Jeff Carlson's Blog, page 19

From Estonia, With Love

Second of all, I can't believe it's been two weeks since I've been here.

But first of all, would you rather have me blogging or writing?  I hope the answer is "writing" because that's what I've been doing.  The new book continues to move nicely.   Still, it's hard to believe I've neglected this blog for so long…  I can't even ketchup with myself!    

Third, I really, really want to share what the Secret New Big Thriller is called and what it's about, but, as always, the wheels in publishing t...

Welcome to the Future

So here's my shiny new blog on Wordpress.  We hope to add a few more amusing features in a bit.  Meanwhile, I've got some more good news from overseas and a special treat.

First, here's the "director's cut" of the Plague Year book trailer, slightly modified.  See what you think!

Second, Polish magazine Nowa Fantastyka has bought translation rights for "The Frozen Sky."

This is their most recent cover. 

Nowa Fantastyka is a sharp-looking publication and I like to think "Sky" is among the...

The Czechs Strike Back!

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...

Entirely Gratuitous Book Porn Retrospective

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.

Single Joke Friday

My dad is 67 and buys his own shoes, but apparently the guy in this story has seen a little harder living than mine:

I took my Dad to the mall the other day to buy some new shoes (he is 66). We decided to grab a bite at the food court.

I noticed he was watching a teenager sitting next to him.

The teenager had spiked hair in all different colors – green, red, orange, and blue. My dad kept staring at her. The teenager kept looking and would find my Dad staring every time. When the teenager had...

!!! Double Video Wednesday !!!

For those of you still amped up about the NFL Draft and missing that hard-hitting Sunday action, here's a highlight reel of my nephew, Double Threat Trent, #51, who plays both defensive end and left tackle, thus laying waste to opponents on both sides of the ball… That's him kneeling on the lineman's head in the placeholder photo from YouTube.

If you see some moves you like or have advice, please jump onto Trent's YouTube page and leave a ranking or a comment.

Meanwhile, back in science...

A Slew Of Hot News… subtitled: Kellen Squire, I Summon Thee!

Okay, so we've got a fun laundry list of developments this week:

1) If you live in the Bay Area, I have a local book signing on Friday, May 21st, starting at 7pm at Bay Books in Concord. We'll be answering any questions you have about the Plague Year trilogy like "What really happened to Andrew Dutchess?" as well as peeling back the lid on my Secret New Big Thriller Novel. Be there or be triangular.

Bay Books
1669 Willow Pass Road
Concord, CA 94520-2611
925-671-2245

2) My editor at Ace informs m...

I Live! Or, My Step-Brother's In Haiti

Yes, I'm alive. It's been really busy. The new book is getting sizzling hot and I hope to be able to share more about it soon.

In the meantime, I'm not sure if I fatally scrooched this blog. They told me I needed to "migrate" it to this new url because they were modifying the FTP, whatever that is, so I took a stab at following their step-by-step direction. I thought I'd actually done it. Then I was greeted with this:

We were unable to verify that the migration completed. You can either...

There's A Whole Big World Out There, Jeffrey

So I'm not on the net too much. It turns out there's a great wide wonderful galaxy full of semi-pro Jedi stunt warrior dudes on YouTube, and a lot of them are producing remarkably good sequences like this one. We've also found some really, really bad ones with awful sound quality, clumsy sabers, terrible choreography, and ridiculous effects… I guess those are the amateur and fanfic equivalents who will only get better with time.

In the meanwhile, get a load of this crazy action!!! It's...