Girls' book on L.A. real estate

Novelist and food critic (LA Weekly) Michelle Huneven and L.A. Times literary critic Bernadette Murphy have sold Bloomsbury a book to be called The Tao Girl's Guide to Real Estate. Publishers Lunch says it's about "the experiences and lessons of group of six very different women living in Los Angeles who met weekly to cope with the challenges of trying to buy a house." Also, Naomi Gurian (formerly of the Writers Guild) and WGA board member Irma Kalish have sold As Dead As It Gets, "the first in a series of comic mysteries featuring a Vanity Fair journalist turned Hollywood screenwriter." It's to be published by Tor.

This week's Publishers Lunch roundup of sales includes a novel set in the hockey world, by TV writer and producer Josh Kotzen: Power Play, "about a sports anchor who discovers a fix in the making while covering the NHA Finals, and decides to go on a Power Play and take his shot at making his good life a bit better." But the honorable mention for this week goes to, on title alone:

Steven Lee Beeber's The Heebie Jeebies at CBGBs: A Secret History of Jewish Punk, arguing that Punk rock was driven by Jews and others already removed from the American mainstream, and thus best suited to create a rock 'n' roll form of outsider art.