Great News Alert: New Book Deal

Psst! Hey! Wanna go check out the latest Publisher’s Weekly Rights Report? See anyone you recognize there? That’s right, woodchuck-chuckers. I’m very pleased to be able to announce today that THE MEMORY THIEF is going to be published. First up, the answers to the questions you probably have:

Who’s publishing it? Egmont, the American arm of a global publishing company founded in Denmark. I’d pretend to know what that means, but I don’t. Jordan Hamessley is my editor. The illustrious Eddie Schneider brokered the deal. (Jordan definitely deserves an adjective before her name, now that Eddie got one. I’m thinking “Inimitable.” Inimitable Jordan Hamessley? That might work.)

When will it be published? Fall 2016. 2 years away. That’s par for the course in the world of publishing. Lots to be done between now and then. Edits, copy edits, book design, cover design–all that fun stuff.

What’s it about? You mean you haven’t been following along this whole time as I’ve reported what’s happening with the book on my blog? That’s okay. I forgive you. Here’s how Eddie pitched it:

In THE MEMORY THIEF, 11-year-old twin brother and sister Benji and Kelly are trying to avoid a group of bullies at the county fair when Benji ducks into a tent for The Memory Emporium. He meets a strange old man inside named Louis, who shows him a magically vivid memory of a fighter pilot, in the hopes of getting Benji to pay to see others.

But Louis isn’t the only person with the ability to show and manipulate memories. There’s also the mysterious Genevieve, The Memory Thief. And following a confrontation between Louis and Genevieve, Benji gets the power, too.

Genevieve gets out of control, and soon, a lot people in town are acting like someone has stolen their minds — most poignantly, his twin sister Kelly. Benji must fight his own impulses to cheat his way through life with his newfound power, and work to stop Genevieve before it’s too late.

As I was writing it, I was thinking of it as being in the same vein as some of my favorite Disney horror movies growing up. Something Wicked This Way Comes, for example–or The Watcher in the Woods. Honestly, it’s been a while since I’ve read the latest draft, and I’m looking forward to diving back in and seeing where it ended up. (Convenient for me, that I recently finished the draft of OUR LADY. I hate stopping projects in the middle of an effort.)

In any case, that’s all the big news I have for you at the moment. I’ve been sitting on this for a while, and it’s a real pleasure to finally be able to share it with all of you. (And I didn’t even drop any big “some great news I wish I could share with you but I can’t” messages all along the way. Aren’t I nice?)

You may now return to your regularly scheduled Thursday activities. But feel free to have some ice cream or cake. It’s calorie free today, or so I’ve been told.