Back in the blogosphere

To make up for my silence of the past two weeks, I thought I'd post a cute kitty picture. The neighborhood strays like napping in the planter in our front yard.

Anyway, I've been dealing lately with a heavy workload at the library, HNR deadlines, and severe allergies to the local harvest (corn and soybeans). As a result I haven't felt much like blogging or even reading. I got 50 pages into one book I'd hoped to cover here, but ran out of time before another deadline hit, so had to put it aside temporarily.

In the meanwhile, book arrivals are piling up next to my desk.

You'll notice they're two deep - the pile further back includes everything I got at BookExpo Canada in June, as I'm totally out of shelf space. It's a problem.

Until I get my thoughts together for a real post, here are some historical deals from the last week, from Publishers Marketplace.

Oxford University Press editor Matt Gallaway's THE METROPOLIS CASE, the sweeping tale of unlikely quartet, bound together by the strange, spectacular history of Richard Wagner's masterpiece opera, Tristan and Isolde, to Suzanne O'Neill at Crown, by Bill Clegg at William Morris Agency (NA).

Julie Lessman's REFUGE FROM THE STORM, in which a privileged woman at first thrives on the glitz and glamour of The Roaring Twenties until her world crashes in the Great Depression forcing her to work with a man who is the bane of her existence, FAR FROM RUBIES, and BESIDE THE STILL WATERS, to Lonnie Hull Dupont at Revell, by Natasha Kern at Natasha Kern Literary Agency (World).

Bestselling author of Loving Frank Nancy Horan's new novel, again to Libby McGuire and Susanna Porter at Ballantine, in a major deal, by Lisa Bankoff at ICM (world). [no plot description available]

Award-winning author of The Physician of London and Marrying Mozart Stephanie Cowell's THE GREEN DRESS, a wonderful re-imagining of the tragic love story between the young, ambitious Claude Monet and his muse, Camille Doncieux, to Suzanne O'Neill at Crown, in a good deal, for publication in Spring 2010, by Emma Sweeney at Emma Sweeney Agency (NA).

Robin Maxwell's O, JULIET, O, JULIET, the follow-up to MADEMOISELLE BOLEYN and the forthcoming SIGNORA DA VINCI, in which the historical Juliet from Shakespeare's play is imagined as a young woman living in early Renaissance Florence during the rule of Cosimo de Medici, when inter-family warfare was at its bloody height, to Kara Cesare at NAL, in a very nice deal, by David Forrer and Kimberly Witherspoon at Inkwell Management (NA).

Julianne Lee's BLOODY MARY, about Mary Tudor, to Ginjer Buchanan at Berkley, in a nice deal, by Ginger Clark at Curtis Brown (NA).

Ariel Allison Lawhon's EYE OF THE GOD, the world's most spectacular museum heist, a cursed jewel, and a romance doomed to fail, all tied together with stunning historical fact, create the vast and intricate setting for the first-ever novel about the Hope Diamond, to Barbara Scott at Abingdon Press, for publication in Fall 2009, by Jonathan Clements at The Nashville Agency.

William Ryan's THE HOLY THIEF, first of historical detective series set in 1930s Russia, to Maria Rejt at Macmillan, in a good deal, in a three-book deal, for publication in spring 2010, by Andrew Gordon at David Higham Associates.