Deal Announcement: Three Book Deal for Katie Delahanty

As a long time editor at HarperCollins gone freelance in Los Angeles, I adore playing Emma and creative matchmaking debut authors with their agents. But when I read Katie Delahanty’s IN BLOOM, I discovered a new voice, a story, and a world that I loved so madly that I realized that I wanted to represent a project for the first time.

I was completely captivated by IN BLOOM’s protagonist and how fearless she was in following both her vision and her heart. And more so I was in awe of former fashion designer Katie Delahanty and her astonishing gifts as a writer. Take a minute to visit Katie’s website as I think that you will be inspired to learn that it was the economic downturn that lead Katie to begin to publish her story in blog format in 2011 when her role at her company unexpectedly shifted from fashion design to e-commerce.

I know that you guys are going to love the Brightside series and we can’t wait to share it with you. Here is a glimpse at the first book in the series IN BLOOM:

My name is Olivia Bloom and I. Am. Free.

Turning up Berkeley and the Brightside's "I’ve Got a Chance" so she doesn’t have to hear the predictions her self-proclaimed “psychic” Mom is calling after her, Olivia Bloom pulls out of her parents’ driveway. Swallowing fear, she vows to be brave--to leave her safety net behind; to forget her broken heart--and drives cross country from Pittsburgh to pursue her dream of becoming a Hollywood costume designer.

When Liv arrives in LA, her plans go awry, and she is grateful when her fabulous neighbors, Parker and Blair, take her under their Hollywood-insider wings. Blair offers her a freelance position as a dresser at a star studded fashion show on the condition that Liv follows a set of unspoken celebrity rules that Parker and Blair lay out for her. Nervous, but desperate to find work, Liv accepts. At the fashion show Liv has an unfortunate run-in with the lead singer of her favorite band, Berkeley Dalton. 

Having broken all of Parker and Blair's rules, she is certain she is doomed to fail in Los Angeles. But, driven by the knowledge that a superstar like Berkeley talked to a “nobody” like Liv, Parker and Blair think otherwise and vow to turn her into Los Angeles’ My Fair Lady. They get to work on “the spin” and several months later pass her off as an It girl at Elton John’s annual Oscar Party.

Having learned to be her bravest self under Parker and Blair’s tutelage, Liv’s Old Hollywood dreams begin to unfold in ways she never could have imagined, and she struggles to remain grounded. Even as a second chance meeting with Berkeley Dalton ignites a whirlwind romance and Psychic Mom sends prophecies swirling with possibility, Liv never truly believes that an “every” girl from Pittsburgh could end up living this magical behind-the-scenes existence. She is determined to remain rooted in reality and focused on her new career as a lingerie designer, but just when it seems the fairy tale may crumble, Berkeley proves to Liv that maybe magic exists after all…

And here’s her deal announcement:

Katie Delahanty's IN BLOOM, the first book in the Brightside series, in which a recent college graduate moves west from Pittsburgh to pursue her dream of becoming a costume designer, is spun by her Hollywood insider neighbors into Los Angeles' My Fair Lady, and who has a chance encounter with a rock star that ignites a whirlwind romance, to Karen Grove at Entangled Embrace, in a three-book deal, by Jennifer Pooley at The Bent Agency (world).

Please join me in congratulating Katie on twitter at @ktdelahanty and please "like" her Facebook page.

- Jennifer Pooley