Publishing Deal - Kami Garcia

One exciting publishing deal after another this week, with yesterday's announcement of a solo deal for Kami Garcia. From the press release sent out by Simon & Schuster:

Simon & Schuster signs first solo series from Beautiful Creatures co-author

28th November 2012, London—Simon and Schuster Children’s Books today announced the acquisition of Beautiful Creatures co-author Kami Garcia’s first solo YA novels.

Kami Garcia has shot to fame for her bestselling Beautiful Creatures series, co-written with Margaret Stohl. The movie adaptation will be released in February 2013, starring Emma Thompson, Jeremy Irons, Emmy Rossum and Alice Englert, and the publishing programme for the series is ongoing.

Venetia Gosling, Editorial Director at Simon & Schuster UK, has bought UK & Commonwealth rights, including ebook and audio, from Angharad Kowal at Writer’s House in two books in Garcia’s Legion series, her first solo novels. A film adaptation of the series is already in development with Mark Morgan, the producer of The Twilight saga and Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief.

In the first book, Unbreakable, seventeen-year-old Kennedy Waters’ whole life changes the night she comes home to find her mother dead, and two mysterious twins breaking into her house, saying they are trying to save her from a murderous vengeful spirit. Kennedy learns that she is the fifth member of a secret society, The Legion of the Black Dove, formed 200 years ago to protect the world from a powerful demon determined to find a way out of his dimension and into ours. Kennedy and the twins, Lukas and Jared, are joined by Priest, a teenage engineer who designs ghost-hunting weapons, and Alara, a girl trained in voodoo arts, and the five teens race to find the pieces of the shift, a device they believe will help them destroy the demon. But each piece of the shift is located in a place more terrifying than the last, and the teens must battle their own personal demons to find them, even as Kennedy fights her feelings for two very different boys, who look exactly alike. Suspense, romance and dark paranormal forces meet in this frightening and thrilling urban fantasy.

The Legion series has already sold in Italy, Germany, France and Brazil, with Little, Brown as the US publisher. Unbreakable will publish as a paperback original in Autumn 2013, with the second title in the series following in Autumn 2014.

Gosling says: “I loved Unbreakable – it’s page-turning and frightening and absolutely gripping and I’m desperate to know what happens in the second book! It’s also incredibly visual, and I can absolutely see why it has been optioned for film. With this new series launch, as well as the film of Beautiful Creatures hitting cinemas in February, Kami is guaranteed a big year in 2013, and we’re delighted to be part of it as we launch the Legion series on the S&S list.”