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LA TIMES.com
Los Angeles
October 18, 2007
The book
"Lost & Found" by Jacqueline Sheehan
The buyer
Katherine Heigl
The deal
"Grey's Anatomy" and "Knocked Up" star Katherine Heigl options film rights to "Lost & Found" by Jacqueline Sheehan, a novel about a psychologist reeling from her husband's death who moves to Maine
The players
Heigl inks an option deal with a six-figure purchase price for her new production company, in tandem with her mother, Nancy, her producing partner and manager, represented by Paradigm; Sarah Self at the Gersh Agency and Jenny Bent at Trident Media Group represent Sheehan, whose book was published by Avon A, an imprint of HarperCollins.
The back story
Heigl, basking in the glow of her Emmy for "Grey's Anatomy" and her star turn in "Knocked Up," is jumping into the hot book-to-film market. She snapped up rights to Sheehan's novel, which has 120,000 copies in print, because "it's a sensitive and honest portrayal of loss and the journey toward healing and starting over," showing "the profound bond that exists between humans and animals," her mom said.
On the surface, the deal is just one of many film options taken out on books every month. But to those who brokered it, Heigl's push to seek out the film rights on her own illustrates a growing trend among young Hollywood stars, who are proactively snaring the rights to promising literary material. "Lost & Found" is the second novel by Sheehan, a psychologist and essayist.
"This is a trend that is definitely booming," said Self, who is based in New York
There is no word yet on whether Heigl -- who is shooting "27 Dresses" for Fox 2000, and has another as-yet-unnamed project in the works at the same studio -- would play the starring role in "Lost & Found." The main character in the novel, Rocky Pelligrino, "is a really strong role for a woman . . . it's a dramedy where the focus is on her and her relationship with this wonderful Labrador retriever," Self says.
Either way, the movie -- like the book -- could tap into a built-in audience of people "who are dealing with their own grief and tragedy, and have been transformed by their experiences with animals," says Bent. "This is a very compelling theme."
Westfield State College Focus Magazine
article on Jacqueline Sheehan and Truth by John Catalini
Jacqueline Sheehan's
Quest for Truth
Two kindred spirits have toured our western Massachusetts towns and countryside, baring their souls.
One was a natural orator who sang and spoke about her life-long escape from the physical and psychological bondage of slavery. One of her names is Sojourner Truth.
The other traveler is Jacqueline Sheehan, director of the Westfield State Counseling Center and a practicing psychologist. One of her names is writer. She has just published her first novel through The Free Press (Simon and Schuster, $24). Truth is a fictionalized version of the life of the famous 19th century ex-slave, abolitionist, feminist and charismatic advocate for human rights.
Sojourner Truth’s booming, lilting voice was heard by thousands of people at tent meetings, churches, and town halls, and her calm but insistent words were shared in quiet conversation with Abraham Lincoln.
Jacqueline Sheehan’s testimony to that experience carries her to bookstore readings and signings at places called Food For Thought (Amherst), Odyssey (South Hadley), Broadside (Northampton), and the Athenaeum Library in Westfield. Her passion is a mirror image of her subject.
"Sojourner was a true spiritual seeker," Sheehan said in an interview at her campus office. "She believed in a universal connection, leaving herself open to seeming goodness in all people."
After moving from California to New England in 1995, Sheehan felt herself drawn to Truth’s story, in part because they shared a hometown, Florence, MA, where Sojourner lived from 1843 to 1857.
Sheehan recalled a turning point in her early research about Truth.
"I was following the standard academic procedures, and finally someone told me I was looking in the wrong places. ‘Look at property records,’ she said. I did, and I found Sojourner listed with the kettles! She and her brother were even trained as if they were sheep-herding dogs. I knew I had to get my readers to experience being a piece of property."
Sheehan’s eight years of discovery took her on a time-travel trip through America in the 1800s. She began to see parallel "truths" for 21st century readers, about child abuse, payback (reparation) and new definitions of courage.
"Time sort of collapsed for me," she remembered. "The third decade of the 19th century seemed a universe away until I began to see Sojourner as a damaged human being who had triumphed over her trauma. I asked of her a psychologist’s question: How did you get to be this wise, compassionate person – this hero?"
In California in the 1980s and 90s, Sheehan counseled women who had been sexually and physically abused, feeling their pain, but also appreciating their will to survive. "I wanted the novel to be in part a social history of the times – hers and ours," she said. "When I was at a conference on major philosophies of the 19th century at Simmons College, I opened a library book to a section that explained why slaves need white people to take care of them. Such pain! And the irony is that Sojourner had a deep relationship with her own biological parents."
And Jacqueline Sheehan the writer is also a parent.
"I loved, and do love, being a mother, watching my child grow up, become a young woman. We also experienced pain and joy together. My daughter is now 23 years old and serving in the Peace Corps in the Republic of Georgia, part of the former Soviet Union. I drew upon some of our dynamic to flesh out Sojourner Truth as a child and as a mother."
How hard was it for a contemporary, white, middle-class professional woman to speak in the voice of a black exslave? Sheehan decided to eschew our collective guilt and just be a writer. Her narrator is a first person Sojourner, whose childhood words were the Dutch spoken in New York State at the time. English was a second language for "Isabel Baumtree," as was her adopted famous name.
Sheehan chose a writerly solution.
"I made a conscious decision to just let the diction happen in the reader’s head; I didn’t want to impose a dialect."
Faced with the task of writing a book about an American icon, Sheehan admits that she wrote "abundantly" at first, producing a manuscript over 400 pages long.
"Every century we get a few people like this, true heroes or heroines. For me she is equal in stature to a Nelson Mandela in our times."
Jacqueline Sheehan paused for a moment at the end of her interview. There was still so much more to tell.
"You know, Sojourner was quite funny," she added. "She used comic-relief. She was a clever speaker. She had a fine wit. She once compared the folks in Washington, D.C. to the boll weevil that devours cotton."
Two women with a passion for telling the truth, each on a journey. One has passed into history as a figure; the other is trying to retrieve the spiritual, psychological reality of that very human, vital person.
by John Catalini
(reprinted with permission from WSC Focus Magazine)
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Two kindred spirits have toured our western Massachusetts towns and countryside, baring their souls. One was a natural orator who sang and spoke about her life-long escape from the physical and psychological bondage of slavery. One of her names is Sojourner Truth. The other traveler is Jacqueline Sheehan, director of the Westfield State Counseling Center and a practicing psychologist. One of her names is writer. She has just published her first novel through The Free Press (Simon and Schuster, $24). Truth is a fictionalized version of the life of the famous 19th century ex-slave, abolitionist, feminist and charismatic advocate for human rights. Sojourner Truth’s booming, lilting voice was heard by thousands of people at tent meetings, churches, and town halls, and her calm but insistent words were shared in quiet conversation with Abraham Lincoln. Jacqueline Sheehan’s testimony to that experience carries her to bookstore readings and signings at places called Food For Thought (Amherst), Odyssey (South Hadley), Broadside (Northampton), and the Athenaeum Library in Westfield. Her passion is a mirror image of her subject. "Sojourner was a true spiritual seeker," Sheehan said in an interview at her campus office. "She believed in a universal connection, leaving herself open to seeming goodness in all people." After moving from California to New England in 1995, Sheehan felt herself drawn to Truth’s story, in part because they shared a hometown, Florence, MA, where Sojourner lived from 1843 to 1857. Sheehan recalled a turning point in her early research about Truth. "I was following the standard academic procedures, and finally someone told me I was looking in the wrong places. ‘Look at property records,’ she said. I did, and I found Sojourner listed with the kettles! She and her brother were even trained as if they were sheep-herding dogs. I knew I had to get my readers to experience being a piece of property." Sheehan’s eight years of discovery took her on a time-travel trip through America in the 1800s. She began to see parallel "truths" for 21st century readers, about child abuse, payback (reparation) and new definitions of courage. "Time sort of collapsed for me," she remembered. "The third decade of the 19th century seemed a universe away until I began to see Sojourner as a damaged human being who had triumphed over her trauma. I asked of her a psychologist’s question: How did you get to be this wise, compassionate person – this hero?" In California in the 1980s and 90s, Sheehan counseled women who had been sexually and physically abused, feeling their pain, but also appreciating their will to survive. "I wanted the novel to be in part a social history of the times – hers and ours," she said. "When I was at a conference on major philosophies of the 19th century at Simmons College, I opened a library book to a section that explained why slaves need white people to take care of them. Such pain! And the irony is that Sojourner had a deep relationship with her own biological parents." And Jacqueline Sheehan the writer is also a parent. "I loved, and do love, being a mother, watching my child grow up, become a young woman. We also experienced pain and joy together. My daughter is now 23 years old and serving in the Peace Corps in the Republic of Georgia, part of the former Soviet Union. I drew upon some of our dynamic to flesh out Sojourner Truth as a child and as a mother." How hard was it for a contemporary, white, middle-class professional woman to speak in the voice of a black exslave? Sheehan decided to eschew our collective guilt and just be a writer. Her narrator is a first person Sojourner, whose childhood words were the Dutch spoken in New York State at the time. English was a second language for "Isabel Baumtree," as was her adopted famous name. Sheehan chose a writerly solution. "I made a conscious decision to just let the diction happen in the reader’s head; I didn’t want to impose a dialect." Faced with the task of writing a book about an American icon, Sheehan admits that she wrote "abundantly" at first, producing a manuscript over 400 pages long. "Every century we get a few people like this, true heroes or heroines. For me she is equal in stature to a Nelson Mandela in our times." Jacqueline Sheehan paused for a moment at the end of her interview. There was still so much more to tell. "You know, Sojourner was quite funny," she added. "She used comic-relief. She was a clever speaker. She had a fine wit. She once compared the folks in Washington, D.C. to the boll weevil that devours cotton." Two women with a passion for telling the truth, each on a journey. One has passed into history as a figure; the other is trying to retrieve the spiritual, psychological reality of that very human, vital person. by John Catalini (reprinted with permission from WSC Focus Magazine) |
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