The End (Of The Month) Is Nigh!

Time for another end-of the month wrap up! January brought lots of contracts to sign, cover art discussions, and revision letters. Here are a few of our members who had especially good news to celebrate this month: 


Cover news
Mary Lindsey received the cover art for SHATTERED SOULS--and it's gorgeous!

See Mary's website to read more about her debut YA novel.


New Deals

She's already debuting in April 2012 with her YA novel DITCHED, and now Robin Mellom will have a midgrade series too! The first book in THE CLASSROOM series, pitched as MODERN FAMILY for middle graders, will be published by Disney-Hyperion beginning in the summer of 2012. Here's Robin's blog post about the series if you'd like to read more.


Another member has good news about his debut midgrade series. Here's the recent Publishers Marketplace announcement about A.J. Hartley's DARWEN ARKWRIGHT:
A.J. Hartley's untitled third book in the DARWEN ARKWRIGHT series, about an 11-year-old boy who discovers a mysterious world through a mirror and must protect his school from the dark creatures who live there, to Gillian Levinson and Ben Schrank at Razorbill, by Stacey Glick at Dystel & Goderich Literary Management (World). 
Plus a three-book deal for the German rights!


Jill Hathaway had exciting foreign deal news too--her YA novel SLIDE will be published by HarperCollins not only here in the U.S., but also in the U.K. Simultaneous publications in 2012! Here's the announcement from Publishers Marketplace: 

Jill Hathaway's SLIDE, when a narcoleptic girl passes out, she slides into other people's heads, and ends up seeing things she really doesn't want to, but when she slides into the head of a killer, and finds herself standing over the body of her sister's friend, her extraordinary 'gift' puts her in grave danger, and at the center of a murder investigation, to Rachel Denwood at Harper Children's UK, at auction, by Julia Churchill at Greenhouse Literary Agency.

And and and...exciting news for us all...we have t-shirts! (And um, thongs and baby blankets, if anyone's interested.) Here's the design:

Isn't that cool? Many thanks to Debra Driza's talented friends at Max & Otis T-Shirt Company for their awesomeness.

Congratulations to all the authors celebrating good news this month!

Jill Hathaway: SLIDE

Bio: Jill Hathaway writes young adult fiction and is represented by Sarah Davies of Greenhouse Literary Agency. She was born in Spencer, Iowa and for a short time lived above a Happy Joe's restaurant (where she'd crawl on the floor and eat discarded croutons, or so she's told). In high school, she produced a zine called Salza, which was distributed by local comic and record stores. Having earned a B.A. in English Education from the University of Northern Iowa and an M.A. in English Literature from Iowa State University, she now teaches high school classes and dual credit courses for Des Moines Area Community College. She plays a blood elf paladin on Moon Guard. (Yes. She is a nerd.) She adores chocolate and peanut butter. She also enjoys hanging out at home in fuzzy pajamas with her husband and small daughter. You can find her here on Facebook, here on Twitter, here at her website, here at Goodreads, and here on her blog.

Debut: SLIDE (Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins, Winter 2012)

Sylvia Bell's narcolepsy allows her to slide into other people's heads. When she finds herself inside a killer standing over the murdered body of her sister's best friend, she becomes enmeshed in a web of secrets, lies, and danger where the past has returned to haunt the present and where she can no longer trust even the friends and family she thought she knew.

5 Spells for the Apocalypse: Consecration, Turn Evil, Hammer of Wrath, Exorcism, and Righteous Fury.