Jeff Sampson sold his first original novel, The Death and Life of Emily Cooke, to Kristin Daly at Harper’s Balzer & Bray imprint. The book is the first of a three-book deal negotiated by Michael Stearns of Upstart Crow Literary Agency. The story follows “a teenage girl who, in evading a murderer, discovers that she and her classmates are very dangerous thanks to genetic engineering.”