Curtis Brown Australia RIGHTS NEWSLETTER June 2014

Curtis Brown Australia June 2014 Rights Newsletter

Curtis Brown (Aust) Pty Ltd | Literary Agents PO Box 19 | Paddington NSW 2021 | Australia T: [61 2] 9361 6161 | F: [61 2] 9360 3935 E: laura@curtisbrown.com.au | W: www.curtisbrown.com.au 1 Curtis Brown Australia / Rights Newsletter / www.curtisbrown.com.au

ADULT FICTION DANCING ON KNIVES Kate Forsyth (Vintage, Random House) Genre: Contemporary fiction Description: A damaged family and their generations of dangerous secrets.

At twenty, Sara is tormented by terror so profound she hasn't left her home in five years. Like the mermaid in the fairytale her Spanish grandmother once told her, Sara imagines she is dancing on knives. She feels suffocated by her family, especially her father – the famous artist Augusto Sanchez – whose volcanic passions dominate their lives.

Then one stormy night, her father does not come home. His body is found dangling from a cliff face. Astonishingly, he is still alive, but the mystery of his fall can only be solved by the revelation of long-held family secrets.

At once a suspenseful murder mystery and a lyrical love story, DANCING ON KNIVES is about how family can constrict and liberate us, how art can be both joyous and destructive, and how strength can be found in the unlikeliest places.

Rights Available: English language excl ANZ, Translation, Film/TV Agent: Tara Wynne tara@curtisbrown.com.au

RED SAND SUNRISE Fiona McArthur (Michael Joseph, Penguin) Genre: Fiction Description: A romantic, heartfelt story which celebrates the strength of family ties, the renewing power of love, and the passion of ordinary people achieving extraordinary things.

When the father she barely knew dies suddenly, midwife Eve Wilson decides she owes it to him to go to the funeral and meet her stepfamily in Red Sand. She doesn't expect to be so completely charmed by the beautiful remote township in far west Queensland – or by local station owner, Lex McKay. After disappointment and heartbreak in Sydney, Dr Callie Wilson decides it might be time to move home to spend some time with her grieving mother. When she is approached to oversee the establishment of the area's first medical clinic, it seems the perfect opportunity. And Callie is keen to involve Eve, the sister she's just getting to know.

Melbourne-based obstetrician Sienna Wilson can't understand why anyone would want to bury themselves in the outback, but when her hospital sends her north to research the medical mystery affecting women in Red Sand, it seems fate is intent on bringing the three sisters together. And when disaster strikes, they must each decide if being true to themselves means being there for each other...

Rights Available: Audio, Film/TV Agent: Clare Forster claref@curtisbrown.com.au 2 Curtis Brown Australia / Rights Newsletter / www.curtisbrown.com.au

THE WORD GHOST Christine Paice (Allen & Unwin) Genre: Fiction Description: Funny, moving, romantic, and a little bit spooky - a brilliantly told story of love, family and the occasional ghost.

This is England 1973, and fifteen-year-old Rebecca Budde is in love with Dave. After one glorious summer, Rebecca is forced to move with her family to Brightley, a village with a puddle for a pond, and no excitement at all. If only Dave were there.

Very weird things are going on inside their new house, and even stranger things are happening in the village at night. Someone appears to be living in Rebecca's wardrobe. Someone else is on the balcony, trying to get in.

Things don't make sense anymore as Algernon Keats steps from the shadows, his sister not far behind him. There's no Dave, two ghosts, a pub, a dog and Alex March, a dark and brooding artist, living in the Manor House down the road, whose interest in Rebecca is both puzzling and thrilling.

THE WORD GHOST is a funny, moving story about what it means to find love, lose love and discover who you are when you live in a village with no street lights and a decidedly dark side.

Rights Available: English language excl ANZ, Translation, Film/TV Agent: Pippa Masson pippa@curtisbrown.com.au

NON FICTION IN MY MOTHER’S HANDS Biff Ward (Allen & Unwin) Genre: Memoir Description: A beautifully written and emotionally perplexing coming-ofage story about growing up in an unusual family.

There are secrets in this family. Before Biff and her younger brother, Mark, there was baby Alison, who drowned in her bath because, it was said, her mother was distracted. Biff lives in fear of her mother's irrational behaviour and paranoia, and she is always on guard and fears for the safety of her brother. As Biff grows into teenage hood, there develops a conspiratorial relationship between her and her father, who is a famous and gregarious man, trying to keep his wife's problems a family secret. This was a time when the insane were committed and locked up in Dickensian institutions; whatever his problems her father was desperate to save his wife from that fate. But also to protect his children from the effects of living with a tragically disturbed mother.

Rights Available: Audio, Film/TV Agent: Pippa Masson pippa@curtisbrown.com.au

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

AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT JACLYN MORIARTY is the prize-winning, best-selling author of novels for young adults and adults including FEELING SORRY FOR CELIA and THE YEAR OF SECRET ASSIGNMENTS. Jaclyn grew up in Sydney, lived in England, the US, and Canada, and now lives in Sydney again. She is very fond of chocolate, blueberries, and sleep.

Her latest novel, A CORNER OF WHITE, (the first in the Colours of Madeleine series) was published

by Pan Macmillan (Australia) in 2012 to great acclaim and in April 2013 by Scholastic (USA). It has already received a Kirkus starred review. www.jaclynmoriarty.com We can’t quite believe that the film and television rights for JACLYN MORIARTY’s best-selling Ashbury High/Brookfield High young adult series are available to be optioned! Set at two imaginary high schools in Sydney: exclusive, private Ashbury High, and dangerous, public Brookfield, these books are crying out to be made into a miniseries. Loosely connected by characters who wander between the stories, and written in the form of letters, notes and diary entries, Jaclyn brings the lives, loves, and loss of teenage hood into sharp relief. Think PUBERTY BLUES, THE SISTERHOOD OF THE TRAVELLING PANTS and THE PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER all rolled into one.

Rights Available: Film/TV; some publishing rights also available (please enquire) Agent: Tara Wynne tara@curtisbrown.com.au FEELING SORRY FOR CELIA (Pan Macmillan, 2000) Dear Ms Clarry, It is with great pleasure that we invite you to join our Society.

We have just found out about your holiday. It is so impressive! You had four assignments, an English essay and a chapter of Maths to do. And you didn't do one single piece of homework! Fabulous!

Also we have a feeling that you have a History test today. And you're trying to study now? On the bus? With the Brookfield boys climbing onto each other's shoulders to get to the emergency roof exit? And with Celia about to get on the bus at any moment? And you think that's going to make a difference!!! That's really very amusing, Elizabeth. We like you for it. You're perfect for our Society and we're very excited about having you join.

Yours sincerely, Society of People who are Definitely Going to Fail High School (and Most Probably Life as Well!)

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

Life is pretty complicated for Elizabeth Clarry. Her best friend Celia has disappeared, her absent father has reappeared and her communication with her mother depends entirely on fridge notes.

And now, because her English teacher wants to rekindle the Joy of the Envelope, a Complete and Utter Stranger knows more about Elizabeth than anyone else. But Elizabeth is on the threshold of change. She is about to lose a friend, find a friend, fall in love and taste wine that smells like compost. A lot can happen in the time it takes to write a letter...

FINDING CASSIE CRAZY (Pan Macmillan, 2003) Protest in Mr Botherit's English Class today!

Do you value your life?

Then say NO to Mr B's Ashbury-Brookfield Pen Pal Project! WHATEVER YOU DO, DON'T WRITE A LETTER IN CLASS TODAY! If Mr B asks why, remind him that: > The reason judo is compulsory here at Ashbury is so we can defend ourselves against Brookfield students. > You can't get in to Brookfield unless you have a criminal record. > Brookfield students don't know how to read or write.

Year 10 is pretty crazy for best friends Lydia, Cassie and Emily, and when their English teacher starts the Pen Pal Project so that they can experience the Joy of the Envelope with boys from scary Brookfield High, life gets even crazier.

As Lydia turns into a secret agent and Emily a relationship expert, it is not so clear what is happening to Cassie. She is writing to someone, but not even her friends know what's going on.

Does she even have a pen pal? Or has Cassie really lost it?

THE BETRAYAL OF BINDY MACKENZIE (Pan Macmillan, 2006) Bindy is the smartest girl at Ashbury High. She ranks in the 99.9th percentile in everything she does (including extra-curricular activities - she is casual Employee of the Month every month at Kmart).

She is also the kindest girl at Ashbury High. For example: - Before each school year begins, she memorises departmental outlines of her subjects. That way, she can gently prompt those teachers who forget or stray from the course.

- She reads up on common teen anxieties, and offers lunch-time advisory sessions in a relaxed, convivial setting (the locker room).

But Bindy suspects that something may be missing - something more than the 0.1 she needs to make the 100th percentile. And, on the first day of Year 11, at the first session of the FAD (Friendship and Development) Project, her worst suspicions are confirmed.

Nobody likes her.

So Bindy makes a decision. Enough of this compassionate Bindy; she has been wasting her time. The real and ruthless Bindy is about to emerge.

DREAMING OF AMELIA (Pan Macmillan, 2009) Amelia and Riley are the bad kids from the bad crowd at bad Brookfield High, and they've just transferred to Ashbury. Brilliant, mysterious and probably evil, they have the rich kids at Ashbury spellbound.

But just who are Amelia and Riley?

Tantalisingly aloof, they are somehow managing to have an extraordinary impact on all the HSC Ashbury students, and the staff.

A story about ghosts, secrets, madness, passion, locked doors, femme fatales - and that terrifying moment in the final year of high school when you realise that the future's come to get you.

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