Photos from the PKD Awards

My friend and fellow PKD nominee Jeff Carlson, author of the excellent Plague Yearand Plague War,kindly read an excerpt from Fast Forward 2at the ceremony on my behalf. He sends these photos, one of him posing with the FF2 book cover, and the other with winner David Walton (who split the honor with Adam-Troy Castro). And here is Jeff's brief but worthwhile con report. Please somebody go explain Twitter to him and why he needs it. I've done my bit.

Plague Year: The Movie

A big congratulations to Jeff Carlson, who sends me this:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Seven Seas Jim takes on 'Plague Year'
Feature version of Carlson's sci fi thriller planned


Jim McNally of Seven Seas Jim is producing a feature version of Jeff Carlson's high concept thriller "Plague Year."

The novel, which is currently the lead hard cover from European publisher Minotauro in Spain and has also seen major releases in North America and in Germany, is about a medical nanotechnology that breaks loose and devours all warm-blooded life below 10,000 feet elevation.

"Plague Year" is the first of a planned trilogy published by Ace/Penguin in the U.S. and Canada. "Plague Year" was released last summer and its sequel, "Plague War," appeared this August. Carlson's other works include more than a dozen short stories such as the Writers of the Future award-winning novelette "The Frozen Sky" and an upcoming adventure novel in collaboration
with New York Times bestselling author David Brin.

Of "Plague Year," McNally said, "It's the unusual concept that spoke to me first, but ultimately the characters in this story are who really grabbed me-their grit and their resourcefulness in the face of ever-mounting odds."

Film rights were secured via Vince Gerardis of the Created By Agency in a "nice" option against a mid-six figure pickup.

Jim McNally was vice president at LifeSize Entertainment, an international sales company and domestic distributor of over 50 specialty titles such as Academy Award Nominee "Zus and Zo," Spirit Award Nominee "Oasis," Kim Ki Duk's "Time" and Venice film festival award winner "Khadak." McNally is also the producer and editor of the feature films "Sleepover" and "Fear House." He envisions "Plague Year" as a post-apocalyptic summer blockbuster.

PLAGUE WAR, from Ace Books in July 2008
"Long Eyes" in Fast Forward 2 from Pyr in October
and MIND PLAGUE, from Ace in Summer 2009

Book Trailer for Jeff Carlson's Plague War

So, I'm a big fan of Jeff Carlson's Plague Yearand am looking forward to the sequel Plague War.Here's a trailer for the books that is hands-down the best book trailer that's crossed my radar so far:

Congratulations to Jeff Carlson

Great news for my friend Jeff Carlson:

Jeff Carlson sold German rights for Plague Year and its two sequels to Piper via the Donald Maass Literary Agency, in best bid auction, for a “significant deal” in high five figures. Included in the contract are bestseller bonuses, which, if attained, will make the overall deal worth six figures, plus royalties. Piper intends to publish the first volume in September 2008 as “part of a special marketing campaign aiming to link phantastic and mainstream novels in order to widen the range for ‘phantastic thrillers’ in both the mainstream and the science fiction/fantasy market,” including advertising, special pages in Piper catalogues, and cross-promotion in genre and non-genre media. Spanish rights for Plague Year sold to Minotauro in a preemptive bid over Plaza / RHM. The first sequel, Plague War, is slated for release in North America in August 2008, with the next title set to follow in Summer 2009.

Congrats, Jeff!

The One That Got Away: Jeff Carlson's The Plague Year

Tomorrow, Ace is going to release Plague Year by Jeff Carlson. This is a book and an author I'm very excited about. I read it in manuscript form a year ago, when it was called The Invisible Sea. The story is a grim and gritty near future in which a nanite that eats flesh has escaped from a research lab and decimated the world. The very small silver lining on this very dark cloud is that it can't function and breaks down above a certain elevation, so tiny pockets of humanity exist on mountain tops, slowly running out of resources and going through the expected horrors of surviving in isolated communities where hunger and desperation has had a devastating effect on civilized behavior. These few survivors can make quick runs down into this "invisible sea" however, scavenging as quickly as they can before they feel the burning sensation that indicates the nano-plague has found them and started feasting. At which point they have to hightail it back uphill before they loose too many pieces. After a few of these runs, you really start to show it. The novel is gruesome, dramatic, exhilarating, and, as I told one Hollywood production company looking for near-future biotech thrillers, it's HIGHLY filmable, since all you need are a few weeks at a ski resort coupled with a few CGI shots of a space shuttle crash landing. (There rest of the cost is just who you cast.) If there's not a film option on it already, I'll be surprised. And if there isn't, I can't imagine there won't be one any day now the book is coming out. But the short is, I really recommend it and will be excited to see how Jeff does. So, what's my interest in this, you ask?

Jeff writes on his website that Plague Year "sold to Ace/Penguin after a small bidding war between two publishers and strong interest from a third." That's be me. I loved the book, but didn't feel I could follow the price up when it started to rise. Not out of our reach, just more than I was comfortable laying out at that time for a debut author when I had the rest of that season's list to think about. (These are the trade-offs one must make.) So I bowed out respectfully with nothing but admiration for the text. I'm sure Ace is going to take very good care of Jeff - I hear a sequel is in the works, and I, for one, can't wait to read it. And I plan to kick myself resoundingly when the movie opens.