Ketchup

Good news from overseas today. My Czech publisher BBArt has bought Plague Zone, which can be interpreted to mean their edition of Plague Year ("Rok Pandemie") is doing well, which is no wonder. Look at love they're giving this book!

You have to click on the image and enlarge it to truly appreciate the line-up, but, first of all, they've got the book in their catalogues as a mainstream thriller, a decision of which I greatly approve. Secondly, what excellent company to keep! Cussler, Koontz, Carlson, Rollins. Bwah ha ha ha. Wow. If all of my publishers were so tantalizingly tasty, I'd be a gazillionaire.

Labels: BBArt, Czech rights, PLAGUE ZONE

No, not porno books... Book porn! For people who love books! It's an entirely different thing, man. ;)

I've had a pile of these pix sitting on my desktop since December and January and it's time to clean 'em up. Meanwhile, I've gotta say, it's stuff like this that warms my heart during those long lonely days at my laptop. Go, Penguin.

Labels: Barnes Noble, Book Porn, PLAGUE ZONE, World's Biggest Book Store

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

Nobody tells me anything! :)

About a month ago, I wrote a guest blog for sci fi site io9.com on the subject of post-apocalyptic fiction. Apparently they went live with it last week. It’s fun stuff. Deep Literary Thoughts With Jeff.

You can find it here.

Labels: guest blog, io9.com, PLAGUE ZONE

"The Niners are set to take the snap. Here comes the ball... It's a fake! It's a fake! The kicker grabs the ball and runs for the strong side of the line! I think he's going to make it!"

That's what the announcer would be saying if this was a football game. I have yet to see cover art from my American publisher, who has the book, but here's some nice, spooky, eye-grabbing cover art from my German publisher, who doesn't have the book. Go figure. Fortunately, the cover makes sense with the storyline. Piper Verlag did ask me what the book is about and clearly they're not messing around. They've got INFEKT slated for February 2010. It's ready to fly. Except for the pages that, you know, go between the covers. We'll translate that stuff soon. :)

Labels: Infekt, Piper Verlag, PLAGUE ZONE