Bestselling author David Baldacci  has signed a deal with Scholastic for a middle grade fantasy novel.

The children’s publisher will release The Finisher next March, the story of a fourteen-year-old girl named Vega Jane.

Scholastic Trade president Ellie Berger negotiated the deal with Aaron Priest, of the Aaron M. Priest Literary Agency. Executive editor Rachel Griffiths will edit the manuscript.

Read more

What’s the best opening line you’ve ever written? Stephen King revealed his favorite first line, a deceptively simple sentence he wrote in Needful Things: “You’ve been here before.”

King wrote about this passage in The Atlantic‘s “By Heart” series online. You should read the whole essay, it is filled with writing advice. Here’s more about the Needful Things opening:

All there by itself on one page, inviting the reader to keep reading. It suggests a familiar story; at the same time, the unusual presentation brings us outside the realm of the ordinary. And this, in a way, is a promise of the book that’s going to come. The story of neighbor against neighbor is the oldest story in the world, and yet this telling is (I hope) strange and somehow different. Sometimes it’s important to find that kind of line: one that encapsulates what’s going to happen later without being a big thematic statement.

(Via Karl Palsgaard

What author would you like to see printed on our money?

Inspired by Jane Austen‘s upcoming spot on the British £10 note, AbeBooks printed some imaginary money featuring great authors–including George RR Martin on the $20 bill. Here’s more from the bookseller’s blog:

He’s been writing since 1970 and yet Martin is the author of the moment thanks to the continuing success of Game of Thrones on the telly. We also liked the idea of having an author of science fiction, fantasy and horror on some money. With those glasses, hat and beard, George is more recognizable than Andrew Jackson.

Author and actor Stephen Fry urged Prime Minister David Cameron and the International Olympic Committee to impose “an absolute ban” on the Winter Olympics scheduled to be held in Russia’s Sochi next year.

“I am gay. I am a Jew,” he wrote, comparing Russia’s new anti-gay policies to Hitler’s legacy in Germany.  Here is an excerpt from his letter:

He is making scapegoats of gay people, just as Hitler did Jews. He cannot be allowed to get away with it. I know whereof I speak. I have visited Russia, stood up to the political deputy who introduced the first of these laws, in his city of St Petersburg. I looked into the face of the man and, on camera, tried to reason with him, counter him, make him understand what he was doing. All I saw reflected back at me was what Hannah Arendt called, so memorably, “the banality of evil.” A stupid man, but like so many tyrants, one with an instinct of how to exploit a disaffected people by finding scapegoats.

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt has picked up the North American rights for Oliver Potzsch‘s new stand-alone historical fiction book, The Castle of Kings.

Potzch is the author of The Hangman’s Daughter series. HMH recently published the fourth installment, The Poisoned Pilgrim.

Publisher Bruce Nichols negotiated the deal with the German publishing house, Ullstein.

Read more

Beloved writer Jane Austen will replace author and naturalist Charles Darwin on the UK’s £10 note in 2017.

Bank of England governor Mark Carney had this statement:

Jane Austen certainly merits a place in the select group of historical figures to appear on our banknotes. Her novels have an enduring and universal appeal and she is recognised as one of the greatest writers in English literature. As Austen joins Adam Smith, Boulton and Watt, and in future, Churchill, our notes will celebrate a diverse range of individuals who have contributed in a wide range of fields.

Read more

“The first rule of fight club is you do not talk about fight club.” Do the same rules apply to the Fight Club sequel?

Novelist Chuck Palahniuk plans to write a sequel to his cult book as a serialized graphic novel. A tentative release date has been set for 2015.

Read more

Novelist and journalist Cory Doctorow is hosting an Ask Me Anything interview on Reddit right now. In this encore edition of the Morning Media Menu, we spoke Doctorow about his 2010 book, For the Win. He spoke about online currency, book promotion and the feasibility of unions in digital culture.

Doctorow discussed his strategy of releasing a free eBook edition of his book alongside the print book. Press play below to listen on SoundCloud. Here’s an excerpt:

I make the books available as free downloads under a Creative Commons license that encourages my readers to share them and remix them, provided they are doing so non-commercially. That means one reader who loves the book who knows another reader who would love the book can put the book in that reader’s hands … Tim O’Reilly says: ‘The problem with writers isn’t piracy, it’s obscurity.’ It may be hard to monetize fame, but it is impossible to monetize obscurity.

Read more

Artist and author Allie Brosh has created a separate book site for her upcoming collection, giving readers a peek at her new book (image embedded above).

Brosh will publish Hyperbole and a Half: Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem, and Other Things That Happened on October 29th. In May, Brosh returned to her site for the first time since 2011 with an illustrated essay about depression. Here’s more about the new book site:

I wrote a book. It was really, really hard. But it’s done! (Well, the manuscript is done). I made this page so that I could post things about my book without having to post them on my blog. People come to my blog to read blog posts, not to watch me promote my book, and I want to respect that. By doing things this way, the people who are interested in seeing book things can choose to come here and the people who don’t want to see anything promotion-related don’t have to see it … Anyway, I have been told that I need to promote my book, so I’m going to at least try to make it interesting and/or fun. At the very least, I’m going to try to make it not obnoxious.

Read more

Colin Robinson of OR Books with author Yoko Ono

Over elderberry and cucumber water and views of the Empire State Building, OR Books toasted author Yoko Ono and her new work Acorn at the Refinery Hotel’s rooftop in New York City this week.

The work is Ono’s first book in almost 50 years. It is a collection of short thoughtful meditations designed to pick up and read here and there for inspirations. “It is short enough that you don’t have to think about reading a whole page,” Ono told party guests.

Read more