Bay Area Literary Tidbits

The disappearance of Nina Reisner in the winter of 2006 captivated the Bay Area, as immediate suspicion fell on her brilliant, eccentric computer geek husband Hans Reisner. Nina’s body was never discovered, but Oakland prosecutors charged him anyway with her murder. His behavior at the trial was erratic and disturbing and he finally confessed that he had killed his beautiful Russian-born wife. He then led authorities to her body, which he had hidden in the East Bay hills.

San Francisco Chronicle reporter Henry Lee covered the case, and even live-blogged the trial. Lee has now sold a book on the pair’s tumultuous relationship. Here is the report from Publisher’s Marketplace:

San Francisco Chronicle reporter Henry Lee's THE BEAUTY AND THE GEEK, the story of the Linux programmer accused of making his ex-wife disappear who was eventually convicted of her murder without the body being found until a last-minute change of heart led to a surprise ending, to Tom Colgan at Berkley, in a nice deal, by Jeff Gerecke at Gina Maccoby Literary Agency (World English).

Another Chronicle reporter, Steve Winn, has also sold a book:

San Francisco Chronicle staff writer Steven Winn's COME BACK, COMO: The Runaway Mutt Who Ran Off with My Heart, the tender and humorous story of his uncommonly rich experience with a scraggly, man-hating dog from a local animal shelter who was bent on breaking his sanity, his bankbook, and his heart -- based on a popular ten-part series in the Chronicle, to Lisa Sharkey and Nancy Miller, for Collins, in a pre-empt, by Amy Rennert at Amy Rennert Agency (world).

Zoe Carter, a Berkeley writer, has sold a memoir about her dying mother’s explicit plan to kill herself, and how that decision enmeshed and changed her family:

Zoe Carter's IMPERFECT ENDINGS, about a family coming to terms with their mother's plan to commit suicide after a long illness, to Amanda Murray at Simon & Schuster, by Sharon Skettini at Sterling Lord Literistic.

Christina Meldrum’s debut novel Madapple, , has been selected as one of Amazon’s top books of the year.