One way of picking up the cultural and economic pulse of a nation is to see which manuscripts traditional publishers are buying at the beginning of the year.

Publisher’s Lunch reported these Nonfiction & Historical Fiction deals in the last 24 hours.

Historical Fiction

Frances Devine’s WHISPERS OF THE WIND, in which love blooms for three teachers at a school for the deaf and blind in 1800s Georgia, was sold to Rebecca Germany at Barbour by Amanda Luedeke at MacGregor Literary.

Nonfiction / Memoir

Mike Stavlund’s FORCE OF WILL, about grief and its complicated relationship with faith which honestly explores the reality of loss, the experience of alienation, the feelings of suffocation at the hands of well-meaning friends, and the sense of being abandoned by God; revealing a side of grief our culture
has grown accustomed to avoiding in lieu of safe platitudes and cultural euphemisms – and wrestling with the possibility of embracing life – and hope – after a devastating loss, was sold to Jon Wilcox at Baker Books, for publication in Spring 2013, by Sandra Bishop at MacGregor Literary.

Nonfiction / Science

Director of forensic and investigative sciences at West Virginia University Suzanne Bell’s ENCYCLOPEDIA OF FORENSIC SCIENCE, was sold to Tisse Takagi at Oxford University Press by Jodie Rhodes.

Publisher’s Lunch is free and you can sign up for it here.  Happy New Year to all you writers out there!