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Whitney's mom signs tell-all book deal

New York - Whitney Houston's life is to be remembered in a book after her mother, singer Cissy Houston, clinched a publishing deal with HarperCollins.

According to HarperCollins, the memoir will reveal the "unabridged and unbelievable story" of her Grammy Award-winning daughter, who died in a Beverly Hills hotel bathtub in February at age 48.

The publisher announced on Monday that the currently untitled book is scheduled for release in February 2013.

"When I lost my daughter Nippy (Whitney Houston's nickname), the world lost one of the most beautiful voices and an extraordinarily beautiful and charitable woman," Cissy Houston said in a statement released by HarperCollins.

"In sharing our story in this book, I hope to give her fans something to treasure, the way we all treasured Whitney.

"We are still receiving thousands of letters each day from her fans, and I hope reading this book will provide a deeper understanding into my daughter's true story."

Financial terms haven't been disclosed, but a portion of the proceeds will be donated to the New Hope Baptist Church in Newark, New Jersey, where Whitney Houston sang as a child and where her funeral was held.

Cissy Houston had met with several publishers and the book deal could be worth seven figures.

'Honesty and respect about daughter'

According to HarperCollins, Cissy Houston will write with "candor, honesty and respect" about her daughter's remarkable career and about her drug problems and her marriage to Bobby Brown. Cissy Houston also will reflect on her own grief.

"She will tell the unabridged and unbelievable story of her daughter's life as well as her own, addressing Whitney's brightest and darkest moments while helping fans around the world understand the complexities of this extraordinary star who died much too soon," the publisher announced.

Cissy Houston recently released a new album of gospel songs, her first new music in more than a decade. Walk on By Faith was released by Harlem Records on iTunes last month and includes songs such as Living Shall Not Be In Vain.

She wrote a memoir How Sweet the Sound in 1998.

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