Doug Marlette’s new book to hit shelves this fall (UPDATED)

Doug Marlette’s second fictional novel, Magic Time, will be released this September 19th by Sarah Crichton Books/Farrar, Straus & Giroux. Here is the description from Marlette’s web stie:

Magic Time is the story of a New York City newspaper columnist, Carter Ransom, who returns home to Mississippi after an emotional breakdown to face a father he disappointed and a traumatic past he has long repressed?now back in the news with the reopening of a twenty-five-year-old unsolved civil rights murder case that shattered his family. Set in New York City and Mississippi in the early 1990s, with flashbacks to Mississippi during the 1960s, Magic Time is a love story that charts the progress into the present of a generation whose coming of age coincided with one of the most sensational turning points in American history, the civil rights revolution. Once that cataclysmic period ended, the journey for its players turned interior, and it is this transition from external battles to an internal struggle that is dramatized by Magic Time.

You can pre-order through his web site or over at Amazon.

Interestingly, while looking around on his web site, I noticed that Paramount Pictures had acquired the screen play rights for his first book The Bridge and that Tom Cruise might play the starring role. That said, I could not find anything over at IMBD or comingsoon.net regarding this movie. I suspect that perhaps the book was optioned to keep a competitor from securing the rights, but the likelihood of it actually getting produced is small. I’ve sent an email to Doug – perhaps he can tell us when this movie might be hitting the
big screen.

UPDATE: Doug writes in with an update on the book to movie deal. While he admits that the “likelihood of ANY film getting made is small” the rights to the movie were not bought to keep it out of competitor’s hands as I opined.  From Doug’s email:

Actually, The Bridge was bought by Paramount for Cruise/Wagner Productions for Tom Cruise to play Pick Cantrell, the editorial cartoonist who loses his job after beating up his publisher with the publisher’s own yachting trophy. Cruise approved the screenwriter Mark Andrus, Oscar nominated for As Good As It Gets, who was paid a million dollars for the screenplay. I like the screenplay very much, faithful to the novel, although as expected, focuses more on the cartoonist than his grandmother. Shirley MacLaine is said to have loved the book and wants to play the feisty Mama Lucy.

Doug will be on tour this fall to promote his new book. Here are the dates and cities that he gave me.

Friday, September 8 Orlando, FL SIBA Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance
Saturday, September 16 Valley Forge, PA NAIBA New Atlantic Independent Booksellers
Friday, September 29 Tulsa, OK Celebration of Books
Thursday, October 5 Charlotte, NC Park Road Books
Tuesday, October 10 Jefferson, TX Pulpwood Queens Book Club
Thursday, October 12 Charlotte, NC Novello Reading Festival
Saturday, October 14 Nashville, TN Southern Festival of Books
Tuesday, October 17 Homewood, AL Alabama Booksmith
Friday, October 20 Pawleys Island, SC Litchfield Books
Thursday, October 26 Durham, NC Regulator Bookshop
Friday, October 27 Asheville, NC Malaprop?s Boosktore
Saturday, October 28 Pittsboro, NC McIntyre?s Bookshop
Wednesday, November 1 Decatur, GA Georgia Center for the Book at Decatur Library
Thursday, November 2 Burlington, NC Alamance County Library at Paramount Theater
Thursday, November 9 Charlotte, NC Joseph Beth Bookstore
Thursday, November 10 Raleigh, NC Quail Ridge Books
Tuesday, November 14 Blytheville, AR That Bookstore
Wednesday, November 15 Jackson, MS Jackson Clarion-Ledger Visiting Writers Lunch
Wednesday, November 15 Jackson, MS Lemuria Books
Thursday, November 16 Oxford, MS Square Books
Sunday, December 3 Myers Park Church Charlotte, NC

Thanks Doug for the update.

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