Adult Newsletter: September 2021

Up And Coming For Submission

 FICTION

Medusa’s story was stolen by Perseus; it belonged with her sisters. Forgotten by history and diminished by poets, the other two Gorgons have never been more than horrifying hags – damned and doomed. At last, Stheno and Euryale have the opportunity to reclaim their names. Together, these previously unheard voices narrate the sisters’ journey from unexceptional to sensational, from Perseus's sword to its harrowing aftermath. Lauren J. A. Bear’s debut novel, MEDUSA’S SISTERS, deconstructs one of western civilization’s most infamous femme fatales by reimagining the lives of those who knew her best. Though born to grotesque sea beasts, the three sisters are unusually beautiful. They enter the human world in search of a place to belong, yet quickly find themselves at the perilous center of a dangerous Olympian rivalry. The sisters regrettably learn that a god's love is violent. When Athena and Medusa’s illicit affair is uncovered, a series of miscommunications – and one sister’s catastrophic betrayal – results in a tragedy of violation, punishment, and transformation. Exiled to Sarpedon, the sisters must find purpose in their survival to achieve redemption. MEDUSA’S SISTERS embodies the inherent conflict between sisterhood and individuality, myth and truth, vengeance and peace. It is a wholly original composition designed for readers new to mythology and those who live and breathe Homer. In one unforgettable historical fantasy, the novel marries the relevant themes of sexuality and victimization with classical characters and settings.

Megan Mooney is a rising star of morning television—until everything goes wrong one particularly sleep-deprived day. The American Morning anchor goes rogue and calls out a celebrity guest’s abusive behavior, along with her own network's complicity in covering it up. Megan’s tirade lights up Twitter, makes the front-page news, and ultimately costs her everything. Just like that, Megan is evicted from the bright lights of the big city and sent back to her dusty, rural hometown and its low-rated station. Few are happy to see her, including the best friend she stepped on to get ahead and the guy she left behind. Megan devotes herself to winning back their trust, all the while harboring a secret that could rescue her own career but ruin everyone else’s. The pressure builds when a mysterious reporter comes to town and digs into Megan’s past, uncovering things that contradict her carefully contrived image and threaten any hope of a return to the big time. Megan must decide what she really wants and how far she’s willing to go to keep it. MORNING BREAK is a fast-paced, sparkling debut by Kelley McGee, a former tv journalist who brings humor and insight to the competitive absurdities of the business – from the glossy network shows to the existential struggles of local news. MORNING BREAK is perfect for fans of Firefly Lane and The Morning Show.

Emma Baxter’s story begins where rehab stories are supposed to end: in the backseat of the family car with her daughter, headed home a new and improved woman. But for Emma, this is the beginning, and she is not refreshed and doesn’t want to be going home. Whatever spark she had with her husband, Benjamin, was lost long ago, and she’s fairly convinced her eight-year-old daughter, Elliot, is a sociopath. This wasn’t the life Emma had always imagined—when she was younger, she was a cool girl and a writer, but now she’s a mother, wife, aging Xennial hipster, and hasn’t written anything in years. Determined to change all that, she throws herself into working the steps, parenting and writing. Or at least she goes to meetings, picks her kid up from school, and sits down at the computer with her fingers on the keys. But going through the motions doesn’t work like it’s supposed to. When Emma befriends a fellow addict in a meeting, their relationship quickly escalates from friends, to screwing, to obsession. She’s still not drinking, but she’s got a new addiction—one that threatens to destroy her family for good. THOSE PEOPLE by Amy Reed is a dramedy about Emma’s early sobriety as she tries to navigate family, obsession, midlife ennui and privilege, and the loss of her one true love—alcohol. In the vein of Tom Perotta and Meg Wolitzer, it is both raunchy and tender, funny and tragic. (Please note: this project is represented by Michael Bourret.)

Ruby Spencer is spending one year in a tiny town in the Scottish Highlands for three reasons: to write a best-selling cookbook, to drink a barrelful of whisky, and to figure out what comes next in her third-life crisis. She has no interest in dating—or falling in love—ever again. With men, that is; Ruby does fall in love with cooking again and finds her groove planning pop-up suppers in The Cosy Hearth, Tomich’s struggling old pub. Soon she’s picturing a life in this homey Scottish town beyond her whisky year, writing, gardening, and exploring ingredients as more than just clickbait. Her interest in staying in Tomich has nothing to do with Brochan, the brawny, bearded local handyman. Definitely nothing at all. Then Ruby learns that her beloved pub is about to be turned into an American chain restaurant, upending the traditions of the new friends she’s made and threatening her hopes of a Scottish everafter. The deal is shrouded in secrecy, but as Ruby gets closer to (and steamier with) Brochan, she stumbles upon a detail about plans for the pub that tugs at her loyalties. Her next move will either help preserve the authentic Highlands life she’s grown to love… or shred everything she’s built for herself there. THE WHISKY YEAR by former chef and Bon Appétit staffer Rochelle Bilow is an irresistible roll in the barley for fans of Penny Reid and Linda Holmes. (Please note: this project is represented by Sharon Pelletier.)

When twenty-eight-year-old Stevie Guthrie’s mother disappears into the woods beside their house, Stevie isn’t surprised. Her mother suffers from early-onset Alzheimer’s and, though their relationship has been difficult her whole life, Stevie has been Mama’s sole caretaker for the past five years. But just as Stevie begins to envision a new life for herself outside of Patmos, Alabama, Mama comes back, seemingly cured of her disease. At first, it seems to be a miracle, but as the two settle into a new routine, Stevie notices something off about her mother. And as Mama becomes increasingly erratic, even violent, the neighbors start to behave strangely as well—subtly at first, and then in larger, more unsettling ways. Stevie, always an outsider in her own close-knit community, seems to be the only one who notices the darkness spreading across the town and, despite all her ambition to leave, can’t resist trying to find answers. But the forest holds secrets she can’t yet imagine. And in Patmos, death isn’t necessarily the worst thing that can happen to you. Taut, eerie, merciless, and compassionate, MAMA by Sebastian Murdoch delves into the chains of trauma that bind mothers and daughters, generations, and communities. Murdoch, a librarian in Mississippi, earned an MFA from Lesley University in Cambridge, Massachusetts and has published fiction in The Johannesberg Review of Books; MAMA is her debut novel, prime to be devoured by fans of Rachel Harrison and Carmen Maria Machado. (Please note: this project is represented by Sharon Pelletier.)

Bad luck has always been the only luck that penetrates deep into the hills and valleys surrounding Witches’ Hollow.  Some say a murder occurred there twenty years ago when a night of teenage partying ended with the local preacher’s son falling to his death.  Some locals still caught up in old mountain superstitions say a mysterious woman who practices witchcraft committed the murder.  Whatever the case, Clara Caudell has never forgotten that fateful night—or the secret she’d revealed to Jace minutes before he fell.  Now, when Clara is forced to return to Peculiar with her daughter, Ivy, a series of unexplained fires, the discovery of a missing child’s skeletal remains decades after her disappearance, evidence that occult practices and ritual sacrifices are occurring in the woods, and an unsolved cold case involving a transient all point to the Appalachian town’s dark underbelly. Everything comes to a head when Jace’s younger brother organizes a meeting at the abandoned church to finally reveal the killer. As long-buried secrets pointing to multiple acts of violence and betrayal are uncovered, is there anyone Clara can trust?  Clara even believes her own daughter may have turned against her given Ivy’s recent, unnerving behavior and after discovering occult items in Ivy’s bedroom that may have been used in a threatening message. With a nod to THE WIFE UPSTAIRS and THE CARETAKERS, USA Today and Publisher’s Weekly bestselling author Debbie Herbert is at her best with WITCHES HOLLOW—a broody, page-turning thriller.  (Please note: This project is represented by Ann Leslie Tuttle.)

 NON-FICTION

On August 25, 1967, the brash, 49-year-old leader of the American Nazi Party, George Lincoln Rockwell, was shot through the chest as he backed his 1958 Chevrolet out of the Econ-o-Wash Laundromat on Wilson Boulevard in Arlington, Virginia. Tumbling out of his car onto the black pavement, he staggered to his feet and pointed to the roof of the laundromat before collapsing and dying. Ex-Marine John Patler, one of his closest followers, with a white supremacist past reaching back to his teen years, and who had been like a son to Rockwell, was soon apprehended and charged with homicide. An infant when the murder happened, Patler’s youngest son, Nicholas, remembers asking before he was even in kindergarten if his father had really killed a man—the beginning of what would become a lifelong quest to make sense of his father’s involvement in such a violent hate-group, and an even greater journey to understand the roots of racism and bigotry. In AMERICAN SUN, Nicholas Patler tells the story of his father’s (and Rockwell’s) descent into white supremacy and explores with sensitivity what he calls “that time before hatred,” peeling back the layers from the men distorted by hate to the children who were warped by trauma. AMERICAN SUN is the story of a family history and dynamic marred by tragedy enmeshed in racism, bigotry, and violence, but ultimately disrupted and transformed by intentionality, understanding, and love.

There is a secretive part of the judicial system that has long allowed the unscrupulous to prey on innocent citizens. The general public had been unaware of this legalized exploitation, called guardianship or conservatorship, until the shocking case of pop star Britney Spears exploded. In WE’RE HERE TO HELP: THE UGLY TRUTH ABOUT THE U.S. GUARDIAN SYSTEM, readers discover how easily the vulnerable can become enmeshed in this scheme. Once a petition is presented to the court alleging someone is incapacitated and it is accepted by a judge with no due process hearing, the individual becomes a “ward of the court” and is stripped of their civil rights. Isolated from their families and often overmedicated to ensure compliance, their wills and powers of attorney are ignored. All of their life decisions are suddenly in the hands of a stranger—the court appointed guardian. Originally designed to help only the neediest, guardianships have morphed into a bastardized behemoth that currently controls the lives of some 1.5 million Americans. This abusive cottage industry targets anyone with a bit of money: the young, the old, those who’ve won a personal injury or malpractice lawsuit, the physically or mentally challenged. Diane Dimond has written more about this predatory system than any other journalist. In chilling fashion, and through devastating personal stories, Dimond reveals why it’s almost impossible for victims to escape guardianship’s grip and why the system still exists. Simply put, it has been too lucrative and too successful to fail.

In the 1930s, a Russian woman named Maria Poliakova parachuted into Nazi Germany and established Gisela’s Family, a spy ring, in Switzerland. Her nest of spies penetrated the German High Command. Despite Stalin’s initial wariness, he ultimately based most Soviet troop movements upon Maria’s information, and her ring sent the German Order of Battle to Stalin. Not only was Gisela’s Family able to transmit German plans to the Soviets, but one of Maria’s parallel agents made contact with Klaus Fuchs, a nuclear physicist working on America’s top-secret Manhattan Project, and a Russian agent. Secrets were slipped from Fuchs to the spy ring to Stalin, thanks to Maria’s work. In MARIA, two-time Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and WWII author Lou Kilzer tells the haunting story of this Russian spy who turned the tide against Adolf Hitler and gave the Russians the keys to the atomic bomb, thereby setting off the Cold War. Through her work, this Communist Jewish woman—the ultimate insult to Hitler—changed history, by bringing down the Fuhrer and strengthening Stalin. MARIA is her incredible, untold tale.

At just 41 years of age, Florida State law professor Dan Markel was among the most well-known and accomplished criminal law scholars in the country. He was also a newly divorced dad with his toddlers, Ben and Lincoln, at the center of his universe. On the morning of July 18, 2014, Dan dropped his boys off at preschool, hit the gym for a workout, and headed home to his quiet, tree-canopied neighborhood. Within seconds of pulling into his garage, two 38-caliber bullets fired from point-blank range were lodged in his brain. His brutal slaying seemed to defy logical explanation; the case lay stone-cold for nearly two years. Finally, dogged pursuit by the Tallahassee Police and FBI led to the apprehension of two men with lengthy rap sheets. The evidence revealed the two had driven ten hours from Miami with one singular purpose: to assassinate the revered professor. Were Dan’s ex-wife Wendi and her South Florida family the masterminds behind this horrific crime?  In EXTREME PUNISHMENT: THE TRAGIC TRUE STORY OF AN ACCLAIMED LAW PROFESSOR MURDERED IN COLD BLOOD, true-crime writer Steven B. Epstein recounts the riveting story of a divorce between two law professors that spiraled out of control, wealthy and overprotective in-laws hell-bent on exacting retribution, a most unlikely love triangle, and the relentless quest to bring Dan’s killers—all of them—to justice.

Why is there a paranormal industry? Why do we embroider meaning and speculation onto every piece of supernatural evidence we think we find? And why are stories of ghost encounters so different from the ghosts of fiction and urban legend? Duncan Fisher, with a PhD in the history of belief, has spent the last 30 years with people and their ghosts – learning how others interpret and digest supernatural encounters they believe to be genuine. THE BECKONING FAIR ONES is a collection of first-person ghost accounts, and a systematic study of what happens in the wake of these encounters, including how life, beliefs, and feelings change. While exploring his own spiritual journey, Fisher explains the 8 different ways society perceives ghosts. For some, a haunting means adventure or simply an exciting alternative to the mundane world. For others, it’s a dangerous remnant of a benighted time, or even a symbolic carrier of wisdom from a virtuous past. An apparition may be a beautiful spectre full of sensual promise. Quite possibly, a ghost might just be a person, psychologically the same as us, only dead. This phenomenon may even be a scientific concept that physicists will be able to explain someday. For the religiously inclined, the ghost is a profound part of any conversation about the body and soul, good and evil, judgement and/or redemption. In THE BECKONING FAIR ONES, Fisher explores various perspectives on whether ghosts are real and if so, what does it all mean.

In 1967, two journalistic rivals united to assume control over the European edition of the recently defunct New York Herald Tribune and produce a newspaper in Paris. Together, The New York Times and The Washington Post initiated one of the most unique ventures in the history of American journalism. In the 1970s, the International Herald Tribune spearheaded the use of new technologies to print the newspaper remotely. Available in dozens of countries on every inhabited continent, this European newspaper quickly became an international treasure. Mixing Parisian glamour with the best of American journalism, the IHT was soon beloved by tourists, businessmen, and even world leaders. Changing winds in the media landscape led to an acrimonious buyout, a name change, and, ultimately, the closure of a newsroom that had printed an English-language newspaper in Paris for more than a century. AN AMERICAN NEWSROOM IN PARIS: HOW THE INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE BECAME THE WORLD’S FIRST GLOBAL DAILY recounts the rise and fall of a great newspaper that continues to elicit romance and nostalgia throughout the world today. Drawing on hundreds of interviews and deep archival research from his PhD dissertation in History at the University of Cambridge, Christopher Schaefer tells the story of this unique newspaper and the small but lively newsroom in Paris that produced it. Schaefer sheds light on the American century, the tumultuous transformation of media over the past few decades, and an often overlooked component of America’s fascination with Paris.

In 2007, writer Adam Patric Miller moves to St. Louis for his wife’s posh university job—within months, the marriage ends. Miller, an ex-English teacher, must now earn tenure again, this time in an upmarket suburb, years after first teaching in an impoverished Connecticut high school and then in a gated Ohio community. Over the next four years, he confronts the false narratives that have defined his life: a conviction to produce something of literary value, the certainty that he is a gifted inner city teacher, and the inherited mightiness of his fathers—Miller’s biological father, an artist and screen actor, disappeared for two decades to pursue his path; his adoptive father, a WWII marine, abandoned his first family to make an epic film and run covert operations in the Philippines.  But happiness comes too. While writing in a coffeeshop one fall afternoon, he sees Grace. Despite their hesitations, they marry, blending their families of divergent cultural backgrounds. Soon, Miller heads back East to care for his dying mother, earns tenure, and by winter break, arrives at an understanding of all he's lost—and gained. In BREAK, Miller—whose work has won the Autumn House Press Nonfiction Prize, a Pushcart Prize, and been a Notable Essay Selection in The Best American Essays Series—offers a backstage tour of American schools through the cross-section of race and privilege. Acutely observant and deeply empathetic, BREAK shares the trials of one writer who finds himself relearning old lessons even as he learns anew.

Despite being a published writer with a family, a gaggle of internet fans, and (most shockingly) a mortgage, Emily Farris could never get her shit together. To her, being bad at staying organized was just one of her many character flaws—that is, until she was diagnosed with ADHD at the age of 35. Like many women and girls with undiagnosed ADHD, Emily spent her life internalizing criticisms about her lack of follow-through and carrying around a lot of shame as she tried to fit into a world designed for neurotypical brains. I’LL JUST BE FIVE MORE MINUTES is Emily’s collection of honest, often humorous, and sometimes heartbreaking personal essays about her experiences as a woman with ADHD. Each piece looks at how her neurodiversity has affected her life, from her childhood and young adulthood to her friendships, romantic relationships, and professional encounters. These are stories about struggling in social situations, stories about drinking too much and sleeping too little, stories of roundabout triumphs, and stories of self-acceptance. Mostly, though, they’re stories about not quite fitting into the world and, for most of Emily’s life, not really understanding why — a feeling even people without ADHD have experienced at one time or another. An essay collection both entertaining and enlightening, I’LL JUST BE FIVE MORE MINUTES is a book for people who have ADHD, and for the people who know and love them. (Please note: this project is represented by Michael Bourret.)

Our current healthcare system is sick and in dire need of resuscitation. The recent uptick of virtual care and digital medicine during the COVID-19 pandemic, offers hope that we may be able to turn things around.  In SENSORED – REINVENTING HEALTHCARE, Dr. Jag Singh, an internationally renowned cardiologist and professor at Harvard Medical School gives voice to a treatment plan towards this revitalization. Much of Dr. Singh’s current efforts are focused on healthcare redesign, digital health, and medical device innovation. The book is a timely depiction of where the practice of medicine is headed over the next couple of decades and aims to inform readers who desire to actively engage in their own health and wellness. Dr. Singh showcases the upswell of virtual care, the evolving role of sensors and artificial intelligence, and its impact on the daily lives of the human race. Using his own illness and experience with the coronavirus, clinical anecdotes, and mesmerizing patient stories from medical practice, SENSORED shows that the success of the digital revolution beyond the technology, is about our ability to understand and adapt to this changing landscape. The future of medicine is sensor-aided, virtual care that will be powered by predictive analytics. Connectivity with caring will need to be a part of embracing this change, as there is no going back. SENSORED provides a fascinating insight into how healthcare can become sensible, affordable, and practical and why everyone needs to become a part of the solution. (Please note: this project is represented by Stacey Glick.)

A real-life Sopranos with a Jewish mob boss, FAMILY VALUES details the colorful and unconventional life of a father and daughter, and the twists and turns of two hardscrabble lives inextricably intertwined. As if being a part of the small religious Jewish community in predominantly Catholic Buffalo New York wasn’t exotic enough, debut author Rachel Lithgow’s colorful personal narrative describes Walter Jagoda, a petty gangster who wasn’t like all the other dads in her mayonnaise-on-white-bread gentile town in the seventies. While the other neighborhood fathers were washing their station wagons, putting snow pants on the kids, watching TV in the den. and mowing their lawns, Walter’s entrepreneurial skills ran to gambling, cards, horses and real estate schemes. He managed his own little crew while running from virtually everyone and everything else, including his own history. He took his only child on as his sidekick with him for company, support and sometimes, to serve as his excuse or alibi along the journey. He was handsome, twitchy, loud, funny and lived on his own terms. Despite his harsh approach and outdated style, he loved his only child with a ferocity rarely seen in that generation. From the high countertops at Off Track Betting to long drives around the city in his orange Monte Carlo (with glass T-top), fast food restaurants, parks, stores and apartments, these were the playgrounds of the writer’s childhood where loyalty was prized above all other things, and every day was a new adventure. This is their story. (Please note: this project is represented by Stacey Glick.)

The first gender affirmation surgeries took place in interwar Berlin, at a facility that employed transgender staff, and which was headed by a gay Jewish man, the fascinating Dr. Magnus Hirshfeld. The Institute for Sexual Science became both center of the homosexual and trans community—and base of operations for the first LGBTQ rights movement of the 20th century. The Institute and its colorful, courageous supporters came within surprising reach of overturning anti-homosexuality laws. But the progressive ideas espoused by the Institute, (women’s rights, the lifting of abortion bans, sex education and birth control) could only be possible because of scientific breakthroughs in endocrinology. A new understanding of hormones overturned long-held beliefs about the “moral empire” of mind in favor of chemical communication of the body just as the democratic Weimer Republic came to power.  This science of sex offered the basis for declaring sexual and gender nonconformists—the intermediaries—as natural rather than pathological. The Institute would fall in 1933 to Nazi forces, but the most important documents would be smuggled out ahead of the Gestapo raids—and have profound effect on the future. THE INTERMEDIARIES tells the riveting stories of LGBTQ pioneers, a surprising, long- suppressed history, and offers a cautionary tale in the face of today’s oppressive anti-trans legislation. Brandy Schillace is a historian of medicine and the author of Mr. Humble and Dr. Butcher and other books. Her work has appeared in Wired, Scientific American, The Wall Street Journal among others. (Please note: this project is represented by Jessica Papin.)

In the vein of Joan Didion’s The Year of Magical Thinking and Lynsey Addario’s It’s What I do comes THE REMNANTS: A JOURNEY THROUGH WAR, LOVE, AND LOSS. Nada Bakri and Anthony Shadid met while covering a political rally for Hezbollah, in the summer of 2006. Bakri was a reporter for Beirut’s English language newspaper, The Daily Star, and a stringer for The New York Times. Shadid was a correspondent for the Washington Post.  Against a backdrop of war and unrest, they fell in love. Together, they reported on the turmoil in Lebanon, the Arab Spring, and the wars in Iraq and Syria, their shared commitment to bearing witness and truth-telling both an article of faith and their ultimate undoing. Shadid, an author and two-time Pulitzer prizewinner for international reporting, died of a fatal asthma attack while reporting on the Syrian civil war, leaving Bakri stunned and grieving, to raise their toddler son alone. THE REMNANTS is Bakri’s tripartite story of loss: of her husband and partner, of her professional identity as a journalist—as the work that had once been her calling was now anathema, and of the hopes of the Arab Spring.  Blending first person narrative with a larger political story of a region she knows intimately, Bakri shares a powerful chronicle of loss and painful rebirth, of love and the possibility of healing. Nada Bakri is a Lebanese journalist who covered the Middle East for international newspapers including The New York Times and The Washington Post. She is a graduate of the Columbia Journalism school, and splits her time between Beirut and Cambridge, Ma. (Please note: this project is represented by Jessica Papin.)

Afrofuturism’s resonance in pop culture has sparked a renewed interest in future-thinking works by Black innovators. Luminaries like jazz legend Sun Ra, Senegalese President and poet Leopold Sedar Senghor, author Octavia Butler and artist Janelle Monae (among others) have crafted future visions, pulling from the wealth of space/time ideas in African Diasporic cultures. Afrofuturists make a practice of nurturing their imagination, intuition, and uncovering space/time ideas in Black cultures and beyond. In the vein of Sand Talk: How Indigenous Thinking Can Save the World by Tyson Yuncaporta and Julia Cameron’s classic text, The Artist’s Way, THE AFROFUTURIST WAY by Ytasha Womack explores the theory, practice, and being through the lived experience and imaginative examples of Afrofuturist creators. Infused with the author’s own contemplations and rich with anecdotes, this book will lead readers through practices that use storytelling to explore juxtapositions in time and memory.  Drawing on philosophies and science behind electronic beat-making, rhythm, lyricism, dance, memory, myth, and cosmology, this book helps readers envision futures that inspire and transform the present. Whether a reader is looking to enhance their creative practices in design, art, world-building, or for personal enrichment, this book provides a kaleidoscopic path for fine tuning the Afrofuturist lens in inner and outer spaces. Ytasha L. Womack is an award-winning author, filmmaker, independent scholar, and dance therapist. She is a leading expert on Afrofuturism who lectures on the imagination and its applications across the world. (Please note: this project is represented by Jessica Papin.)

As the pandemic took hold, millions of people in America and around the world struggled with anxiety and depression. But founder and director of the Center for Anxiety in New York City, David H. Rosmarin, Ph.D., found that his own patients were doing quite well – better than ever, in fact. As one patient said, Dr. Rosmarin’s methods got her through the crisis while everyone else became more anxious. Perhaps for the first time in world history, it was perfectly normal to struggle with stress, anxiety, and depression. His patients’ feelings of kinship with people suffering from the pandemic, their shared concerns about infection and death, and shortages and a tanking economy, also mitigated the sense of stigma and shame they often feel about their symptoms, including panic attacks. Dr. Rosmarin’s patients’ resilience attests to the value of his approach of working with our anxiety instead of trying to ignore it or medicate it away. Now, in THRIVING WITH ANXIETY: 9 TOOLS TO MAKE ANXIETY WORK FOR YOU, Dr. Rosmarin explains his innovative method, using simple tools to help you flourish because of anxiety not in spite of it, as you turn your anxiety into an asset and strength. Associate Professor at Harvard Medical School and Director of the McLean Hospital Spirituality & Mental Health Program, Dr. Rosmarin and his clinical work and research have received attention from ABC, NPR, the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Boston Globe, and Scientific American. He is writing with bestselling ghostwriter Peter Occhiogrosso. (Please note: this project is represented by Leslie Meredith.)

The shocking abduction of Polly Klaas from her own home almost 30 years ago struck fear in the heart of every family in America – and millions who followed the story around the world. A landmark case, as significant as the Unabomber, the Oklahoma City Bombing, and the attack on the World Trade Center, the investigation changed the FBI – and the nation – forever. Now, New York Times bestselling author Kim Cross immerses readers in a gripping behind-the-scenes narrative about the Bureau’s investigation into this most famous and pivotal kidnapping and its significant legacy. For true crime and CSI fans, IN LIGHT OF ALL DARKNESS: INSIDE THE FBI POLLY KLAAS INVESTIGATION offers abundant new information and a new cast of characters, including the principal agents who have declined all other requests to contribute to a book.  They share their stories about details known only to deep insiders, including the color of the powder that picked up the abductor’s palm print and the way the kidnapper wiped his mouth every time he lied. Cross herself has unique access to the murderer’s confession tape, not released or reported to the public and revealed here for the first time. Well-known for her skill at braiding narratives in her award-winning long-form reporting, such as “The King of Tides,” “Noel + Leon,” her New York Times bestseller, What Stands in a Storm, and The Stahl House (Chronicle, November, 2021), Cross recreates the kidnapping, investigation, and consequences as no other account, TV show, or popular podcast could do. (Please note: this title is represented by Leslie Meredith.)

America’s relationship with the news is broken. In 2020, we saw a global pandemic compounded by an unprecedented infodemic, according to the World Health Organization. More Americans than ever live in filter bubbles, consuming information that reconfirms their biases, whether or not it is factual. Gen Z is consuming news almost entirely through social media. And journalists are leaving the mainstream media to monetize their own audiences on new platforms like Substack, alongside anyone who has something to say. In this chaotic, evolving landscape, journalist Jihii Jolly centers the news consumer for the first time. What does the modern information ecosystem feel like for the news consumer? And how can people, especially those who have never before felt represented or served by the news, find news they need to live healthy, fulfilling lives? It starts with a definition. TAKING BACK THE NEWS is a case for redefining the news. News isn’t simply what gets printed or aired. It’s information that helps us live our lives, which are in large part driven by motivations we aren’t even aware of. If we consume more intentionally based on our needs, Jolly argues, we’ll be able to protect our well-being, generate greater empathy for each other and take effective action as a public. Through fascinating examples from media history and new research on motivation, identity, interaction design and behavioral economics, TAKING BACK THE NEWS will help you think about your relationship with “news” in a completely new way. (Please note: Amy Elizabeth Bishop is the agent on this project.)

Rights Round Up

Tantor acquired audio rights to THE STRANGER IN MY BED by Michael Fleeman, as well as ABOUT TOMORROW by Abbi Glines, A SPELL TO UNBIND by Victoria Laurie, and HERE WITH ME and THERE WITH YOU by Samantha Young. JAR Studio has acquired podcast rights to RESTORING HARMONY by Joëlle Anthony.

Stacey Cramer optioned film rights to John Glatt’s GOLDEN BOY. Kevin Grange’s WILD RESUCES was optioned for film by Sony TV. Wander Boy Productions optioned film rights to A.S. King’s PLEASE IGNORE VERA DIETZ. David Morrell’s THE TOTEM was optioned for film by 3311 Productions. IDW Entertainment optioned film rights to Diana Thung’s AUGUST MOON.

Living Publishing House acquired Albanian rights to VERITY by Colleen Hoover. Storyside acquired Bulgarian audio rights to REGRETTING YOU and HEART BONES. Ars Lamina acquired Macedonian rights to LAYLA, FINDING PERFECT, and HOPELESS. Euromedia acquired Czech rights to BLACK TANGLED HEART by Samantha Young. HarperCollins Germany acquired German rights to THE TRUEST THING. Orange Books acquired Bulgarian rights to OUTMATCHED. AST acquired Russian rights to FIRE NIGHT and CORRUPT by Penelope Douglas. HKZ acquired Slovenian rights to BREAKABLE by Tammara Webber, while Storyside acquired the Bulgarian audio rights. Storyside also acquired the Bulgarian audio rights to EASY. Turkish rights to IBN ARABI’S SMALL DEATH by Mohammed Hasan Alwan were sold to Ketebe. Claire Andrews’s DAUGHTER OF SPARTA was sold for Russian publication to AST. SAVE THE CAT! WRITES A NOVEL by Jessica Body, based on the books by Blake Snyder, will be publishing in Turkish by Sira Publishing. Beijing Senmiao Culture Media acquired the simplified Chinese audio rights to THE POWER OF EMPATHY by Arthur P. Ciaramicoli, Ed. D., Ph.D. and Katherine Ketcham. THE FAMILY NEXT DOOR by John Glatt went to Filia for Polish rights. Amy Morin’s 13 THINGS MENTALLY STRONG PEOPLE DON’T DO went to Zerolex for Mongolian publication. Navchalna Knyha acquired Ukrainian rights to FIRST BLOOD by David Morrell. UK rights to HOUSE WOMAN by Adorah Nworah were sold to Borough Press/Harper UK. Alpina Publisher acquired the Ukrainian rights to THE BEAUTY MYTH by Naomi Wolf. THE WALL OF WINNIPEG AND ME by Mariana Zapata will be published in Czech by Albatros.

RECENT SALES

David Fleming‘s WHO’S YOUR FOUNDING FATHER went to Hachette in a North American rights deal.

North American rights to Adorah Nworah‘s HOUSE WOMAN were sold to Unnamed Press in a deal by Sharon Pelletier.

Jim McCarthy sold WELCOME TO RICHTER by Emma Ohland to Carolrhoda/Lerner in a World rights deal.

World rights to Rachel Nuwer‘s I FEEL LOVE: THE NEW SCIENCE OF MDMA were sold to Bloomsbury.

World rights to SLOUCH: FEARING THE DISABLED BODY by Beth Linker were sold to Princeton University Press in a deal by Jessica Papin.

Cliff Burke’s FRENCH LEAVE was sold to Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in a World rights deal by Jim McCarthy.

FIELD NOTES ON THE NORTH AMERICAN SASQUATCH by John O’Connor was sold to Sourcebooks in a US & Territories, Canada, and Philippines rights deal.

World rights to THE BOUQS CO.’S ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE NOTES by John Tabis went to Rizzoli in a deal by Stacey Glick.

TRANSMOGRIFY! edited by Cara Davis-Araux went to HarperTeen in a World rights deal by Jim McCarthy.

Mike Gunter‘s THIS LAND was sold to Columbia University Press in a World rights deal.

Jessica Papin sold World English rights to Lisa Baril’s MELT: THE REVELATIONS OF ICE-PATH ARCHEOLOGY to Timber Press.

Inkyard bought World English rights to KISMAT CONNECTION and SANSKARI SWEETHEART by Ananya Devarajan in a deal by Ann Leslie Tuttle.

World rights to NAINAI’S MOUNTAIN by Livia Blackburne went to Neal Porter Books in a deal by Jim McCarthy.

World rights to KING HANCOCK: THE RADICAL INFLUENCE OF A MODERATE FOUNDING FATHER by Brooke Barbier went to Harvard University Press in a deal by Amy Elizabeth Bishop.

Chicago Review Press bought World rights to WHEN HARRY MET PABLO by Matthew Algeo.

Jade Adia Harvey’s THERE GOES THE NEIGHBORHOOD and UNTITLED BOOK 2 were sold to Disney Hyperion in a World English rights deal by Jim McCarthy.

Jessica Papin sold UM KALTHOUM by Sarah Mousa and illustrated by Meena Hamdy to Beach Lane Books for World rights. 

HARLEQUIN ROMANTIC SUSPENSE UNTITLED BOOKS 1-4 by Tara Taylor Quinn were sold to Harlequin in a World rights deal by Ann Leslie Tuttle.

Catapult bought THE MALE GAZED by Manuel Betancourt in a North American and open market rights deal by Michael Bourret.

Rod Pulido‘s CHASING PACQUIAO was sold to Viking Children’s in a World English rights deal by Jim McCarthy.

Stacey Glick sold BURNING SHAKESPEARE by A.J. Hartley to Falstaff Books in a North American rights deal.

THE ART OF SCANDAL by Regina Black went to Grand Central/Forever Yours in a North American rights deal by Sharon Pelletier.

Erin Soderberg Downing’s UNTITLED GREAT PEACH EXPERIMENT BOOK #3 was sold to Pixel + Ink in a World rights deal by Michael Bourret.

World English rights to UNFIT and THRILLER #2 by Jenna Kernan were sold to Bookouture in a deal by Ann Leslie Tuttle.

All Seasons Press bought MEDICAL IMPERIALISM by Naomi Wolf in a US/Canada rights deal.

Lake Union/Amazon bought A GIRL CALLED SAMPSON by Amy Harmon in a World rights deal.

Denise Williams’s THREE UNTITLED NOVELLAS went to Berkley in a World English rights deal by Sharon Pelletier.

UNPRECEDENTED by Therese Oneill went to Simon Element in a World English rights deal by Jessica Papin.

Graydon House bought THE LIBRARY OF DEATH ETERNAL by Hester Fox in a World volume rights deal.

THE HURRICANE BLONDE by Haley Sutton went to Putnam in a World rights deal by Sharon Pelletier.

World rights to BLACK DREAMS by Reniqua Allen-Lamphere were sold to Columbia University Press by Jessica Papin.

Cleis Press bought World rights to MULTIAMORY by Dedeker Winston, Emily Matlack & Jase Lindgren in a deal by Michael Bourret. 

Jillian Berman’s SUNK COST: THE STORY OF AMERICA’S $1.6 TRILLION (AND GROWING) STUDENT LOAN CRISIS was sold to University of Chicago Press in a World English rights deal by John Rudolph.

BenBella Books bought BITE-SIZED PARENTING by Sharon Mazel in a World rights deal by Stacey Glick.

World rights to A (DIAGNOSTIC) INTERVIEW WITH A VAMPIRE by Brian Sharpless were sold to Chicago Review Press by Jessica Papin.

Sterling bought THE ART OF DEEP SPACE EXPLORATION by Jim Bell in a World rights deal by Michael Bourret.

Jeff Kosseff‘s THE RIGHT TO LIE was sold to Johns Hopkins University Press in a World English rights deal.

Random House Books for Young Readers bought SELECT by Christie Matheson in a World rights deal by Stacey Glick.

World rights to THICKER THAN WATER by Megan Collins were sold to Atria by Sharon Pelletier.

Stacey Glick sold HOW TO TASTE by Mandy Naglich to Kensington for World rights.

New York University Press bought North American rights to BAYARD RUSTIN: A LEGACY OF PROTEST AND POLITICS by Michael G. Long in a deal by John Rudolph.

Michael Bourret sold TALES TO KEEP YOU UP AT NIGHT and MORE TALES TO KEEP YOU UP AT NIGHT by Dan Poblocki to Penguin Workshop for World rights.

Brook Lander Shurtz’s BONZAI THE CHEEKY PANDA AND THE MAGICAL BAMBOO was sold to Island Heritage Press in a World rights deal by Stacey Glick.

Razorbill bought BAD BLOOD and two UNTITLTED books by Morgan Rhodes in a World rights deal by Jim McCarthy.

Atria bought World rights to an UNTITLED novel by Colleen Hoover.

Erin Zimmerman’s UNROOTED: BOTANY, MOTHERHOOD, AND THE FIGHT TO SAVE AN OLD SCIENCE was sold to Melville House in a World rights deal by Jessica Papin.

John Rudolph sold THERE’S NO CREAM IN CREAM SODA: FACTS AND FOLKLORE ABOUT OUR FAVORITE DRINKS by Kim Zachman to Running Press in a World rights deal. 

Emma Bernay’s UNTITLED ROSE SCHNEIDERMAN PICTURE BOOK was sold to Apple & Honey Press/Behrman House in a World rights deal by Michael Bourret.

BenBella Books bought EAT EVERYTHING! HOW TO FEED OURSELVES AND NOURISH A HEALTHY MICROBIOME by Dawn Harris Sherling, M.D. in a World English rights deal by Stacey Glick.

Julia Watts Belser’s BREATH AND BONE was sold to Beacon Press in a North American rights deal by Sharon Pelletier.

World rights to THE CONFIGURATIONS OF KATRINA KIM by Maria Dong were sold to Grand Central by Amy Elizabeth Bishop.

John Rudolph sold JACK ROBINSON: THE STORY OF A BLACK FREEDSON FIGHTER by Yohuru Williams and Michael G. Long to FSG Books for Young Readers in a World rights deal.

Putnam Books for Young Readers bought World rights to ROSTAM AND THE RED DWARF by Olivia Abtahi in a deal by Jim McCarthy.

Emma Bernay‘s SHABBAT SABOTAGE was sold to Little Bee Books in a World rights deal by Michael Bourret.