Ketchup

It's been nuts. I was gone over the weekend for the 24th annual Central Coast Writers' Conference, which takes place in San Luis Obispo, about three and a half hours south of the SF Bay Area. It was cool. I've never taught classes before, although I've done a bunch of book events and I figured the two things were rather similar. You want to be entertaining and knowledgeable, probably in that order for a book signing but in the reverse for a class, right? I was well-prepared with hardcore single-spaced ultra-dense double-sided handouts, which also functioned as speaking notes for myself, and none of my three classes had less than 30 attendees. In fact, the Friday night class was held in a big auditorium with 50+. Wow. Fortunately, I caffeinate well, and blabber on without much encouragement, and I got several good laughs and felt like I imparted what wisdom I have on the subjects of breaking into publishing, writing short fiction, and crafting suspense. Oh, and I got to sleep in both Saturday and Sunday mornings, which was gorgeous, especially because I've been nursing a head cold. Yummy.

I was out of it yesterday. Got some good editing done on Mind Plague, then turned my attention back to furthering the manuscript this morning and had a solid 2000 word day. More tomorrow. I'd like to get back into a groove and stay there until I have a complete first draft. No doubt there will be other interruptions.

Ketchup.

Labels: Catching up, Central Coast Writers' Conference, Ketchup, Mind Plague, the writing life

This guy totally cracks me up! ;)

Labels: Horia-Nicola Ursu, Millennium Press, Romanian publisher

For those of you who really just can't get enough, I'll be on Sci Fi Overdrive this weekend, a nationally-syndicated radio show that runs in twenty-plus metropolitan areas across America... at very weird hours. Apparently, genre fans are up all night! For a schedule of stations and times, jump here. The show, hosted by wild man Dave Durica, will also become available on the net so that you can download it at whatever time you like. I'm not sure where in the show my segment will run, but I babble on excitedly for fifteen minutes about aliens, books, Will Smith, and the space-time continuum. In that order.

Labels: author interview, Radio Show, Sci Fi Overdrive

More good news from the Carlson household. This may not be quite as exciting as a film option, but we're fired up because it implies a pattern! You know, one foreign book deal could be an accident. Two is a coincidence. But three might very well be a trend... ;)


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Carlson’s “Book Trailer” Leads To Two-Book Deal In Eastern Europe

Just ahead of the publication of his second novel, sci fi thriller Plague War, author Jeff Carlson and two friends released a “book trailer” entitled 4 Minutes Above 10,000 Feet. Shot in the Sierra mountains, this short film can only be described as Alive meets The Blair Witch Project meets the new Andromeda Strain.

With moderately high production values and starring Carlson himself alternating between roles as the narrator and as a survivor caught in his own books, the trailer quickly garnered attention at genre and mainstream web sites such as boingboing, GalleyCat, and io9.com, as well as popular blogs such as those of Joseph Mallozi (television’s Stargate: Atlantis) and top literary agent Nathan Bransford.

“This trailer is really exceptional,” remarked New York Times bestselling author Kevin J. Anderson. “I can just see many publishers convincing themselves that something like this would cost $100,000 or more. It’s great work, and I’ll bet [Carlson’s publisher] is dazzled… and confused! They must be thinking ‘Wow, how did he do that!?’”

Among other spectacular visuals and action sequences, the four-minute trailer features computer generated imagery of a smoking space shuttle roaring over Carlson’s head as he stands on a desolate mountaintop, having just escaped the microscopic nanotechnology featured in his novels Plague Year and its new sequel, Plague War, published by Ace/Penguin in North America.

According to Carlson, however, “The most unusual part about our short film must be that my total out-of-pocket costs were less than four hundred dollars, nearly all of which went to my web guy to convert the original file and build a Flash player for it on my site, which, in retrospect, was unnecessary. The YouTube version looks surprisingly sharp, especially if you click on the ‘Watch In High Quality’ tab.

“Next time I'll skip the fancy Flash player and go YouTube all the way, with the original QuickTime file also available on my site for the purists.”

A native of the San Francisco Bay Area, Carlson added, ”It cost me a tank of gas to drive to the Sierras and back, and Adad and Chuck were paid in sandwiches, Pepsi, and chips, plus we had to license two songs for the soundtrack. That was it. Of course, I’m fortunate that the real mastermind, Adad Warda, is a childhood friend of my wife's, a film student turned pro who was delighted just to tackle the challenge of it.”

A high definition version of the short film can be found on Carlson’s web site at www.jverse.com. It is also readily accessible on YouTube

Carlson was asked if there will be another such trailer?

“Absolutely,” he said. “It was a lot of fun to act out parts of the book, and we’re already scripting our follow-up for next summer.”

As a marketing device, the short film seems to be working. In its various formats, 4 Minutes Above 10,000 Feet has been viewed more than 20,000 times. Carlson has also been interviewed about his novels and the making of the trailer by radio stations as far from home as Florida and, much farther, New Zealand. Perhaps more impressive, within three days of the trailer’s release, Carlson’s agents were contacted by a senior editor with Millennium Press in eastern Europe who had seen the trailer. Negotiations on a two-book deal were finalized this week for translation into Romanian.

Plague Year and Plague War have already sold in Spain, where “La Plaga” is currently the lead hardcover from Minotauro, backed a massive promotion campaign, including newspaper ads, radio clips, and gas masks and yellow biohazard tape on book store floor stands and in window displays. Minotauro is also distributing the book in Columbia and Peru, and plans further releases across South America.

In Germany, the entire trilogy went to Piper Verlag in best bid auction for a “significant” deal in high five figures.

Plague Year is also available on CD from Recorded Books, as narrated by stage actor Richard Ferrone. Film rights for the novel were optioned last week by award-winning producer James McNally of Seven Seas Jim.

Readers can find free excerpts of both Plague Year and Plague War at Carlson’s web site along with tour dates, blog, videos and more, including a mind-croggling sci fi trivia contest in which winners will be allowed to name a character after themselves or a friend in one of Carlson’s upcoming novels.

Labels: 4 Minutes Above 10000 Feet, book trailer, Millennium Press, Plague War, PLAGUE YEAR, Romanian publisher

I had an *awesome* email from a friend today. Right here is a lovely site where you can safely and anonymously purchase all of your human meat needs, as well as finding lovely recipes and wine selections.

Labels: Cannibals, Man Beef, Yummy

A little more timely this time, I'd like to thank John Ottinger over at book review site Grasping For The Wind for a fun and awesome Q&A in which we discuss Heidi Klum's underwear, sure-fire stock picks, and free mail-order chocolate from the heart of Bavaria.

Well, not really, but that sounds great, right!?!? ;)

John graciously allowed me a big long interview about my brain and what goes on in there! Come and see. It's here and it should make some great reading for a weekend-morning-with-coffee.

Labels: author interview, Grasping For The Wind, Plague War

That’s right. I said “Number one.” Which implies… more? Bwah ha HA ha ha ha ha! But this will have to hold us for now. Stay tuned.


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 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.

Labels: Film rights, Hollywood, PLAGUE YEAR, Seven Seas Jim

I wrote eight pages today, which is a good number for me, especially because we’ve been freakishly busy. Still, I’m trying to stay focused on the book, which is why I’ve been absent for a few days.

In the meantime, belatedly, I should mention that Book Sandwich has posted a fun interview with the part of my brain that *wasn’t* focused on the book… And I absolutely love that name, don't you? Book Sandwich. It makes me think of Schroeder and Snoopy for some obscure reason. It sounds lovable, deep, and fun all at the same time. ;)

Labels: author interview, Book Sandwich, Plague War

So I've been eyebrow deep in Mind Plague again, which is a good thing, but today is an off day for me so I'm catching up on correspondence and errands. In the meantime, here’s something I’ve been meaning to get off my chest. That’s right! Because you demanded it. Sordid hot personal rants for the Internet!

Well, not really. But here is a Deep Thought With Jeff.

I’ve taken a bit of heat from some reviewers and fans for the Plague novels being “short” books. Generally this person will come on fairly strong about how they enjoyed the novel and say that it was a quick enjoyable read, but, well, maybe it was short...

To which I say bullshit. There’s no question that I’m not writing the gigantic 200K word door stoppers you find in epic fantasy, for example, but I take exception with the idea that my books are short.

Oo! A nerve! We’ve touched a nerve! :)

Plague Year is 100K words, which is slightly on the long side of average. It’s just that it was published in paperback and in the tiniest legible font known to mankind. The book clocks in at 304 pages total, including maps and blurbs and one ad in the back... but those are densely packed pages, folks, full of flavor and satisfaction. Mmm.

My contract for Plague War mandated an identical count of 100K words — yes, this stuff is in the legalese — but my editor and I fought for more after I found myself halfway through that word count but not halfway through the story. The scope of the sequel is even bigger than in the first book, with more POV characters and a larger background.

War clocked in at 115K words even after a brutal tightening-and-polish of the final manuscript. I figured the finished book would run at least 330 pages and show those short people a thing or two. But an interesting thing happened. When I received advance copies, I was flabbergasted to discover that War was exactly 304 pages, too!

What’s happening here? My editor tells me that books are printed in 16 page increments. More, they love ‘em thin. You get more books in a box that way, saving on warehousing and shipping costs, not to mention paper and binding costs. You also get more books on the shelves in less space. Welcome to the future!!!

I asked her, But what happened to the extra 15K words? Did you guy chop out a bunch of stuff without telling me?

Nope. If you examine War, you’ll find that its pages are even more densely packed than those of Year. They used the same tiny font, but with even narrower white margins on either side and several more lines from top to bottom. Shazam! Magic!

Here's more evidence that my books aren’t short. The gorgeous hard cover from Minotauro runs 320 pages, a nice, standard thickness for a book... and hard covers always have a lesser page count than paperbacks because, well, the pages are bigger! Even with a normal-sized font and normal spacing between the lines, those lovely big pages hold more text than a paperback page.

Also, the German paperback is 400 pages. Why? They’re not using the smallest typeface ever discovered by scientists. So in your face, short people!

(Have I unintentionally begun a flame war with individuals who are vertically challenged? Tune in next week...)

Labels: Deep Thoughts With Jeff, German edition PLAGUE YEAR, Plague War, Publishing, the writing life

This photo is of the four-color newspaper ads placed by Minotauro announcing the August 27 release of La Plaga. Yes, newspaper ads!!!

Q: Will you be moving to Europe?

A: No, the Carlsons won’t be packing up our worldly belongings and moving to the coast of Spain any time soon, although it’s nice to feel like we might be welcome. I’ve had several emails lately about Minotauro’s brain-poppingly awesome campaign in support of La Plaga as well as Piper Verlag’s sweet edition of Nano, and, yes, it’s deeply gratifying to receive that kind of attention for my work.

It’s especially great because we were nearly unable to sell Plague Year at all. Sit down here by the fire. Have a marshmallow. Wanna hear a spooky story?

I know that a lot of you are would-be or beginning writers like me. Unfortunately, what I’m about to tell you isn’t atypical. A few people find success right out of the gate. They sell their first novel or their first trilogy on their first try. Most of us have to scratch and claw a lot more than that.

Plague Year was finished early in 2003. (That’s right, I wrote the damn thing before Crichton’s Prey or ABC’s blockbuster Lost). It sold in May 2006 (and eventually saw print in August 2007). During that wait, five out of seven editors said they wanted the book but that their boss, the publisher, wouldn’t let them buy it. Why? Because first novels rarely earn out. Nobody’s ever heard of you, and there will be 399,999 other titles published the same year, and it’s practically unheard of to see any sort of promotion effort, so they just put the books out there and see if they sink or swim. Most of ‘em sink. Selling that first book is as tough as rusty bent nails in your feet. With gasoline. And maybe ants. You get the picture.

Oh, and the other two editors simply reported that they didn’t like the book. After holding onto it for several months in total silence. Because there are always so many goddamn other books on their desk that they can barely find the time to peek at a cover letter. But let’s not get sidetracked bemoaning the fate of editors!

In a lot of ways, that long, brutal wait did me good in the end. Sure, I nearly gave up writing and got a real job about twenty-three times. Yes, Diana and I had many agonizing conversations about how the heck we were ever going to support ourselves. Indeed, I considered putting my head in the microwave oven. All we kept hearing out of New York was “We love this book but there’s no room in our list for a first novel right now.” What the heck more could I be doing???

I kept writing and I kept getting better. I made more short fiction sales. I made more contacts. Many of them were heroic enough to step up and help, which is why you see such an unusually high number of top-level endorsements on the cover.

When Plague Year finally sold in a minor bidding war, those endorsements, in turn, helped Ace to decide to get behind the book with a couple ads and a lot of expensive display space. This also helped secure an unusually high number of pre-orders of the book. I’m still a long, long, loooong ways from likes of the major bestsellers, but, for a first novel, especially a science fiction novel in mass market paperback, Plague Year did well in North America. Not phenomenal, but well. Even very well if you’re feeling generous. Which in turn helped lead me to the audiobook with Recorded Books and come to the attention of some overseas publishers. Who went a little nuts.

Why? I’ll talk more about this another time. I do have some Deep Thoughts With Jeff about why Plague Year might be even more popular overseas than at home.

In the meantime, it’s awesome. Awesome awesome awesome. I’m grateful and excited and I’ll probably be sleeping in my Minotauro gas mask and the ALTAMENTE CONTAGIOSO ribbon when they arrive in the mail. While hugging two or three copies of the sexy German edition.

Probably you don’t want to be here for that. ;)

Labels: mailbag, Minotauro, Piper Verlag

I'm told now that there are any number of book store windows with these scary, eye-grabbing displays everywhere in Spain.

Yes, that's a giant rack of hard cover books behind the posters and the freaky yellow hazmat tape... and I don't know if I've ever seen anything so beautiful in my life! Except, you know, maybe the births of our children. And my wife. Possibly the guy who performed my appendectomy. Oh, and the ski patrol at Bear Valley after I broke my leg in three places between ankle and knee on a lonely hillside down in their extreme Grizzly Bowl.

In fact, my publisher at Minotauro informs me that they created "over 400 floor stands for the most important book shops with a very striking red light in the middle of the gas mask and posters." Almost better, she also writes, "Fifteen days before launch, the book reached journalists and booksellers in a black bag sealed with a yellow adhesive tape on which you can read the words CAUTION. Inside we enclosed a gas mask and the book."

If everyone who was publishing Plague Year was doing it with such enthusiasm, Diana and I would be bazillionaires by now with an assortment of vacation homes in Vail, the Grand Caymans, and the surface of the moon.

Excuse me while I go faint now.

Labels: holy shit, La Plaga, Minotauro, Spain

Continuing in the vein of Nobody Ever Tells Me Anything… which lately has been a happy complaint… the German edition of Plague Year, retitled Nano, has been in stores in Europe since August 26th. One of Piper Verlag’s lead titles for September 2008, they’re backing Nano "as part of a special marketing campaign aiming to link phantastic and mainstream novels in order to widen the range for 'phantastic thrillers' in the both the mainstream and the science fiction/fantasy market."

Now that sounds extraordinarily cool, right!?

For those of you who aren’t on the other side of the Atlantic, the book is also readily available online. Here is a link to Amazon Germany.

Or, for example, here is a link to Süddeutsche Zeitung Shop!

Labels: Nano by Jeff Carlson, Piper Verlag, Plague Year German edition

A friend of mine was unable to stand the suspense of the blogs posted on the site created by my Spanish publisher, Minotauro... blogs supposedly written by Ruth Goldman. She asked a neighbor to translate, and here's what we've got! My mind is still croggling. It looks to me like fiction based on fiction, because this Ruth's background is not the background of *my* Ruth.

What you read here is a blog entry from an alternate universe!



The exhaustion of the week is already beginning to take its toll and my capacity for concentration is not the same. The pressure that the Pentagon exercises on its team of scientists is enormous and although I adore my work, one of these days Iʼll leave my eyes in one of these microscopes. Once again yesterday, I took with me all the documentation on the latest advances with the nano-robots home and, when I wanted to give an account, I woke up lying on the sofa surrounded by files and papers. I have promised myself that I would never again bring work home with me. This time Iʼll do it.

Washington DC is a great city but at this time of year, when the good weather begins, that is when I most regret not living in California, by the sea, enjoying endless walks on the beach. If I listened (?) to my mom, sheʼd start in and throw my scare and empty private life in my face again.

This morning I called mom saying that I was going to go the doctor, that there were days that small wounds would appear on my hands that had scared and healed. Since dad died, these are the typical situations in which I feel somewhat guilty being alone. I told him that I will try to see this through soon however, with the load of work that we have ultimately, itʼs not going to be done easily. Perhaps in the month of July I can manage to escape for a few days.

Today they have assured me that this week the reports on the last advances in military nanotechnology developed by NASA will arrive. They have done a lot of experimentation with this technology and to date; the results have not been too encouraging. This time it seems that the last tests have been successful. I am anxious to see what these little bastards are capable of.

Labels: blog, La Plaga, Minotauro, Ruth Goldman