'Friday the 13th' Writer Moving to Young-Adult Books With 'Finders & Keepers' (Exclusive)

Horror screenwriter Mark Wheaton will soon add “published novelist” to his resume.

Los Angeles-based ZOVA Books has signed a multibook deal with Wheaton for a young-adult series titled Finders & Keepers.

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The book centers on a typical, everyday
 American teenager named Christopher Dash who suddenly finds himself on the run and is forced to hook up 
with a group of teen vagabonds-turned-artifact hunters in 
London. 



ZOVA will release the first
 book, The Sword of the Realm, in summer 2013, with the second, The Golden Fleet, coming the following year. 


Also part of the deal is Wheaton’s self-published books, among them the horror novels Sunday
 Billy Sunday: A Memoir, and the best-selling Bones series 
about an easily distracted German shepherd who becomes embroiled in
 apocalyptic events. ZOVA will handle the foreign sales for the books. 



Wheaton, repped by Verve and Kaplan/Perrone, worked on the 2009 remake of Friday the 13th as well as The Messengers, which starred Kristen Stewart. He also rewrote and is exec producing American Dreams, a crime drama directed by Oscar-winning cinematographer Janusz Kaminski.  

Wheaton has worked with younger audiences before; his play Evita Sassy and the
 Black Mask's Last Gasp premiered at the Tada! Children's Theater in New 
York when he was 19.