3 Films and a selection of new books...

From Publishers Lunch Weekly:

FICTION/DEBUT:

NY Giant star and two-time Super Bowl champion Mark Bavaro's first novel, a fictionalized account of life in a scandal-ridden NFL through the eyes of a tough, idiosyncratic athlete at the top of his sport, pitched as a modern-day NORTH DALLAS FORTY, to Marc Resnick at St. Martin's, at auction, by Alex Glass at Trident Media Group.

MYSTERY/CRIME:

James Patterson's co-author on three books Peter de Jonge's IT TAKES A LOT OF HEART, the first in a series about a young NYPD detective, to Claire Wachtel at Harper, at auction, by Lane Zachary and Todd Shuster at Zachary Shuster Harmsworth Literary Agency (world).

GENERAL/OTHER:

S. Thomas Russell's THE BLIND IN HEAVEN, a naval adventure novel set during the Napoleonic Wars, to Dan Conaway at Putnam, at auction, by Howard Morhaim at the Howard Morhaim Literary Agency (NA).Philip Roth's EXIT GHOST, his "ninth and last Zuckerman novel," called "a study of obsession, forgetfulness, resignation, and ungratifiable desire," in which Zuckerman returns to New York after eleven years of living as a reclusive writer in western Massachusetts, where encounters with a new generation of writers and an old, dying friend produce unsettling revelations, to Janet Silver at Houghton Mifflin, for publication in October 2007, 28 years after the publication of THE GHOST WRITER, by Andrew Wylie at The Wylie Agency.lori_glazer@hmco.com

Author of ARABIAN JAZZ and CRESCENT Diana Abu-Jaber's ORIGIN, in which a fingerprint expert's investigation of a series of crib deaths leads her back to the mystery of her own childhood, to Alane Mason at Norton, for publication in spring 2007, in a two-book deal, by Joy Harris at the Joy Harris Agency (world).

WHAT DO WE BELIEVE?, a new series introducing different beliefs from across the world in lively, accessible and intelligent short books, to George Gibson at Walker, in a nice deal, by Angela Rose at Granta Books.Rights previously sold to Uitgeverij Ad. Donker in Holland, Dom Quixote in Portugal, Plan B in Turkey, Vallardi in Italy, Orpheas in Greece, and Otava in Finland.

UK:

THE INSIDE RING author Mike Lawson's two new Joe DeMarco novels, pitched as David Baldacci meets Lee Child, to Wayne Brookes at Harper UK, by Abner Stein.
[NOTE: Very good writer]

NON-FICTION/BIOGRAPHY:

Pulitzer Prize-winner Stacy Schiff's CLEOPATRA, to Michael Pietsch at Little, Brown, for publication in 2010, by Eric Simonoff at Janklow & Nesbit (world).
BUSINESS/INVESTING/FINANCE:

Barbara Peterson's LIQUID ASSETS, the story of 100 multi-national companies and culture-defining ideas that started off as crude sketches on the back of a paper napkin, from Southwest Airlines to the Clinton Presidential Library, Compaq to "supply side economics," to Colin Dickerman at Bloomsbury, by Jay Mandel at William Morris Agency (NA).

HISTORY/POLITICS/CURRENT AFFAIRS:

Historian, crime professor and author of three books on George Washington Bruce Chadwick's untitled book about the lethal poisoning of Founding Father George Wythe, the sensationalistic murder trial that followed, and the world of Thomas Jefferson, to Stephen Power at Wiley, by Elizabeth Winick and Jonathan Lyons at McIntosh & Otis (NA).Wesleyan historian and two-time National Book Award nominee Richard Slotkin's untitled history of the Civil War Battle of the Crater, a significant engagement that featured the largest explosion yet detonated by man, and a lens to explore the racial and class tensions that the war both reflected and reinforced, to Will Murphy at Random House, by Carl Brandt at Brandt & Hochman (world).

MEMOIR:

Retired West Point philosophy professor Lieutenant Colonel Alan Bishop's OFF THE HARD PINE PEW: What One Philosophical Redneck Learned in the Army, combining the author's account of his self-described redneck childhood in Mississippi, his discovery of philosophy while in college on an Army scholarship, and its influence on his intellectual life, and a call for fundamental change in the way that young Army officers -- and American youth in general -- are educated, to Morgan Entrekin at Grove/Atlantic, by David Kuhn at Kuhn Projects (World).jmonahan@groveatlantic.com

FILM:

Eric Jager's THE LAST DUEL: A True Story of Crime, Scandal and Trial by Combat in Medieval France, to Paramount for Martin Scorsese under his new deal there, with Kevin Misher at Misher Films producing.

NYT writer Timothy Egan's 2006 National Book Award Winner THE WORST HARD TIME, a narrative of those who survived the Dust Bowl, optioned by Tagline Pictures with Kirk Ellis (Emmy nominee and writer/producer of HBO's upcoming John Adams miniseries based on David McCullough's book) adapting, by Carol Mann at the Carol Mann Agency.

William Wright's HARVARD'S SECRET COURT, an account of how officials and faculty members at Harvard in the early 1920's hounded a group of gay students into suicide or shameful obscurity and decades later were still trying to derail the careers of those accused, optioned to David Brind, screenwriter/producer of short film DARE, and director of Sandra Bernhard's one-woman show, by Bill Contardi at Brandt & Hochman.

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