Don Feeney knew he was running out of time. It was Jan. 28, 1988, and early that morning he and JD Roberts, another retired U.S. Special Forces soldier, had grabbed 7-year-old Lauren Burns from a school bus in the small city of Jerash, Jordan.

​

The men were hired by Burns’ mother, Cathy Mahone, to retrieve her after Mahone’s ex-husband, Ali Bayan, abducted the little girl from her suburban Dallas townhouse three months earlier and returned to his native country.

I was seven years old when my father told me we were going on a vacation to Jordan. I had no reason not to trust him... but what he was really plotting was unspeakable

In 1987, a little girl from Richardson was kidnapped by her own father and taken to the Middle East. The story received national attention and was even turned into a movie. Now the woman behind the experience is telling her story in a new book.

​

"It was actually Halloween weekend 1987," Lauren Burns said. "My father decided to kidnap me and take me to Jordan instead of taking me trick-or-treating, and that is when this tragedy hit."

Martin Literary Management Changes Hands

​

Sharlene Martin, president and longtime owner of Martin Literary Management, has announced the sale of the agency to Jennifer Newens. It will be rebranded as Martin-Newens Literary Management. 

​

Newens has served as VP of MLM since 2023. As a part of the change in ownership, Newens will relocate the agency from Seattle, Wash. to Oakland, Calif., overseeing day-to-day operations of the business and focusing adult nonfiction.

Literary Agent Interview: Rob Broder and Query Critique Giveaway

​

Today I’m thrilled to have agent Rob Broder here. He’s a literary manager at Martin Literary Management. 

The plan that night was supposed to be simple, 15-year-old Sandy Shaw told herself. She would lure 21-year-old James “Cotton” Kelly into the desert on the outskirts of Las Vegas, and then her childhood friend Troy Kell would rough him up in an attempt to force Kelly to stop his monthslong campaign of stalking and harassing her.

​

But instead of beating Kelly, Troy, 18, shot him six times in the head and neck and robbed him with the help of a teenage boy. 

Investigation Discovery's new series, PEOPLE MAGAZINE INVESTIGATES: SURVIVING A SERIAL KILLER, features the harrowing stories of those who bravely survived a terrifying serial killer.

We interview a true hero, HOLLY K. DUNN, who was the sole survivor of the Railroad Killer, ANGEL RESENDIZ-RAMIREZ.

Millington is an author, artist, and entrepreneur. She’s worked with children in many different capacities — from classrooms in England, to soccer fields in Brazil, to becoming a houseparent for young adults in foster care. She lives near Atlanta, Georgia, with her husband and a collection of clacking machines. You can find her on Instagram @allieinink or possibly in her pillow fort.

​

Molly Olivo of Child’s Play in Washington, DC, served on the panel that selected Olivetti for Indies Introduce.

Typewriters — the manually powered writing machines once made by Remington, Underwood and Royal — are wondrous things.

​

To see their magic in action, try this trick: Set a typewriter out on a table with a sheet of paper pre-rolled into its carriage, and wait. Nearly every child, and many adults, will be drawn to the beauty and specificity of the machine. They will just have to type something. A thought. A complaint. A poem. A wish.

The tipster was startled. While scrolling through photos on Zillow of a luxury home for sale in Atlanta, there it was, hanging on the wall: what appeared to be one of the great masterpieces of the art world, worth more than $100 million.

​

It sure looked like “The Storm on the Sea of Galilee,” the only seascape painted by Rembrandt and one of the 13 artworks stolen 34 years ago from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston.

Every year, I keep my eye out for two things in the middle grade book world: Delightful surprises and debut authors! Allie Millington’s Olivetti checks those two boxes for me this year. I typically like humans to star in the stories I love, so when I fall in love with a story starring a typewriter of all things, I know there’s something good there.

I really hope kids connect with Allie’s debut as much I did. In this interview, we talk about the inspiration for this book, the possibility of a sequel, and the third grade event that convinced Allie she was born to write.

This month’s Author Spotlight highlights Allie Millington, the author of Olivetti, a heartfelt debut middle-grade novel told from the unique vantage points of an introverted boy and his missing mother’s cherished typewriter. It’s also already received two starred reviews this year!

Demystifying the Cookbook Proposal from an Agent's Perspective. Learn how to create a cookbook proposal that gets attention — and even a book deal — from an experienced agent and former book editor. 

​

One-hour Zoom presentation by Jen Newens, followed by about 30 minutes of Q&A with the audience. (Zoom link will be live shortly before the event begins on 11/14.)

Nearly 21 years after her 11-year-old son Jacob was abducted at gunpoint in 1989 while riding his bike home from a video rental store, Patty Wetterling had begun to fear that police might never solve the case—then part-time blogger Joy Baker got involved

Nearly 34 years ago, the abduction of an 11-year-old boy from a dark road in rural Minnesota terrified the community and went on to become one of the biggest mysteries in the state's history.

​

Jacob Wetterling was kidnapped at gunpoint a half-mile from his St. Joseph home just after 9 p.m. on Oct. 22, 1989. He was never seen alive again.

Saturday morning started off slow for Kathy Kleiner Rubin.

​

The 20-year-old Florida State University student was nursing a hangover after partying with a friend the night before.

​

However, by the afternoon, she was attending a wedding followed by a potluck dinner at a friend’s home. She decided to make it a relatively early night and returned to the Chi Omega sorority house in Tallahassee to study for a calculus test she had on Monday.