From movies to gymnastics...good books...

From Publishers Lunch Weekly:

FICTION/DEBUT:

Billy Taylor's BASED ON THE MOVIE: A NOVEL, a humorous novel set behind-the-scenes of a troubled movie set about a key grip who is coming to terms with the collapse of his marriage and his long-suppressed ambition to direct a movie of his own, to Peter Borland at Atria, by Leigh Feldman at Darhansoff, Verrill, Feldman (NA).

GENERAL/OTHER:

Susan Gregg Gilmore's LOOKING FOR SALVATION AT THE DAIRY QUEEN, the story of a small-town Georgia preacher's daughter and her efforts to get away to the big city, to Shaye Areheart at Shaye Areheart Books, for two books, by Barbara Braun at Barbara Braun Associates (world).

Must Love Dogs and Multiple Choice author Claire Cook's LIFE'S A BEACH, about a humorous extended family and a pair of grown-up sisters who are trying to find themselves -- and each other -- in middle-age, to Ellen Archer and Pamela Dorman at Voice, by Lisa Bankoff at ICM (NA).

Wake Forest University English chair, Professor Eric Wilson's THE SECRET LIFE OF MELANCHOLY, a sassy, impudent response to the happiness trend in defense of melancholy, in the spirit of ON BULLSHIT and CIGARETTES ARE SUBLIME, to Sarah Crichton at Sarah Crichton Books/ Farrar, Straus, in a very nice deal, by Bridget Wagner and Rafe Sagalyn of The Sagalyn Agency (World).

Half-Indian, half-American journalist Akash Kapur's INDIA BECOMING: Rupee Millionaires, Blackberries, Boutique Hotels and the Americanization of a New India, a documentary look at the remarkable and growing convergence of values, aspirations, and lifestyles between the US and India over the last decade, to Sarah McGrath at Riverhead, by Elyse Cheney at Elyse Cheney Agency (world English).

FILM:

Greg Rucka's Eisner Award-winning graphic novel WHITEOUT, about a female U.S. Marshal who is the only representative of law and order in Antarctica who has to track down a murderer there, in a new option to Joel Silver's Dark Castle division for Warner Bros., with Silver (The Matrix, V for Vendetta) producing, by David Hale Smith of DHS Literary, in association of Angela Cheng Caplan of Cheng Caplan Company. (It's been at Sony with Wolfgang Petersen and with Reese Witherspoon at Universal previously.)

Film rights to Peter Straub's MYSTERY, a dark, labyrinthian tale of murder and family relationships featuring his character Tom Pasmore, to Seven Over Seven Productions, by Irene Webb Literary.webblit@verizon.net

MEMOIR:

Roberto Escobar's THE ACCOUNTANT, his account of running the financial enterprises of the Medellin Cartel, and observing for decades the activities of his younger brother Pablo, who may have been the world's richest criminal, from a man now reflective and regretful after being imprisoned and suffering severe injuries in an assassination attempt, promising revelations concerning how a multi-billion dollar criminal enterprise is built, the novel engineering solutions that the cartel devised to bring its product to market, and the likely effectiveness of drug interdiction methods still in the planning stages, to Rick Horgan at Crown, at auction, by Ian Kleinert at the Literary Group International (NA).

Former National Gymnastics Champion Jennifer Sey's CHALKED UP: My Life in Gymnastics, the story of the toll exacted by the sport she loves and a cautionary tale for the parents of athletes who risk being consumed by the addictive high of their children's pursuits, to Jennifer Pooley at William Morrow by Kathy Green at the Kathryn Green Literary Agency (NA).

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