Dear writers: Please be aware of ongoing scams by agent impersonators. Use extra caution with any unsolicited offers from agents. Reputable agents will not ask for upfront fees of any kind. For more information, look at sites such as Writer Beware (https://writerbeware.blog/). Please always check email addresses/spellings. All official emails from Donald Maass Literary Agency will come from an address that ends in @maassagency.com (2 A's, 2 S's in MAASS).

Deal: Jay Stringer

Oct 232014
 
photo of author Jay StringerJay Stringer’s WAYS TO DIE IN GLASGOW, a dark but farcical Scottish crime novel featuring a reluctant female P.I., her gay brother, a gangland legend writing his memoirs, an ex-con with an anger management problem, and a less-than-perfect police officer, to Emilie Marneur at Thomas & Mercer, by Stacia Decker.

Deal: Chuck Wendig

Oct 212014
 

Photo of author Chuck Wendig, looking appropriately sinister.For Simon & Schuster’s new SF imprint, Saga Press, Joe Monti took world English rights, in a six-book deal, to Chuck Wendig’s Miriam Black series. The books follow the titular heroine, who is cursed with the ability to see the death of every person she touches. Through the deal, Saga will release the three backlist titles in the series—Blackbirds, Mockingbird, and The Cormorant (all originally released by Angry Robot)—first as e-books, then as trade paperbacks. The deal also covers three new titles. The books are currently in development as a TV series with the cable channel Starz. Wendig was represented by Stacia Decker.

September Translation Deals

Sep 302014
 

A photo of planet Earth from space.Czech rights to Jim Butcher’s White Night and Small Favor, the 9th and 10th novels in the Dresden Files series, to Triton by Milena Kaplarevic at Prava I Prevodi in association with Jennifer Jackson.

Czech rights to Robert Jackson Bennett’s CITY OF STAIRS, to Host, by Nada Cipranic at Prava I Prevodi, in association with Cameron McClure.

Italian rights to Karl Schroeder’s QUEEN OF CANDESCE and PIRATE SUN, Books 1 and 2 of the Virga series, to Zona 42, by Stefania Fietta at Agenzia Letteraria Internazionale, in association with Cameron McClure.

Russian rights to Jim Butcher’s SKIN GAME, the 15th book in the Dresden Files series, along with a renewal of Russian rights to GHOST STORY from the same series, to AST, by Alexander Korzhenevski Agency in association with Jennifer Jackson.

Simplified Chinese rights to Chuck Wendig’s BLACKBIRDS, MOCKINGBIRD, and THE CORMORANT, the first three books in the Miriam Black series, in a nice deal, at auction, to Beijing White Horse Time by Gray Tan at The Grayhawk Agency, in association with Cameron McClure and Katie Shea Boutillier, on behalf of Stacia Decker.

Brazilian rights to Shaun David Hutchinson’s THE FIVE STAGES OF ANDREW BRAWLEY, to Record, by Flavia Sala and Cristina Purchio at International Editors’, in association with Cameron McClure and Katie Shea Boutillier, on behalf of Amy Boggs.

Brazilian rights to Randy Henderson’s FINN FANCY NECROMANCY, to Record, by Flavia Sala and Cristina Purchio at International Editors’, in association with Cameron McClure and Katie Shea Boutillier.

French rights to award-winning author Jo Walton’s HA’PENNY and HALF A CROWN, Books 2 and 3 of the Small Change trilogy, to Denoël, by Pierre Corman at Anna Jarota Agency, in association with Cameron McClure.

French rights to Thea Harrison’s KINKED and NIGHT’S HONOR, Books 6 and 7 in the Elder Races series, to J’ai Lu, in a two-book deal, by Victoria Villemur at Anna Jarota Agency, in association with Cameron McClure and Katie Shea Boutillier on behalf of Amy Boggs.

French rights to Thea Harrison’s novellas THE WICKED, DRAGOS TAKES HOLIDAYS, PIA SAVES THE WORLD and PEANUT GOES TO SCHOOL, to J’ai Lu, by Victoria Villemur at Anna Jarota Agency, in association with Cameron McClure and Katie Shea Boutillier on behalf of Amy Boggs.

Review: The Incorruptibles by John Hornor Jacobs

Sep 172014
 

Cover for The Incorruptibles by John Hornor Jacobs. A black cover with the drawing in white, looking like a wood-cut. A campfire in the foreground, a steamboat on a river in the middleground, and tall mountains with dragons flying over them in the background.Starburst Magazine: (9/10) The world of The Incorruptibles is a distinctive fantasy/western hybrid, and much as in the work of David Gemmell, the nationalities portrayed are analogous to past cultures given a fantasy twist. In this case, it’s as if the Roman Empire has never fallen and has continued to dominate the world to the present, an equivalent of the late 19th century. So fused are the genres, it also wouldn’t feel amiss to see The Dark Tower’s Roland Deschain riding across the hillside.

To read Starburst’s full review of The Incorruptibles, go here.

August Translation Deals

Aug 302014
 

earthComplex Chinese rights to Robert McCammon’s THE BORDER to Nautilus by Gray Tan at the Grayhawk Agency, on behalf of Cameron McClure.

Russian rights to editors Laurie R. King and Leslie S. Klinger’s anthology IN THE COMPANY OF SHERLOCK HOLMES, to AST, by Alexander Korzhenevski Agency in association with Cameron McClure.

German rights to Adam Christopher’s THE AGE ATOMIC, to Papierverzierer Verlag, by Franka Zastrow at Thomas Schlueck Agency, in association with Cameron McClure on behalf of Stacia Decker.

Turkish rights to Margaret Anne Doody’s ARISTOTLE AND POETIC JUSTICE, ARISTOTLE AND THE SECRETS OF LIFE, POISON IN ATHENS, and  MYSTERIES OF ELEUSIS, to Alfa by Nazlı Çökdü at ONK Agency, in a four-book deal, in association with Katie Shea Boutillier.

Starred Review: The Incorruptibles by John Hornor Jacobs

Aug 212014
 

Cover for The Incorruptibles by John Hornor Jacobs. A black cover with the drawing in white, looking like a wood-cut. A campfire in the foreground, a steamboat on a river in the middleground, and tall mountains with dragons flying over them in the background.SFX Magazine: Tonally The Incorruptibles delivers a hearty scoop of Abercrombie-style grimdarkness, although layered with more magic and religion. The prose is extraordinary rich. But that never detracts from what is, ultimately, a ripping yarn. Whether you file it under Western or fantasy, The Incorruptibles is a rare thing: a clever story and an action-packed one.

The Good Life by Frank Wheeler

Aug 202014
 

Cover for The Good Life by Frank Wheeler Jr. A desolate dirt road disappearing into distant wheatfields, the clouds above ominous.Earl Haack, Jr. was raised to be Machiavelli in cowboy boots.

Growing up with his father’s brutal brand of peacemaking as sheriff of a small town on a major drug corridor, Junior swore there had to be a better way to keep the order his father taught him must come first—before peace, before prosperity. But as a young narcotics deputy in Denver, he quickly learned that the drug trade that threatens that order is never going to end. A man charged with policing it can either give up or learn to control the chaos around him—working with those who will cooperate, driving off those who will not—and profit in the process. Junior’s father was right: order comes first, and order is built on bloodshed.

Deal: Cassandra Rose Clarke

Aug 182014
 

photo of author Cassandra Rose ClarkeCassandra Rose Clarke’s Our Lady of the Ice, pitched as The Yiddish Policeman’s Union meets The Windup Girl, in which a female investigator tussles with a dangerous gangster just as both humans and robots agitate for independence in a domed Argentinian colony in Antarctica, to Navah Wolfe at Saga Press by Stacia Decker.

Review: Deadout by Jon McGoran

Aug 152014
 

Cover for Deadout by Jon McGoran. Dark red color background with title in intense red letters; honeycomb imprints "DEAD" and there is an x-ray of a bee as the middle of the O in OUT.Philadelphia Inquirer: McGoran’s style is at once hard-boiled and enjoyably breezy. His character descriptions tend to the generic (“The door to one of the cabins opened and two women in their early twenties came out, one large and solid, the other small and wiry with a long braid”). But he keeps the plot and the action humming along in a way that makes Deadout an excellent beach book.

To read more of the review of Deadout, click here.

The Incorruptibles by John Hornor Jacobs

Aug 142014
 

Cover for The Incorruptibles by John Hornor Jacobs. A black cover with the drawing in white, looking like a wood-cut. A campfire in the foreground, a steamboat on a river in the middleground, and tall mountains with dragons flying over them in the background.In the contested and unexplored territories at the edge of the Empire, a boat is making its laborious way upstream. Riding along the banks are the mercenaries hired to protect it – from raiders, bandits and, most of all, the stretchers, elf-like natives who kill any intruders into their territory. The mercenaries know this is dangerous, deadly work. But it is what they do.

In the boat the drunk governor of the territories and his sons and daughters make merry. They believe that their status makes them untouchable. They are wrong. Continue reading »

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