Curtis Brown Australia RIGHTS NEWSLETTER August 2013 by Curtis Brown Australia

Curtis Brown Australia August 2013 Rights Newsletter

1 Curtis Brown Australia / Rights Newsletter / www.curtisbrown.com.au

AUGUST BOOKS – ADULT DEAD HEAT (new edition) Bronwyn Parry (Hachette Australia) Genre: Fiction Description: National Park’s Ranger Jo Lockwood is often alone in the wilderness, and she likes it that way – until she discovers the body of a man, brutally murdered. Detective Nick Matheson’s posting to country New South Wales after years working undercover is supposed to be an uneventful return to normal duties. But he knows organised crime from the inside out and suspects that this victim is not an isolated murder. As the body count starts mounting, Nick s past and present collide, threatening the people he cares about most. Jo is determined to do everything she can to help the investigation but she has seen the killer s face and now she’s his next target. Trapped in the rugged outback, pursued by hunters who can’t afford to fail, Nick and Jo will need to trust each other and act quickly if they want to survive. Winner, Favourite Romantic Suspense Novel 2012 (Australian Romance Readers Association); Finalist, Best Romantic Suspense 2012 (Romance Writers of America RITA awards) Rights Available: Audio, Film/TV (all other rights via Hachette Australia) Agent: Clare Forster claref@curtisbrown.com.au

THE END OF THE HOMOSEXUAL? Dennis Altman (University of Queensland Press) Genre: Non-fiction Description: In The End of the Homosexual? – part memoir/part politics – Dennis Altman connects what has happened within the changing queer world over the past forty years to larger social, political and cultural trends. This is a case study of both local and global change, yet one told from personal experience. Written engagingly, this timely new book explores the idea that major changes in the understanding of sexual and gender diversity reflect larger social and cultural shifts. For example, the internet has changed patterns of sexual behaviour as widely as did the contraceptive pill forty years ago. In both cases the changes were neither foreseen nor intended, and in both cases the impact of new technologies partly depended on political and ideological controls. Homosexuality has become a faultline for debates about western influence, and human rights. In this riveting and personally revealing work, Altman reflects on decades of cultural and political change and considers the future of sexuality: is this the end of the homosexual that gay liberationists predicted forty years ago? ‘Like the author himself, this book is – in a word – indispensable. Inexhaustibly intelligent as ever, Altman elegantly unpacks and unravels queer history and present-day politics, never failing to illuminate all its contradictions and conundrums. I lost track of how many times I reached for a highlighter or dog-eared a page, with nothing less than a constant sense of gratitude.’ Benjamin Law, author of Gaysia and The Family Law Rights Available: Audio, Film/TV (all other rights via UQP) Agent: Fiona Inglis fiona@curtisbrown.com.au 2 Curtis Brown Australia / Rights Newsletter / www.curtisbrown.com.au

FROM ALICE WITH LOVE Jo Dutton (Arena/Allen & Unwin) Genre: Fiction Description: A beautiful love story, and a thought-provoking novel set in the exotic red centre of Australia. After the end of a long-term relationship, Alicia’s life is at a crossroads when news that her mother is critically ill takes her back to her childhood home of Alice Springs. Though she hasn’t consciously intended to remain in central Australia, when Alicia is offered a job setting up a school on an indigenous outstation she decides to stay. Surrounded by the mesmerising beauty of the desert, Alicia takes charge of the new school, and though the challenges are substantial, she finds the work deeply fulfilling. When Alicia meets Patrick through her work she’s instantly attracted to him. Patrick shares much of Alicia’s outlook on life and their relationship flourishes until they hit a crisis regarding their future together... Rights Available: World (excl. ANZ), Audio, Film/TV Agent: Fiona Inglis fiona@curtisbrown.com.au

HIS STUPID BOYHOOD Peter Goldsworthy (Hamish Hamilton/Penguin) Genre: Non-Fiction Description: ‘Australia’s most wide-ranging writer shows us where it all comes from: out of that single, concentrated, burningly self-conscious point of being an unusually alert infant.’ Clive James Few Australian writers have delved as deeply as Peter Goldsworthy into the mysterious state of being that is childhood. In this memoir he applies his fascination with that state to his own boyhood, from his bizarre first memories to the embarrassments of adolescence. For all his working life Goldsworthy has been both doctor and writer – ‘Australia’s Chekhov’ – and here he reveals a mind charmed equally by science and literature, by the rational and the imagined. The country towns he grew up in gave free rein to the young Peter’s intense curiosity, and in the fifties and sixties he ran amok in hilarious fashion. A boy with a mind wide open to the universe but closed to self-knowledge, he came of age with a naive self-confidence that was ripe for the bursting. Comically self-deprecating, unrestrained in its honesty, His Stupid Boyhood is a passport to the lost country of youth, and a beautiful homage to childhood in general. ‘Goldsworthy writes with a graceful irony of the terror, boredom, longing, shame and elation of boyhood. We can only hope that this is the first volume of his story.’ Susanna Moore Rights Available: World (excl. ANZ), Audio, Film/TV Agent: Fiona Inglis fiona@curtisbrown.com.au 3 Curtis Brown Australia / Rights Newsletter / www.curtisbrown.com.au

THE INCA PROPHECY Adrian d’Hagé (Penguin Australia) Genre: Fiction Description: A terrible fate awaits humankind if the Inca Prophecy cannot be found … An eerie clue to the Prophecy lies heavily guarded beneath the Vatican. Another is hidden near the famous Inca ruins at Machu Picchu. Archaeologist Aleta Weizman and rogue CIA agent Curtis O’Connor must unearth both clues if they are to decode the prophecy’s meaning – before it’s too late. But time is not on their side. The Iranians are building a nuclear bomb. Israel has an itchy trigger finger. Though the world has never been closer to destruction, a powerful few are doing all they can to ensure the Inca’s fabled warning will never be heard. And the CIA is hunting Weizman and O’Connor down, hell bent on silencing them forever. Rights Available: Film/TV (all other rights via Penguin Australia) Agent: Clare Forster claref@curtisbrown.com.au

JOHNNY O’KEEFE: ROCKER. LEGEND. WILD ONE Jeff Apter (Hachette Australia) Genre: Non-fiction Description: Bill Haley called him a future king of rock. Billy Thorpe idolised him. Fans loved him. We knew him simply as JO’K. Johnny O’Keefe was a human dynamo. Australia’s first king of rock’n’roll, his massive influence still looms large on the Australian entertainment landscape. Although O’Keefe suffered as many breakdowns as he did breakthroughs, he played a huge role in establishing the multi-million dollar Australian music industry as we know it today. He was our first and remains our greatest rock’n’roll star. Like his peer Elvis Presley, Johnny died way too young, from a heart attack in 1978 at the age of 43. He left behind a legacy of timeless hits, including ‘She Wears My Ring’, ‘She’s My Baby’, ‘Shout’ and ‘The Wild One’, and recorded thirty-three Top 40 hits during his lifetime. Johnny’s role as host of the television shows Six O’Clock Rock, Sing Sing Sing and The Johnny O’Keefe Show still hold a special place in the hearts and minds of his many fans, as do his legendary live performances. Featuring the input of peers and insiders, and written with the full support of the JO’K Trust, this is the definitive story of the man known as the Wild One. Rights Available: Film/TV (all other rights via Hachette Australia) Agent: Pippa Masson pippa@curtisbrown.com.au

4 Curtis Brown Australia / Rights Newsletter / www.curtisbrown.com.au

AUGUST TITLES – CHILDREN’S LOST WORLD CIRCUS #4: BOY VERSUS RAT DOG Justin D’Ath (Puffin/Penguin) Genre: Fiction Description: An electrifying new series from Justin D’ath, author of the bestselling Extreme Adventures. Colt Lawless is on the run, suddenly famous, and more than a little superhuman. But can he save the last animals on earth? Colt doesn’t know his own strength. When a showdown with a $100,000, Rat Dog has tragic consequences, his arch enemy, Officer Katt, seeks revenge. She steals the thing that matters most to Colt, right when his superpowers seem to have disappeared. But superpowers or not, Birdy and Colt are on the case, and the secrets they uncover could change Colt’s life forever … Rights Available: Film/TV (all other rights via Penguin Australia) Agent: Fiona Inglis fiona@curtisbrown.com.au

MUCKED UP Danny Katz (Allen & Unwin) Genre: YA Fiction Description: Friendships are torn apart and loyalties tested when the Year 12s take over the school in this brilliant sequel to S.C.U.M There are three reasons why Tom Zurbo-Goldblatt is creeping into school like a scaredy little weed this morning: 1. Today is Muck Up Day and the Year 12s are planning to take down the school in the biggest Quad Raid ever. 2. He is on Yard Duty. So not only will he have to clean up all the Muck Up Day mess, he’s also wearing a girly T-shirt with the word ‘boy’ on it. 3. Bushing. Which is a combination of pushing and bushes, and the reason why Tom wants to avoid the rose garden. Also, the Students Combined Underground Movement is falling apart – Jarrell and Jack S have fallen in love and are being all lovey-dovey vommy, Brisley has decided to join a much cooler gang, Ravo is just miserable, and Tom’s only friend is a pig in a nappy. On top of all this, the schoolyard is a warzone of silly string, toilet paper and supa-soakers filled with Vietnamese fish sauce. Tom’s determined to survive, but can he choose between his own safety and the future of S.C.U.M.? It’s going to be a long and crazy day. Rights Available: World (excl. ANZ), Film/TV, Audio Agent: Fiona Inglis fiona@curtisbrown.com.au

5 Curtis Brown Australia / Rights Newsletter / www.curtisbrown.com.au

VIOLET MACKEREL’S POCKET PROTEST (VIOLET MACKEREL #6) Anna Branford (Walker Books) Genre: Children’s fiction Description: Violet Mackerel loves Clover Park. She especially loves to collect acorns from under the big old oak tree. But the oak tree is going to be cut down. Violet does not think this is a good idea! The oak tree is important. It is worth trying to save. And Violet hopes her pocket protest will be just the thing to save it. Rights Available: Translation (excl. France, Turkey), Audio, Film/TV Agent: Pippa Masson pippa@curtisbrown.com.au

6 Curtis Brown Australia / Rights Newsletter / www.curtisbrown.com.au