Thursday, January 10th, 2008

Time	Event
3:17p	Un[redacted] I got the go-ahead from my absolutely awesome film agent at Curtis Brown, the wonderful Holly Frederick, praised be her name, so the [redacted] deal can at last be revealed: Phoenix Pictures has optioned film and TV rights to the Marla Mason series. There you go. That's it. Hardly seems worth all that build-up, huh? (I didn't think it would take this long to go from "Let's do a deal!" to actual contract-signing, but wheels grind slowly, etc.) It's still pretty cool, though! It's just an option, not an outright sale -- they get 18 months to decide if they want to actually buy the rights, and if that happens, yeah, I get a pile of money, but the option money is a decent chunk of change, too, by my admittedly meager standards. Enough to pay more than half a year's rent, with enough left over to buy a Wii and a couple of nice dinners out... (In actuality, though, the cash will be used to obliterate my remaining credit card debt.) It's been a long road... I met with producer Anne Rodman (who is very cool, and a big fan of literary SF/fantasy/horror) way back at the Worldcon in Anaheim in 2006. We had a drink, we had a long talk, we hit it off famously... and then months passed. I assumed I'd never hear anything else about it, but should have had more faith in Anne -- she was working on making a deal happen all that time, and a few months back, we started negotiations, which took a while. (It's a complicated deal. They're not just optioning a single specific book, after all, but a series, and the world the series takes place in, and the characters who dwell therein, and etc.) Anne and I had a nice talk on the phone yesterday, about possibilities -- Blood Engines as a feature film, a TV series about Marla and Rondeau, etc. Of course, all such possibilities are mere airy vapor at this point (and with the writer's strike going on, it's even more vapor than usual!), but it's nice to think about, and Anne is very enthusiastic, so I'm optimistic. Having something optioned means you get to justify playing a fun game: who should be cast as the characters for the movie? I'm thinking Katee Sackhoff as Marla, and maybe John Leguizamo as Rondeau (the latter was Greg van Eekhout's inspiration, if I recall). What do y'all think? (20 Comments | Comment on this)
4:15p	And Other Things (Things besides the movie option, I mean. I just thought it deserved its own post.) Lawrence Kapture gave Hart & Boot & Other Stories a really great review; I think he's pretty much my ideal reader. Blood Engines is this month's book for the Kelley Armstrong Book Club, which is cool. Go over and join the discussion (but I'm staying out of it, and haven't even read the thread, because then I might be tempted to respond, and nothing kills a discussion like having an author drop in, mucking up the place!). I know it's bad luck to praise your baby, being as it attracts the attentions of demons and whatnot, but damn, River is awesome. He slept eight hours last night. I don't mean he went eight hours between feedings. I mean he slept for that long. Heather and I both got a full night's sleep! (Well, I had nightmares of home invasions and busy signals when I called 911, and she was up a couple of times for various reasons, but basically, we both slept through.) What a great kid! His pediatric visit went well, too. His weight and height and such are pretty much where they're supposed to be (50th percentile in some things, 20% in others... mostly right in the meaty part of the curve). He's over ten pounds now! People keep sending us baby presents, which is awesome, but unexpected. Apparently we triggered a new wave of gifts by sending out birth announcements. Which, while not our intention, is most welcome! Today I went to the DMV, which was predictably tedious, and I'm now the proud owner of a new license plate. Tra and la and such. At least it's over. Got the copyedited manuscript for Dead Reign yesterday, and have 11 or 12 days to turn it around. Should be doable, unless it's unusually bad (I haven't even looked at it yet). Also got my tax organizer thingy from our tax prep guy. Oof. I'm itching to get my taxes done, so I don't have to think about them for another year, but I have to wait for my W-2 and about a million different 1099s before I can do much. I guess I'll sort my receipts. And soon I'll write a big check for my January 15th quarterly taxes, which will slurp all the money out of my savings account. C'est la vie. (2 Comments | Comment on this)

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