Donald Maass Literary Agency

Congratulations to Mary Robinette Kowal on winning a 2016 Earphones Award for Ghost Talkers! Imagine that the British military of the Great War utilized intelligence gleaned in their soldiers’ final moments by having the dead “report in” for debriefing with spiritualists. Kowal spins this idea into a thoroughly satisfying and believable novel blending fantasy, history, and suspense. The story is peopled with mediums, officers, servants, and gossips–some American, most English, and a few German–and with a plot that makes fine use […]

U.S. rights to Elizabeth Bear’s Ancestral Night and a sequel, a weird, wide-ranging SF saga in the mold of Iain M. Banks, a duology originally acquired by Gollancz who will publish in the U.K., to Navah Wolfe at Saga Press.

Cassandra Khaw’s A SONG FOR QUIET, a standalone follow-up to HAMMERS ON BONE in which rambling bluesman Deacon Jones meets trouble on his journey from Georgia to Arkham, and a madman who calls himself John Persons may be the only one who can help, to Carl Engle-Laird at Tor.com for publication in 2017, by Michael Curry.

USA TODAY bestselling author Kaira Rouda’s BEST DAY EVER, narrated by a husband who’s promised his wife that the first day of their romantic vacation will be her “best day ever,” but who might actually have more sinister intentions, to Margo Lipschultz for the new Graydon House imprint, in a two-book deal, by Katie Shea Boutillier.

P.C. Hodgell’s next novel in the Kencyrath series, Three Nights in Tai-tastigon, the sequel to The Gates of Tagmeth (coming from Baen in July 2017) and taking readers back to the fabled city featured in the critically acclaimed Godstalk, to Toni Weisskopf at Baen Books by Jennifer Jackson.

German rights to NYT bestselling author Annika Martin’s DARK MAFIA PRINCE, to Lyx, in a three-book deal, by Kathrin Nehm at Thomas Schlueck Agency in association with Katie Shea Boutillier on behalf of Cameron McClure. French digital rights to Cherie Priest’s BONESHAKER, DREADNOUGHT, CLEMENTINE, three books from the Clockwork Century series, to Livre de Poche by David Camus at Anna Jarota Agency in association with Jennifer Jackson and Michael Curry. French rights to Brent Weeks’s THE BLOOD MIRROR, Book 4 […]

B&N: A ghost story lives or dies on its creep factor, and Priest absolutely nails it, spinning a Southern Gothic tale of family secrets and avenging spirits with just enough humor sprinkled throughout to break the tension before racheting the suspense back up to heart-pounding levels. Read B&N’s full review of The Family Plot here.

Congratulations to Tananarive Due on Ghost Summer: Stories winning the British Fantasy Award for Best Collection! Whether weaving family life and history into dark fiction or writing speculative Afrofuturism, American Book Award winner and Essence bestselling author Tananarive Due’s work is both riveting and enlightening. In her debut collection of short fiction, Due takes us to Gracetown, a small Florida town that has both literal and figurative ghost; into future scenarios that seem all too real; and provides empathetic portraits of […]

Tor.com: Priest has a striking prose style–­she’s immensely readable­–and a chilling ability to write really unnerving scenes. […] The pace is tight the whole way through, with tension that rises peak on peak up to the climactic crisis. […] The house itself is an incredible character. Place matters, here: matters deeply. One of the most notable things about The Family Plot, as a southern Gothic haunted house horror novel, is the sense of ever-increasing claustrophobia. It’s about interiors, both literal and metaphorical: the […]

Simon Pulse has acquired, with Liesa Abrams to edit, We Are the Ants author Shaun David Hutchinson’s new YA book, The Apocalypse of Elena Mendoza, about a teen who was the first scientifically confirmed “virgin birth.” At 16 she discovers she can heal with a touch; simultaneously, people all over the world start disappearing in beams of light, making her wonder if she is bringing about the Apocalypse. Publication is scheduled for spring 2018; Amy Boggs at Donald Maass Literary Agency brokered the […]