

Gae Polisner and Nora Raleigh Baskin’s THE GREAT PGP was sold to Henry Holt Books for Young Readers in a World English rights deal by Jim McCarthy.

World rights to YOU ARE RADICALLY LOVED by Rosie Acosta went to Tarcher Perigee in a deal by Jessica Papin.