News & Reviews

WORD: Karen Dionne follows 'Freezing Point' momentum with new novel

What sophomore slump? Just months after the launch of environmental thriller "Freezing Point," debut novelist Karen Dionne has a deal for her sophomore work after literary agent Jeff Kleinman sold her second environmental thriller "Boiling Point" to publisher Berkley Books, Karen told WORD'N'BASS.com.

Karen (pictured left) said she'll spend the next year writing the novel to meet a March submission deadline. Berkley, a Penguin imprint, slated an October 2010 publication date.

For Karen, the deal continues her dream of becoming a career thriller author focused on scientific and environmental issues. As she told WORD'N'BASS.com during the launch of her debut: "I'd like to stay under the science thriller umbrella. I love science, and I love taking a plausible, 'what if' scientific scenario and pushing the story to its limits, so for me, science thrillers are a perfect fit."

Boiling Point involves the colliding worlds of an erupting volcano, a missing researcher and a scheme to bring a permanent end to global warming. Berkley editor Natalee Rosenstein snapped up Karen's latest after a pitch from Jeff Kleinman, a founder of Folio Literary Management. A summary of his pitch is as follows:

An erupting volcano, a missing researcher, and a scheme to end global warming collide in Boiling Point, a thriller about a Nobel Prize-winning scientist who decides to bring an abrupt halt to global warming through geoengineering. His plan: enhance the natural sulphide emissions from a recently revived volcano in Chile, seeding the atmosphere with sulphur dioxide particles, and thus cooling the earth by permanently reducing the amount of sunlight reaching the planet.

Three people are in a position to stop him: a microbiologist searching for his missing partner in the vicinity of the remote volcano, the head of an environmental organization better known for staging dramatic protests than taking meaningful action, and the world’s leading volcano adventurer. But should they?

Boiling Point explores the deep divisions in the political, environmental, and scientific communities regarding what should be done about global warming, highlighting the scope of the problem while raising the question: Can anyone know what’s best for the earth?

Click here for more information and books from Berkley. More on Folio Literary Management is at their website.

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