The Year of ROOTLESS
Happy 2012 everyone!
I'm excited about this year for a lot of reasons, and one of the toppermost is the release of my debut novel ROOTLESS. Set in a future world where nothing can grow, ROOTLESS will be out via Scholastic Press in November. It's the story of a seventeen year-old who builds scrap metal trees until he learns… well, you can check my website for the full premise!
The great folk at Scholastic have been behind some of my favorite young adult novels in recent years: the Hunger Games, Harry Potter, Marcelo in the Real World, the Invention of Hugo Cabret, the Scorpio Races… and many others. Working with them - especially my brilliant editor, Mallory Kass - has been a real privilege. The latest news from my publisher is that the talented Phil Falco is currently working on the ROOTLESS cover art… can't wait to see what he comes up with!
It's almost two years since the story for ROOTLESS popped into my head - so it's been a really fun and pretty fast process. Scholastic bought the rights to publish the book in the US and Canada (and the Philippines), and my awesome foreign rights agent, Taryn Fagerness, has recently been busy selling the rights overseas. In fact, I just signed a contract with Editora Moderna in Brazil for the rights to the trilogy - which makes the work I've been putting in on Book 2 feel even more awesome! There'll be more news on "foreign" rights coming soon!
I have to give a huge shout out to my literary agent Laura Rennert, who is not only brilliant at what she does, but supremely passionate about books and a blast to work with. Laura inspired me to let go of my first book and write a second one, and I came up with the idea for ROOTLESS about three days later… so it's safe to say I wouldn't have even written the book if it wasn't for her, let alone see it get published!
I should also mention that ROOTLESS now has a film agent… the terrific Lucy Stille at Paradigm. I got to meet with Lucy when I was in New York late last year. She was super cool and really impressed me with her enthusiasm for my book and her knowledge of the film business. We'll see what happens!
So, a great start to the "Year of ROOTLESS" … and I'll be keeping everyone updated on when the book's available and where it's at. Later this year I'll be out on the road to promote Book 1. In the meantime, I'll be working on Book 2, so keep in touch with me here, and MAY THE FOREST BE WITH YOU!
Cheers,
Chris
