Deal announcement: Martin Stewart's debut YA novel

This doesn't happen often, so it's all the more exciting when it does: TBA client Martin Stewart so seduced Puffin UK with his four-and-a-half-page short story, they asked him to turn it into a YA novel! 

In an especially fun twist, Martin wrote the story, titled 1,031, in response to a prompt on fellow TBA client Simon P. Clark's blog. Simon challenged writers to come up with a scary story under 1,031 words—for Halloween (look at the number again). Martin bent the rules a little, but his incredibly assured voice and his ability to build a whole world in just a few short pages resulted in a miniature masterpiece. Don't take my word for it; check out editor Amy Alward's quotes in this Booktrade article.

International rights: UK Children's

Martin Stewart's untitled debut YA novel, based on an 1800-word short story, in which a young boy must unwillingly take up his family's mantle tending the river and fishing corpses from its treacherous waters, to Amy Alward at Puffin UK, in a pre-empt, for publication in summer 2016, by Molly Ker Hawn at The Bent Agency (World).

Congratulate Martin on Twitter, won't you?