Congrats to Ashok Banker on Y.A. Deal with Delacorte!

In case you missed it on twitter last week, we are popping all the champagne over here for Ashok Banker and THE RISE TRILOGY.

Check out the announcement from Publishers Weekly:

Krista Marino at Delacorte has acquired, in a seven-figure preempt, author Ashok Banker‘s The Rise Trilogy, pitched as Six of Crows meets An Ember in the Ashes, with a cast featuring LGBTQIA, PoC, and differently abled protagonists. The #ownvoices series follows a young thief and her gang as they battle to overthrow a brutal tyrant and stay a demon invasion. Publication of the first book is planned for fall 2018; John Cusick at Folio Jr./Folio Literary Management brokered the deal for North American English rights.

Ashok reached out to me earlier this year, and I was immediately grabbed by this strange and wonderful universe he’d created. I don’t want to give too much away, but right there in the first chapters I found monsters rising up out of the floor to eat someone’s mother, a multi-faceted heist, and a roof top chase involving magic and flying police wagons. It was weird and wonderful and breathtaking, and I can’t wait for you all to read it. We found the perfect editor in Krista, who edits so many star fantasy writers and loved RISE as much as we do.

I knew I wanted to represent this story, but it wasn’t until Ashok and I got on the phone that I discovered what a warm, wise, and engaged person he is. Ashok is also incredibly humble, which is amazing given how much he’s achieved.

Ashok’s 54 books have sold over 3 million copies, been translated in eighteen languages, and sold in fifty-eight countries. If that weren’t enough, he’s also the pioneer of genre fiction in India; his internationally acclaimed Ramayana Series revolutionized Indian publishing, creating a genre called “Mytho”, now the biggest in the country. He is also the creator and screenwriter of the first Indian TV series in English, and co-creator and screenwriter of the first Malaysian TV series in English, the most watched “Mytho” TV series in India.

 

So yeah, the guy basically invented a genre.

You should follow Ashok on twitter for book news, and also his passionate advocacy for social justice and diversity in publishing: https://twitter.com/ashokkbanker

And more RISE news to come! Congrats Ashok!

Congrats to Quinn Sosna-Spear on her Debut Deal!

A huge congrats to Quinn Sosna-Spear on her debut deal with Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers! Guys this manuscript is so weird and wonderful, I can’t wait for you to read it.

From Publishers Weekly:

Liz Kossnar at Simon & Schuster has acquired world rights to a debut novel by Quinn Sosna-Spear. Pitched as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory meets American Gods, The Mortician’s Son follows 12-year-old Walter’s travels in the stolen family hearse, through towns where people dress as fish, worship bees, and dig for living rocks, en route to meet the infamous inventor who mentored his father. Publication is planned for fall 2018; John M. Cusick at Folio Jr./Folio Literary Management brokered the deal.

You can find Quinn online @qsosnaspear and quinnsosnaspear.com.

Congrats to Sharon Biggs Waller on her Starred Publishers Weekly Review!

Following Kirkus’s sterling review, here’s Publishers Weekly on THE FORBIDDEN ORCHID:

“Once Elodie arrives in China, Waller (A Mad, Wicked Folly) creates a vivid portrait of the country’s landscape and history—and the restrictions women faced there, too—through Elodie’s observations and via her new friend, Ching Lan. The discordant relationship between England’s fascination with China’s many unfamiliar treasures and the Victorian desire to conquer is also front and center. Elodie and Ching Lan are feminists of their era, refusing to bend to the rules and limits placed before them.”

 

Read the full review here.

You can pre-order THE FORBIDDEN ORCHID (which is coming from Viking this March) on Amazon, and Barnes & Noble, or check it out on Goodreads.

You can also find Sharon at her website, on Facebook, and on twitter.

Congrats to Julie Bayless on her latest picture book deal!

From Publishers Weekly:

Mary Colgan at Boyds Mills Press has bought Crawly School for Bugs by David Harrison (l.), illustrated by Julie Bayless, a book of funny poetry written from the point of view of different insect students. Publication is set for spring 2018; John M. Cusick of Folio Jr. / Folio Literary Management brokered the deal for world rights.

Check out more of Julie’s artwork here. Julie‘s debut pb ROAR! just pub’d from Running Press Kids. Get yourself a copy!

(Like this post? Then check out my November 19th webinar HOW TO BE A WRITER WITHOUT LOSING YOUR MIND: Balancing Work, Life, and Craft. There will be a Q and A as well as query critiques for all attendees. You should check it out!)

COVER REVEAL TIME: Tommy Wallach’s THANKS FOR THE TROUBLE!!

The brilliant follow-up to his New York Times best-seller…

Parker Santé hasn’t spoken a word in five years. While his classmates plan for bright futures, he hangs out in hotels, watching the guests. But when he meets a silver-haired girl named Zelda Toth, a girl who claims to be quite a bit older than she looks, he’ll discover there just might be a few things left worth living for. From the celebrated author of We All Looked Up comes a unique story of first and last loves.

Check out this great post about the making of the cover (complete with some, er, early concepts) on Tommy’s blog.

You can also check out WE ALL LOOKED UP on Goodreads. Order now at Barnes & Noble, Amazon, or Indiebound.

A HISTORY OF GLITTER AND BLOOD by Hannah Moskowitz a “Can’t-Miss Galley” at BEA

[UPDATE: A HISTORY OF GLITTER AND BLOOD also made Publishers Marketplace’s YA Buzz-Books for BEA! – 5.22.]

Hannah’s NOT OTHERWISE SPECIFIED already made a few great lists this year. I’m so thrilled to see her utterly original and heartbreaking fantasy A HISTORY OF GLITTER AND BLOOD appearing on this Publishers Weekly list (in fine company I might add):

BEA 2015: Can’t-Miss Kids’ Galleys

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Check out A HISTORY OF GLITTER AND BLOOD on Goodreads and order it at Barnes & Noble, and Amazon.

Check out NOT OTHERWISE SPECIFIED on Goodreads and order it at Barnes & Noble, Amazon, andIndiebound.

Find out more about Hannah’s award winning novels on her website and follow her on twitter.

A debut deal for Susie Salom with Arthur A. Levine Books!

Very excited to announce Susie Salom’s debut middle-grade, KYLE CONSTANTINI FINDS HER WAY! From Publishers Weekly:

Cheryl Klein at Scholastic’s Arthur A. Levine Books has acquired world rights toKyle Constantini Finds Her Way, a middle-grade novel by debut author Susie Salom. As Kyle participates in a problem-solving competition, she also navigates the maze of sixth-grade friendships, crushes, and trust, using T’ai chi, echolocation, twin ESP, and her lucky blue fedora. Publication is planned for fall 2016; John M. Cusick of Greenhouse Literary negotiated the deal.

JMC: When and how did you start writing?

Susie: I had this little tablet with a smiley-faced rainbow on it when I was six years old. I filled it with poems. Later, in third grade, I wrote a short story called ‘Nose Knows,’ in which a person (named Nose) with an enormous schoz saves the day because of his bionic sense of smell and his ability to trust where it leads him.

Can you remember the first book that made an impact on you? Who were your childhood storytelling heroes?

Honestly, in the very beginning I was more hot and bothered by non-fiction, particularly stuff about outer space, the weather and any ‘unsolved mystery’ kind of reads that were available in the early ‘80s. I liked, and practiced, the venerable art of reading auras so the kinds of books I gravitated toward most were, like, I don’t know Esoteric 101 for Squirts. But if you put a watergun to my nostril and said, ‘Quick! Name a legendary storyteller from when you were a kid!’, I’d give props to William Sleator (Into the Dream was the first novel I hooked up to like an IV until I was done with it) and Zilpha Keatley Snyder. I’d say Snyder’s The Changeling had a measurable impact on my psyche. But I also loved really down-to-earth, recognizable, funny contemporary stuff like (the honorable) Judy Blume (long live Sheila the Great,) Barthe DeClements (Nothing’s Fair in the Fifth Grade, anyone?) and this other book that I’m super stumped in my efforts to remember. It was about this girl in junior high whose parents divorce and the mom goes on a health kick and gives her food that she’s embarrassed by in her lunch sack–tofu was seen as a heckuva lot weirder circa 1985–so she forms this club that meets under the bleachers to avoid the cafeteria crowd. If this sounds familiar to anyone, can you please help me solve the mystery? I’d be fraternally grateful.

Can you talk us through the writing of your first book? What were the key moments?

My first novel was completed eons ago. Key to going the distance were a handful of beta readers–my sister, a former student of mine, one of my best friends–who read chapters as I was writing it and were gracious enough to let me know where they’d laughed. In fiction, as in life, if you can laugh at the same stuff, you’ve made a gorgeous, inestimable connection. Then, of course, just finishing the thing–a women’s fic piece that was at once thinly-veiled autobiography as well as an amateur, but wicked fun, exercise in wish-fulfillment–also made my confidence soar. It was like, I can totally do this. And that was indescribably rad.

Describe your writing day. Where do you write? How do you organize your time? Where do you look for inspiration?

I’m a sprinter. Every novel I’ve completed, it’s been like that. I have a whole, virtual storage unit of novels I started but didn’t finish so if it’s gonna fly, it’s gotta happen quickly. I started off with Stephen King’s admonition to write 1500 words a day and I totally believe in having a metric like that. What I’d suggest, in case anyone wants unsolicited advice, is to find your pace and be true to it. For me, it’s banging out a novel before it dries up inside me. The last one I wrote came at a rate of about 3500 words a day. It was Middle Grade, so it only clocked in at around 40K words. I don’t know if I could sustain that pace for a full-length manuscript for adults, but that’s the fun in getting to know yourself creatively and productively. What are you capable of? What fuels you? Which worlds do you totally dig inhabiting when you can block out the one filled with autocrats and laundry and a ludicrously imbalanced signal-to-noise ratio. Sorry. Think I went off. Not sure I stayed on topic with your question but basically, when I’m writing, I start in the morning and I stop when I’m done for the day. Sometimes that’s around lunch time, sometimes I’m burnin’ ye olde candelabra after the sun’s gone to bed. I just have to work fast before the thing sets. It’s a lot like wet cement. Also, if I wait too long to explore a story idea, it kinda shifts, like this super-fragrant, lilac vapor (pre-cement stage,) and just goes somewhere else. Maybe to a spinal column that is better prepared to sit its coccyx down and do the work now. (No, I do not, nor have I ever, done drugs.)

Can you tell us about your next book?

Can I do that? I mean, is that kosher? Well, I’ll let you decide what to print since you’re my agent! After Kyle’s story, I wrote a novel called ACE MASTRIANO AND THE SUPERSONIC MYSTERY CARAVAN. It’s kid’s fic that is at once thinly-veiled autobiography as well as an amateur, but wicked fun, exercise in wish-fulfillment. Just jokin’. It’s about an indomitable 12-year-old girl, Alexis ‘Ace’ Mastriano who stalks the secrets of the universe. She even tries to get a club off the ground to assist her in her quest until one day … the universe answers. It’s set in 1984. Yes, kids, the cosmos were communicating even before the Internet.

Are there any tips you could give aspiring writers who are looking to get published?

I love this part. My tip is simple: know thyself. And then be true. The amount of horse doody you’re going to have to wade through on your way to The Desired End is staggering. So. Get used to the smell, and let your Nose lead you–sometimes around but sometimes through–where (and how) you need to go. Trust yourself. You’ve got this.

What fictional character do you wish you’d invented?

What a killer note to end on. I’m gonna go with Ford Prefect. Either him or Jerry Spinelli’s timeless, artless, deeply wise and alive Stargirl.

Two Book Deal for Courtney Alameda

Congrats Courtney! From Publishers Weekly:

Liz Szabla at Feiwel and Friends has bought the next two YA novels by Shutter author Courtney Alameda. The first, Pitch Dark, is set against a future of marauding space scavengers and deadly aliens who kill with sound. Publication is scheduled for fall 2016, with the second book to follow in fall 2017. John M. Cusick at Greenhouse Literary negotiated the deal for North American rights.

(For the record, PITCH DARK is going to be *insane*. And I get to read it before allllll y’all. Be jealous 🙂 )

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Visit Courtney’s website, follow her on Twitter, and like her on Facebook.

Check out SHUTTER on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Indiebound, and Goodreads.

Greenhouse’s Adult Fiction Debut

It always sounds odd to me, saying so-and-so writes “adult” books, when I mean fiction for a general audience, not specifically the kids and teens market.** I much prefer the term “grown-up” books.

Actually, I don’t. Those both sound weird. In different ways.

ANYWAY, I’m excited to share some news from my colleague, fellow-agent, and president of Greenhouse (also my agent), Sarah Davies. As you may have read in Publishers Weekly, Sarah has sold Megan Miranda‘s*** debut adult novel – at auction no less – to Simon & Schuster for six figures. This is all kinds of great news on its own, but this is also the agency’s first deal for adult (there’s that word again) fiction.

As Sarah put it in her Facebook post, “We believe we can sell any great book clients bring us, whatever age group and genre.” I couldn’t agree more.

From PW:

YA author Megan Miranda (Fracture) sold her adult debut, Disappear, to Sarah Knight at Simon & Schuster for six figures. Sarah Davies, at Greenhouse Literary, represented the author, in her first adult deal at the agency; Knight took world rights to two books in the agreement. Disappear, Knight explained, is told in reverse and covers a period of two weeks. The story, Knight said, “unravels the mystery of two missing girls who vanished 10 years apart, and whose cases are linked by the same group of friends in a rural North Carolina town.” Miranda is an MIT graduate and former science teacher.

**At least I’m not alone in this. Client Rahul Kanakia agrees.

***Megan is the author of three amazing y.a. novels, FRACTURE, HYSTERIA, and VENGEANCE.

CHERRY MONEY BABY has arrived!

 

 

 

Basically, this is me today:

 

It was almost three years ago I had the idea for CHERRY MONEY BABY– while washing dishes, as it happens. After countless drafts (on laptops, notebooks, and index cards) and months of revision, I’m so thrilled Cherry and company have arrived. And I feel such intense gratitude to the many, many people who helped bring this book into being, including Scott Treimel, Deb Wayshak, Lucy Earley, and all the phenomenal folks at Candlewick Press, my friends Evan Simko-Bednarski, Helena Fitzgerald, and Vicki Lame (who kept me sane through most of 2011), my parents Kate and John, and of course my GFF and first reader, Sarah Elmaleh (who voiced the audiobook, people!).

So if’n you like a story about hopes and dreams, glitz and fame, fast-cars, burritos, trailer parks, high heels, Converse All-Stars, Daisy Dukes, Louis Vuitton, British architecture, rented wombs, caviar, orange marshmallow circus peanuts, Italian cinema, Edward Hopper, She Hulk, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Auto-Tune the News, push-up contests, pregnancy tests, Alice in Wonderland, envy, champagne, and Pop Rocks…

…this is the book for you.

Buy It / Read It / Review It:

Amazon

Barnes & Noble

IndieBound

Goodreads

What folks are saying:

STARRED REVIEW, PUBLISHERS WEEKLY:
Author/literary agent Cusick (Girl Parts) gives Cherry a sarcastic and often profane voice. The supporting cast—Cherry’s blue-collar father, her chill boyfriend, and Ardelia’s caustic manager—round out a plot that continually surprises. Cherry is a highly memorable character, prone to violent outbursts but possessing a strong moral compass, a rare smalltown girl who isn’t consumed by anxiety over getting into college or out of town—even when she has the chance to dip her toe into the pool with some big-time celebrities. Ages 14–up. (Sept.)

“Cherry Money Baby is fabulous in every sense of the word! It’s earthy and smart and moving, laugh-out-loud funny, surprising, inventive, suspenseful, and — Oh, Hell — just gorgeously written!” — Tim Wynne Jones, author of Blink and Caution and The Uninvited

“Smart. Funny. A terrific read. I love that Cherry loves her family and loves that things aren’t perfect. I want to be her friend (though she might beat me up).”— Carol Lynch Williams, author of Waiting and Glimpse

“A witty and wise exploration of living big, living small, and figuring out which size will make you happiest. Unpredictable, smart, and deliciously satisfying.” — Lindsey Ribar, author of The Art of Wishing

“Beautiful, insightful, and unpredictable — just like Cherry herself.” — Leila Sales, author of Past Perfect and Mostly Good Girls

“Cherry Kerrigan–rhymes with “heroine”–will kick you in the teeth with her vim, wit, and homespun charm. John M. Cusick’s sophomore, but never sophomoric, novel captures the thrill of a teen’s unexpected adventure with an adult’s wry eye toward the inevitability of the unexpected. Cusick’s nuanced premise that home is who you are weaves the entangled threads of class, change, and circumstance into a tightly plotted, full-hearted bildungsroman.  CHERRY MONEY BABY is better than cherry cola.” — Laura Goode, author of Sister Mischief