Tuesday, October 07, 2008

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.

13 comments:

  1. Awww, sweet!
    Will you ever get around to reading all those books, or only a percentage?

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  2. The goal is to read them all, but I doubt that'll happen. I should be lucky to live that long. Some I've already read, like Devil's Brood and Company of Liars, but have nowhere to put on the shelf!

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  3. Those cats are just sooooooo adorable! How will they survive the winter though?????

    Good luck with that pile of books!!

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  4. We're trying to get a shed built. It'd be nice if the local contractors would return our calls. If that doesn't work, we'll end up going to Home Depot.

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  5. Oh my aren't they the cutest things ever! I'll take all three!

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  6. Lovin the cats. And I'm so jealous of the books!

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  7. Sarah, I hope you feel better soon! As a fellow allergy sufferer, I feel your pain:)

    We feed five female strays that were born in our garden; we trapped them, spayed/neutered them, and now they spend their days reclining on our deck and in our garden like Egyptian queens. They won't deign to be petted but now and then, when they know I'm in the park with Paris (our Corgi) my partner tells me they creep into the kitchen to check it out.

    Ah, so many books; so few shelves. The picture could be one of my study!

    And I never know what major deal, very nice deal, sweet deal, hateful deal, etc. means! Is there a link somewhere that explains the obscure parlance?

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  8. Oh, I found it:
    Nice Deal: $1 - $49,000
    Very Nice Deal: $50,000 - $99,000
    Good Deal: $100,000 - $250,000
    Significant Deal: $251,000 - $499,000
    Major Deal: $500,000 and up

    You'd think I'd know this, being a writer and all.

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  9. Welcome back Sarah! missed reading you. Those kittens are pretty darn cute too.

    Holly
    http://www.wondersandmarvels.com

    (p.s. I can't find a place to pick up the RSS feed for Sarah's blog...can someone help?)

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  10. Hi Holly! I saw your post on the HNS list and need to link your blog up. The RSS feed for this one is here:
    http://readingthepast.blogspot.com/atom.xml

    Christopher, that's our plan too, and we're trying to cooperate with the neighbors on getting that all taken care of. The local vet won't spay/neuter the kittens until they're six months old. Our strays are pretty tame aside from the two little orange ones in the picture. We'd take them inside if we had room but already have three cats who are the jealous type!

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  11. Wow, so basically you're adopting them, just not letting them mingle with your indoor kitties? Probably a good idea - I can't see Callie wanting to share Mark!!

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  12. Well, we had a talk with the neighbors a month ago and they're sort of their cats, but they can't afford to spay/neuter them all, and they don't go indoors there. We talked about sharing the cost for getting them fixed. We could take maybe one inside, though definitely not all eight, and there'd be a major adjustment period if we did!

    Little gray kitten is sunning himself on our front steps now. It's 80 degrees out.

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