BookNews
Sayles on paper.
More than a year after his agent first shopped the manuscript, filmmaker John Sayles has a deal for a long historical novel.
Sayles’ fictionalized account of the U.S. occupation of the Philippines around the turn of the 20th century is tentatively titled “Some Time in the Sun.” It’s more than 1,000 pages in manuscript form.
It will be released in 2011 by McSweeney’s, the San Francisco-based press founded by author Dave Eggers.
Sayles is best-known for such films as “Eight Men Out” and “Matewan.” He’s also the author of several books, though he has lamented his difficulties in finding a publisher for this latest one.
McSweeney’s editor Jordan Bass said that the novel “felt like equal parts (E.L.) Doctorow and ‘Deadwood’ ” and praised its “captivating pacing.”
The Associated Press
This could get interesting.
Elizabeth Berkley is ready to take your question.
The actress will be writing “Ask Elizabeth,” a “a self-esteem handbook for teen girls” based on questions she has been asked over the years.
G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers announced that it expects to release the book next spring. It’s an imprint of Penguin Young Readers Group.
Berkley, 37, is best-known for the sitcom “Saved by the Bell” and for playing an exotic dancer in the movie “Showgirls.”
The Associated Press
First Lines
Romancing Miss Bronte, by Juliet Gael
He rode on the back of a wagon loaded with crates of chickens and bales of hay, driven by a brutish farmer who had not uttered a word throughout the journey except to curse his horse. Arthur would have enjoyed a bit of conversation as the wagon lurched along the muddy ruts, but the natural world was a thing of splendor and inspiration to him, and he was content to gaze upon the vistas opening up before his eyes. It was September and the wind was balmy and thick-scented with heather. Each climb to the brow of a hill revealed rise after rise carpeted in swirls of purple, green and gold, each growing paler until the moors faded into a violet haze, and thereafter only shelves of mist the color of blush that might be land or might be clouds. The upper reaches of the River Worth flowed from these hills and fed the becks that fed the mills that fed the people, when times were good.
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Publishers Weekly
