Ketchup

My latest story for Asimov's, "A Lovely Little Christmas Fire," has just been released as a podcast on the ever-great Starship Sofa along with this awesome new cover art by Tom Bevan.

Burn, baby! Burn!

Our narrator for this wacky holiday adventure is the indomitable Amy H. Sturgis, who does yet another bang-up job with the high tech action and romance of ours heroes, Julie Beauchain and William Highsong.

Starship Sofa continues to be a fun show and I highly recommend 'em. Check it out here.

Labels: A Lovely Little Christmas Fire, Amy H Sturgis, Julie Beauchain, Starship Sofa

One of my favorite writers died yesterday. (You all know Ketchup isn't exactly the hot spot of breaking news.)

I consider Dan O'Bannon among my early influences. Growing up in a sci fi household, I was just the right age to be W*O*W*ed when Alien hit theaters. Later, I discovered The Return of the Living Dead on my own, since my parents hadn't been interested in letting me watch this one as a young teenager... but I freaking LOVE zombie movies and Return is my second-favorite of the entire genre behind only Romero's Day Of The Dead, and that's only because Day has the awesomely disturbing revelation of Bub, a zombie, remembering things from his previous life. Plus the insane combat.

In Return, for the most part, the characters act intelligently throughout their apocalypse, which is a rarity in horror films, so that puts this film at the very top. Plus you've got Frank and Freddie blamming the bejeezus out of the split dog with a crutch.

"What are we going to do!?! What are we going to do!?!?"

"We're going to KILL IT!"

Wham!!!

Ah ha ha ha ha ha ha.

Great stuff. Solid writing, sweet concepts. Rest in peace, Dan.

Labels: Alien, Dan O'Bannon, The Return of the Living Dead

Late as usual. That the new book is out during the holidays is *not* helping me keep up with things -- but what a great problem to have! Last Saturday I was in downtown Sacramento, the scene of the big finale of Plague Year, for an appearance on the CBS morning show with Lori White and Cody Stark followed by a Plague Zone signing at Book Lovers. The TV gig was especially cool; this was only my fifth TV appearance and I'm still kind of gaga about the lights and cameras and producers with headsets.

Foolishly, I do not have a photo of the Book Lovers event, which saw a nice crowd of 15+ people. There was a video camera running for those of you who've asked me to tape a book signing and put it on YouTube. In theory, I'll get the file converted and uploaded sometime before, oh, 2014. ;)

You find the two biggest clips from Good Day Sacramento here and here.

Marshal Zeringue with the Campaign for the American Reader has also posted the Page 69 Test for Plague Zone.

Labels: Book Lovers, CBS Good Day Sacramento, PLAGUE ZONE, TV

First of all, here's a sight to warm my heart for the holidays. Plague Zone is being racked on the New In Paperback towers nationwide in Barnes & Noble, which is a sweet triumph. This kind of display space is hotly contested, especially during the holiday shopping season, so I'm excited as heck that Penguin USA got behind the book. Go team!

Borders did not buy into Zone as heavily, so you won't find it on their front-of-store tables, but Borders has been in financial trouble for a good while now and they're slashing employees as well as inventory and I'm not exactly Stephen King, so this decision is just to be expected. I'm pleased enough that they're stocking 3 - 5 copies of Zone per store.

It's been a nutty week and a half. First of all, we had our Zone release party at my local Borders, where they've taken great care of me for the past few years. If you walk into their giant corner store in Pleasant Hill, California, you'll find a display of Carlson novels large enough to choke a herd of elephants, all of 'em autographed, too. The books, I mean. Not the elephants. Despite it being Thanksgiving weekend, we had a nice crowd of 20 people, including several complete strangers and one stone fan in particular who drove down to meet me. Thank you, Captain Bornmann!

In the meantime, like you haven't had enough of me already, Jeffrey's all over the net. You can find essays and interviews at

John Scalzi's Whatever

The Penguin USA Science Fiction & Fantasy Home Page

and The Penguin USA Daily Blog

Feast! Feast your eyes!

Coming soon, I've also recently taped appearances on Sci Fi Overdrive and NBC's "Tech Now." I'm also slated to appear live on "Good Day Sacramento" this Saturday morning around 7 - 7:30am leading into my event at Book Lovers in town at 1pm. Be there or be triangular!

More soon.

Labels: Barnes and Noble, Borders Books, PLAGUE ZONE